Job Discussion Forums

[desert_traveller]

ideally, the interests of an educational institute (lets just say 'school' from now on), particularly at tertiary level, and the interests of its students fully overlap (or at least complement each other). the school wants its students to learn, and the students want to learn. this creates a good basis for cooperation between them, and dedicated teachers can get involved in and contribute to this cooperation in the most rewarding way, joining the joint efforts of school and students

but

what happens when the interests of the students and the interests of the school do not match but conflict? this creates a scenario in which school and students, instead of forming partnerships, work against each other. they are not partners but enemies, and they dont cooperate but clash

the battleground for this clash will be the place where school and students meet: the classroom. in the classroom, it is the teacher who embodies in students' eyes and is supposed to represent the school. if the aims of students and school clash, teachers will be hopelessly caught in the crossfire of these conflicting interests in the classroom

this brings up a few interesting questions

can education work when teachers are expected to wage war against their own students, instead of cooperating with them?

can teachers be expected to preserve their loyalties to the school, when they spend 2 to 8 hours every single day surrounded by their students, very often quite loudly and arrogantly demanding that the teacher address their (the students') interests, even if it goes straight against what the school wants?

can teachers themselves expect to draw any sort of job satisfaction from their work?

can teachers expect job security in an environment, where, simply put, they can think: 'the school wants me to do A, but the students want me to do B. A and B conflict, i cant do them both, i must choose. if i do A, the school will be happy, but the students will be unhappy, they will go to management and complain about me (they will present their complaints in a different form, of course, they will not tell the management that teacher tried to implement A, they will come up with some other story), so the management may fire me. if i do B, the students will be happy, but if the management realize that i didnt do A, they may fire me. whatever i do, they may fire me. so, what should i do now?'

no wonder even the most dedicated teachers get weary of their work very quickly (or leave very quickly, or get fired very quickly)

[Citizenkane]

[lazycomputerkids]

[johnslat]

Dear desert_traveller,

I was very fortunate in that where I worked (the IPA) the situation you describe was never an issue.
Had it been, I'm sure that I would never have been able to have lasted as long in Saudi as I did.
Maybe you need to start (if you haven't already) looking around for a more congenial work environment.

Regards,
John

[veiledsentiments]

I'm not at all clear on what examples of this would be either.

Other than the obvious thing about students all wanting to pass... and management having set standards. (admitting that not all managements insist on this one.)

I'm glad that I never had the problem at my employers.

VS

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

First of all...OP, job security...here?

Secondly, this has happened a lot in my ME life. I have a policy of unabashedly displaying the emails that contain the decisions that have been made without the consultation of the nexis in which you speak...the people at the front of the classroom. In this culture, they are taught that teachers are all-powerful up through the secondary level. so I let the decision-makers take the heat and tell the students to take it up themselves with the author of the email.

Here's the beauty of the approach...the students are afraid of the management at the tertiary level for the same reasons they are afraid of the management at the secondary level, so they tend to let the issue die.

When they hit the tertiary level, they come upon this strange animal of the teachers following the decisions of higher ups and cannot make the adjustment.

Now, the teacher is a "bad" teacher for following things like strict attendance rules and not standing by and saying nothing until students literally choke of the amazing amounts of snack food that they've been chomping on and drinks that they've been guzzling down since the period started.

They've observed schools back down and not support teachers who follow "the rules" and know how to manipulate weak management types. The above advice is good. Regain a perspective. You are nothing more than a highly-paid Bangladeshi Tea boy/girl. Management will typically do what's most expedient to their careers. Learn to understand that and accept it. It doesn't make management "baddies", it makes them...ahem..."practical".

Consider your monthly pay as lottery winnings and keep on keepin' on.

NCTBA