The Road to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy THE ROAD TO CULTURALLY RELEVANT PEDAGOGY: EXPATRIATE TEACHERS’ PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES IN THE CULTURAL CONTEXT OF SAUDI ARABIAN HIGHER EDUCATION AMANI K HAMDAN University of Dammam, Saudi Arabia ABSTRACT. This case study explored the need for culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) in Saudi Arabian higher education, especially when students have a cultural background that differs from that of their instructor. The study documented how expatriate teachers structured their pedagogical practices in the Saudi Arabian context. It examined how these university teachers attempted to proactively accommodate students’ needs, prior experiences and performance, and how they promoted academic progress while teaching in a different culture. Six themes were revealed: (1) the challenges of constructivism in the Saudi Arabian context; (2) linking pedagogy to the lives of Saudi students; (3) alternating and adjusting teaching to address student needs; (4) connecting with students’; (5) discrepancies in teachers’ beliefs; and (6) teachers’ assumptions and expectations about knowledge. It is argued that CRP offers opportunities for better learning experiences for Saudi students. Through CRP, learning can be made more meaningful and can help in the development of a positive student identity. Some pedagogical strategies are offered to help teachers implement CRP. VERS UNE PÉDAGOGIE CULTURELLEMENT ADAPTÉE : LES PRATIQUES PÉDAGOGIQUES D’ENSEIGNANTS EXPATRIÉS ET À L’ENSEIGNEMENT SUPÉRIEUR DANS LE CONTEXTE CULTUREL DE L’ARABIE SAOUDITE RÉSUMÉ. Cet article examine les besoins en termes de pédagogie culturellement adaptée au niveau de l’enseignement supérieur en Arabie Saoudite et cible particulièrement les étudiants possédant un profil culturel différent de celui de leur enseignant. Cette étude présente comment les enseignants expatriés déploient leurs pratiques pédagogiques en Arabie Saoudite. Celle-ci analyse de quelle manière proactive les enseignants essaient d’accommoder les besoins, les expériences et les réalisations préalables des étudiants et comment ils encouragent les progrès scolaires tout en enseignant dans une culture différente. Six thèmes sont explorés: (1) relever les défis du constructivisme dans le contexte de l’Arabie Saoudite; (2) arrimer la pédagogie au vécu des étudiants saoudiens; (3) effectuer une alternance ou un ajustement de l’enseignement pour rencontrer les besoins des étudiants; (4) établir des liens avec les étudiants; (5) les divergences entre les croyances des enseignants et (6) les hypothèses et attentes des enseignants relativement au savoir. Dans cet article, l’auteur avance que la pédagogie culturellement adaptée offre de meilleures opportunités d’apprentissages aux McGILL JOURNAL OF EDUCATION • VOL. 49 NO 1 WINTER 2014 201 Amani K Hamdan étudiants saoudiens. Grâce à la pédagogie culturellement adaptée, l’apprentissage peut devenir plus pertinent et faciliter le développement d’une identité culturelle positive chez l’étudiant. Quelques pistes pédagogiques sont présentées pour aider les enseignants à utiliser ce type de pédagogie. T he circulation of teachers around the globe, the internationalization of programs, and the growth in opportunities for students and teachers who are willing to travel abroad to learn and teach raise important questions about culture and pedagogy. This study focused on the perspectives of university teachers working outside of their native culture and on how the associated cultural differences affected their pedagogical choices and the learning of their students. The main question of this study is as follows: How do diverse teacher populations engage in culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) in Saudi Arabian higher education? The participants in this study have taught or are currently teaching in a culture that differs from their own. Saudi Arabia is moving toward a revitalized vision based on a knowledge-based economy — which emphasizes human intelligence — and away from a resource- based economy — which emphasizes oil. This transition is increasing the demands on the higher education sector. Saudi Arabian graduates need to be prepared to address unforeseen problems in a knowledge-based economy with unique, creative solutions rather than with traditional solutions premised on the old resource-extraction perspective. The article first provides an overview of the Saudi Arabian context, followed by a discussion of the culture of learning in Saudi Arabia and of how this culture plays out in higher education. This article focuses on the non-Saudi expatriate faculty in private higher-education institutions and on their use of CRP. The following section explains CRP and the framework for teaching from it in order to explore the Saudi context for foreign teachers and native students. The possibilities and challenges associated with CRP are revealed through a case study, and recommendations are offered for the successful implementation of CRP in the Saudi Arabian context. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT The Saudi Arabian context: Demographics, culture, and education The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is a historic geographical area in the Middle East that extends over 2,250 million km2, making it the second largest country by area in the Arab world and the largest in the region. Saudi Arabia has the world’s largest oil reserves and one of its highest birth rates. It is sparsely populated, with most of its population of 27 million (including 8 million non-native guest workers or labourers comprising 33% of the 202 REVUE DES SCIENCES DE L’ÉDUCATION DE McGILL • VOL. 49 NO 1 HIVER 2014 The Road to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy population) being concentrated in large cities (Al-Seghayer, 2011). Almost all native Saudis1 are Muslim, and nearly 98% are Arab (Central Department of Statistics and Information, 2010). They are bound together by a high degree of cultural homogeneity as reflected in their common mother tongue (Arabic), strong family tribal relationships, and adherence to Islam (Al-Seghayer, 2011). In Islam, education is highly regarded for both males and females. Public education became mandatory from ages 6 to 15 starting in the 1960s. The public schools were open to all students. Schools are segregated by gender, with males and females attending separate schools from Grade 1. Public universities for men and women are found in most major (and in some small) cities, with universities offering specializations in arts, humanities, sciences, and professional programs. The KSA government aims to provide free education to all (AlMunajjed, 2009). The National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment (NCAAA), established in 2006, is responsible for the accreditation of higher-education institutions beyond the secondary level, with the exception of military education. The NCAAA seeks to upgrade the quality of private and public higher education to ensure clarity and transparency, and to provide codified standards for academic performance (Ministry of Higher Education, 2011a, 2012). Due to the increasing birth rate in Saudi Arabia and the influx of expatriates and their families, the number of high-school graduates has exceeded the admission capacity of public universities. The capacity limitations of public universities have encouraged exceptional growth in the number of private institutions. There are now eight private universities and more than 15 private colleges and other higher-education institutions for every million people (Ministry of Higher Education, 2011b). These institutions are not free, but high-school students with a GPA of 3.75 or above are eligible for government scholarships. Many private and a few public universities aspire to offer courses strictly in English, and this is resulting in high demand for native English teachers to teach English courses and specific subjects in English (e.g., business, computer sciences, and engineering). Many higher-education institutions believe that there is greater prestige associated with hiring native English speakers to teach such courses. This overall increase in demand for these teachers has in turn led to an influx of expatriate teachers from Australia, Canada, the US, the UK, and South Africa. Consequently, there are more faculty members who do not share their students’ culture (i.e., religion and language) than those who do (AlKhazim, personal communication, January, 31, 2012). The demand for high-quality, English-speaking teachers and the need to internationalize the curriculum have been partially addressed by offering scholarships to Saudi students for studies in English-speaking countries. These scholarships are offered with the expectation that the individuals will return with international ideas that will help achieve the national educational goals and make progress towards building a knowledge-based economy. McGILL JOURNAL OF EDUCATION • VOL. 49 NO 1 WINTER 2014 203 Amani K Hamdan The culture of learning in Saudi Arabia In general, the Saudi education system manifests many aspects of the banking system of education (see Freire, 1970). Rather than engaging in dialogue with students, professors tend to impose information that may be irrelevant to students’ lives and experiences. Saudi commentators have noted that the current education system is based on the transmission of uncontested knowledge from professors to students, depends heavily on rote learning, and generally fails to impart critical — and analytical — thinking skills (Al Lily, 2011; AlHashr, 2007; AlKhazim, 2003; AlMezani, 2010; AlQhatani, 2006; Al-Seghayer, 2011). This pedagogical approach entails two major issues that contribute to the passivity of learners, an issue that must be addressed if Saudi citizens are to critically engage in creating a knowledge-based economy: • Students’ overdependence and overreliance on authority — the teacher in this case — to solve problems and provide ready answers; and • The instilling in students the inability to question the teacher’s answers. Critical thinking — that is, reflective and independent thinking based on problem solving to determine what to believe or do — is discouraged in schools. Saudi students learn from a very young age that all knowledge is fixed as “truth [constitutes] a static entity that is context and value free” (Ghosh & Abdi, 2004, p. 37). What is taught in school or university cannot be questioned, an assumption that runs contrary to the needs of a modern knowledge-based economy. Indeed, the modern university was founded “as the site of critique. As Fichte put it, the University exists not to teach information but to inculcate the exercise of critical judgment [emphasis added]” (Readings, 1996, p. 6). The author’s experiences of working in two private higher-education institutions in Saudi Arabia for 4 years have revealed that these universities have begun to implement programs that challenge the traditional educational status quo. Students are required to attend all classes and failure to comply results in a warning letter that they will be expelled from a course after missing four classes. They are also asked to participate in their learning, to argue, and to debate, in addition to giving attention to memorization and testing. However, both private and public universities have yet to develop fully as sites of critique. Those who promote progress and reform believe that higher education is lagging behind because it still follows an instrumental, teacher- focused pedagogy. They are motivated to improve higher education (access, achievement and global competitiveness), and to that end they advocate that critical thinking be embedded in every aspect of students’ programs. Such development is impeded by many administrators’ preference for maintaining the top-down status quo. Those who are striving to maintain the status quo are likely to judge a critical approach to teaching, program design or policies as inappropriate, thus jeopardizing those who are promoting progress or even a moderate revision of old ways and traditional thinking (AlMunajjed, 2009). This 204 REVUE DES SCIENCES DE L’ÉDUCATION DE McGILL • VOL. 49 NO 1 HIVER 2014 The Road to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy extends to the role of women in the new knowledge-based economy. Women generally have limited access to post-secondary education. Policies regarding access and opportunity are based on a strictly conservative interpretation of the Islamic faith and cultural practices that seeks to define the role of women. Improved equality of access and opportunity will help to expand the impact of universities in terms of building a knowledge-based economy. Many expatriate teachers in private universities have become reform-oriented leaders in higher education. While some critique these reforms as an empty gesture toward progress (AlKhazim, 2003), I believe that these efforts are likely to be the next best step toward modernizing higher education. Higher education in Saudi Arabia and the use of Western curricula and professors Saudi Arabia’s post-secondary institutions are aspiring toward international accreditation from agencies in North America and Europe that would allow more university graduates to gain acceptance in world-class universities (e.g., Columbia, Harvard, Oxford, etc.) for graduate studies and professional programs in business and medicine. The drive of the newly created private higher-education institutions toward national and international prominence clearly manifests itself in their importation of Western curricula and professors. Most, if not all, private institutions adopt curricula from the West with only a few adaptations. Many of these imported “packaged” curricula — which include textbooks and teacher resources — overlook the contexts, knowledge, skills and needs that students bring to university and that must form one of the foundations for post-secondary education in a knowledge-based economy. Private institutions have overlooked the suitability of textbooks, and to scrutinize the hiring of teachers to ensure that they are sensitive to the Saudi Arabian culture and have a willingness to accommodate the students’ cultures. Mohrman (2005) suggests that such imported curricula have made Saudi Arabian private higher education more “imitative than creative” (p. 23). Some educators counter this idea by claiming that such changes can beneficially widen students’ horizons (Courchene, 1997; Thanasoulas, 2001). Imported curricula are much less common in the public universities because curriculum committees are more likely to be chaired by and composed of Saudi faculty than expatriates. In these institutions, more care is invested into the selection of topics for students and into ensuring harmony with Saudi beliefs and values. As a result, the majority of textbooks and educational materials are culturally sensitive. The expansion of higher education has brought not only many academic programs based on Western models but also many academic staff who hold Western citizenship. McGILL JOURNAL OF EDUCATION • VOL. 49 NO 1 WINTER 2014 205 Amani K Hamdan Before the emergence of private higher-education institutions, about two-thirds of university faculty and staff were foreign. Expatriates currently hold 90% of the teaching and administrative positions in private universities. The most recent report by the Saudi Ministry of Higher Education indicates that 40.2% of the faculty members at public universities are from outside Saudi Arabia (Mazzawi, 2005; Onsman, 2010). These faculty are of Western nationality (Europe, US, Canada, and Australia), and many are originally from Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Palestine but are now citizens of a Western country. The influx and prominence of expatriate faculty raise the issue of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP); this poses a profound challenge to the goal of achieving a knowledge-based economy. Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) Culturally relevant pedagogy has been a part of important discourses in education for nearly two decades (Gutstein, 2007; Ladson-Billings, 1994). According to Klump and McNeir (2005), [CRP] recognizes, respects, and uses students’ identities and backgrounds as meaningful sources for creating optimal learning environments... being [culturally relevant] is more than being respectful, emphatic, or sensitive. Accompanying actions, such as having high expectations for students and ensuring that these expectations are realized, are what make a difference. (p. 11) CRP encompasses three teacher-student dimensions: social competence, academic success and critical consciousness (Ladson-Billings, 1995). Social competence is the ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures, which is a critical factor influencing the interpersonal dimension in effective multicultural learning environments (Moule, 2012). As Johnson (2011) emphasized, Academic success refers to teachers having high expectations for their students and learning is not at the expense of losing cultural identity.… Cultural competence is achieved through teachers helping students to develop positive ethnic and cultural identities.… Critical consciousness is the ability for students to identify, understand, and critique societal issues and inequities. (p. 172) Leonard, Brooks, Barnes-Johnson, and Berry (2010) contend that for “CRP to be effective it requires teachers to carefully reflect on, and attend to, and pedagogically plan for nuances and complexities inherent in concepts such as culture” (p. 261). Teachers who embrace CRP require a certain degree of cultural competence, flexibility, and adaptability (Castagno & Brayboy, 2008). Teachers must exhibit three broad characteristics of teacher-enacted CRP: “teacher conceptions of self and others, teacher-structured social relations, and teacher conception of knowledge” (Johnson, 2011, p. 171). In the Saudi context, this refers to expatriate teacher understanding of self, the social context s/he is in and how is content and pedagogical knowledge being acquired. In saying this, Johnson defines three approaches whereby CRP teachers reflect an in- 206 REVUE DES SCIENCES DE L’ÉDUCATION DE McGILL • VOL. 49 NO 1 HIVER 2014 The Road to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy depth appreciation of students’ self and cultural identity in their approach to teaching. Mastering cultural competencies requires teachers “to master complex awarenesses and sensitivities, various bodies of knowledge, and a set of skills that, taken together, underlie effective cross-cultural teaching” (Diller & Moule, 2005, p. 5). In this regard Johnson (2011) argues that Teachers who espouse CRP believe that all students are capable of success, see their pedagogy as evolving, believe that they are part of the larger community, see teaching as a way to give back to the community and believe that instruction includes the mining of knowledge... encourage students to learn collaboratively with responsibility for others.... Teachers who are committed to CRP believe that culture is not static; rather it is shared, recycled, and actively constructed by the learner. (p. 12) Castagno and Brayboy (2008) consider CRP to be “a promising strategy for improving the education and increasing the academic achievement of... students” (p. 941). The participants in the study are all expatriate university teachers (non-Saudi) immersed in the almost entirely homogenous cultural environment of all-male or all-female Saudi classrooms. THE PRESENT STUDY This study is based upon research relating to the role of the culture of teachers and students as well as to the context created between these cultures — that of the teachers and of the students. It attempts to document these cultural perceptions and to discuss both students’ and teachers’ perceptions and how to find mutual ground. The general absence of expatriate teachers’ voices in the higher-education and teacher-education literature led the author to use a theoretical framework developed by Johnson (2011). Johnson conducted a middle-school inquiry, focusing on culturally relevant science and on how teachers can navigate changes in pedagogy. My study is focused on expatriate teachers’ pedagogy and on the use of CRP in the Saudi Arabian context. METHODS Research questions The main question of this study is as follows: How do diverse professorial teacher populations engage in culturally relevant pedagogy in Saudi Arabian higher education? This question is embedded in contemporary views of inquiry teaching and constructivist learning. Moore (2003) has indicated that teaching through inquiry is placing the voices of the learners at the heart of curriculum design by considering how and what students need to learn, which is the core of constructivist learning theory, and this in turn means that students construct their own learning while building on existing knowledge and experiences. (p. 33) McGILL JOURNAL OF EDUCATION • VOL. 49 NO 1 WINTER 2014 207 Amani K Hamdan Teachers need to focus more on students’ learning than on classroom procedures, which entails serious consideration of students’ prior knowledge and their experiences, beliefs, values and aspirations. Such an approach requires insight into the students’ worlds and into the use of teaching strategies that access and engage information about and from students. This pedagogical approach helps to ensure cultural relevance. Setting This research took place between 2006 and 2011 while I was teaching at two private institutions of higher education in Saudi Arabia. There I met and worked with many expatriate, non-Saudi teachers. Given the current thrust of Saudi Arabia towards a knowledge-based economy, given the power of culturally relevant learning, and given the predominance of non-Saudi educators, my work in this university setting inspired an interest in researching the extent to which and the ways in which these teachers embraced CRP and any potential misalignment between cultural and educational traditions on the one hand and 21st century goals on the other hand. Research design The case study used interviews, classroom observations, and instructional artefacts to document and explore expatriate teachers’ pedagogies and the degree to which these were changed or modified as a result of teaching in the Saudi Arabian cultural context. The researcher employed various methods to document and explore possible answers to the research question, drawing on the triangulation of data sources. A qualitative approach was chosen to address the research question as this allows for an in-depth examination of situations in which complex questions are posed. An interpretive stance best fit with the aim of gaining a “comprehensive understanding” of these teachers’ use of CRP (Taleb, 2010, p. 292). Data collection While multiple methods of data collection were employed to produce a rich description of teachers’ conceptions and practices, the primary method involved semi-structured interviews using open-ended questions. The interview responses were supported by the researcher’s classroom observations, readings of teachers’ documents and the teachers’ self-reported practices, which were provided in the interviews. The 13 interview questions were designed to elicit information about the teachers’ experiences and pedagogical practices in different contexts—see Appendix I. A particular focus was placed on the relationship between the teachers’ perceptions of their students’ learning cultures (i.e., their ways and methods of learning) and their own implementation of associated CRP, as well as on the extent to which any changes in perception resulted in changes in practice. The teachers were asked to reconstruct their 208 REVUE DES SCIENCES DE L’ÉDUCATION DE McGILL • VOL. 49 NO 1 HIVER 2014 The Road to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy various teaching experiences and to situate them within the applicable cultural contexts, referring to their own experiences and how their pedagogical practices were changed or altered to fit the new context. The conversations focused on teaching methods and strategies, on any preconceptions that the teachers may have had regarding the Saudi Arabian culture, and on the teachers’ views regarding the status of education in Saudi Arabia. The validity of the interview questions was explored through consultation with a member of a prominent Faculty of Education in Saudi Arabia, a professor emerita whose research focus includes curriculum and instruction. She suggested some changes to the questions and asked in the Letter of Information and Informed Consent, which was required by the research ethics board, for clarifications on the meanings of CRP and culture. Following this, the questions were sent to Canada to two professors who confirmed that these were valid inquiries into CRP. These three peer validations strengthened the process and attested to the validity of the semi-structured interview protocol. The questions were then given to faculty members who were prospective participants to invite them to be part of the research project. Individuals who volunteered and signed the consent form were informed of the goals and nature of the study and, depending on their availability, were interviewed either face to face or by telephone for between 1 and 2 hours. They were asked probing and elaboration questions to clarify responses where necessary. Three participants whose teaching contracts had expired and therefore had returned to their home country before they could be interviewed were sent the questions by email. They returned their responses in written form through several emails; any unclear points were clarified through telephone conversations. The face-to-face and telephone interviews were audio recorded with the consent of the participants and were transcribed into written text, which were then analyzed for themes. Research participants Of 67 faculty members, 7 faculty members who had been teaching in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia between 2006 and 2012 volunteered as participants. They were willing to share their experiences and ideas about teaching in Saudi Arabia, to be observed in their classrooms, and to provide a curriculum vitae and instructional artefacts (course outlines, plans, assignments and other assessments). Complete datasets were obtained from all seven teachers. Two qualitative research professors at two institutions who were consulted about the number of participants supported the researcher’s decision to limit the case study to seven participants in similar contexts. The participants taught at two private institutions in an urban area. Their cultural backgrounds varied and were different from those of their students. Table 1 summarizes the pseudonyms given to the teachers, their highest degree, their gender, their nationality, their McGILL JOURNAL OF EDUCATION • VOL. 49 NO 1 WINTER 2014 209 Amani K Hamdan years of teaching experience in higher education, the number of cultures in which they had taught, and their professional education. TABLE 1. Demographic profiles and backgrounds of the seven participants Cultures in Highest degree/ Nationality/ Years of Teacher First namea which each gender culture teaching training had taught Nadia BA / F U.S. 10 2 No Haley PhD / F U.S. 20 4 Yes Rick ABDb / M U.S. 20 2 Yes Richard BA / M Canadian 10 3 No Chinese / Wendy MA / F 20 2 Yes British Tara PhD / F German 5 2 Yes South Emanuel PhD / F 20 3 No African NOTES. a. Pseudonyms assigned to participants; b. Denotes all but dissertation to complete PhD. The participants represented a fairly diverse collection of advanced degrees (BA, MA, PhD), gender, and nationality with distinctive teaching experiences (length and setting) and professional preparation. Some participants had prior experience teaching in Arab cultures. Some participants had experience teaching Arab students in the United States, which may not be the same as teaching students in an Arab cultural setting. This subsample of 7 varied in their academic preparation and length of experience (5 to 20 years) and allowed consideration of how this range of experience influenced their CRP. Data interpretation The transcribed data were triangulated by cross-checking information derived from the participants’ interview responses, classroom observations, instructional and professional artefacts (syllabi, assignments, assessments, curriculum vitae, publications, daybooks containing comments and reflections, email messages, etc.), as well as from the researcher’s field notes and personal observations made while working at two private institutions in KSA. 210 REVUE DES SCIENCES DE L’ÉDUCATION DE McGILL • VOL. 49 NO 1 HIVER 2014