PRINCIPIOS DE CONTABILIDAD INTEGRADA

The  second  tension  relates  to  SATs  ongoing  difficulties  with  lack  of  engagement  by  their   own  students,  and  a  desire  to  find  ways  to  address  this.  They  repeatedly  use  the  term  ‘boredom’   to  describe  the  experience  of  their  students,  particularly  during  their  lectures.  The  word  boredom   was  inferred  to  mean  a  lack  of  student  engagement,  a  condition  which  the  SATs  would  like  to   allieviate.  Boredom  issues  are  often  repressed  anger,  born  of  frustration  and  a  lack  of  being   unable  to  control  one’s  own  circumstances,  which  in  turn  leads  to  stress.  Not  unsurprisingly,  given   the  low  priority  and  mixed  attitudes  towards  learning  about  Adult  Education  while  in  New  

Zealand,  these  teachers  themselves  felt  bored  and  disengaged  from  the  course  of  study  to  which   they  were  assigned  by  external  stakeholders.  They  say  they  found  parts  of  the  Adult  Education   segment  of  the  ISTE  “boring”,  echoing  the  sentiments  of  their  own  students.  Such  a  sentiment   would  create  tension  as  well  for  the  NZT,  as  for  any  teacher  whose  students  appear  to  be,  and/or   report  being  bored.    

The  role  of  the  teacher  in  student  engagement  (or  lack  thereof)  intersects  with  what  the   participants  describe  as  ‘student  behaviour’.  The  way  the  teacher  engages  with  their  learners   helps  set  the  tone  for  the  ensuing  learning  experiences.  By  the  nature  of  the  imbalance  of  power   between  the  learner  and  the  teacher,  who  is  usually  also  the  learner’s  assessor,  the  relationship  is   at  once  complex  and  demanding  for  any  teacher.  The  difficult  dance  of  nurturing  a  desire  to  learn,   providing  instruction,  and  indicating  the  behaviours  expected  of  expert  learners  in  the  particular   educational  context,  superimposed  with  varied  cultural  expectations  and  behaviours,  is  not  one   mastered  easily.  The  added  dimension  of  whether  or  not  the  student  is  an  adult  or  a  younger   person  can  create  further  tension  in  supporting  learners.  Overlaid  with  these  issues  can  be   differing  cultural  views  of  the  roles  of  the  teacher,  and  these  compound  the  tensions  for  both  the   learner  and  the  teacher.  

The  roles  of  the  teacher  in  the  Saudi  Arabian  context  are  decidedly  different  to  that  in   Aotearoa  New  Zealand.  The  teaching  roles  echo  Arab  religious,  cultural  and  educational   traditions,  which  vary  significantly  from  a  modern  Western  worldview.  Based  on  their  prior   experience  as  students,  SATs  are  likely  to  see  the  teacher  as  the  expert  who  tells  them  what  they  

are  required  to  know.  The  heart  of  the  Arab  teaching  approach  is  that  the  teacher  is  the  fount  of   knowledge  who  imparts  received  wisdom  to  students,  who  should  not  question  their  superiors.   As  one  participant  stated,  “the  teaching  standard  in  Saudi  Arabia  and  Arab  countries  [is]  the   teacher  says,  and  the  students  just  do.  As  being  said  in  English  –  ‘spoonfeeding’”.  Or  in  the  words   of  this  research  study’s  translator,  “basically  the  New  Zealand  student  knows  how  to  do  his  own   research;  the  Arabic  student  they  make  him  memorize  everything  so  will  be  problem  at  the  end”   (personal  communication  11  August  2009).  This  kind  of  rote  learning  without  understanding  is   “too  often  practised  in  Islam  and  across  Asia  …  [although]  there  is  no  consistent  support  for  rote   learning”  (Feng  et  al.,  2009,  p.  162).  

Culture  shock  may  provide  one  of  explanation  for  the  visiting  SATs  description  of   themselves  as  being  bored  during  the  Adult  Education  segment  of  their  ISTE.  While  being   immersed  in  the  foreign  life  of  Christchurch  each  individual’s  experience  would  be  different,   possibly  including  some  aspects  of  the  U-­‐curve  continuum  from  culture  surprise,  to  culture  stress,   to  irritation  and  culture  fatigue  caused  by  stimulus  overload,  followed  by  culture  shock  (Lysgaard,   1955).  Boredom  may  be  present  in  any  of  these  stages,  and  could  be  one  of  many  factors  

affecting  their  well-­‐being  and  attitude  to  ISTE.    

Adult  learners  are  often  more  focused  on  achieving  their  learning  goals  than  younger   students.  Time  is  a  more  precious  commodity  to  an  adult  learner.  They  bring  with  them  more  life   experience  and  prior  knowledge,  which  can  be  used  to  support  the  creating  of  new  knowledge   and  making  meaning  of  the  content  related  to  a  topic.  These  realities  offer  an  opportunity  for   exposing  SATs  to  new  ways  to  manage  the  learning  environment,  and  overcoming  some  of  the   boredom  issues  that  learners  experience.  Good  practices  for  responding  to  student  behaviours   that  are  not  conducive  to  learning,  and  ways  to  address  lack  of  student  engagement,  are  often   discovered  through  the  modelling  by  the  NZT.  However,  if  the  SAT  is  not  well  disposed  to  the   advanced  knowledge  and  experience  of  the  NZT  and/or  cannot  make  sense  of  their  teaching   approaches,  this  may  thwart  the  possibilities  of  improving  their  own  practice  and  create  tension   and  perhaps  boredom.  The  learner  –  in  this  case  each  adult  SAT  -­‐  needs  to  be  open  to  fresh   teaching  approaches,  and  also  able  to  embrace  what  can  appear  to  be  alien  notions.    

Cultural  differences  lead  to  very  different  views  on  the  way  the  learner/teacher   relationship  is  played  out.  In  this  case  study  the  NZT  had  very  little  prior  knowledge  of  the  Arab   view  of  the  roles  of  the  teacher,  which  are  notably  dissimilar  to  a  Western  one.  The  SATs,  who   may  have  only  experienced  educational  life  in  all-­‐male  Arab  settings,  hail  from  ten  different  all-­‐ male  technical  institutes  in  which  they  face  often  reluctant  Saudi  Arabian  students,  who  must  

attend  lectures  and  may  only  leave  school  when  parental  permission  is  granted.  Inevitably  the   interpretation  on  how  best  to  respond  to  disengaged  student  behaviour  and  boredom  issues  will   be  worlds  apart  for  a  NZT  who  models  a  teaching  approach  which  seeks  to  consult  and  engage   with  learners.  The  NZT  would  challenge  previous  views  of  the  roles  of  the  teacher.  It  would  open   up  in  the  minds  of  the  SATs  another  way  to  relate  to  their  students  used  to  rote  learning  

approaches.  This  may  be  welcomed  by  an  Arab  SAT  or  create  tension.  Either  way,  experiencing  a   different  model  of  the  roles  of  the  teacher  would  create  in  the  SATs  a  dilemma  about  whether  or   not  to  embrace  new  teaching  approaches,  particularly  when  they  return  to  their  home  country.  

The  picture  of  the  teacher’s  roles  in  the  Middle  Eastern  context  is  complex.  “The  three   main  methods  of  socialisation  in  Arab  society  are  verbal  methods,  punishment  and  very  little   room  for  experimentation”  (Walker,  2004,  p.  436).  These  methods  live  alongside  and  are  

intertwined  with  cultural  and  religious  influences.  An  Islamic  worldview  sees  aims  and  objectives   of  education  in  the  context  of  the  relationship  between  God,  Man  and  Nature,  as  described  and   unanimously  accepted  by  Muslim  scholars  at  the  First  World  Conference  on  Muslim  Education   held  in  Makkah  in  1977:    

Education  should  aim  at  the  balanced  growth  of  the  total  personality  of  Man  through  the  training   of  Man’s  spirit,  his  intellect,  the  rational  self,  feelings  and  bodily  senses.  Education  should  

therefore  cater  for  the  growth  of  man  in  all  its  aspects,  spiritual,  intellectual,  imaginative,  physical,   scientific,  linguistic,  both  individually  and  collectively,  and  motivate  all  these  aspects  towards   goodness  and  the  attainment  of  perfection  (Ashraf,  1985,  p.  26).  

The  complexity  of  Islamic  and  Arab  worldviews  of  the  teacher/learner  relationship  are  a   challenge  for  an  NZT  with  a  very  different  view  of  education.  Many  Western  educational  

approaches  are  likely  to  be  alien  to  those  raised  in  a  Middle  Eastern  educational  context  that   favours  a  more  deductive  approach.  A  Western  approach  to  learning  involves  asking  students  to   think  and  express  themselves  independently  of  the  teacher  and  promotes  meta-­‐cognitive  skills   and  social  constructivist  approaches  (such  as  small  group  co-­‐operative  learning  and  social   constructivist  theory).  This  poses  a  challenge  to  those  immersed  in  a  culture  that  accepts  a   different  power  distance,  which  Hofstede  describes  as  “the  extent  to  which  the  less  powerful   members  of  organisations  and  institutions  accept  and  expect  that  power  is  distributed  unevenly”   (Hofstede,  2001,  p.  xix-­‐xx).  Smith  discovered  when  teaching  staff  in  the  UAE  that  “the  influence  of   power  distance  can  affect  interactions  within  a  group,  especially  small-­‐group  activities”  (2007,  p.   168).  Some  participants  may  feel  uncomfortable  talking  openly  with  someone  they  deem  to  be   higher  or  lower  in  the  institutional  hierarchy  than  themselves  (L.  Smith,  2007,  p.  168).  If  the  NZT   were  to  consult  students  about  their  learning  preferences  and  using  small  group  teaching   approaches  to  learning,  then  this  may  be  seen  as  an  affront  to  power  distance  perceptions  and  

may  reinforce  tensions  for  Arab  SATs.  However,  despite  the  dilemma  they  may  pose  for  

international  students,  Western  approaches  to  the  roles  of  the  teacher  offer  an  opportunity  for   the  ISTE  to  discuss  the  value  of  teaching  activities  that  may  lead  to  reduced  boredom  issues  and   greater  student  engagement.