From Liza Ketchum, a UW ESL instructor who has been teaching EFL to female students in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia since October 2012
Issue #1 Do male Saudi students have a gender bias towards woman teachers? Can this make it more difficult to work with them?
Before I taught Saudis in the USA, I feared that male students would not respect female teachers. During the years that I taught them, I found the opposite to be true. Based on my years of experience with Saudi students in Seattle, I have come to see this idea--that Saudi men in America won’t respect female teachers--as a non-issue. Saudi students who study abroad are well aware of the cultural differences in education and most have heard from their male friends about classroom dynamicsin the US. If a woman teacher feels there is a gender bias, she may be seeing what she expects to see. I know I have done that many times in my life. We learn certain ways of looking at things that work just fine as long as they are common cultural assumptions, but the assumptions may fail and even cause damage if applied to people who share a different set of “understandings.”
If for examplea studentdoesn’t feel a woman was qualified to teach them? Or is there a senseof sexual energy from the men? If it is the former, if the students aren’t focusing and applying themselves, or if there is a sense that they seem to consider themselves “above” what is asked of them, this attitude could have a variety of sources. For example, not everyone has a strong work ethic—though I find most Saudis in the USA usually have quite a lot of drive. A minority of people get through life on their social standing, not merit, and expect things to come easily to them or expect to be served. However, this social class is small, and of course not all rich Saudis have attitude. The stereotype that all Saudis are rich and privileged is far from true. The majority of Saudi students in the USA are on scholarship.
Leaving cultural issues for the moment, some students of any nationality are embarrassed to be seen as incompetent when they need help, and may project a sort of arrogance as a defense mechanism. There could be many reasons, cultural or not, for what this teacher is perceiving. Of course, there’s a possibility that the men are being sexist. If so, I see it as the same degree of possibility that exists that an American man is being sexist.
As far as the ways Saudi men view women, it is important to understand that here in Saudi Arabia, the dynamics between Saudi women and Saudi men are different than those between non-Saudi women and Saudi men. There is a different standard for Saudi women and Western women (and probably other standards for non-Western, non-Saudis, which I know less about). Men don’t place the same expectations and limitations on Western women that they do on Saudi women.
If the woman is perceiving sexual energy from the man, a little knowledge of Saudi culture might help: Here, it is literally illegal for a woman to sit with a man who is not her husband or close relative, in private or in public. After a lifetime of messages telling you a situation is so highly charged sexually that it is illegal, it may take some time for an individual man to do a 180 and be expected to be in that situation with aplomb. The intimacy of a one-on-one session with a woman who is not their classroom teacher might be perceived as a gray area. I don’t think that in this case Saudi men would disrespect a woman’s knowledge or capacity to teach them, but they might see the situation as inherently sexual.
Issue #2 Female Muslim students will only work with women
This was an issue that was discussed at the UW as well. Some teachers’ reaction was, “You’re in America now, so you’ll do things our way!” I had mixed feelings, including the idea that if a teacher “makes” a female student work with men, the teacher is opening learning opportunities to that student and the men. I am thinking of group work, here. When I assigned one man and one Saudi woman to work together in America, they would sit in silence. When I assigned one Saudi woman and one non-Saudi man, sometimes it went better. Two Saudi women and a non-Saudi man? Better.
But what about asking a Saudi woman to work one-on-one with a man? I have had Saudi female students who will do this, who see all classmates as an educational resource. However, now that I have lived here, I am aware that for the typical woman I see showing only her eyes at the grocery store or mall, asking her to work with a man—certainly with a Saudi man--as akin to asking an American to travel to India or Afghanistan or some other place with a culture different from ours, take off her clothes, and walk down a busy city street with a scarlet letter painted on her chest. Some Americans might become culturally adjusted enough to say, “Sure, that’s what’s done here; I’ll do it!” To most it would be humiliating and against everything they had ever been taught.
Also, America may have different cultural rules than KSA, but a female Saudi student at the UW said that word of everything women do in school gets back home. In America, we ask them to do what is done in America. In Saudi Arabia, they may suffer the consequences for doing what is unconscionable at home.
I strongly suggest that teachers not impose a “one size fits all” policy on selecting who works with whom. If a Saudi woman doesn’t mind working with a man, that’s her choice. But saying that a Saudi woman must work one-on-one with a male classmate can be like forcing her to choose between her education and her future.
Issue #3Another gender issue that has come up is more of a question – Why are the Saudi women here since their opportunities for work are limited in their home country? Many of the women are wives of the male students.
This is a valid question. Many fields are not open to women. Only in the time I’ve been here have many cashier positions opened up. (There were a few when I arrived; there are many more now.) Some women work on the “family only” checkout lines, which really means “women only.” Other female cashiers actually interact (as minimally as possible) with men all day, accepting their credit cards and handing them receipts. All cashiers on both types of line wear the abaya, niqab, and hijab. It is hard to see their eyes in most cases. Women may work in some stores, such as the Body Shop, that are “family only.”
I can’t walk into just any bank, but have to go to a “Ladies” branch, staffed by women, for women only. I don’t know how high up in the banking world women’s positions go. Saudi women may be designers, interior decorators, doctors (I’m not sure if they can be all kinds of doctors), dentists, and a few other things. I believe the study of law was only recently opened to women. I have one student who wants to become a lawyer, but has chosen an area of law where she can work with a team. People don’t want a female lawyer, she said, because they believe women are weak. Many fields, such as engineering, are not open to women.
Some of my students here are unmotivated. They are 18 years old, and delighted to spend the school day with their friends. English is a required subject which they see as being of limited use to them. When frustrated with theunmotivated students, some of my colleagues say, “Well, why should they care about their education? They’re just going to get married and have babies anyway.” (My students all insist that they will get jobs. They also all expect to be wives and mothers.)
Most of the women who come to the USA expressly to study are serious, motivated students who deserve enormous respect. (A few may be taking a sort of vacation abroad and expect the same casual attitude toward learning from their teachers in the USA that they may have experienced in preparatory programs at home.)
I think the wives also deserve to have their studies taken seriously by tutors. Education is all about training and broadening the mind. Wives don’t have to study. They are choosing to. Some may have wanted to pursue a good education and have been lucky enough to get it because their husbands are in the USA. (I know of at least one case at the UW where the wife was on scholarship and the husband was able to study because of her.) Others may be doing it so as not to be bored at home. Staying at home is the default for women here. The fact that they choose to leave the apartment and study is no small thing.
(My program, which was abruptly moved from the old campus to the new one, is being temporarily housed in The Faculty of Kindergarten. I am guessing it’s what we would call Early Childhood Education.) This may be because those NSCC Saudi students love kids and value nurturing them. (A woman’s role as wife and mother is HIGHLY valued here; caring about and for kids is nothing to sneeze at.) It may be because they don’t have career ambitions but feel pressured to name their career ambition while they are in the USA, so they choose something conceivable and respectable. (I have never knowingly seen a child care center here. Don’t they appear when it’s common for both parents to work? )
When I have been frustrated with those of my students here who don’t work hard, some colleagues have said to me, “This is a beginning. It may not be the norm among our students that they take their education as seriously as we would wish. But these women have now been to school, and they are more likely to send their daughters to school. By then, academic standards may be higher. Don’t look for results now. You are planting a seed. The kind of results you would like to see may come about in a few generations.”
Issue #4 A Saudi student told of a bad experience at a school in Tennessee where he faced a lot of racism –some students are coming here having already had negative experiences at American colleges
Yes! I have heard this from a number of Saudis who studied in the South, not about the dialect, but about the racism against Saudis. We see ourselves as educators of international students. We Americans who consider ourselves well-educated citizens of the world also need to keep an eye on our own potential ignorance.
So, in sum, I think the primary issues that need to be addressed are the aftermath of the Boston bombing and gender issues – and I think these issues should be openly addressed among both our staff and among the student populations.
I think the Boston bombing is opening 911 issues that never really went away. (And 911 was a horrible event that did not happen in a vacuum, but in a larger political and historical context that not all Americans know well.) People in America have a chance to get to know real Saudis, not the media image. In my experience, the Saudis who come to the USA are among the smartest and most open-minded. Studying abroad affects Saudis tremendously. When I try to defend Saudis to racist expats here (including those from the Middle East), they say that what I respect and admire typifies Saudis who have studied abroad. We have a wonderful opportunity here for a future of mutual peace and respect. Let’s make the most of it.