True Story 7.01
Teacher bristles at being found in error by a student
The setting for this story
In this story, Huong, a Vietnamese student attending high school in Vietnam, relates a brief but alarming experience she had during a history class, which was being taught by a Vietnamese teacher.
A story of misaligned minds1
During my Western history class one day, my teacher was reviewing sociopolitical factors in the United States of the 1900s. He accidently misspoke and gave the wrong translation into Vietnamese of the word “redneck.” I recognized his error and pointed it out. He angrily responded, “If you think you know more than me, Huong, get up here now and replace me as the teacher!”
Huong’s question
Why did my teacher explode? I merely reminded him of the correct translation of one word!?
Critique of story 7.01
This incident provides a working example of a key contrast between the two main classroom cultures: learner-focused, characteristic of most schools in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and some other Western nations; and knowledge-focused, characteristic of most schools across Asia, Africa, and other world regions.
Huong’s Vietnamese teacher adhered to the knowledge-focused perspective, which views a teacher as deserving of respect because they are an authority regarding the subject being taught, and because they are in authority regarding classroom behavior and activities while they are present.2
If only for an instant, Huong had aligned herself with the learner-focused perspective, which regards teachers as participating together with students in the pursuit of knowledge. Teachers are not assumed to be subject matter authorities but rather advanced fellow learners. In learner-focused classes, student questions and contributions are expected and often are requested.
Because he was an authority on U.S. history, Huong’s teacher expected to know the answer to any question a student might have. But it is extremely rare in a knowledge-focused culture for a teacher or other presenter to be asked a question while class is in session. Why? Because doing so publicly implies that the teacher isn’t explaining everything flawlessly. So asking a question demonstrates lack of credence in the teacher’s subject knowledge and causes “loss of face” – acute embarrassment – for both teacher and questioner. Why the questioner? That person should have known better than to cause the teacher to lose face.
Huong didn’t ask a question. What she did was worse! She publicly corrected a fact stated by her teacher, thereby presenting – in his view – a humiliating public challenge to his expertise as an authority on U.S. history. His reaction was understandable. Huong should have anticipated this reaction.
Why did Huong publicly correct her teacher? I’m guessing that she had recently spent months as an exchange student here in the U.S., where she had heard the term “redneck” and had been exposed to some of our egalitarian ways. Another guess would be that she was keenly aware of the grueling examinations that serve as gatekeepers to Vietnam’s universities and wanted to ensure that this lesson included no misinformation.
For thought
Imagine the reverse case: A student with a decidedly knowledge-focused perspective turns up in an American learner-focused classroom with nearly egalitarian teacher–student relationships. What reactions might the student have? What reactions might the teacher have to this new student?
Related stories
Stories 1.01 and 7.03 also discuss teachers’ expectations regarding their students’ respect.
Go to Chapter 1 Quick-Links | Go to Chapter 4 Quick-Links | Return to Chapter 7 Quick-Links | Go to Chapter 10 Quick-Links
Endnotes:
1 Nguyen et al., 5.
2 “While they are present” because, in East Asian secondary schools, the classrooms are identified as belonging to the students; they remain in this room while the school’s teachers circulate to deliver instruction. When there is no teacher in a classroom, the students – under the leadership of the class leader – are in charge.
Full citations are available at misalignedminds.info/References.