Ejecución de la Implementación de los Procedimientos Normalizados de Trabajo

Previous research in this school has shown that most teachers cannot totally escape from their national points of view when teaching (Savvides 2006a:121), and this has emerged in my research too. Therefore, most foreign teachers find themselves having to move towards the British element not just linguistically but professionally, using it as a common frame of reference with other teachers in order to communicate, succeed and avoid misunderstandings or conflicts.

Conflicts and misunderstandings may be created due to the differing expectations teachers of different cultures have of each other or of the host culture which mean that exhibited behaviours are misinterpreted by others. Teachers may interpret events from their ethnocentric perspectives, judge others by inappropriate standards, and make faulty attributions with regard to their meaning and intentions.

Foreign teachers, therefore, find themselves trying to change their way of thinking or looking at things, or even teaching (when they teach in culturally mixed classrooms or in another language); however, they find it hard to accomplish as their national

beliefs are deeply rooted inside them regarding most aspects of school life.

Foreign teachers seem to go through a ‘honeymoon’ period at the beginning of their stay overseas, which may extend over a period of several months. Following this stage, there can be various other stages of disillusionment, where teachers start to realise that things are very different from home. At this point, they might start becoming critical of the host country and culture or other cultures in the school, or carry strong feelings towards other nationalities. Foreign teachers perceive the environment in which they are working as an ‘alien’ cultural environment, in which lack of similarity to their national systems may lead to ‘communication breakdowns and loss of effectiveness’, apart from its effects on the individuals (Hofstede 1984:277).

According to Hulmes (1989), host teachers (British in my case) need to approach the traditions and beliefs of different others with respect, because:

Without some initiative, without some first step, showing a willingness to understand what it feels like to belong to another community, it is doubtful that members of that other community will be disposed to reciprocate, especially if they belong to a minority group.

(p. 149) Otherwise, foreign teachers who feel their views are not approached with respect will often see themselves treated as inferiors and there will be a suppressed ‘resentment’ emerging through different attitudes; frustrations with the host culture will consequently be interpreted by intercultural receivers as ‘hostility’ toward them (Jandt 2007:292), which may eventually affect the atmosphere in the staffroom or in the school.

meetings and other activities which require teamwork. And if there is a feeling of powerlessness on behalf of the management to handle conflict or manage cultural differences, there will be a level of disappointment for staff, which leads to assumptions of not really belonging in the community, despite their faithful and committed service to the school. Moreover, the challenges of ‘mismanaging cultural differences’, it has been argued, ‘can render otherwise successful managers and organizations ineffective and frustrated when working across cultures’ (Pheng and Yuquan 2002:7).

Among the circumstances which cause enormous frustration to foreign teachers is their lack of English language competency and inability to express themselves as professionals, properly, in a European working environment, as it is theoretically considered to be. Language seems to be the most apparent of behavioural differences, and respect for cultural differences in behaviour always comes before respect for cultural differences in values (Bennett 1993:48) in intercultural encounters.

6.3.2.1 English language competency

Because the Dombey School model of education is considered to be ‘the most ambitious attempt at intercultural education in Europe’ (Noordehaven and Halman 2003:68), it is worth highlighting the importance of mother tongue compared to the importance of English in international education. The school values the contribution of all teachers – not just language teachers – in multilingual education, because teachers not only promote pupils’ language development, but can also contribute significantly to developing their mother language with the support of the system.

gives it a feeling of a typical International School, where English is the language most commonly used, except for certain lessons that take place in another language, or informal interactions among some members of staff. This realisation might be confusing or unexpected for most of the teachers, the foreign ones in particular, who wonder about the importance or practicality of their native language use, outside the classroom, in a school where English seems to be so significant.

Although there is no assumption that one national culture will dominate in the school, the fact that English is the prevailing working language, and British the prevailing numerical culture, gives the implicit and unintentional message that the British cultural and linguistic aspects are very significant, causing attitudes of superiority and linguistic chauvinism in a social environment where several national cultures are formally represented. British teachers’ verbal dominance in Dombey School may have placed them in a position of authority that allowed them to assume a dominant role and may have originated from a range of other factors such as cultural differences (5.2.1).

Because multiple language competency in Dombey School is meant to promote interactional skills and enhance teachers’ ability to participate in multilingual interactions, there is a genuine attempt on the part of foreign teachers to engage with other languages. Lack of English language competency, however, makes it hard for foreign teachers to contribute a unique point of view to formal discussions and makes it easier for British teachers to make a successful case for the implementation of new, even radical, ideas.

What makes teachers’ communication even more challenging is the fact that what represents a ‘message’ in one language does not necessarily ‘survive’ as a message

in the other language (Hofstede 1986:316); therefore, although there is a common language in the school, Dombey School teachers tend to resort to exchanges in linguistic ghettoes in order to facilitate clarity of communication and avoid misunderstandings.

A similar challenge for students has been investigated in previous research on students’ limited language and communication skills (Hartas 2005), exploring their frustration in their interactions with others, frequently resulting in inappropriate behaviour (p. 64). Cultural and communication difficulties, such as lack of confidence and poor language skills, in Dombey School constitute a primary limitation on the articulation of questions and answers in a public discussion for foreign teachers, and this does not seem to be understood or appreciated in the school or the system; for students, language and communication skills required to overcome emotional and behavioural difficulties have been identified (ibid. p. 72), whereas the language needs of teachers have been neglected.

In addition, because English is the prevailing language in Dombey School, a tendency to use other languages by British teachers is devalued, further reinforcing distance and chauvinistic attitudes. Moreover, lack of interest or effort on behalf of foreign teachers to learn properly the working language of the school ‘is usually attributed to disinterest or condescension toward the host culture’, which points to the need ‘to integrate language training with culture learning’ (Brislin and Yoshida 1994:48).