first of a series of essays about teaching in Oman

Overview

The idea that the “right way” to teach is the way one was taught is very deeply ingrained. When I do orientation sessions for new teachers, I am sometimes surprised that, while teachers know that there will be many cultural differences when they move to a new country, they occasionally expect that students will behave exactly as in their home culture.

The result is that teachers can get caught in tough binary of thinking: either I have to accept this unwanted behavior or the students have to change. This might lead to misunderstandings, then escalate to anger on both sides. When I suggest that teachers make small adjustments, the response is often, “so I have to let students get away with this wrong behavior?”

No, I think teachers should have control of their classrooms, but insisting on creating your own (foreign) culture in an Omani classroom is not possible. Small adjustments can create a positive classroom atmosphere by taking in account local understandings.

For example, when students come late to class in some cultures, they should knock on the door and ask permission to enter. In other cultures, students should apologize and explain why they are late; another scenario is that students enter quietly without speaking to or looking at the teacher. When a teacher from a culture in which apologies are expected is confronted with Omani students who simply walk in and sit down, they can become annoyed and call out to the student.

This may create a problem as the student might feel unfairly persecuted for being made the center of attention. As students have explained to me many times, “students feel shy if the teacher makes all the students look at them.”

In talking about situations like this, I recommend teachers write their late policy on the syllabus, on-line teaching program and announce it in class, then talk to the student after class about the penalties for coming late. In one conversation with a teacher who was confronting this issue, they said, “But the student needs to apologize to me! You are telling me that I should allow them to be disrespectful!”

This reminds me of the Rita Mae Brown quote, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Asking for student apologies for weeks on end and getting angry when an apology is not forthcoming doesn’t help the teacher, the students or the classroom atmosphere.

Allowing students to come in late without noticing them, then enforcing a specific penalty saves time and prevents frustration. Talking to a student at the end of class permits the teacher to continue the forward momentum of the lesson. And if the student starts to dispute about the penalty, the fact that it is time to leave the classroom gives a natural break to the argument. A teacher can say, “I am happy to discuss this more but now I have to teach another class. I will be in my office at 1pm.”

Culture and Pedagogy

When thinking about education I consider the most helpful definition of culture is that it encompasses the objects, actions and beliefs of a set of people who are grouped together by both themselves and others. When I teach classes specifically on culture, I always emphasize to students that they belong to many sets, hence many cultures. For example, a woman might be within the categories of student, sister, Muslim, Omani, artist, daughter, member of her tribe, resident of her neighborhood and that each set carries within in emic and etic expectations of actions (behaviors), objects (for example, clothing) and beliefs.

I have lived in five different countries and what often happens is that locals consider that manifestations of their culture, both simple (what’s the usual time to eat lunch) and complex (what are the steps to getting married) are lucid and natural. On the other hand, a newcomer might be bewildered and confused about how to navigate even easy tasks such as giving a proper greeting or writing a memo.

In Oman, foreign teachers need to both try to understand Omani cultures and be clear about the implicit and explicit effect of their background, experiences and education. It might be self-evident to a teacher that of course work can be turned in up to a week late, but students might believe that work might be submitted weeks or month late. Hence the articulation of expectations is vital when trying to minimize misunderstandings.

The “Third” Option

What I call the “third” option means finding a middle way between a teacher acting exactly as if they were teaching in their home country and allowing students to make all the classroom decisions, which might be antithetical to good learning practices.

The comment I hear often is that “students need to change” but often the issue is cultural perceptions. Sometimes when I suggest that teachers need to adjust I hear comments such as “So I should let students be rude?” or “I should let them do what they want?”

The answer to those questions is “no” but, to me, the most important issue is creating an effective learning environment, not recreating the exact behavior that teachers are accustomed to at home. Attempting to reconstruct another culture inside an Omani classroom will probably leave teachers and students equally frustrated.

Another way to look at this is to remember that that your decisions are in your hands; what is not in your hands is other people’s perceptions and reactions to your choices. You can say I am doing X action for Y reason and this choice means that I am Z. But that might only work among people from your culture; there is no validity in saying that all people must understand that X action means Z. In another culture, X might give a meaning of A.

In one teacher’s culture, a student talking back is seen as rude; but in another culture it can mean the student is positively, actively participating in creating meaning. In one culture, students not looking teachers in the eye is considered polite, in another culture it is rude.

For example, Omani students might ask for a mock exam. In some classes that is a good idea but in other classes, perhaps the teacher doesn’t think it’s necessary which makes students upset. This can lead to situations in which the teacher doesn’t think a practice exam is useful, but gives one to keep students quiet. Or the teacher refuses and the students complain later that their low score was the result of not having a practice exam.

The solution is teachers can make a few, small changes by addressing the root of the problem, thus restoring classroom balance and positivity. Students often ask for a mock exam because they are scared about exams, especially if it is the first class with that teacher. Students may have had teachers who changed the date of the exam, put a new style of question on the exam or asked about topics that hadn’t been covered in class. If teachers look at the issue in terms of ‘my students are fearful’ instead of ‘my students are rude,’ solving the dilemma becomes easy.

When I am getting students ready for my poetry midterm, I literally draw a rectangle on the whiteboard with a series of 10 squiggly lines, one underneath each other. Then I say, “This is what your test page will look like, these lines are a poem, one of the poems we studied in class, but you won’t know which poem.” Then I draw a few more lines underneath spaced a little apart and say, “These are the questions. they will not be true/ false or multiple choice. You have to answer in a complete sentence. You won’t know which vocabulary words will go with which poem. For example, for ‘Skylark’ the questions might be about the narrator, setting atmosphere and finding a metaphor. Or the questions might be about the characters, exposition, rhyme scheme and diction.”

Then I say, “I don’t know how many pages there will be but this is what the vocabulary question pages look like. At the end of the exam there will be questions to compare and the poems to compare will be in the text will be included. And there one or two questions of analysis, for example I will give you two poems and ask you which one is better and why.” If a student again asks for a mock exam, I go through the entire small speech again.

I am not advising to give or not give mock exams. My advice is that when students start to clamor and insist that they don’t understand, explaining something clearly, then repeating the exact same words is often effective. Omani students may show fear in ways that can be read as anger or disrespect; when teachers respond with annoyance, the classroom atmosphere can deteriorate. When teachers show that everything is in hand, for example that they know exactly how the exam will be set up and are willing to share that information, students can stay calm.

Using Cultural Understandings to Improve Teaching, part 2

Using Cultural Understandings to Improve Teaching, part 3

Using Cultural Understandings to Improve Teaching, part 4