Last week, just ahead of the start of the new academic session, I had the privilege of participating in a teacher's workshop. The workshop was conducted by an experienced teacher and consultant. Darlene was an expert on cross-cultural teaching practices and had worked in many parts of the globe, from the U.S. to Turkey. She had the unique opportunity to work in different cultural milieus which helped her have an insight into how schools in different nations in the West and the East approached the teaching-learning process.
What made the workshop stand apart from other workshops in the past was its honest attempt to explore cultural differences that exist despite the fact that education today in some of the best schools in the world is going 'global'. Darlene began by gently introducing the work of the influential Dutch social anthropologist, Geert Hofstede's seminal work on "assessing and differentiating national cultures and organisational cultures" (to unabashedly quote Wikipedia!). She skillfully weaved Hofstede's work around the teacher-learning process and helped us unravel the hidden assumptions (icebergs!) in our relationship and interactions with students. It was a fascinating experience to be exposed to our own assumptions (faulty, as it turned out...) and become uncomfortable, which was 'good'. Darlene's caveat "learn to become comfortable with being uncomfortable" had the ring of truth about it, paradox notwithstanding.
Darlene focused on one of the basic 'problem areas' representing cultural dimensions of the teaching-learning process in a school - Power Distance (PD). PD is a problem area and is defined by Hofstede as "the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally." Hofstede also measured the Power Distance Index (PDI) between the less-powerful and the more-powerful members of an organisation in a country.
The below animation, produced by Interfacet, an online workplace training company, beautifully illustrates how Power Distance works -
This rather intriguing take on the teaching-learning process had an electric effect on the teachers in the workshop because most of us had worked all our adult lives in 'organisations' which believed in and sustained high PD between teachers & administrators and between students & teachers. When a question was posed whether it is possible to reduce the PD in a top-heavy, hierarchical system, a teacher, obviously defending the system he was comfortable with, shot back in alarm with a clear, unambiguous message "...low PD, no teaching happens, high PD, teaching happens".
The implications of working in a low PD culture was frightening for some of us, to say the least. The reactions ranged from, "what about the authority of the teacher?" to "there will be a breakdown of order in the system". The reaction which encapsulated the hidden fears was "There will be chaos!" Interestingly, one also sensed an ideological divide (!?) between the 'conservative' and the 'liberal' teachers. One group favored the high PD system whilst the other wanted to explore the possibility a low PD culture. The liberal teachers felt that a classroom set-up with a low PD between students and teachers could (my italics) engender creativity.
To be sure, the workshop made most of us sit up, think and question our assumptions. A day after the workshop, a fellow teacher and a dear colleague who was 'senior' by many years, asked me a question, revealing in its simplicity "Rajesh, is our relationship a high PD or a low PD?" To me, this was a glowing testimonial of the impact of Darlene's workshop.
Talking about 'Power' and our vexatious relationship with it, maybe there is a simpler, although less practiced, solution...
What made the workshop stand apart from other workshops in the past was its honest attempt to explore cultural differences that exist despite the fact that education today in some of the best schools in the world is going 'global'. Darlene began by gently introducing the work of the influential Dutch social anthropologist, Geert Hofstede's seminal work on "assessing and differentiating national cultures and organisational cultures" (to unabashedly quote Wikipedia!). She skillfully weaved Hofstede's work around the teacher-learning process and helped us unravel the hidden assumptions (icebergs!) in our relationship and interactions with students. It was a fascinating experience to be exposed to our own assumptions (faulty, as it turned out...) and become uncomfortable, which was 'good'. Darlene's caveat "learn to become comfortable with being uncomfortable" had the ring of truth about it, paradox notwithstanding.
Darlene focused on one of the basic 'problem areas' representing cultural dimensions of the teaching-learning process in a school - Power Distance (PD). PD is a problem area and is defined by Hofstede as "the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally." Hofstede also measured the Power Distance Index (PDI) between the less-powerful and the more-powerful members of an organisation in a country.
The below animation, produced by Interfacet, an online workplace training company, beautifully illustrates how Power Distance works -
This rather intriguing take on the teaching-learning process had an electric effect on the teachers in the workshop because most of us had worked all our adult lives in 'organisations' which believed in and sustained high PD between teachers & administrators and between students & teachers. When a question was posed whether it is possible to reduce the PD in a top-heavy, hierarchical system, a teacher, obviously defending the system he was comfortable with, shot back in alarm with a clear, unambiguous message "...low PD, no teaching happens, high PD, teaching happens".
The implications of working in a low PD culture was frightening for some of us, to say the least. The reactions ranged from, "what about the authority of the teacher?" to "there will be a breakdown of order in the system". The reaction which encapsulated the hidden fears was "There will be chaos!" Interestingly, one also sensed an ideological divide (!?) between the 'conservative' and the 'liberal' teachers. One group favored the high PD system whilst the other wanted to explore the possibility a low PD culture. The liberal teachers felt that a classroom set-up with a low PD between students and teachers could (my italics) engender creativity.
To be sure, the workshop made most of us sit up, think and question our assumptions. A day after the workshop, a fellow teacher and a dear colleague who was 'senior' by many years, asked me a question, revealing in its simplicity "Rajesh, is our relationship a high PD or a low PD?" To me, this was a glowing testimonial of the impact of Darlene's workshop.
Talking about 'Power' and our vexatious relationship with it, maybe there is a simpler, although less practiced, solution...
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