Passive Aggressiveness in IS

[twoteachers]

I'm still in my first year of teaching overseas after 15 years in the states. I'm noticing a lot of passive aggressiveness among teachers. Is that the norm? I'm someone who doesn't mind saying what I think. I've literally witnessed teachers talking under their breath about someone else right in front of them. I find that in itself kind of rude. What have you seen?

[sitka]

It is like any other group of people - you get the whole spectrum from awesome to less-than-stellar.

And then depending on region, you place them in a fishbowl.

[chilagringa]

The staff at my current IS is FAR nicer than my public school last year. So probably just depends on the place.

[PsyGuy]

Passive aggressiveness is more common in IE, as there are fewer protections afforded to ITs. They are passive aggressive because they cant be boldly aggressive and keep their jobs. You cant tell another IT your dead to them and never step foot in your classroom again to their face without a realistic risk to your job. You have to talk about them behind their back and give them the cold/distant treatment in the veiled interest of being "professional", to do otherwise could have considerable repercussions. In a public/regulated (DS) environment there are unions, and policy complaint procedures either at the institution or local authority level, that typically treat such behavior between staff as either insignificant (even if its true its not sufficient to warrant more then a reprimand or warning) or the burden of proof comes down to he said/she said and leadership is limited to giving them the team work speech.

[senator]

You are absolutely right.

One of the reasons I left IE. Little children in adult suits.

[wrldtrvlr123]

senator wrote:
> You are absolutely right.
>
> One of the reasons I left IE. Little children in adult suits.

Yes. No where near as mature, professional and reasonable as the stateside posters on this forum.

[auntiesocial]

Agree with Psy Guy here. The lack of checks and balances in IE are such that teachers are a lot more wary of who they can be honest with. There is a much stronger power culture in the international game.

[pikefish]

senator wrote:
> You are absolutely right.
>
> One of the reasons I left IE. Little children in adult suits.

Senator:

Seeing how you left international teaching years ago, I have no idea why you spend so much time on here running your mouth at every IT, school, and institution every chance you get. Some might find that pretty childish, too. Let it go. Move on.

[senator]

Pikefish,

I post on this board so that newbies have another set of views to balance against the prevailing "teaching at an international school is the best and most wonderful experience in the world and I feel sorry for everyone who isn't as good as I am" viewpoint.

I have a lot of experience teaching in public schools and international schools and I left international schools for a number of reasons:

1.Drop or stagnation in overseas salary/benefits packages at many schools
2. Arrogant and ineffective who don't know that they are ineffective
3. Too many kids teaching with little experience - due to schools wanting to save money by hiring cheap
4. I traveled to so many places that this little - and great perk, I admit - lost its novelty
5. Ridiculously poor or nonexistent pension plans or means to set up a meaningful and effective personal plan

Too many newbies have stars in their eyes and need to have both sides prevented. I personally don't care what anybody does or where anybody teaches, nor do I have any personal stake in this debate. But when you make comments like "running his mouth" it is clear that you feel threatened by my views, maybe because in spite of your puff and bluster, you aren't sure that you are right - or maybe you are one of those passive aggressive teachers who could only thrive in the little bubble of overseas teaching.

Either way, I'll "run my mouth" whenever I like and if you get irritated, who cares?

Gotta go teach now.

[pikefish]

Do what you want, Senator. Just know that in your valiant effort to save us from ourselves, you bring nothing to this board. Hell, you even come across exactly like than the ITs you despise so much: arrogant, childish, self-important, and full of himself.

Let it go. Move on. I'm going to do the same. Later.

[shadowjack]

Passive Aggressive exists everywhere. In domestic schools it is entrenched by seniority and by teachers having control in their classroom. In some international schools it is controlled by lack of transparency, continual turnover of staff at many schools, and a less rigid structure that allows teachers to be like that.

Either way, you can buy into it or not. I choose not to.

[ffmary]

I love hearing diverse viewpoints like senator's. Please keep it up. It's so sad when educators can't calmly review constructive criticism without becoming agitated enough to "fight back," even in a forum! This sadly filters down to the students and we end up with student snowflakes. You all need to chill.

[yelsol]

I have to say, I've noticed far more passive aggressive behavior and an increased lack of professionalism and maturity than I did when I was teaching stateside. I chalk it up to a number of factors:

1. I completely agree with the job security/lack of checks and balances. People are constantly in schmoozing mode so I think that cuts down on authentic interactions. Many people seem to be worried about who to build an alliance with.

2. Being abroad I've encountered four types of IE's (we all probably encompass more than one) :

a. people who are abroad because they love teaching and want to see the world
b. People who are abroad because they want to see the world and figured out that teaching will allow them to do it
c. people who are abroad figuring themselves out
d. people who are abroad because they're trying to avoid something back home

I feel like too much of the last three qualities makes for a serious lack of professionalism and just general immaturity in handling work situation.

3. Depending on where you are, you end up in these awkwardly constructed expat circles where you may not hang out with someone from work but you know there friends and there friends know your friends etc. I feel like people are always on guard because calling someone out in the faculty meeting might mean you don't get invited to the next event or they did something horrible (or you heard a rumor about something they did) on a Saturday night that has tainted your ability to deal with them at work. I find that your constantly have to reflect on the source of your anger and irritation with someone.

I've met some amazing fantastic people on the IE teaching but it definitely challenges your mental and emotional balance.

[PsyGuy]

Yes salaries have dropped or gone flat, but thats a condition just about everywhere. The iE field reflects the DE field, and DE/IE are still recovering from the global recessions. IE is about 3 years behind the economic curve of the DE market. It is disingenuous however to compare IS salaries which are largely comprised of independent/private institutions to those of public/regulated institutions. You have a few really well paying private/independent elite DSs at the top of salary bracket then you have/public/regulated DSs in large districts/local authorities followed by small districts/local authorities with less prestigious private and independent DSs near the bottom.

I see arrogant and ineffective everywhere, the only difference is that ITs can hide ineffectiveness a lot easier than DTs can. Mainly due to the availability of student resources, and student motivation. Students in an IS that are motivated to succeed arent going to allow poor performing IT to cripple their academic career. They and their parents will find alternative means of accomplishing the learning objectives. Whereas in an at risk regulated/public DS many of those students dont have access to alternative resources, if the classroom doesnt work those students fail, and facing such situation has a significant impact on their motivation to succeed.
I knew many DTs who were just waiting to retire, teaching from their desks with worksheets. They had a couple of really well designed lessons for when they had formal observations, and with strong union protections had the defacto equivalent of tenure.

Leadership is seldom if ever disciplined for saving money or reducing financial costs. Many members of senior and executive leadership are too a significant extent valuated as successful or not on their ability to build fiscal saving and increase revenue. IE generally has higher entry level requirements than DE, the standard is 2 years post certification, and ISs do not generally have programs and resources for mentoring new teachers to the profession. Fee generating institutions are not testing and proving grounds for those new to the profession to build professional competence and confidence.
Part of this is the failure of EPP/ITT programs to address real day to day teaching priorities (we need to move away from an emphasis on curriculum and lesson planing and more towards behavior and classroom management with a secondary focus on presentation and delivery), but just as important an aspect is more programs/courses and topics directed at private/independent/international education. EPP/ITT programs focus on producing DTs to work in the public/maintained education system, primarily because obtaining a credential though such a program is regulated by the local authority and meeting the requirements as established for instructional service providers in public maintained DSs, and since thats whats valued as the primary outcome to teacher candidates and students, and thats what EPP/ITT programs are required to construct their programs focused on obtaining those qualifications, thats what ITT/EPP programs are going to do.
When an alternative credential becomes recognized and valued that is when we will see changes in EPP/ITT training programs and change or options for different emphasis. Currently while their are certificate programs such as the IBO Teaching and Learning certificates until some regulatory authority such as the EU Council, or ASEAN, or the UN, or an NA, etc. create regulations or policy that accept those credentials for instructional service in their jurisdictions they will play secondary roles in teacher qualifications. If the Teachers College granted QTS to IB T&L certificates it would dramatically change the landscape of professional educator credentialing.

Many ITs dont get to really travel. They are limited to traveling locally over long weekends, with real travel opportunities available during winter and end of year holidays. While location overseas saves time in planing such trips, I am very skeptical of the cost savings. While trans Atlantic/Pacific flights are far more expensive than regional flights or intra-asian and intra-europe flight routes, if your making substantially more domestically a few thousand in flight saving is an overall loss in diminished revenue. The real saving are those of time when in the right location. If your in Brussels you realistically can get to and see a LOT of WE on even standard/long weekends. There are a number of such nexus points in Asia and Europe, that really allow an the time to travel.

Absolutely agree, IE does not do well or much in regards to retirement and longevity planing in either fiscal or educational aspects. This is why the default plan for many ITs is to either relocate eventually to a WE region where they can get a social insurance pension for the unsophisticated or they have an extremely low cost of living destination that they are independently saving for, or they have a domestic pension they are already vested in and they intend to return to their home of record.

In many ways the social aspect of IE is like the "Survivor" reality show, and its why "presence" while an informal factor in IT utility is no less significant.

I dont disagree with the types of ITs you meet, I disagree with its over reliance on "travel". I find the travelers to be problematic and control mechanisms are less effective on them from a leadership perspective.
I also know a number of ITs who dont enjoy teaching and dont really like children who are very successful educators, they have perfected their classroom story and ritual, and its very successful.

The running from something group is larger than most IE professional believe, there isnt anything of malice or misconduct in their motivation, but many of them are running for political or financial or social issues that they believe somewhere foreign will fix.

I do agree that in insular locations with a relatively small expat population many ITs are trapped or restricted to essentially one social network. Quickly everyone knows you and you know everybody, and that network circulates at a very limited number of places and venues. You dont find those in locations like Tokyo, or HK or Seoul or London that have very large expat populations outside of IE.

[sand_fan]

No need for psycho babble, i don't think it is passive aggressive, it is just teachers reducing themselves to the mentality of their students and acting like they are one of them. My short IT career can be summarized by saying that it is a home for wash outs and I guess I am one because it is where I ended up, although I generally prefer not to view myself as that. I do hope that the good examples of IS are as good as people say because the ME and EU examples I have experienced represent unskilled leadership, people who have far exceeded their level of incompetence (Peter Principle), child-like behavior and on occasion, dedicated professionals that ignore the noise and do what they do. This is without even mentioning how school ownership does things. Soooo, for me, Im outa here sooner rather than later.