Mahmoud's Progress

Wayne Zink

Copyright 2001 by Wayne Zink
Included here with permission of the author

I teach third grade in a suburban school in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. To a visitor from a more homogeneous community, our diverse population may resemble a United Nations meeting. Our students take the diversity in stride, and our staff seems to thrive on the stimulation that comes from working with students from so many cultures. At times though, mismatches between a student’s home culture and the school’s culture lead to misunderstandings and conflicts. I believe this study is a prime example of how cultural mismatches are influencing the academic performance of one of my students (Jacob, 1999).

My Puzzlement

Mahmoud is a nine-year-old boy from Saudi Arabia. (Pseudonyms will be used throughout this paper.) Mahmoud does not regularly return class work or homework, and is often off-task. He has difficulty complying with school rules such as walking in the hallways, speaking in turn, and maintaining an orderly work area. Mahmoud’s non-compliant behavior and lack of academic success is a puzzlement to me.

What is Known

The following excerpt from our school profile provides a good overview of
my school:

Liberty Lane Elementary School has served the rapidly changing neighborhood since 1949, successfully adapting to the dramatic changes in the community over the last 5 decades. At present, the student body represents more than 40 nations. Using the collaborative processes of a total quality education approach, teams composed of teachers, staff members, and community members identify needs and areas of academic focus for investigation and implementation. Underlying these efforts are the following core beliefs:

• All children have the ability to learn.
• Continuous improvement is necessary for success.
• Cooperation promotes learning.
•  A safe, trusting environment is necessary for students to feel free to take risks and to become independent thinkers.
•  Partnerships between school and community shape stronger students.

Dedicated and talented staff members collaborate with parents to ensure an inviting, child-centered environment with an emphasis on academic excellence and a positive school culture that honors diversity.

In my third grade class of 18 students, there is a wide range of abilities. Seven of my students receive support services for learning disabilities. Five of those students also receive speech and language services, and limited in-class support from an ESL teacher. I have an instructional aide in my classroom for about one hour each day to provide support for the students with learning disabilities. Mahmoud, who speaks very little English, spends two to three hours each day in an ESL classroom. There are five students that I have identified as candidates for differentiated services. The remaining third of my class is working at or near third grade level in the core content areas. I would characterize the personality of my class this year as eager and caring. The students are generally excited about learning, look forward to coming to school each day, and anxious for any opportunity to work with their peers in small groups or with partners. There are the usual challenging behaviors such as over active individuals, and occasional social conflicts, but there are really no extreme behavior problems in this class.

Mahmoud came to the U.S. and my class late in the Fall of 2000. The family moved here so the father, Mr. A., could pursue graduate study. Mahmoud and his younger sister, who was placed in a first grade class, did not speak English when they arrived. Mahmoud’s father seems to have a functional English vocabulary and speaks with a fair amount of fluency. Mahmoud’s mother does not speak English, and does not communicate with the school.

Mahmoud’s entry into our school culture seemed contentious from the beginning. According to the school attendance secretary and Mahmoud’s file, when he registered with county school system, Central Registration administered an assessment of basic skills in Mahmoud’s native Arabic. They determined that he was working at a third grade level. The school attendance secretary related to me that Mahmoud’s father argued that Mahmoud should be in a fourth grade class, because that was where he was placed in his Saudi Arabian school. According to her, Mr. A. was very insistent and she felt he was patronizing. He declined to shake hands with her when he first met her, and she felt insulted by his refusal.

About two weeks after enrolling Mahmoud, Mr. A. came to see me about 20 minutes before dismissal time without making prior arrangements. The secretary told him that I would be leaving for graduate school as soon as my class was dismissed and would not be able to meet with him that day. I later called him to apologize for not being able to accommodate him and arranged to meet him after school at the end of the week.

Mr. A. and I met for about 30 minutes that Friday. The main topic of conversation was Mahmoud’s placement in my third grade class. I explained that Central Registration made the determination, but I would check to see if the placement was correct. I explained that so far, Mahmoud seemed to fit right in with the third graders and did not appear developmentally out of place. I also told him I would discuss his concerns with our principal. Mr. A. repeated his concerns and explained further that if Mahmoud was not placed in a fourth grade class this year, he would not be promoted to the appropriate level when he returned to Saudi Arabia next year, when Mr. A. had finished his university studies. After speaking to my principal, I talked to Mr. A. again and explained that we did not place students at grade levels above or below the levels determined by Central Registration. He seemed to understand, but politely disagreed with the policy.

Over the next few months, Mahmoud began to pick up more and more English vocabulary, and seemed to understand our class and school routines. From the beginning though, there were many instances of non-compliant behavior. He often complained about leaving the classroom to work with the ESL teacher during our morning language arts block. One day, he decided to leave the ESL classroom and walked back to class without permission, alone. He did not attend to lessons in my class unless they were art or math lessons. Even though he seemed to understand the math concepts, he rarely completed class work and never returned homework. The music teacher and PE teachers commented that he did not follow rules or directions. Other teachers stopped him in the hallways when he returned from ESL class because he was running. His peers sometimes complained that Mahmoud was “bothering” them. I scheduled another conference with Mr. A. to discuss these issues.

After talking to Mr. A., some of the non-compliance issues improved. Mr. A. told me that he did not think American schools were strict enough and that Mahmoud would probably respond to more discipline. Even when we imposed consequences such as missing recess or contacting his father, Mahmoud still did not complete work regularly for the ESL teacher or me though, and he still did not participate in many whole-class activities.

Mahmoud had a third grade peer, Abdul, in the ESL class who spoke Arabic and would occasionally translate for us. We called upon Abdul when we needed to reinforce consequences for behavior problems or to explain homework assignments. Mahmoud always seemed to understand and gave affirmative responses when we had Abdul translate for us. Abdul was the only other Arabic speaker available to us. Unfortunately, Abdul moved to another school in January. Soon after this, Mahmoud spent a week at the Saudi Academy to take some placement tests and to visit the classrooms. When he returned, he told me he would be attending the Academy at some unknown point in the future. He expressed concern that the classes were difficult and that the teachers did not tolerate the use of any language other than English.

After the progress reports were distributed in February, I requested a conference with Mahmoud’s father so I could explain the low marks for citizenship and study skills. Mr. A. stopped me in the hall one afternoon while I was on bus duty, and said he would like to meet and discuss the progress report. He echoed Mahmoud’s claim that Mahmoud would be attending the Academy, but did not know when. I asked Mr. A. to call me and set up a conference. Two weeks later I received a note asking to meet the next day after school. I replied with a note suggesting a meeting later in the week since I would be at graduate school on the day requested. A meeting was finally arranged for the next week. (Written correspondence seems to be the most reliable way to contact the family since the mother does not speak English and I have not had success communicating with the father by phone.)

Questions/Hypotheses

Mahmoud’s puzzling behavior and some of my initial reading led to many questions:

1. What were his expectations about school in the United States?

2. What were his parent’s expectations of school in the United States? (Alkhateeb, 1998)

3. What were his parent’s expectations of Mahmoud’s behavior at school and home? (Alkhateeb, 1998)

4. How long was the family planning to stay in the United States?

5. Are my expectations of Mahmoud being influenced by past experience with students from Saudi Arabia?

6. How is the school culture in Saudi Arabia different from that in the United States?

7. How do Arabic speakers perceive learning a second language? (Yazigy, 1994)

8. Are there differences of meaning in regard to affirmative/negative semantics in English speaking and Arabic cultures? (Al-Qahtani, 1998)

9. Are there differences in temporal concepts between the two cultures? (Bagnole, 1973)

10. Are there differences in the approaches to group learning between the two cultures?

All of the questions above could be tied to some aspect of cultural mismatches. This led me to hypothesize that Mahmoud’s academic performance and non-compliance were caused by a mismatch between his native Saudi Arabian culture and the culture in our American school (CIP step 3.3).

Information Gathering

In order to better understand the cultural mismatches between Mahmoud’s experiences in Saudi Arabia and my own classroom, I decided to gather information from published articles and web sites, further conferences with Mr. A., consultations with the ESL, music, and physical education teachers, and casual conversations with Mahmoud.

Literature Review

The literature fell into two general categories; issues in multicultural education, and issues specific to Arabic speaking immigrants.

A student like Mahmoud, arriving in this country with little or no English language skills, may spend a good portion of the day in an instructional setting that is “quite different from that of mainstream backgrounds” (Penny, Forney & Harlee, 1999, p. 3). Mahmoud typically spends two to three hours each day in an ESL classroom working with a small multi-age group of students representing several language minorities. Mahmoud’s concern over his placement in a third grade class may have been compounded by the fact that he is learning English with some students who are younger than he is. Penny, Forney & Harlee (1999) also suggest that some minority students may be subject to environments where they are placed in the lowest reading groups, their home language is devalued, there is a failure to build on the strengths of their home culture and language, instructional procedures may violate the behavioral norms of their home culture, there is a failure to challenge and stimulate, and there may be low expectations. Any of these factors could have been contributing to Mahmoud’s non-compliance and lack of success so far.

D’Amato (1993) describes how non-compliant behavior by minority students may be caused by the perception on the part of students like Mahmoud that they are not being instructed at a developmentally appropriate level. He writes that “school...tends to have little credible structural significance...for children placed at the low end of academic hierarchies and for children attending schools adjudged by them not to provide adequate or pertinent education” (p. 191). Mahmoud’s behavior may be evidence of D’Amato’s (1993) contention that “cultural discontinuities between teachers and minority school children usually have the effect of causing tests of teacher authority to escalate to resistance and conflict” (p. 187).

I also found some compelling evidence of mismatches between the American and Saudi cultures, and between English the Arabic language. Arabic “culture” is a fairly recent phenomenon--partly a reaction to colonialism in the Middle East, and partly a result of nationalistic movements in Arabic speaking countries. We need to be cautious about lumping all Arabic speaking people together as a “culture” though. This is similar to referring to a Hispanic “culture.” Hispanic refers to a common language that crosses many countries and cultures. Arabic, too, is a language spoken by people in many different cultures who represent varied ethnic groups. However, Arabic as a language may be regarded by native speakers as more “pure” or “religious” than English and therefore a resistance to learning English at the expense of Arabic may exist in some studies (Yazigy, 1994). In Mahmoud’s case, however, I do not see any evidence to support this view. Mahmoud seems very eager to use English and enthusiastically shares his ideas in areas where he has sufficient prior knowledge.

American teachers should be mindful of stereotypes that may be applied to or inferred by Arabic speakers. “When Arab students see negative or erroneous portrayals of Arabs in film and in television, they begin to feel inferior and ashamed, or perhaps belligerent and aggressive” (Wingfield and Karaman, 1995, p. 9). Even seemingly benign children’s fare, such as Disney’s “Aladdin,” contains some stereotypical Arab characters that are portrayed as dark and menacing. And how many times have we seen comics or political cartoons where camel-riding Arabs are drawn with the stereotypical headgear worn by the Bedouins, who actually represent a very small percentage of Arabic people? While I don’t believe these kinds of stereotypes are at play in my school, it is worth considering the possible effects of negative stereotyping on a student like Mahmoud, within the larger context of American popular culture.

Conversely, there may be some negative American stereotypes at work in Mahmoud’s family. Sharifa Alkhateeb (1998), an independent consultant in Arab-American relations, writes, “Arab-American or Middle Eastern-American parents may expect injustice from white teachers and may socialize their children in that way” (p.1). She also claims that maintaining an Arab identity may often happen through negatively defined differences. In other words, Arab parents may see “being American” as unacceptable if it is equated with “buying into the cultural imperialism of the West”(p. 1). Alkhateeb suggests that when cultural mismatches do happen, the parents are “generally not aware that their kids develop multiple sets of behaviors to accommodate” (p. 2) the different worlds. Phelan, Davidson, and Yu (1998) describe how students sometimes react to socio-cultural borders in this way, defining “their family, peer, and/or school worlds as distinct from one another. They must adjust and reorient as they move across borders and among contexts” (p. 15). Indeed, Mr. A. seemed truly puzzled when I described some of Mahmoud’s behaviors in school. At times, it seemed we were talking about two different children.

The Arabic language may pose some unusual problems for students like Mahmoud and his teachers. There are several socio-linguistic differences between English and Arabic that may cause misunderstandings and conflicts. “For example, the depth of questioning about family affairs, health and other private matters are culturally incompatible” (Santos & Suleiman, 1993, p. 177). It seems quite possible that an American teacher could unknowingly insult or embarrass an Arab student or his parents during conferences because of this incompatibility.

Also, the concept of negation is fundamentally different in both cultures. “Negation and refusals in Saudi Dialect Arabic tend to be expressed indirectly as an aspect of showing politeness and avoiding hurt feelings” (Al-Qahtani, 1998, p. 1). Is it possible that when I have questioned Mahmoud to see if he understood a homework assignment he may have given an affirmative response to avoid disappointing me? While Americans might see this behavior as evasive, “Arabs think that people from other cultures don’t pay much attention to some extra-linguistic features such as hesitation and facial gestures to anticipate refusals or negation as much as Arabs do” (Al-Qahtani, 1998, p. 1).

The fact that Mahmoud has been so irregular in returning homework could also be due in part to incongruous temporal concepts. “A homework lesson assigned for ‘tomorrow’ will very frequently not be handed in ‘on time,’ at least in the Western concept of on time” (Bagnole, 1973, p. 1). Time is often assigned a lower value in daily life in an Arabic culture than it is in American culture. There is a desire not to offend and a tendency to say what is desired or perceived as being desired to be heard, so teachers need to be aware of this when giving assignments (Bagnole, 1973).

Conferences with Mr. A.

I have had several conferences with Mr. A. during the year. As I mentioned above, the first conference was to address what he saw as Mahmoud’s erroneous placement in a third grade class. A subsequent conference was held to discuss Mahmoud’s non-compliant behavior and lack of academic progress. At this time, I asked Mr. A. to look in Mahmoud’s backpack each day for homework, and to reinforce the idea of school behavior standards at home. Mr. A. agreed to try this approach.

During our most recent conference, with both ESL teachers in attendance, Mr. A. explained to us that Mahmoud was still concerned about being in a third grade class. He also described a typical classroom in Saudi Arabia. He thought that perhaps our classrooms with computers, charts, books, and art projects scattered around the room might be distracting for Mahmoud, and contributing to his lack of focus. In Saudi Arabia, he explained, students sit at tables with minimal distractions and their attention is centered on the teacher. When we discussed Mahmoud’s continuing non-compliant behavior, he seemed concerned and asked for examples and monitoring strategies. It was clear that he wanted to help his son succeed.

The ESL teachers and I suggested that he sign Mahmoud’s assignment book everyday, help Mahmoud remember to return his homework daily, and look for comments from me about Mahmoud’s behavior in his assignment book each night. We also discussed the idea of imposing a consequence such as limiting access to free time for art or computers. Mr. A. seemed to agree with our suggestions again.

Consultation with Other Teachers

Since Mahmoud’s behavior seemed to vary depending on who was supervising him at the time, I decided to talk to each of the ESL teachers, the music teacher, and the PE teacher. Some common themes emerged from these conversations. First of all, they saw Mahmoud’s non-compliance diminishing slowly over time. But a remaining area of concern for all of the teachers was Mahmoud’s tendency to forge ahead in activities without waiting for instructions, and his tendency to speak out of turn. One of the ESL teachers said his behavior in class was often disruptive and rude, although the other teachers did not characterize it in this way. Finally, the ESL teachers reported that he was beginning to complete more class work, but he was still inconsistent.

Conversations with Mahmoud

As the year has progressed and Mahmoud has acquired more and more English, he has engaged me in conversation more often. He has described his large house in Saudi Arabia, shared his knowledge about Ancient Greece, mathematics, and science, and only occasionally questioned why he is still in third grade. Mahmoud is still not fluent in English, but he does not shy away from complex topics in conversation. Mahmoud really seems to enjoy oral discourse. He will often spend a few minutes at the end of the day while waiting for his bus, telling me about some aspect of his life in Saudi Arabia, or describing a drawing he has recently completed.

Interventions

Based on my reading, conversations with Mr. A., Mahmoud, and other teachers, I have implemented several interventions in an attempt to help Mahmoud be more successful in our school. The first intervention has actually been a part of my information gathering process, and will also be a part of the monitoring process. I plan to maintain an ongoing dialogue with Mr. A. and my colleagues to report on Mahmoud’s success towards specific goals such as completing class work and homework assignments and following school rules. These goals have already been shared with Mahmoud and his father, as well as my colleagues. Ogbu and Simons (1998), urge teachers of minority students to set “clearly stated high standards and expect students to meet those standards ...and to notify parents of their successes rather than” (p. 182) focusing only on problems. Doing so will help build trust by demonstrating that the teacher has confidence in the student’s intellectual abilities.

Since negation and refusal, and temporal concepts may also be at issue in this case, clearly stated expectations should help clear up any confusion on Mahmoud’s part. Mahmoud’s family will be informed by weekly correspondence in his assignment notebook and a monthly phone call or personal meeting. Ogbu and Simons (1998) propose that this type of parent involvement will show parents that they are respected and needed to help their children succeed in school. Personal, individual contact may also help overcome perceptions of group and individual stereotypes.

I will also ask my entire class to complete a weekly self-assessment of behavioral and academic goals. The checklist asks students to rate themselves on a three-point scale, in three areas: Caring (for self, peers, and materials), Study Skills (completion of work, and attention in class), and Citizenship (following rules and setting a good example for others). This will help guide all of my students to think consciously about the purpose of schooling, and may help minority students like Mahmoud realize that they can be successful in school while maintaining their cultural identity (Ogbu and Simons, 1998.)

Monitoring

I am monitoring Mahmoud’s success in various ways. I have been checking Mahmoud’s assignment book each day to make sure his father has initialed it. For the first two weeks since the last conference with Mr. A., Mahmoud returned his assignment book each morning with his father’s initials. His return rate on homework also rose dramatically. However, over the past few weeks, Mahmoud has been forgetting his assignment book at home frequently and has been returning homework sporadically. Progress reports will be going home next week and I will request another conference with Mr. A. so we can discuss Mahmoud’s progress together.

I have also been asking the ESL teachers and specialists to respond to a weekly emailed survey to keep me informed of his progress in their classes. I have asked each teacher within the “intervention group” to respond to the following three questions:

1.      Did the student meet behavioral expectations for the week?

2.      Did the student meet instructional objectives for the week?

3.      Were there any special successes or challenges for the student this week? (Describe briefly)

For the first three weeks, Mahmoud’s behavior and academic progress seemed to improve. However, over the past two weeks some of the non-compliant behaviors have reappeared, impeding his academic performance and causing minor disruptions in class.

Finally, I have been reviewing the student self-assessments to see if Mahmoud perceives progress towards our goals. Mahmoud always gives himself the highest rating on the self-assessment. In comparison, many of his peers give themselves mixed ratings. He seems to be happy in school and seems to have a healthy self-concept, but the return of non-compliant behaviors and inconsistent work habits may be indications of persistent cultural mismatches. I do not expect these mismatches to be resolved quickly or easily. During the past week, the ESL teachers have expressed frustration with Mahmoud again. However, based on the monitoring done so far, I feel we are making progress overall. I plan to continue with the interventions and monitoring process for the remainder of the school year.

Implications

The implications of this study are threefold. Naturally, I would like to see Mahmoud succeed at as high a level as possible in our school. I have seen a good deal of academic progress, but the recent reports I have been getting from other adults on Mahmoud’s behavior have been inconsistent. Overall though, I am confident that some of the interventions put into place as a result of this project have had a direct positive effect on Mahmoud’s progress.

I also believe that using the Cultural Inquiry Process (Jacob, 1999) has helped me to focus on some cultural questions I may have overlooked otherwise. This should help me with other cultural puzzlements in my classroom. As our classrooms become more diverse, I think it’s safe to assume that teachers will be faced with more and more cultural puzzlements in the future. I’ve always considered myself to be sensitive to cultural issues in the classroom. By looking at these issues in a more systematic, rigorous way, I’m sure my practice will improve.

Finally, I plan to share my results with my peers. My study of Mahmoud’s puzzling behavior may help other teachers deal with aspects of Saudi Arabian culture that can cause cultural mismatches in their classrooms. While I did not find a wealth of recently published material about mismatches between Arabic and English speaking cultures, what I did find caused me to consider issues I could have overlooked. For example, so much of what we expect from our students is time-bound, and so much of our instruction revolves around shared assumptions about how we use affirmative and negative responses to communicate. Yet, the nuances involved with Arabic concepts of time and negation seem to be at odds with our own temporal and linguistic traditions. It is incumbent upon us as professionals to become aware of these types of cultural mismatches, so that we can become better educators for all of our students.

References

Alkhateeb, S., (1998). Important intercultural communication issues for Arab/Middle Eastern parents. Presented at a Fairfax County Public Schools workshop for guidance counselors, Fairfax, VA.

Al-Qahtani, S. (1998).Negation without using negation in Saudi Arabian dialect. [Research paper]. Originally presented at Practical Criticism Midwest Conference (Linguistics) on January 30, 1998. Distributed at a Fairfax County Public Schools workshop for guidance counselors, Fairfax, VA.

Bagnole, J. (1976). Bukra, Ma 'alesh, and in sha'allah. TEFL, perceptions, and the Arab world. Washington, D.C. American Friends of the Middle East, Inc. [Online]. http://courses.lib.odu.edu/engl/jbing/bukra.htm [2001, February 24]

Bagnole, J. (1976). Never-say-no-ism. TEFL, perceptions, and the Arab world. Washington, D.C. American Friends of the Middle East, Inc. [Online]. http://courses.lib.odu.edu/engl/jbing/never-say-no-ism.htm [2001, February 24].

John D’Amato (1993). Resistance and compliance in minority classrooms. In E. Jacob and C. Jordan (Eds.), Minority education: Anthropological perspectives (pp. 181-208). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Jacob, E. (1999). Cultural Inquiry Process web site. [Online]. http://classweb.gmu.edu/classweb/cip/ [2001, February 24].

Ogbu, J., & Simons, H. (1998). Voluntary and involuntary minorities: a cultural-ecological theory of school performance with some implications for education. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 29(2), 155-188.

Penny, C., Forney, A., & Harlee, T. (1999). Preparing educators for multicultural classrooms. [Online]. http://horizon.unc.edu/projects/issues/papers/Penny.asp [2001, March 18].

Phelan, P., Davidson, A., & Yu, H. (1998). Adolescents’ worlds: negotiating family, peers and school. New York: Teachers College Press.

Santos, S., & Suleiman, M. (1993). Teaching English to Arabic-speaking students: Cultural and linguistic considerations. Washington, D.C.: National Association for Bilingual Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. 360 876).

Yazigy, R. (1994). Perception of Arabic as native language and the learning of English. Language Learning Journal, 9, 68-74.

Wingfield, M., & Karaman, B. (1995). Arab stereotypes and American educators. Social Studies and Young Learners, March/April 1995, 7-10.