Overview
A group of four students, two from Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and Kozminski University in Warsaw Poland conducted an interview with a female Palestinian English teacher at an international school in Brazil. The interview was investigating the impact of culture in Brazil within the educational setting. The teacher is Palestinian, however lives in Brazil – a country with a high level of Power Distance and a low level of Individualism.
The questions asked during the interview were aimed at establishing how students and teachers deal with different cultures in an environment that is multicultural. From the start of the interview, it was clear that the Palestinian culture that the teacher grew up in, had a significant impact in how she handles situations in an educational environment.
Within the international school a situation occurred during English class where a native Brazilian student was asked what kind of book he had read recently. The Brazilian student responded that he had read the book “The Princess, The Saudi Princess”, a book based on a true story about the life of a Saudi princess that faced bad experiences in her home country. The Brazilian student did not like the book and added a very negative (cultural misappropriation) statement that “those” people are crazy for doing bad things to the princess in the book. The teacher was confused, because in Brazilian culture it is very prohibitive to openly judge a specific group of people. Brazil scores low in Individualism and identifies itself as a Collectivist culture. Further, Brazilians tend to view everyone who isn’t born in Brazil to be an outsider. In terms of classroom etiquette, it is inhibitive for students in Brazil to not give an answer when being spoken to by the teacher. It is also prohibitive to speak up to someone who has a higher role, as in Brazilian culture the role that you take impacts how people talk to you to a certain level, this is also reflected in the high Power Distance that Brazilian culture has scoring a 69 in this dimension of Hofstede’s cultural framework.
The teacher identified that the motivation behind the student statement came from his view on religion and associating that with violent behaviour, while not knowing any Muslims in his personal environment.
The teacher diplomatically guided the student into reflection and asked about his remarks related to Muslim faith. She then shared that she is a Muslim. At that specific moment the student apologized. The conversation ended with an open statement to all students in the class: “Get to know people first before having an opinion about the group they belong in, especially when it is about religion”. The teacher highlighted that in Brazilian education involves many misunderstandings where religion plays a big role in portraying someone’s identity. Religion is therefore very important to keep in mind in education, especially in a multi-cultural environment of many different cultures that are in Brazil.
Outcome
Power distance
During the interview the Dutch students directly asked the teacher how she deals with her superior, while the Polish student thought it was not respectful to asked such a direct question. It was inhibitive in this case to ask a person who is older than you such a direct question in Poland. The teacher did not mind and mentioned that the head of the international school is in fact a woman and her business partner is also a woman. Many of the employees in the international school are female, however outside of a Brazilian education environment men are represented more in professional roles. Being a woman does not make much of a difference when communicating to superiors in an educational setting. It is much more the role that you have that impacts how you communicate in Brazil which explains the high number in Power Distance.
Gender
The teacher’s cultural identity is Palestinian which is a Masculine society. In Palestine it is the social norm for men to have higher management roles. It is also seen as more prohibitive for women to be in a senior position. From a women perspective it is seen as more inhibitive to be working after getting married as making money is seen to be more of a responsibility for men in Palestinian society, however this is slowly changing in these modern times.
Identity
When comparing Palestinian culture together with Brazilian culture, collectivism is seen more in the form of family first in Palestinian culture according to the teacher. It is normal that parents are taken care of their children once they grow up. In fact, in Palestinian culture it is seen as highly prohibitive to not take care of your parents when you could do so. Compared to Brazilian culture, it is seen to be more individualistic. In Brazil people do not feel like being restricted and building relationships is not a priority.
Rules & Values
Within the International School environment, it is always important to follow the rules, especially in a setting where education is important to learn what the rules are.
Best Practice (within the team)
It is important to prepare question that makes the interviewee more comfortable. When an interviewee comes from a different culture(Palestine) than in the culture he/she currently lives in(Brazil), there might be some misunderstandings in the way the students asked questions on what Brazilian culture actually is than how the interviewee experiences Brazilian culture. Two different approaches, but during the interview the teacher highlighted a lot of facts instead of giving information based on feeling. The importance of Direct Communication (bottom of the iceberg model) is shared by both Polish and Dutch culture, however, the context the way how communication is received (tip of the iceberg model) is differently by the team – the students from Poland (more high context) did not see an issue in comparison with the students from the Netherlands (more low context).
Best Practice (within the international school)
An international school deals with education and many cultures. Avoiding any cultural problems among students when interacting with subjects regarding culture for example religion is important, especially educating students in how to deal with sensitive subjects like religion. According to the teacher, understanding culture is very important and there should be more time put into schools, especially international schools, to pay more attention in the importance of cultural values. It is therefore necessary in an educational setting to offer a class where students can learn about each other cultures.
Student Authors:
Maria Potocka; Kozminski University, Block 2, Semester, 2021 http://linkedin.com/in/maria-potocka-808b07196
Mandy Man: AUAS Block 2, Semester 1, 2021 https://www.linkedin.com/mwlite/in/mandy-man-74768614b
Rockey Ishaaq: AUAS Block 2, Semester 1, 2021 https://www.linkedin.com/in/rockey-m
Łukasz Tomaszewski: Kozminski University, Block 2, Semester 1, https://www.linkedin.com/in/%C5%82ukasz-tomaszewski-a4a834173/