Racism revisited

I had talked about discrimination in an earlier post, but I would have to say that over the last few days, non-white contract workers recieve the lion-share of racist behaviors of the people who work here. Students use "nigger" when talking to their teachers. A student said that in my class at the beginning of the year, to the chuckles of students. They quickly stopped when they saw my face. "That is not funny at all. That is a word that hurts people, and is very bad. You should not say that word." "Oh, I didn't know. They use it in rap songs." Well, I believed that it was their ignorance. Not anymore.
 

We had no idea that such images could be viewed as racist!

A colleague of mine, a black Muslim man in his 60's from a country to the south, who I respect very highly and who I enjoy talking to, told me of two incidents that happened in recent months. One was when students (plural) told him to go and learn English. He said "where should I go?" and they said "a coconut tree." Another time, he entered the elevator and a student greeted him by hooting like a monkey. How can this be merely "ignorance"? That the comparison between black teachers and simians is made not just once, but many times, to black teachers throughout the school? Some of these teachers are easily identifiable as Muslims, but that does not provide any safeguard.

The racist language use extends to behavior towards migrant workers in general. Migrant workers, those from the near Middle East like Egypt, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, are routinely talked to in informal, ordering tones. It is awkward for me, to say the least, when this behavior is shown by children toward adults 5 and 10 times older than they are. The most demeaning attitudes are shown to those of Philippino and especially Indonesian descent. Somehow, some people here are raised with an attitude of extreme entitlement. That their needs are of immediate primacy and urgency, and that if you are of non-Saudi descent, you should simply step aside and let your "better" have his place.

Yesterday, I had a conflict with a Saudi student. I was in line, and was ordering my food at the cafeteria counter. A Saudi (maybe 18 years old), steps up beside me out of nowhere, and starts banging the glass and the top of the counter, demanding an extra piece of chicken. I looked at him, and said "What are you doing? I am ordering, please wait." He looked at me, and then continued to demand his chicken. The counter staff, having been trained to give Saudis whatever they want when they want it, handed him his chicken. Then I raised my voice another notch and said his behavior was rude and that he should have waited. The student made a gesture with his hand and some comment in Arabic, and with a smirk on his face, ambled off. Others in the line, who were from Northern African / Levantine I guess, looked at me with something like pity mixed with astonishment. I was fuming. Yet, I have seen this in banks, where Saudis walk right up to the window bypassing 20 people in line, because they are better than some mere "migrant." You see it every day with the driving: I am entitled to this lane, I am entitled to get ahead of you, your safety or welfare is of no concern to me.

These attitudes need to change. Mark my words: the oil will run out one day. The Americans will not be here forever. Making enemies of those around you because of your riches is not a sustainable strategy. Modesty, kindness, tolerance, generosity - those are the virtues of the belief system which finds its origin in this country. Remember your heritage. Think about who you are supposed to be.

Dialect discrepancy

It's ok in North Carolina...

Seminar yesterday from a renowned researcher in dialects and accents. Main point was that there is no standard English, and that englishes have equal value, and should be treated without bias. "she be on my ball team" would be marked "innappropriate/inaccurate" on the IELTS exam. To use the grammar of some of these dialects would immediately mark the user as having a lower level of proficiency. I would suspect that much of the grammars characteristic of dialects are generally spoken. Literacy rates might be lower, and proficiency testing and the language of academia and business tends toward a more conventionalised written form. My guess would be  that the majority of languages that are endangered and will disappear in the next 50 years are also spoken only, with minimal content in written form. I think this is political correctness run amok again. Not killing dandelions because as plants they have a right to exist. Poor grammar is to language like weeds are to lawns.

Take a look at this:


Gangsta is not cool

They’re standing on the corner and they can’t speak English. I can’t even talk the way these people talk: Why you ain’t, Where you is, What he drive, Where he stay, Where he work, Who you be… And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk. Everybody knows it’s important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can’t be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living.

Bill Cosby would say that learning English is critical for success. He states that people who have good jobs and make positive contributions to society use the language well. That blaming imperialism or institutionalized discrimination or whatever for the bias against certain kinds of langauge form is wrongheaded. And that the use of this dialect is part-and-parcel with a kind of lifestyle that ultimately is anti-intellectual, counter-productive, and self-destructive.


Without it, doors close...

What would happen if the speaker's ideas, when written in dialect form, were submitted to an international journal? Would the paper get an acceptance, or would the editor require a re-write? Is that social bias, or a recognition that an international standard does exist, and is found in the written language of academics and business documents?So, for students to achieve success in those worlds, they need to have proficiency with its form. If they insist on retaining their linguistic identities, then they need to live with the consequences.

That is yet another example of bringing in ivory-tower academics who recommend practices and procedures which do not help at the chalkface. We as teachers are to help our students achieve success, and typically this means wanting to do well in the academic, political or corporate world. And that is not an unconventional or unpredictable outcome. As a teacher, I do not believe that I am an agent of social change or should engage in social engineering. Learning is change, yes. I teach from a particular value system, yes. However, in too many classes, IMO, I have seen teachers go off in another direction.

ESL teachers in my hometown who use rap music in order to give vent to social inequality. Use poetry to advocate for this global issue or that political agenda. Why is this ok? Do math teachers do this? Do science teachers? Music teachers? I really think that ESL teachers are sometimes bored with the content, and do not examine language structure for its own sake (maybe the teachers don't know how), and this lends itself to open-ended, class discussion formats which penalize students for being shy, modest, or wanting to get a high mark by producing or desiring a more defined subject matter.

Employment escapades

Part of the Expat blog is a job site for employees looking for work in the Middle East: http://www.expat-blog.com/en/jobs/middle-east/saudi-arabia/



My experience is limited to language teaching, but I have heard/read some interesting stories.



The Arab News reported that a Pakistani driver was in a car accident, in which he was killed and the car was totalled. The Saudi owner had no insurance on the car, and blamed the driver for the accident. The driver had worked for the owner for over 15 years. Upon his demise, the owner refused to repatriate his body back to his home, so that his family could bury him, unless the family gave him something like 50 thousand dollars to pay for damages. His body was kept in cold storage for over a year before the courts ruled the owner could not keep the body, and damages were waived. Bear in mind, Islam requires that the dead be buried within 48 hours. That his body was kept for over a year, apart from the bereaved family, is unfathomable to me.



A nurse, new to the working here in KSA, had noticed that an elderly patient (who was in the mutawa) in pre-op for a tracheotomy had had his long beard carefully taped to one side. Thinking that this was inappropriate for such a procedure, she proceeded to shave off his beard, and threw the remains into the trash can. His family was in hysterics about the result, and seemed to prefer the possibility of bacterial infection rather than the loss of the beard. The nurse's identity was unknown, but the story has become legend around hospitals in this area.



Different country, same indentured story

 Bangledeshi workers on top of a 4 storey building were working on the roof, when it suddenly collapsed. Seven died, and the owners claimed to not know the identities, or possess the iqamas of the workers. The only way families back home would ever know that their loved ones had died would be if other members of that work group had recognized the bodies and reported it informally. The fact that the whole group had died at once lessens the possibility, so perhaps 7 families will never know what happened. My barber has been in the country for 16 years, and his partner for twenty. They are both from Pakistan. They get to go back home once every 2 years. They paid an astronomical fee to the sponsors (always Saudi) for the "privilege" of working here. When they go back, they have to pay the sponsors the amount the sponsor estimates he loses from their employ (so, 6 months' worth of profits) before they leave, which is probably equal to 1 years pay. This is partially reimbursed when they return. Indentured servitude.

I remind myself of these stories whenever I think to complain of my circumstances here. What I make in one month of work here is greater than one years' salary of my barber. And they are always cheerful.



When the Asians came to NA, they came for 3D reasons: dirty, dangerous and demeaning. This is still very much the case for migrant workers who come from near Asia to work in KSA. It is said that those that choose to come and teach here in KSA  do so for 3D reasons: divorce, dry out from drugs/alcohol, debt. I would add a fourth one: delusional - there are some strange birds here, I have to say.



For those thinking of working here, do your homework. Know that your life will be curtailed here. Social outlets are few and far between. The diplomatic and engineering class of worker represents the upper echelon of employees here, and I do not run in those circles, so their experiences are substantially different (they also live in those compounds I talked about yesterday), and their salaries are twice to four times as high as well. Know that the contract you signed overseas will not be the one that you may have to sign again when you arrive: the contract must have the signature of the saudi owner in order to be legitimate in the eyes of sharia law.


Mouth shut, eyes open


The work circumstances are surreal. Expect the unexpected, and do not try to be an agent of change, or an adherent to standards of excellence. There is a lot of lip service paid to standards, as KSA tries to primp itself to the world as a place which is in progress and developing quickly. In truth, westerners are paid to stand around, do "busy work" when required, and look western for photo ops. Keep your mouth shut, your eyes open, and remember why you came. Do not try to be "different", or be a "rebel" and kick against the taboos: it does not work, and you do not want to run afoul of the mutawa or the police. You can disappear. Have an exit plan. Very few come here long-term, so it makes for a transitory expat experience, much more so than any place I have been.






A metaphor for social life...

 Know that your family will experience a lot of difficulties. I left my wife and son back home for precisely these reasons. Frankly, I do not want to explain to my son why mom cannot go outside, and why she has to cover herself up. There is nowhere for my son to play outside, as riding a bike is bound to be fatal. There are no libraries, no rivers and green places. There is work, for me, and an AC-cooled room, with the internet. Expect nothing more, so that if there is (the odd BBQ now and then, a friendship), you will appreciate all the more.





The green is an indicator...


Life in KSA is not a dream job, or a dream place. UAE (Dubai), Qatar and Bahrain are different worlds that are more family-friendly, but the pay scales seem to be less, and due to their size, opportunities also seem to lag as well. Oman and Yemen I would stay away from, as the Arab spring seems to be making those places unstable. Iraq, Iran, Egypt - forget it. Kuwait is just a little too close for my comfort to the Iraqi border. A Montrealer was shot in a taxi by militia in Egypt couple months ago. The Gulf states, on the other hand, have the benefit of a large presence of US military, which can give a sense of security, but can also lead to the presence of unsavory establishments. So, for the money, and nothing else, KSA is it.

House hunting II

Julien created Expat blog 7 seven years ago. He writes: "It is a unique platform about all the expatriates’ blogs all over the world. Expatriates’ blogs are indeed a great way to get information about real life in a foreign country. As the years went by, new features have been added to the website such as a forum, guides, albums, a business directory. Expat blog has now more than 420 000 members and 1.8 million visitors per month. There are 206 countries and 400 big cities all over the world. 11 156 members are registered on the Saudi Arabia forum. The new features are aimed at helping people in their job and accommodation search in Saudi Arabia, two essential steps when expatriating."


In the housing section, ads are available by kind of accommodation, whether you are looking for or offering an accommodation. http://www.expat-blog.com/en/housing/middle-east/saudi-arabia/

Issues when trying to find a place include location, status, price, and facilities.

Riyadh is expanding daily; the roads are under constant repair, and building sites (and rubble heaps) are everywhere. Thus, its a good idea to be located as close as you can to your workplace. The weather is unbearably hot, and so don't try to walk 1.5 KM to work in June or July. Don't even think about biking to work. This city has the fewest bikes of any place I have ever seen. Cars and trucks have been known to run off, and even run over, cyclists on the shoulders. Thus, taxi-ing or carpooling is the best way to go, IMO.

Riyadh has an very unfamiliar approach to categorizing apartment types: family, and single. Most units are oriented to families, so if you want to get a bigger place, you might have to, ah, stretch the truth so that you and your buddies can get a villa (an aprtment with 3 or more bedrooms) together and save money. When I first arrived, it was quite frustrating when house hunting: place after place asked me about my wife and family, and so I had to say that she was coming (when she was not). Single units can be grouped together, and thus can at times resemble a ghetto. The only place where this is not as evident is compound life. I have not yet been on a compound, but they tend to have more facilities available, and a more Western-style approach to lifestyle. They are gated communities, with passport control and armed guards. One has to be aware, however, that there are compounds for westerners, as well as compounds for those of middle-eastern origin, and this difference would create tangible constraints on lifestyle.

Prices can vary alot. The closer you are downtown, the more expensive apartments become. You should be able to find reasonable rates in the 1500 to 2500 SAR per month zone. be warned: landlords here often expect 6 months prepaid rents, with 3 month increments after that. There is no refund, so if your job status changes, you will be out-of-pocket unless you can find someone to sublet. Compounds are often paid for by the employer, and thus can run 60,000+SAR per year = 5000 per month. This is well beyond the means of most expat teachers (at least, more than I would be willing to pay), but sometimes you can luck out and find something in a more reasonable range.

Finally, another frustrating oddity are the facilities. Saudi construction efforts are often half-complete: live wires will hang down from ceilings uncapped, gaps in bricks and tile will be uncemented, windows will have gaps as well, doors and floors will indicate a lack of grading evident in the sand that can blow in when the winds are high (I tape my windows to try and mitigate this). As well, tenants are expected to provide the entirety of finishing pieces to the unit: we had to buy the kitchen cabinets and sink, the fridge and stove, and air conditioners; luckily the light fixtures were already provided. Furniture was ours, no question. Hotel units are furnished, but tend to be old and rather dirty, as well as of questionable functionality; compounds generally, I have heard, have no issues like this.

So, for us to get housing, took a lot of logistics and planning, especially since there was a group of us. we looked at 5 or 6 places, negotiated and negotiated, and when we finally got  a place, we needed someone with an iqama to sign for it, and then the whole issue of acquiring "stuff" for our place began. But that is another blog.

You can post or discover job opportunities in Saudi Arabia, per type of job (more than 100 jobs and fields), create your CV and find a job! http://www.expat-blog.com/en/jobs/middle-east/saudi-arabia/
and this will be dealt with in the next posting.

Down-time Deprived

I have mentioned sleep deprivation in a previous blog, but would like to give it more space here. An interesting testimonial is given here. Thomas is talking about how sleep deprivation affected his personality, how he became more impulsive, irritable with people, less creative. It was also associated with a spiralling depression. People who chronically lack sleep are also prone to micro-sleeps, which is falling to sleep for a few seconds without conscious awareness.

What's interesting about Saudi Arabia is the possibility that many here are affected by a similar condition. Almost everyone I talk to at some point mentions how they feel tired most days (I do, that's for sure). You have to wonder if the high incidence of impulsive risk-taking with driving are because of sleep deprivation. Could the high traffic accident rate be due to people having micro-sleeps at the wheel?

Sleep deprivation is often caused by life stressors. Thomas above began to have insomnia after his divorce. It is said that many come to KSA for 3 reasons: drugs/dry out, divorce, and dough. There are a lot of financial refugees here - I am one of them! Those financial stressors are in the background as we work, and they must re-emerge in our subconscious dreamworld, to reduce our quality of sleep. Addictive cycles have also been associated with a disruption of the sleep cycle, too. One stays up late at night considering all that needs to be done, all the loose ends, making it difficult to get settled and into a relaxed state that precedes sleep.

Interesting article here states that obesity, depression and anxiety all contribute to day-time sleepiness, which in turn is associated with problem behavior, attention deficits and learning difficulties:

Children who have learning, attention and behavior problems may be suffering from excessive daytime sleepiness, even though clinical tests show them sleeping long enough at night, a new study reports. Penn State researchers studied 508 children and found that those whose parents reported excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) -- despite little indication of short sleep from traditional measurements -- were more likely to experience learning, attention/hyperactivity and conduct problems than children without EDS. The culprits? Obesity, symptoms of inattention, depression and anxiety, asthma and parent-reported trouble falling asleep have been found to contribute to EDS even among children with no signs of diminished sleep time or sleep apnea.

From a socio-cultural perspective, Bedu culture also is a night culture, with people staying up late at night and getting up late in the morning. The mainstay drink here is a strong coffee, and the caffeine does not help. islamic tradition also is influential: as the summer waxes, the sundown prayer time and sunrise times will grow closer together. This culminates in Ramadan, with all-day fasting (making it difficult to sleep), and feasting until the wee hours of the morning. My students are tech addicts, video gaming being one of their primary recreational activities:

Technology can also be blamed for disrupting our sleep. The constant input of emails, texts, and social networking, video and online games, and TV on demand, all the time, puts the brain into a constant active state. A brain that’s wired up has difficulty settling down when it’s time to sleep. Often enough, a person who tosses and turns trying to get to sleep gives up – and goes back to the computer! So much for quieting the unquiet mind!

Staying at home inside (its hot outside) is associated with growing obese. Obesity is a serious problem in saudi arabia. And, tragically, it may also reinforce sleep deprivation:

Sleep-deprived people may be too tired to exercise, decreasing the "calories burned" side of the weight-change equation. Or people who don't get enough sleep may take in more calories than those who do, simply because they are awake longer and have more opportunities to eat; lack of sleep also disrupts the balance of key hormones that control appetite, so sleep-deprived people may be hungrier than those who get enough rest each night.

What to do?

Several ideas sound good to me:

1. avoid napping (which is what I tend to do already);

2. avoid eating before sleeping; I do tend to have a snack an hour be sleeping, and I need to stop that;

3. relaxation before sleep: I have taken up listening to music before, to try to settle down before sleeping;

4. regular schedule: tough to do sometimes because the skyping schedule back home is 7 hours difference, but I try to turn by 10 or 1030PM

5. block noise: I have an air cooler, which circulates water through the machine, and this quiet gurgling provides a white noise which helps to block the noise of my roommates rustlings late at night, as well as the playing of children outside, and other sounds (screeching cars and cats).

Community Conscience

This will be a thoroughly speculative piece. I am wondering about the behavior of the men I am working with here. We live segregated from women 24/7; we teach only male students; and generally, we socially interact with men only, except in privileged circumstances some expats enjoy on the compounds.



No female influence here either

I wonder if the combination of the isolation from women with the stress and anxiety of this controlling environment creates a loss of community conscience? Do women provide a sort of social conscience that is absent when men are put together? That some other type of social order assumes command in its place? That social order is one of “survival of the fittest”: who is the loudest, strongest, smartest vie for social prominence in a way that is more pronounced when women are not present to act as moderators? I have found that a lot of men I am working with have grown less able to control their normally operating social inhibitions. There is a greater frequency of lost tempers, abusive language treatment, carelessness with customary social obligations.

This could be due to simply accumulated stress. It could be just that people are always this way, and their true nature is becoming manifest. Or, it could be that a moderating influence of women on social behavior acts as a brake on male excesses. I have heard that having women drive in KSA would probably do more to improve the quality of driving on Riyadh highways than any speed bumps or added law enforcement could ever accomplish. Is this the case for social settings as well?

In any case, I am sensing a growing amount of tension and “extreme” behavior in people I have come across. It is approaching the end of the year, people want to go back home and re-connect during the vacation period, and relieve some stress. It is also getting hotter; the temperatures are rising, the rain makes everything muggier and more humid. All things put together, this makes for a wild ride in the last month before vacation, so seat-belts are not optional.

The Daily Debacle: Lack of competence, or lack of courage?

Another day, another debacle.

Maccah Road, next exit

There are standards in this place, and they are printed on walls and on posters scattered throughout the campus. The first goal on this list is the following: "To instill in students a sense of responsibility, committment and self-discipline." The mission statement posted on the website states: “To equip the youth of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the English language skills needed to succeed in their studies, in their society, and in the world. In doing this, we work in partnership with our fellow educators to instill in the students life-long learning habits and respect for self, others and the environment.” The notion of responsibility is key, since this is linked clearly with learning success. Hence, admin has stated in its own very message:

“The [university] will open up many unprecedented opportunities to self-development. Since instilling the principle of responsibility into students is one of its objectives, the [university] will not act as a custodian nor will it hand you everything on a silver platter. Indeed, it will provide you with the development kit and you have to learn, yourselves, how to make use of the available opportunities. You have to take the consequences of your negligence, if there is any, without blaming it on anyone else.”

That responsibility manifests itself in time management, respect for each other and oneself in language and behavior, consistency in class performance, etc. etc. On the other hand, when students are shielded from the consequences of their actions, the invalidation of responsibility-taking takes hold.

One major project involved the students in conducting (mainly secondary) research on a current social issue, presenting their findings to the class, and then handing in a written paper on the work; this had strict deadlines and rubrics for marking. Today, those deadlines were arbitrarily lifted and extended; presumably, students went to admin and complained about a scheduling conflict: the assignment was the same day as a math exam. Admin arbitrarily directed the project coordinator to inform teachers midway through class about the extension. I had pushed and prodded my students to complete their studies for the last two weeks. Invariably there are laggards, and I sternly was telling them that presentations were to be done by tomorrow, and papers handed in after the weekend would be late. That discussion was invalidated by today’s email.

This is the kind of event that happens over and over. Significant numbers of students were over the 50-class absence, and made their to the admin office. They were promptly given 50% more absences to play with, 4 weeks before the end of classes. Thought it was difficult to get projects and assessments done before? Now just try, with students taking their absences as entitled vacations. In the first couple of weeks, students routinely get teachers removed from their classrooms when the teachers have expectations of performance that are above what the students are willing to expend. We are told to be generous in our marking of exams, and that to hold student output to the rubrics in a fair and standardized fashion is to invite reprisal and sanction.



Butler-teacher, serving education

Some would say this is simply a lack of competence, that admin simply does not realize the consequences of decisions made on the day-to-day class management issues faced by teachers. But admin has said that students are to engage in “self-development”, and that they would face “consequences of [their] negligence”. Tough words. When push comes to shove, it’s clear they are just words. The admin will not stand by its statements. I call this a lack of courage. The admin refuses to stare down the students and maintain standards. Students know through sheer numbers, through their wasta connections, through intimidation and threats (as was the case with the prior admin head who had bottles and shoes thrown at him in a previous ill-fated confrontation), they hold the balance of power.

The admin is afraid of the students. They are afraid of holding students accountable. Students are indeed handed their education on a silver platter. Teachers act as the butlers, and they had better be appropriately attired.

Courage is not to be unafraid. To not be afraid of the consequences of losing your job, or worse, is to be a fool. Everyone feels afraid; the key is what to do with it. Nelson Mandela said, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

To know what the standards are, to know that imparting these to students is for their benefit, and to knowingly give in, is a lack of courage. Admin, like cowardice, has asked “is it safe?”, and for expediency’s sake “is it politic?” But, to continue Martin Luther King Jr.’s observation: “conscience asks the question: is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular- but one must take it simply because it is right.” Martin Luther King Jr. 1929-1968

BTW, teachers hold no such leverage as the students do. The best they can do is quit, and they are quickly replaced. The lack of continuity is of no concern, because the program goes through several iterations in a given year anyway. As long students are marked present, are happy, and no shoes are thrown, the program goes on. I am surprised that admin even admits to this: “Everyone knows that [this university] is not difficult academically.”

I recall an event from a previous position with the Human Resources Department of a major corporation. They were in weeks-long discussions to change the nameplates on the classrooms, to reflect more modern, quality-assurance lingo. What did not change was the process inside the class, the process for planning what happened in the class, and the responsibilities of all participants generally. The nameplates changed, the realities did not.



Integrity beaten, chained up and slinking away

Tying in with the curriculum plan I described yesterday, the program is changing the descriptors, but the processes are untouched. And integrity, beaten too many times, lacking courage to change the context now, turns tail and slinks into the shadows.

Curriculum capers

Another meeting, another surreal experience. This one was about curriculum development, and was about as enlightening as you would expect. The objectives are supposed to be research-based, needs-driven, and international-standard-focused. It will be an iterative, cyclical process, proceeding step by step in a circle of continuous improvement. Good luck.



Circular motion of spinning head?

Five years ago, an internationally-renowned institution with thousands of schools in dozens of countries, was running a standard-focused tight ship of a program. After numerous run-ins with management, this organization pulled out. For another example, a business program running independently within the university was run as an adjunct program with a tier-1 university in the USA. After 2 years of butting heads, the university was kicked out, and run as in in-house program. The next iteration will be the replacement of all expat teachers in the program with indigenous faculty.


At least two recent precedents exist, which had a standards-focused, high quality of educational excellence, and both were replaced because they did not toe the company line. Why should we expect that this time around, with something developed completely in-house, the process will produce something different? That is actually the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.



Circling the drain?


Some of the issues I predict for this caper concern assessment, accountability, and attainability. Currently, all assessment materials and protocols are produced on a sister campus. That content and the responsibilities it is concerned with have been wrangled over for years. It is a political contest that I do not see will be won any time soon. To have a needs-driven, outcome-focused curriculum requires an independent assessment regime. If assessment does not follow the learning path, then the learning has no purpose. I have talked about this in a previous blog.

Accountability is something I have talked about in more than a few blogs. The presenter talked about having objectives associated with each level: when we describe a student as a level 4, there is a consensus on associated level descriptors. Of course, that means that there are entrance as well as exit expectations. To graduate means that students show mastery over coursework. To enter means that students possess the needed prerequisites. To assess means that students will demonstrate genuine ability that cannot be manipulated during the testing. Currently, grades are assigned on the basis of generosity, not fairness. Teachers are evaluated on the basis of lack of complaints, not on actual teaching ability. Graduation is determined many times through political force rather than on documented evidence. These are practices that must change, or the curricular accountability is a farce.

The presenter said that the research and the feedback on curricular effectiveness would be determined by the end of the next academic year through a top-down/bottom-up process. Research would be carried out, and the outcomes manifest would be implemented. Cases in point: an informal survey of teachers who attended the meeting were asked “how many of you received an email informing you of today's meeting?” Less than 50% actually got the email; they knew about the meeting through an informal network. Seriously, why bother with the technicalities of a research process, when basic communications can't even be counted upon? How about setting out attainable objectives? Can we get keys for our lockers? Can we have an efficient system for evaluating teacher professionalism, rather than requiring teachers to stand in line after a presentation to sign for attendance for a period of time longer than the presentation itself, as what happened today?



Research follows the plan

The research atmosphere that I have intuited about this place is that research outcomes have already been determined. Research follows practice, not the other way round. The research itself would be conducted (1) to justify existing practice, and (2) to give the pretense of research credibility for international standards (# of PhDs, # of papers published, regardless of quality). The research would be done with results expected tomorrow, and implemented without question the following day.

When I first arrived, I saw this happening with frustration and irritation. Now, I laugh, and say to myself, “Good luck on that, mate! You're gonna need it!”

Elysian Eloquence - not

Well, that was entertaining. 45 minutes of solid text, nary a joke, and almost completely without visual support. Such was the presentation we were given last night by a world-renowned researcher whose public speaking skills leave something to be desired. We were all wishing to depart to the Elysian Fields during that one!

 That said, there were some points raised during “Task Based Learning: Challenges and Possibilities” (surely that was dusted off from some previous plenary??) that stimulated some conversation.

First, the contention was made that TBL mimics the processes that underlie the acquisition of the mother tongue. TBL is meaning-based, outcome-focused, and intrinsically communicative. All true. However, it is certainly controversial to suggest that the process of learning a first language is necessarily the optimal path for learning a second: the environmental conditions are different (relations between interlocuters, the supportive differences between home and school, sheer frequency of exposure); physical conditions are different (the brain has developed into a more logically grounded one which may/may not be attuned to language in the same ways as in younger years; the accumulation of background knowledge / experience interferes / interacts with language accumulation).

 Second, the speaker's use of the word language is slightly disingenuous: I think he actually meant L1 oracy. Children typically do NOT learning writing skills until they go to an institution. Many cultures have been and still are largely oral-based, and so while it is true that everyone, all things being equal, learn a language, this means they learn to speak it, not necessarily write it. Native speakers of English have varying levels of proficiency when it comes to writing, hence the growing numbers of writing centers at universities, to assist native-speaking students to improve writing skills. This is an important distinction, because TBL is often used for developing writing classes, and relies heavily upon the written medium as language support in more advanced learning classes.

Third, what I think is interesting by omission is the issue of authenticity. The speaker referred to Mike Long's work on TBL often, but as far as I can recall, did not mention the word authenticity once in 3 presentations on the subject. Long, OTOH, does emphasize the importance; for example Long, M. H. (1996). Authenticity and learning potential in L2 classroom discourse. In Jacobs, G. M. (ed.), Language classrooms of tomorrow: Issues and responses (pp. 148-69). Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre. The speaker characterized TBL as outcome-focused, communicative, and meaning-based. I would contend that Long would say meaningful is more important. That communicative depends on the context of language use, and that the outcome needs to be more connected to students' needs and their particular contexts of use than a skills-based curriculum that may developed largely arbitrary to an analysis of learner's needs.

I wrote about this in a paper on authenticity, and tried to capture the essence of authenticity along three dimensions illustrated by the following table:


<><><><>

Authenticity	Criteria
Engagement of Communicative Competence	Degree of interaction	Length of discourse	Language knowledge areas	Proportion of code vs. context rules	Intercultural competences
Task Context	Field	Tenor	Mode	Genre
Learner-centeredness: Available choices	opics	Tests / Tasks	Output criteria	Administrative prerogatives

Authenticity in EFL teaching practice is an increasingly important issue, made more difficult by the lack of any concise description of what the concept constitutes. I wonder if the speaker holds to the commonly-held view of textual/script authenticity, which I reject, and would propose instead a view that sees authenticity as the interaction between the text, the context, and the user. These factors are operationalized along three dimensions: the engagement of learner communicative competence in terms of interlocutor interactivity and discourse; the description of task context in terms of systemic functional linguistics; and the orientation of the task towards a constructivist approach. This characterization of authenticity is seen as crucial for being able to discuss and evaluate best practice in both testing and teaching contexts.

Last night the speaker rejected the notion of pre-teaching, as TBL practice subsumes such practice. However, Widdowson and Long have both supported such practice. Following on from Widdowson’s (1979: 257ff) recommendation, teachers can legitimately use so-called interlanguage (ie simplified) texts, without compromising authenticity. These texts are created by the teacher, for example, to highlight some kind of language features that students may need for future real-world tasks. Widdowson (1979) maintains that task authenticity is not compromised as long as the manipulation of such texts reflects purposes and activities that real-world users would normally engage in.

Using such simplified texts also finds justification in Long and Robinson’s (1996) Interaction Hypothesis. In this model, form-focused instruction on these language elements proceeds opportunistically, through the teacher-led exploitation of communicative, interactional classroom analyses of text. Again, what is important is not so much the process by which a text is created initially or modified from its appearance in its original (ie genuine) context, but in how the textual features (purpose, roles, context) are de-constructed in the classroom context by means of meaning-based interaction.

The use of simplified texts is also supported in the Genre-based approach. This can be described as an approach involving students in opportunities to master a given genre through repeated exposure and practice. Teachers guide students toward greater understanding of the genre gradually, in a process of teacher-student interaction referred to as “scaffolding”: “[Students collaborate] with others, who serve as conduits through which cultural knowledge, including language, is acquired. Initially, learners require the scaffolding provided in interaction with others to understand and to perform a new skill but subsequently, they are able to access this skill unaided.” (Ellis, 1997: 242)

Plans against Pococurantism

Been over a month since my last post. Life here always seems to have some curveball coming, and after several fastballs high and tight (chin music), the big round curve gets a swing and miss most times. Baseball season has started, hence the metaphors.

We have started the 4th quarter in the school schedule recently. Students were given an extra 25 hours of absences allowed after their vociferous complaints. That seems to be the way it goes: complain loud enough, and the students get what they want. Many teachers have said that they have only 2 or 3 students show up on a given day. Two told me they haven't had any show up for 2 weeks. Yet, when the students do eventually show up 45 minutes late without pen or book, they start up with "teacher present teacher", followed 5 minutes later by "teacher when finished teacher". Thankfully I haven't had that on my side, but the other department is rife with it.

Turns out we only have about 4 weeks left of dedicated teaching left in the semester; there is a week of review after that, and then a week for finals. Everything finishes by the end of May, and then we have 2 to 3 weeks of sitting around clocking in and out until mid June. In preparation for weeks of boredom otherwise, I enrolled in an online course for quality management statistics, to prep for an official certification in this area upon my contract completion.

Nowadays I am also looking at the possibility of a PhD in Curriculum Development or Educational Policy, and I would like to do it in my hometown. My house is there, and so logistically it would present fewer difficulties than taking courses in yet another city. I am interested in researching tipping points in education reform; that is, what small changes in school/learning settings create disproportionately significant outcomes. Married with a quality management certification, hoping that will open a few more doors vocationally in the future.

Same old, same old

We had a seminar the other day, and the main event was a plenary given by a long-term resident of KSA. Among the many interesting points he had made, I feel it necessary to make a rebut to several.

One of his observations was that teaching is a kind of socio-cultural game, with expectancies, rules, roles, and purposes which Shakespeare at one time identified as coalescing around love, death, power, money, and ego. I would probably collapse all of those into a discussion of love, that the other pursuits are reactions in various complicated ways to a vacuum of that Life Force in some way or another, but that is another blog. The point I was piqued at was the ensuing comment, that teachers often "reproduce the conditions that limited them", presumably in more familiar contexts. Or, as the speaker was later to illustrate with Marx, "the workers are complicit in their own isolation." I don't know how accurate or contextualized the speaker's quote was, but the upshot of it was to pin the tail on the donkey: if your class is boring, maybe it's your fault.

Marx had a lot to say about the exploitation of labor, in fact constructing a whole theory around this construct. Some quotes include...

Capitalist production, therefore, develops technology, and the combining together of various processes into a social whole, only by sapping the original sources of all wealth -- the soil and the labourer.

KARL MARK, Capital

Hitherto, every form of society has been based ... on the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed classes.

KARL MARX, The Communist Manifesto

In other words, there is a conflict here, and this is summed up in the coercion interpretation of exploitation: how can the workers be complicit, choosing their lot, when capitalists exploit them?

 The worker in capitalism is not forced to engage in surplus labour in the same way that slaves and serfs were. In the case of the latter it was threat of punishment if they refused. Rather, what forces the wage-labourer in capitalism to engage in surplus labour is the fact that the capitalist owns the means of production. Lacking means of production of their own, the wage-labourers are forced to accept the wage offers of the capitalists to procure means of subsistence, and the wage contracts to which they are forced to agree bind them to perform surplus labour.

What is the case here in KSA? Is there coercion? I would say that a surplus of labor in the home countries of expats drove them out of financial need to come here. KSA owns the means of production: with significant oil reserves they can withstand recessionary pressures; but even more, they can adapt rather comfortably to the winds of change swirling around them. On a personal level, the teachers in Saudi Arabia accept the situations they face in classrooms, on campuses, and in shopping malls and city streets, because they fear a reprisal in the form of job loss, or perhaps even personal injury, recalling the threat of punishment characteristic of earlier times.

I work and sleep and rest with a constant sense of anxiety, which becomes naked fear sometimes, and at other times becomes nagging paranoia, as I watch every word and deed. The stress of walking on egg shells is what in part explains my constant fatigue: I go to bed tired, and wake up tired. Every day. It is not the workload; I have done 12 hour days installing solar panels in the middle of a heat wave out in a farmer's field. The physical exertion does not compare to this.

So then the game is not a friendly one of parcheesi or chess, where the only outcome of loss is a bruised ego, if that. It is a game of Russian roulette; you don't know when the next round in the chamber is live. That is, you don't know if tomorrow a student, or a fellow teacher, or the person driving in the car beside you, is going to change everything, suddenly and unexpectedly. Forcefully. Painfully. The best advice I have heard so far is to expect the unexpected.

The bottom line, though, is that the blame game the speaker said was characteristic of teachers is ironically and often a policy of blaming the victim. The dean who said he would have our back at a dinner just a few short weeks ago, recently advised the students in a large council meeting to report any teacher who transgresses the murky lines seperating discussions that are appropriate (women, religion and politics) from those that are haram. Why? Because the ills that our campus suffers from, can be captured and controlled by ostracizing the teachers? Is this the issue that will move education to the cutting edge?

The speaker talked of testing as a social act, of learning as lying on an unpredictable curve. Seriously? While we labor under the realization that our major tests have zero correlation with curriculum content, which is not only inefficient and pedagogically invalid, but has been called by some as morally repugnant (eg Finch 2002); while we are required to use a curriculum that has had little input or refinement by the professionals who use it, which does not encourage student choice and often does not reflect even coincidentally their major interests? And we wonder why there are disciplinary issues, which could be directly related to the student's sense of hopelessness or powerlessness, which is projected onto and often channelled by their teachers?

Confidence. Choice. Authenticity. Principles. These are universals that cultures world-wide accept and espouse. Theoretical constructs divorced from realities, and tainted by thinly veiled accusation, are not a step forward. They are merely the same old, same old.

Discrimination Diversification

I had an interesting discussion with some friends the other day on the topic of racial discrimination, and how it affects social opportunities. My black friends at times seemed to be saying that no matter how hard it got in the economy, I as a white guy would never really understand desperation or hopelessness. When the economy improved, I would go right back to assymetric vocational access, something that blacks systematically are prevented from. When the economy improves, blacks are still black, and therefore their situation remains essentially the same.

My response was on several levels: that if I was so priveleged, why was I working here, so far from home? why had I been rejected on my last 10 applications to Korea - not even gaining a response form thank you letter? why had I enjoyed much-less-than-poverty-level wages for the last three years, which depleted my reserves substantially? why I lost money on real estate deals for the past 3 years, basically losing my retirement funds? and, why was I continuously impressed with the notion that the field of education was increasingly dominated by women at every level and position, effectively marginalizing my chances?

Even further back, why was I so poor just before I came to Korea, having to go to the food bank and driving a car that literally had a hole in the gas tank? why I was working 100-hour weeks and clearing 500 dollars, at times taking my life in my hands to just get by? And even further, why both my parents came from Europe after the war, after suffering deprivation of the war fought in their front yards, and the great depression before that? Does that sound like a life a privilege, that I was born with a silver spoon in my life?

I agreed that I could never really understand life as a black man in America. I have never lived in America for one, and I do not have a black heritage either. However, my wife is Korean, and my son is Korean-Canadian; vicariously, I have suffered through various social indignities and assaults with them: intrusive and incompetent immigration procedures, social shunning, in Korea pushing and shoving on the street, in Australia spitting, in Canada taunts, epithets and ignorant comments especially at my son. And of course the day-to-day slights that come with the life of being an expat in Korea, Japan, and Saudi Arabia for 15 years.

I have suffered from discriminatory treatment too. I have lost money and been prevented from jobs I would have liked and would have been qualified for. I understand what discrimination is like. And I am not of the opinion that I am better, or more privileged, in any way, than the black citizenry of Canada.
In fact, I see this reaction, of viewing whites through what is essentially a stereotyped prism generated by longstanding attitudes of victimization, as unfair. I am not the token white.

It is like someone with a longterm terminal illness, who struggles with pain every day. This person sees someone who breakes his leg, but does not respond with compassion. Instead, he says, "what's wrong with you?! what are you whining for? that does not really hurt - you don't know pain like I do! In a month, you will be walking around again. Me? I might not even be here in a month!" I feel sorry for the person who has the illness. But why does that negate the pain of a broken leg? Why does that not arouse compassion, but derision? And why respond with anger? Did the person with the broken leg give you that illness? If not, then why not face the end of life with gratitude, compassion, and hope? Isn't that a better way?

We all suffer from discrimination: white, blacks, non-royal Saudis, non-Saudi Muslims, Christians, women, men, children. Discrimination has no face. It is as diverse as all of us. And I would wish that our common suffering would bind us together, because that makes us all stronger.

Enlightening experiences

"While working in korea and japan, people would complain about the testing protocols. They should come to saudi arabia. This week is testing week, and nothing has gone right. Students took a writing test with test items they had never seen before, and thus were ill-prepared for. For example, with the item "describe something you own", one student listed body parts as his answer, with a few words lifted from the test rubric itself for good measure. We were originally given the instruction about test length being one hour, which was changed to forty in an email the night before, then back to forty five the morning. Teachers ended up giving students as much time as they needed. The marking was supposed to have a rubric with reliability, but we were told to mark "generously", which meant not to follow the rubric. The test was supposed to have two raters, but the scores were not blind, so to save time and effort, the raters simply copied the first score. We were supposed to mark the tests that we gave in our assigned classrooms; many teachers (inc. mine), simply left after the test - leaving those who were left to mark their work. There seems to be no consequence for this kind of shirking of responsibility."

I wrote this on my black berry about 2 weeks after I arrived. Since the beginning of the new semester, teachers have been asked to participate in various voluntary capacities (dean's task force, observation, CAL State mentoring program) to address the issues that had become all too apparent. The dean's speech given at that time (discussed in an earlier blog) was hopeful, but given the pace of change, and the continuing lack of leverage agents seem to have here, positive outcomes are still beyond the curent horizon.

"At the ielts office, in a building that from the outside is built like a bunker. Inside, there is an integrated work environment, a little to my surprise; this being thw diplomatic quarter, perhaps not. Have to sign the same documents for working - no worries. Will start on feb 18 for testing, may get to do a few sessions before march break, so nice to build up some spending reserves before going on vacatoon, if i actually do, we have to see if that is possible with my visa situation.

Have been quite sick for about 2 days prior, but the antibiotics have finally kicked in, just in time, but still wasted a weekend in bed. At school, there was a situation with a teacjer who had made complaints about several teachers inc me, fatuous and time wasting. Enough though to warrant about 40 people hours to investigate. It made it all the way to the pres of the company to come, and now it is over. For the one who made the complaint though, i suspect not. I had this sitn with a studnet at fanshawe college, who seemed to be not satisfied until he had gotten his pound of flesh for a percieved slight. My reward for listing to his venting and modifying his score to an A+ was a nonrenewal of my contract after the next term. I had thought FC was the worst institutoon i had wokred in, until i got here. Although come to think of it, this place is trying, and may comes to grips with many of the most egregious issues in a few yeras. FC?  I doubt that would happen in ten."

The outcome was that the complainant was moved to a new office and team. But it is situations like this, where the complaint was given energy greatly disproportionate to its value, yet issues concerning vacations, working conditions (lockers/keys for teachers, etc) and other areas are political soccer balls that keep getting kicked down the road to be solved later. That is why the first experience with admin issues here (with testing) still rings familiarly with my observations today. The difference now is my level of expectation, and my degree of preparedness, as I come to expect that problems will occur and I need plan b and c in my back pocket ready to go.

Anomie and authoritarianism

Anomie is a term meaning "without Law" to describe a lack of social norms; "normlessness". It describes the breakdown of social bonds between an individual and their community ties, with fragmentation of social identity and rejection of self-regulatory values.

I sometimes wonder if authoritarianism is a response to the historical normlessness of such anomie societies, which might address the question of why did Islam develop here in Saudi Arabia, and not in Africa, or elsewhere in the Middle East? The unwillingness of individuals to regulate themselves from the inside-out is compensated for by an authoritarian and institutionalized system working from the outside-in.

Huntington has talked about the clash of the west and the Islamic world as being concerned with religious differences vis a vis democratic values, and this creates much tension worldwide. Inglehart's modernization theory asserts, in contrast, that as societies develop, there is less need for the security that religiosity tends to bring, and that conflicts arise instead from social issue differences like gender equality and attitudes toward sexuality.

The purpose of any theory is to generalize a position, so that it finds wider application; it's replicable. Human societies being as complex as they are render such wide-ranging theories difficult to defend, but when constrained more locally may be informative (ie interactional differences cancel each other out, eliminating main effects). In the graph below, for example, data for 3 different years is given. The data has been entered into the binomial equation associated with each year. But, what if all the data had been entered, regardless of year? The distribution would have been much flatter; the variations would cancel out the differences between these three years.

Fig. 1 Multiple distributions

In KSA, for example, a saying here is "the rule-breaker becomes famous," which is un-Islamic, but very Saudi. You almost wonder whether the imposition of strict socio-religious rules here, as opposed to say another Muslim society such as Lebanon, is a direct counter-reaction to regional cultural normlessness, exemplified by the drifting of cars and other reckless driving habits, the use of "inshallah" to justify the breaking of promises or the refusal to make them, and what seems to be a lack of willingness and sense of entitlement of younger people to take on personal responsibilities when others can do it for them?

Thus, the growing liberalization that Inglehart's theory suggests as inevitable might spur a stronger clash within this society to contain it and thus prevent it. From an individual level, could you see this in someone who has lived life on the edge, finds religion, and then tends toward a very strict and judgmental interpretation of what makes a "good life"? And that this person swings back and forth, as the dissonance within his mind takes him in one direction and then another as time goes on?

Thus, I still see merit in a conflict theory to explain the cultural phenomena, but less so as a consensual response to particular kinds of religious or social values as Huntington would have it, and more in terms of reactions which happen to be juxtaposed. That is, the conflict exists in part because oil happens to be largely under Islamic soil; if it were under Hindu soil, would we now be talking about an Indo-Western conflict instead?

I will have to give the culture-shock-inducing aspects of Saudi culture more thought as time goes on.

Two cents on two weeks

It has been an interesting week so far. I have a cold, and I have probably gotten due in part to some of the stresses associated with the, uh, surrealness of it all. Another thing is that my roommate was talking on the phone late at night, and waking me up in the process. Thankfully that was sorted (he will now talk on the livingroom sofa, which is behind another door).

At the end of week 1, which I thought had gone rather well, half the class complained about the pace of the learning. I used my 3.5 hours of teaching (8AM to 1140AM) to get though the materials, and the students said that it was too much too fast, with not enough listening and speaking. That was the curriculum, I said, but I was willing to listen to proposals. What we ended up agreeing to was this:

8-9         Reading textbook
9-940     Documentary
10-11     Writing
11-1140 Speaking: Discussion groups

One student has a list of 700+ documentaries on memory sticks, and we can pick and choose from there. In exchange, the students agreed to always bring their books and homework and participate in class from beginning to end. It has mixed results so far: students have indeed brought their books - when they have shown up. I get lots of promises (I will never be late again, blah blah), and excuses (I had to pick up my diabetic parents at the airport who just arrived from Bahrain), end result: not living up to their committments. Patience, grasshopper, patience.

As well, I had recieved a complaint from another teacher, over what I feel to be a trivial matter. Without getting into details, that complaint wasted the time and efforts of about 6 people before it was thankfully quashed. We had recieved a presentation the day before of the official complaint process, which curiously did not include info about teacher vs teacher procedures.

On a serious and concerning note, though, was a complaint procedure which had gone awry. At the meeting, we were told that teachers would be informed about complaints prior to observations, and process of information and detail sharing would proceed. Later that afternoon, I met with one teacher, who was suddenly confronted two days prior in class by 3 HR staff, who told him on the spot to leave the class. The teacher was shocked, but asked if he could have the request made in writing (to prevent the scenario where he could be accused of leaving his class and relinquishing his duties on his own accord, thus justifying a firing). This was refused, and he was told in front of his students to leave or security and/or police would be called. He subsequently left the class, but was not given any explanation of why this even took place. I hope to recieve some closure over the next few days, and perhaps to hear more details if this scenario is even accurate. This is concerning, however, because it leaves me to wonder on the possible arbitrary nature of HR departmental power: could I be subject to this one day as well?

Finally, another two teachers had a strange encounter with two students while in the bathroom. The teachers had gone into the bathroom stalls, to relieve themselves. Upon exiting the stalls, two students stormed up to them, waggling fingers inches from their nose, telling them they would be reported to the manager and fired. Mystified, but also becoming angry at this insolent treatment, teacher A went to get assistance from a line manager, the other teacher B to stay with the agitated students. The manager came, but by then the students had allegedly pushed teacher B, who was angry and who then said loudly to the approaching manager that these students should be written up etc etc. Unfortunately, the tension escalated into a misunderstanding between teacher B and the manager, without anything being done about the offending students. While this misunderstanding eventually resolved itself, later on as I was with tecaher A, the two students in the original altercation were walking up the stairs. we both asked the students to accompany us to see the manager. The students said very casually they were tired and were going home, and then continued to saunter off, completely ignoring our requests to accompany them to the office. We looked at each other, as we clearly saw our own impotence in the light of this blatant disrespect. But what could we do? There is no leverage, most if not all the managers were already off-campus by then, we did not know their names, and frankly, we felt that little if anything positive would result from this anyway.

That night I went to sleep with a slight headache, and woke up next morning with a sore throat and runny nose.

Talk about Testing

These are slides from my IELTS presentation which I did over the professional development week, a few days ago. It was hard to crystallize all the info I have gained from my experiences into a one hour seminar, but attendees seemed to have enjoyed themselves. I give a brief intro to the IELTS, then in more detail describe the individual writing tasks. Then, attendees in groups tried to write their answers to the tasks. At the end, teachers evaluated each others' compositions by referring to the scoring rubric, which was explained and applied at the same time.