multicultural education in Qatar
Greetings,
As an educator myself who have got to study, research and appreciate multicultural education and the pedagogy of teaching students in diverse society, one can not stress enough the paramount importance of teaching students who have English as another language using an approach that is culturally sensitive (which has been proven to enhance students' interests and learning outcome).
However I have encounter many teachers here in Qatar (particularly the so called expat. teachers) who are culturally illiterate and do not seem to have gotten any training/professional development regarding multicultural education and the pedagogy needed for diverse societies such as Qatar, (and i do not mean food and folklore although it can be part if it to some extend) worse yet some do harbor an attitude of haughtiness and disdain partly and probably to compensate for the inadequacy of their teaching methods ..which is a pity (I mean the attitude not the lack of training).
This put aside, I know well that this is not the majority and we have some well trained/clever teachers here in Qatar from the 4 corners of the globe!
I am starting this forum hoping to -START- a discussion on the topic of teaching in such a rich society and get some input and ideas, suggestions or simply your thoughts on the topic... thank you all!
to britexpat
I don't think that parents and teachers do not respect the teachers but there is a clear barrier between teachers and parents and I think language/communication (lack of it) got something to do with feeling disrespected/not valued...at least for some part of the issue.
to thelonius
very sad and extreme views that you hold...have you had any teaching experience here in Qatar? (see I spare you the "have you got" thing.. :) )
Hogwash and poppycock..
Yes, one has to understand the culture. However teaching is about understanding the students.
The key problem in the GCC is that Teachers are not given the backing by the school to actually teach and don't get the respect they deserve from parents and students..
multi-Apartheid maybe, but deffy not multicultural.
Used to teach at this well known private school here & he had a major problem with students.It was next to impossible to keep them focused in class.I do agree cultural difference is a big problem here & most of the time, the expat teachers are not even aware that what is deemed normal in their countries might seem offensive here.An Australian colleague of my husband showed an educational video to his year 11 boys class a& somewhere in that video there was a scene with a woman in a bikini, just half a second or something but the boys saw it.The next day one of the boys' father came to the school and created a huge scene saying that this western teacher is trying to inflence the culture here.