The only way to ensure a fair opportunity for all is that everyone plays by the same rules. As the accreditation process of our college draws near, the contradictions are becoming clearer. National policy (and international standards) suggest that certain standards should apply to everyone. But tradition is a powerful force, and it does not agree.
During today’s invigilation of a final year exam, seven students (whom I have taught) asked me to bend the rules for them- one of them even asked to use her mobile phone in session. All this after the exam rules had been written on the whiteboard and repeated verbally at the beginning of the session. (The same rules that have been in place throughout their degree programme.) Interestingly, none of these requests were directed at my co-invigilator, who does not know these students. Knowing people is, after all, the major currency in this culture. At one point, their teacher came in and initiated discussion, which naturally led to side-talk. Nipping this in the bud, I was rewarded with the dirtiest of looks from students, and the teacher’s reprimand that this was the best group he had ever taught (suggesting I had no right to chastise them). When the allotted time was over, my colleague and I announced that students were to put pens down. Over half of them did not stop writing after our second instruction, and we had to physically take the papers from them, once again accompanied by dirty looks and tongue-clucking. “Not fair.”
Ah, but the tale does not end there. As it turned out, the teacher was with another group, and allowed “flexibility” for the hand-in… for fifteen more minutes.
Now the students are on the case of the teachers who followed the rules to ensure fair play, singing the praises of their teacher who bent the rules to the authorities- who are sympathetic. Needless to spell out whose actions they consider fair. Allegiance comes before standards in this part of the world. And I have to question whether it is to my credit- whatever the financial or professional benefit- to work in a system where the unfair is deemed fair, while following the standards of fair play is deemed high treason.
(Re-reading what I have written this seems like a paranoid nightmare, and I can well understand that it may be interpreted as such. Surely no establishment would tolerate such absurdity? Anyone tempted to test the reality of these statements is welcome to apply for a job here: of the fifteen people recruited at the beginning of this academic year, only ONE is re-signing his contract. The others have chosen to wake up. I have to wonder if I should do the same.)
Showing posts with label standards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label standards. Show all posts
Monday, May 19, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
The Emperor's New Designer Threads
My crusade for justice has begun. I am no longer angry, but I am fiercely clear-headed and dangerously logical.
According to the Vision of Majan University College (http://majancollege.edu.om), it aims to "be a premier University institution providing students with value added Higher Education of International standards in a dynamic environment that fosters knowledge, values and sustainable employment skills." The Mission Statement sets the following targets: "to build a knowledge based learning organization", "strive for excellence in learning, teaching and research", "develop the creative potential of all its staff members" and "equip its students to make effective contributions to society and the economy".
Inspired by these lofty goals in addition to the reputable Leeds programme, I eagerly joined this course, and it was impressive to see that many of the staff I met truly personify this vision and mission. One of my key motivations for choosing this programme over distance learning was the access to resources that would be consistent, not only with the mission and vision of Majan, but also with the tuition fees. (21 students registered for the course hosted by Majan, raising over OMR 140 000, or GBP 180 000.The tuition fee per student is OMR 7000, equivalent to GBP 9000. A full-time foreign residential MA TESOL student at Leeds University pays GBP 9700 and has full access to tuition, resources and all on-campus facilities.) It is disconcerting that, two months into the course, our resources are limited to a collection of twelve books, mostly in single copies, some in duplicate, while any other sources are only available for reference inside the library. This for the princely sum of nine-tenths of residential study. Twelve books.
However, my fundamental concern is not the books: they can be bought, shared, borrowed. Students have been phenomenally resourceful, and as you yourself said, clear, original thought is more important than resources. My fundamental concern is the apparent underlying message that not only is the bare minimum sufficient, but anything more is a bit of a nuisance. The obstacles in the way of our group's students are more than ample, ranging from unpredictable work and family responsibilities, resource problems, mediaeval internet facilities and distance from the library, to language difficulties and a profound aversion to the written word. Additionally, as foreign students and non-native speakers of English, (not to mention being hosted by an oil-rich country) our MA degrees will forever be skeptically scrutinised unless we can shatter the preconceptions against us with sterling performance. Sterling performance may require a bit of reading. Which may, in turn, call for a few books.
The bottom line is that students deserve the opportunity to take more out of this course than a piece of paper in a gilt frame. I am paying for an education, not a degree. As to the current library situation, the BA students are entitled to their books and should receive priority over the MA students for those titles. By the same token, the MA students should be entitled to access the titles from their complete reading list- as a bare minimum- if Majan's vision, mission and the tuition fees are to be accounted for.
I have the greatest appreciation for all those staff who have embodied this vision and enacted this vision, and I trust that the library facilities will be brought in line with these ideals.
According to the Vision of Majan University College (http://majancollege.edu.om), it aims to "be a premier University institution providing students with value added Higher Education of International standards in a dynamic environment that fosters knowledge, values and sustainable employment skills." The Mission Statement sets the following targets: "to build a knowledge based learning organization", "strive for excellence in learning, teaching and research", "develop the creative potential of all its staff members" and "equip its students to make effective contributions to society and the economy".
Inspired by these lofty goals in addition to the reputable Leeds programme, I eagerly joined this course, and it was impressive to see that many of the staff I met truly personify this vision and mission. One of my key motivations for choosing this programme over distance learning was the access to resources that would be consistent, not only with the mission and vision of Majan, but also with the tuition fees. (21 students registered for the course hosted by Majan, raising over OMR 140 000, or GBP 180 000.The tuition fee per student is OMR 7000, equivalent to GBP 9000. A full-time foreign residential MA TESOL student at Leeds University pays GBP 9700 and has full access to tuition, resources and all on-campus facilities.) It is disconcerting that, two months into the course, our resources are limited to a collection of twelve books, mostly in single copies, some in duplicate, while any other sources are only available for reference inside the library. This for the princely sum of nine-tenths of residential study. Twelve books.
However, my fundamental concern is not the books: they can be bought, shared, borrowed. Students have been phenomenally resourceful, and as you yourself said, clear, original thought is more important than resources. My fundamental concern is the apparent underlying message that not only is the bare minimum sufficient, but anything more is a bit of a nuisance. The obstacles in the way of our group's students are more than ample, ranging from unpredictable work and family responsibilities, resource problems, mediaeval internet facilities and distance from the library, to language difficulties and a profound aversion to the written word. Additionally, as foreign students and non-native speakers of English, (not to mention being hosted by an oil-rich country) our MA degrees will forever be skeptically scrutinised unless we can shatter the preconceptions against us with sterling performance. Sterling performance may require a bit of reading. Which may, in turn, call for a few books.
The bottom line is that students deserve the opportunity to take more out of this course than a piece of paper in a gilt frame. I am paying for an education, not a degree. As to the current library situation, the BA students are entitled to their books and should receive priority over the MA students for those titles. By the same token, the MA students should be entitled to access the titles from their complete reading list- as a bare minimum- if Majan's vision, mission and the tuition fees are to be accounted for.
I have the greatest appreciation for all those staff who have embodied this vision and enacted this vision, and I trust that the library facilities will be brought in line with these ideals.
Friday, February 29, 2008
When In Rome
“When in Rome,” I have been told, “do as the Romans do.”
I never thought to ask if this would still be valid if the Romans are laying waste to their empire. Does it still apply?
When your very existence centers around balancing on a cross-cultural tightrope, you think a fair bit about Rome and Romans- at least the proverbial ones. Critical applied linguists like Adrian Holliday, Alistair Pennycook, A. Suresh Canagarajah preach that applying “Western” standards on the rest of the world is cultural imperialism, more insidious and more barbaric than anything ever imposed by any concrete empire. And so, being a reasonable being, I try to abstain from cultural imperialism, since I prefer to be neither insidious nor barbaric. But do I succeed?
In the many little customs and habits and daily demands of Arabian culture, I bend my stubborn will, pretzel-like, to accommodate local demands. It is impossible to colour inside the lines all the time, but I think I do all right and have won the trust of the local community in my orbit, patching up my shortcomings with liberal doses of diplomacy, patiently-won rapport and home baking. It is fair to say that I succeed to some extent, putting my own cultural ideals on the indefinite backburner.
But when Rome is burning, I simply will not fiddle along. I dismally and hopelessly fail, and messrs Holliday, Pennycook and Canagarajah are welcome to fling me on the conveniently smoking pyre. When local ways are costing lives and laying waste to the land, I do believe that a little dash of cultural imperialism is in order. In fact, I would like to ask these fine gentlemen whether, in such a case, “imperialism” would not be better described as “enlightenment”. Allow me to demonstrate. And bear with me: this does have educational implications.
Ask any Omani and you will find at least one member of his or her family- usually a young man- has been lost to a violent road accident. With a population of under 3 million people spread over a vast territory, Oman sees an unlikely average of 10 000 road accidents a year, slaughtering 680 people and injuring over 7 000, according to statistics. But more telling is the cause of these accidents: ten of the thirteen top causes are patently due to driver neglect. On the road, one notices certain consistent patterns of behaviour that have become acceptable locally, although they demonstrate limited understanding of the workings of traffic. A terrifying is example is overtaking on blind curves and heights, and neither indicating nor looking before changing lanes. When in Rome, I usually do go with the flow. But when the Romans are dying in droves, one has to ask a few questions. Call me a cultural imperialist: at least I will be alive to hear it.
A less immediate peril is the perennial popularity of the plastic carrier bag. Although the best-placed hypermarket in the country has finally issued a strong, reusable carrier bag, people do not know its purpose. They buy several, put them in the usual plastic bags and proceed to have their trolleyfuls (often two trolleys per family) of monthly groceries packed into yet more plastic bags, often one item to a bag. For two and a half years I asked, cajoled, begged, wept and wrestled with the packers to put my modest pickings in one bag. Now that the reusable bag is available, I offer it triumphantly to the packer, who proceeds to pack the egss and tomatoes at the bottom and objects when I intervene. At the very end of my tether I stop to ask myself why this is happening.
Stop. Breathe. Count to ten.
Repeat a few times.
The packers have ceased to consider me eccentric and have concluded that I am patently insane. They truly do not understand what my problem is. But how could they? Environmental issues are displaced by more immediate emergencies in the Arab media, while the international media are hampered by a language barrier and an irremediable credibility problem. Moreover, while literacy has increased to a reported 75%, reading is not a major pastime for most folks. (The technician who installed my telephone looked at my modest nomad’s collection of books in puzzlement, musing: “What for?”) The plastic carrier bag is still considered here as a banner of modernization. The fact that it waves from an increasing number of thorntrees is not yet raising significant alarm.
As promised, all this does have implications for education. I back the critical linguists up one hundred percent when they decry the imposition of subjective “Western” standards on the rest of the world. However, there are areas where it is critical to decide on objective standards that apply to everyone. If I play by the rules of cricket while you play by the rules of football, we won’t get very far: we all lose. A certain scope of standard behaviour needs to be agreed upon when it comes to things like preserving our lives, our planet and the standards of education.
I don’t know if that is cultural imperialism. But the opposite is suicide. Even in Rome.
I never thought to ask if this would still be valid if the Romans are laying waste to their empire. Does it still apply?
When your very existence centers around balancing on a cross-cultural tightrope, you think a fair bit about Rome and Romans- at least the proverbial ones. Critical applied linguists like Adrian Holliday, Alistair Pennycook, A. Suresh Canagarajah preach that applying “Western” standards on the rest of the world is cultural imperialism, more insidious and more barbaric than anything ever imposed by any concrete empire. And so, being a reasonable being, I try to abstain from cultural imperialism, since I prefer to be neither insidious nor barbaric. But do I succeed?
In the many little customs and habits and daily demands of Arabian culture, I bend my stubborn will, pretzel-like, to accommodate local demands. It is impossible to colour inside the lines all the time, but I think I do all right and have won the trust of the local community in my orbit, patching up my shortcomings with liberal doses of diplomacy, patiently-won rapport and home baking. It is fair to say that I succeed to some extent, putting my own cultural ideals on the indefinite backburner.
But when Rome is burning, I simply will not fiddle along. I dismally and hopelessly fail, and messrs Holliday, Pennycook and Canagarajah are welcome to fling me on the conveniently smoking pyre. When local ways are costing lives and laying waste to the land, I do believe that a little dash of cultural imperialism is in order. In fact, I would like to ask these fine gentlemen whether, in such a case, “imperialism” would not be better described as “enlightenment”. Allow me to demonstrate. And bear with me: this does have educational implications.
Ask any Omani and you will find at least one member of his or her family- usually a young man- has been lost to a violent road accident. With a population of under 3 million people spread over a vast territory, Oman sees an unlikely average of 10 000 road accidents a year, slaughtering 680 people and injuring over 7 000, according to statistics. But more telling is the cause of these accidents: ten of the thirteen top causes are patently due to driver neglect. On the road, one notices certain consistent patterns of behaviour that have become acceptable locally, although they demonstrate limited understanding of the workings of traffic. A terrifying is example is overtaking on blind curves and heights, and neither indicating nor looking before changing lanes. When in Rome, I usually do go with the flow. But when the Romans are dying in droves, one has to ask a few questions. Call me a cultural imperialist: at least I will be alive to hear it.
A less immediate peril is the perennial popularity of the plastic carrier bag. Although the best-placed hypermarket in the country has finally issued a strong, reusable carrier bag, people do not know its purpose. They buy several, put them in the usual plastic bags and proceed to have their trolleyfuls (often two trolleys per family) of monthly groceries packed into yet more plastic bags, often one item to a bag. For two and a half years I asked, cajoled, begged, wept and wrestled with the packers to put my modest pickings in one bag. Now that the reusable bag is available, I offer it triumphantly to the packer, who proceeds to pack the egss and tomatoes at the bottom and objects when I intervene. At the very end of my tether I stop to ask myself why this is happening.
Stop. Breathe. Count to ten.
Repeat a few times.
The packers have ceased to consider me eccentric and have concluded that I am patently insane. They truly do not understand what my problem is. But how could they? Environmental issues are displaced by more immediate emergencies in the Arab media, while the international media are hampered by a language barrier and an irremediable credibility problem. Moreover, while literacy has increased to a reported 75%, reading is not a major pastime for most folks. (The technician who installed my telephone looked at my modest nomad’s collection of books in puzzlement, musing: “What for?”) The plastic carrier bag is still considered here as a banner of modernization. The fact that it waves from an increasing number of thorntrees is not yet raising significant alarm.
As promised, all this does have implications for education. I back the critical linguists up one hundred percent when they decry the imposition of subjective “Western” standards on the rest of the world. However, there are areas where it is critical to decide on objective standards that apply to everyone. If I play by the rules of cricket while you play by the rules of football, we won’t get very far: we all lose. A certain scope of standard behaviour needs to be agreed upon when it comes to things like preserving our lives, our planet and the standards of education.
I don’t know if that is cultural imperialism. But the opposite is suicide. Even in Rome.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
