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[anaxiforminges]

Teaching has many other types than scholars for dollars

Justin Thomas

�Wake up and smell the coffee,� writes JB of London in a recent letter published in The National. �People only come here to make money as quickly as they possibly can before leaving.� JB continues in the same alarmist tone with specific reference to university professors.

While this may be the mentality of some, it is very far from the reality for all. Over and above tax free salaries, there are many benefits to working in the UAE. I might be a bit of an outlier or an oddity, but my UK salary, after tax, was actually higher than the salary and benefits I accepted when I came to work in the UAE.

Depending on your point of departure, mine was Liverpool, you don�t have to look too hard for non-fiscal benefits associated with residing and working in the UAE. A few such boons that spring immediately to my mind are the infinitesimally low crime rate, a family-friendly recreational orientation, year round sunshine and relatively harmonious multiculturalism.

I am not suggesting the UAE is perfect. Like everywhere else there are problems; everything and everyplace has its own shadow. But JB�s letter would have you envision the UAE as some kind of expat-purgatory, a place people can�t escape from quickly enough once they have enough loot to take back to their own utopian homeland. Granted, I�m still pretty new to the UAE, but many of my colleagues at Zayed University have been here since its inception 11 years ago. And while we all have to eat and pay our bills, most of my colleagues are far from being door-to-door salesmen of professorial wares.

Among my colleagues at Zayed University, rather than scholars for dollars, you are far more likely to find, among other groups, what I call, eternal anthropologists. These are the lovers of mankind, who true to their academic calling, leave their homeland to learn more about the cultures and lifestyles of their distant cousins. Many have already done a stretch in Singapore or Malaysia and now have their eyes on Oman, Qatar or Yemen.

In addition to the eternal anthropologist you will find those I like to call �foreign legionnaires�, folks who are �on-the-run�, escaping painful pasts or who are disillusioned with their homelands. One colleague told me there was a wave of expatriation out of Thatcherite Britain in the 1980s fuelled by the three Ds; debt, divorce and depression. The desert can be a great place to forget and be forgotten.

Then, there are of course also those for whom their research interests make the UAE a dream. If you�re a world authority on desert entomology (the study of desert insects) or a cross-cultural psychologist, then the UAE makes perfect sense over and above any financial considerations.

Next we have my favourites: the romantic, if not grandiose, visionaries. These are the people that like the idea of being at the start of something big. I once had a colleague describe working at Zayed University as like being a Master at one of the Oxford colleges in the 13th century. �This is an institution,� he said, �that will be here in 900 years time, boasting a proud tradition of graduates who changed the world. And I, like Roger Bacon, will have been a Doctor Mirabillis (an astounding teacher) and have shaped this institution�s foundations.�

To continue my taxonomy of motivations further still, there are also those who I call �asylum seekers� or Al muhajiroon to use a more appropriate Arabic equivalent. These are typically Muslims and academics who either having grown up in the West or educated in the West are now keen to work in a society that is not disparaging of their spirituality or religious practices, and live in a society that is in fact actively supportive of their lifestyle, providing among other things places to pray, Fridays off and shorter hours in Ramadan.

Even when the initial decision to work in the UAE is based on financial incentives (and why can�t it be?) there is often a change of heart that I see among those who have taught here for a while. Students here, compared to those in many other student populations, are typically reserved, very polite and extremely respectful. I know from speaking to North American colleagues who have taught at community colleges in �rough neighbourhoods�, after a few years in the UAE they no longer miss the metal detectors or the occasional high-stakes classroom drama. One of my colleagues previously provided adult education for the inmates at the infamous Rikers Island penitentiary, so Zayed University obviously presents him with some unique and refreshingly different challenges.

Financial incentives are important, but they are far from being the singular or even the foremost concern of educational professionals. Many academics can earn far more cash outside of academia, but they choose to do what they are passionate about and provides them with the greatest source of meaning. And in the words of Cardinal John Henry Newman in his essay, The Idea of a University, �knowledge, if it be really such, is its own reward�.

Justin Thomas is a psychologist in the department of Natural Science and Public Health at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090803/OPINION/708029903/1080

[15yearsinQ8]

higher education in the gulf is an assembly line operation with marginally skilled and qualified instructors as compared in the west
a phd holder should not be given a free pass to either promotion, tenureship or even the initial job at university
in the usa, even in the sparsely populated disciplines, there are dozens of phd holders for every entry instructor job
then the real work begins, establish yourself as a popular and successful teacher or publish your ass off. even then prepare for the late night attacks - there was an extremely popular instructor of American History up for tenureship at Harvard- at the last minute, she was sacked for a newly awarded pulitzer prize winning history teacher who was given tenure on the spot (and the first lady's former office).
another example is a history instructor who specialized in history of the local area and created courses around the history of Boston. these proved to be among the most popular courses in the univesity attracting 200+ students a course. this instructor was given tenure and full professorship only after generating a lot of revenue (even by Harvard standards) for the university
no such criteria for assessing and developing talent exists in universities in the gulf

[veiledsentiments]

I agree the Dr Thomas... you meet all kinds in the ME academia.

VS

[johnslat]

"One of my colleagues previously provided adult education for the inmates at the infamous Rikers Island penitentiary, so Zayed University obviously presents him with some unique and refreshingly different challenges."

Based on my experience teaching GED at the New Mexico State Penitentiary,
I'd say inmates are so much better, in terms of behavior and motivation, than, say, a typical high school student in the States.

[freesoul]

I would add to Mr. Thomas� taxonomy many EFL Sojourners who are not willing or able to �gel� into the complex fiber of the new culture. One of my friends calls them vultures.

[elsamidori]

[Double Cheeseburger]

There are people who come here just for the money, or to be someone rather than being a nobody at home.

I can find hundreds of them, or I can spend days and weeks without meeting any if I choose to.