Power Imposed by Cultural Differences

The last school I worked at was in Alexandria, VA. I do not wish to name the school as any search engines may see the name and add me to a watch list - yes I am a bit paranoid. Let just say it was a private school sponsored by a foreign country. At the time, the school was only five years old and was going through accreditation with the State of Virginia. We had a boys' school and a girls' school - both in the same building but physically separated by fire doors. Their cultural limitations imposed strict regulations about male and female students having no contact after second grade.  This rule was so strictly followed that boys and girls were sent home on separate buses, even if they were siblings. These two schools were regulated by an area called the Central Office, which I compare to the superintendent's office in the public school system. 

The 'superintendent' was appointed by the foreign country's Ambassador to the United States. There was no election for board members - it did not exist. There was no PTA - there would be no input from parents and no money to raise. This was a government sponsored school and the tuition paid was to cover any expenses. The power dynamics were the superintendent was in charge of both schools. Each school had a principal, a vice-principal, a secretary and teachers. The powers they had were explicitly given to them by the Central Office and spelled out in a 'teachers' handbook' given to all those employed there.

Woman employees were required to wear ankle length dresses and long sleeves. Your head and hands were pretty much all that was allowed to be exposed. You had to wear school issued identification at all times. If you forgot it, the guards would not let you on the property. The guards were not there to deter student crime - they were there to protect the students and faculty from outsiders, threats of violence and kidnapping. The worst problem from a student might be chewing gum in class, as these kids were still afraid of punishment from their parents. Again, the cultural was at play.

Every employee in the Central Office was a man, except for one secretary - this was the only role in that area befitting a woman in their eyes. In this culture, generally men are in charge and woman must do as told. I  remember one time when I went to the Central Office to get my pay check, there was a man walking the opposite direction. There were two women behind the man - it was culturally unacceptable for a woman to pass a man. I, on the other hand, was in a hurry and swept right past anyone, including the men, to get there and back and leave for the day before the DC area traffic became too unbearable.

Among the woman in the girls' school, things were a little different. There were only female teachers, and we all seemed to get along well. However, there was no formal mentoring or coaching. The implicit power seemed to be those there the longest were looked at as the 'go to' person if you had a question. Most of the female teachers were American with husband in the military and with the school only being five years old, there was no one with a long term commitment. I had scheduled classes that came to my room for computer lessons, but I had a fair amount of open time. I had to turn my lesson plans for the following week into the vice-principal for review to verify they were acceptable.

With my open periods, I was allowed a certain amount of freedom for scheduling other things. Since I'm an Achiever Theme, I like to keep busy. I used my extra periods to bring classes in for additional instruction. Most of the extra time was used for ESL students to expose them to phonetics programs. My rule was that the teacher had to attend with the class and someone that spoke the language had to be present. This also gave me a chance to get to know the teachers and bond with them. I guess at some level I had a certain amount of implicit power too, because I decided who got to come.

I also worked with another teacher who was working on her Master's Degree. We were working on creating a phonetic program for their language, which had more letters than our standard 26. She did the mock-ups and I did the computer graphics. It was great to get to know someone from another culture and bond on a professional level. We were not that different.

I am positive there was no way for me to influence the administration, regulations, or curriculum imposed by the Central Office at this school due to the culture and control by a foreign country. I do like to think that I might have influenced just one girl in this school to continue her education and perhaps be able to make a difference in their country. After this experience, I thank God each day that I was born in here in the United States of America.