TESL 0160: Assignment #3 - Community Task

This week I want to share the report that I wrote for my final assignment in the TESL Program.  I interviewed someone in my learning network to understand more about cultural challenges in the classroom, and I enjoyed our conversation very much.  I have reached out to this person several times during the three years I've been working through the TESL program, and her insights have always been helpful.

Read on if you are interested...

Report: Navigating Cultural Hierarchy in an ESL Classroom

Teaching English in multi-cultural classrooms has been a challenge for many teachers for more years that I have been interested in the topic. 

Context

Recently I interviewed a woman who is in her late forties and has been active in working with ESL learners of a variety of ages over the past two-and-a-half decades, beginning in her early twenties.  The context that I share is related to that time in her life.  She had completed her Bachelor of Arts, followed by a double Masters in both Counselling and Youth Development, and followed that later with a TESL Certificate.  At the time she was the Director of International Students and an ESL teacher at a college and seminary in southern Manitoba.

Challenge

The challenge she shared was the lack of respect in the classroom as a teacher while working with male Korean church pastors who, in their home country, are generally wealthy and highly respected members of the community.  They did not view this as an appropriate place for a young woman, and her education and expertise were neither respected nor valued. The men in question would regularly bypass her in the chain of command and seek out the person who supported the negotiated process of coming to Canada for their education.  This person, the Dean of Admissions, was male and since this was a comfortable fit with their personal understanding of cultural hierarchy, this was a natural step for them. 

Cause

A primary cause of conflict and lack of respect is the cultural norm of the Korean pastors.  They were not used to women, never mind young women, in roles of authority over their learning and education outcomes.

Solutions/Effects

To his credit, the Dean of Admissions would always redirect the students back to the teacher and indicate that they should check with her surrounding their questions regarding English and their English class.  The Dean supported the classroom authority of the teacher and indicated the solution to their queries could be found with the person whom they were avoiding. 

As part of ongoing support for the role and the person in the role, there were staff discussions to ensure that if support was sought where it was inappropriate, the Korean pastors were redirected by everyone to speak with their teacher.

In order to accommodate greater ease of transition for the students to the Canadian post-secondary environment, action was taken to ensure that once recruitment had taken place, that all communication was with the Director of International Students/teacher in order to foster positive relationship and establish authority prior to student arrival.  The director/teacher established an open and clear understanding from the outset about who she was – gender, age, and authority in the classroom – even before students arrived. There was also a specific orientation designed for the beginning of the school year with the relevant parties involved to explain college and classroom cultural norms and expectations to the students, and those were reinforced by the Dean of Admissions.

Finally, the teacher created a new process of navigating and negotiating the process of classroom expectations working with students early on to establish an understanding of what their respective roles entail.  In Brown and Lee, this is referred to as “General Guidelines for Classroom Management”, under which heading the first sub-heading refers to establishing clear teacher and student roles, where it says, “Learner-centered classrooms that involve student interaction and participation function efficiently only when it has been made explicit what your role as a teacher is, and how student participation fits into an organized class…” (Brown & Lee, 2015, p. 290).

We cannot realistically expect that students from cultures other than what is familiar to us will have done research or understand what our classrooms are like.  Most people have other primary concerns upon arrival to Canada, and do not give serious consideration to what it might mean to be in a class where they have no frame of reference.  It will be part of our job to ensure that we negotiate this with our students ourselves.  While this does take extra effort on the part of the teacher, in my limited experience, the effort to provide this type of clarity is worth the outcome and benefits that follow.  We must develop positive relationships that have appropriate boundaries, and this is one key piece of that in any classroom.

References

Brown, H.D., Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. White Plains, NY:Pearson.