Glenda Simms, Contributor
A NUMBER of articles and letters in the local media have drawn attention to problems being faced by Jamaican teachers who have been recruited to teach in Britain.
In one article, printed in The Gleaner of November 9, 2003, freelance writer Deon P. Green informs readers that some of the recruiters of teachers from Jamaica and other countries have been unscrupulous and many teachers have found themselves jobless after their arrival in Britain.
Other reports have described situations in which Jamaican teachers with certificates are placed in classrooms and are required to be responsible for the education of their students; however, they do not have permanency and job security because they do not have degrees. These realities obtain at a time when the recruitment of teachers from Jamaica is part of an ongoing movement of human resources to different points on the globe. Also the government is very aware of the trend which has seen over 2,000 teachers recruited to North America and Britain between 2000 and 2001.
These issues are long standing. The recruitment of teachers from Jamaica has been going on for a long period. While it is true that the numbers change from time to time and the present period seems to be a peak period, the issues that are recurring are fundamentally the same over time.
CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE
Thirty-seven years ago, armed with a teacher's diploma from Bethlehem Teachers College and seven years of classroom experience, I was recruited to teach with the Northland School Division in Northern Alberta, Canada. Upon my arrival in the community of Fort Chipewyan, I was assigned to teach in a two-room school with one other teacher a white Canadian woman.
Besides making the personal adjustment to share my living quarters with a complete stranger, I had to adapt quickly to many social and political realities that were outside of my experiences (lived and learnt).
First and foremost, I had to accept the fact that my teaching certificate was not considered on par with my immigrant peers who obtained theirs from teachers' colleges in Britain and Australia. Those of us who came from Jamaica, India and the Philippines were required to teach and participate in the administration of our designated schools on what was legally defined as a Letter of Authority. This document entitled us to a salary lower than that earned by those who were British or Australian trained.
Our chance of equity in the system was hinged to our ability to meet the requirements of courses designed to ensure that we were equivalent in our educational standards to our Canadian counterparts.
While all this made logical sense on one level it was interesting to note that the British and Australians who were also "new immigrants without Canadian experience" gained automatic acceptance into the ranks of the permanent and 'certified' teachers.
Also, whether one had a Letter of Authority or a certificate which was acceptable to the authorities, everyone was put in charge of classrooms of children whose parents expected them to get a 'good education' so that they could possibly escape the Third World conditions of Canada's North.
EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
I remember clearly how furious I was at the undervaluing of my intellect and my country's educational system. However, I can also recall my resolve to 'jump the hoops' and prove that I could 'breeze through' the prescribed courses in the shortest time period. I also knew that I was an excellent teacher, notwithstanding the Letter of Authority.
Looking back, I realise that in order to cope with such situations, I had to enter deep into the strengths of my rural Jamaican roots and remind myself that 'if you want good your nose must run' and mine did run when the temperature dropped to 40 below 0 Fahrenheit and was accompanied by a wind-chill from the frozen waters of Lake Athabasca.
All of this is to demonstrate that there are certain constants in the experiences of Jamaican immigrants to Euro-dominated societies. However, at this point, at the beginning of the new millennium there are certain steps that need to be taken by both the Jamaican authorities and the authorities in the countries that are currently recruiting Jamaican teachers, if each generation of recruits is to move forward rather than be required to face the same problems decade after decade.
Obviously, the time is long past when the individual teacher makes a decision to seek a teaching job abroad and leave quietly to pursue his or her fortune or face his or her challenges away from the spotlight. Today, the teachers are being recruited with the knowledge of the Jamaica Teacher's Association and other formal levels of the educational establishment.
In this new dispensation, the type of training and preparation that is important to effectiveness in other societies must be considered. For instance, bodies responsible for teachers' education, such as Teacher Training Colleges and the Departments of Education at the Universities should be emphasising cross-cultural understandings as a core component of their curricula. This they need to do not only because we live in a globalised world - a reality which requires us to have skills to communicate and relate across national borders, ethnicity, racial divides and the cultural expectation of gender relationships.
JAMAICAN WORKERS
Far too many Jamaican workers, who are sent overseas in an organised way to work on farms and in hotels and related service areas, enter these endeavours without the appropriate information on the cultural differences between their Jamaican experience and the situations to which they will be exposed in their new work place. The same can be said of the majority of teachers who are currently being recruited. Research has shown that cross-cultural knowledge enhances one's cognitive processes and allows an individual to critically analyse the social and political issues that confront him or her in a new culture.
Cross-cultural education forces us to be more flexible in our understanding of the human condition, to be less ethnocentric, and to be more broad-minded. With this perspective we will not be exposed to the debilitating effects of "culture shock" when we move from our homeland to a new country.
Teachers need a good understanding of cross-cultural issues not only for their survival as immigrants but for their ability to educate Jamaican students to seek out the correct information about other peoples and about themselves.
Those of us who had to adjust without adequate preparation to teach in foreign lands need to share not only our survival skills but also the toll that the lack of cultural knowledge took on us as individuals. In 1966 when I was recruited to teach in a very isolated community, peopled by aboriginal peoples in Northern Alberta, I was confronted with a situation in which the students of this community had never seen a black woman and I had never met an "Indian" except in Zane Grey's novels and in the racist western flicks in which the "Indian" was always killed and the "white man" was predictably the victor and the hero. By virtue of my limitations and lack
of information, I had no knowledge of my student's political reality as some of the poorest and most marginalised peoples in the Canadian society.
GREAT SPIRIT,
Had I been orientated to this fact, I would have known about their relationship to the Land, to the Great Spirit, to the traditions of their ancestors, and their reliance on their elders to maintain the values and attitudes that were needed to steer the younger generation to a state of self actualisation.
I would also have had an insight into the contradictions of the churches that instituted residential schools for generations of aboriginal peoples. Such residential schools robbed at least two or three generations of their languages, their culture and their essential humanity. In these situations, the task of the classroom teacher was not only to teach reading, writing and arithmetic but also to help the students to find a sense of themselves in an environment which generated confusion, apathy, alcoholism, violence and the erosion of the human spirit. In 2003, very few Jamaican teachers find their way to northern outposts in North America. The majority are recruited to the 'concrete jungles' of North America and Britain. These environments reflect the demographic shifts which have taken place through immigration and waves of refugees from war torn areas of the world. The schools in many sectors of these cities are predominantly the ones that are called upon to provide an education for the multi-ethnic and 'non-white' population of students.
Within these schools, these minority students are expected not only to mimic the values and ideas of the 'mainstream' but also to be afforded a sense of their cultures and the contributions of 'their people' to 'western civilisation'.
It is assumed that the Jamaican teacher who is recruited to teach in these schools will be able to intervene in situations in which 'minority' students bring cultural and communicative behaviours that are not in sync with the dominant norms; provide cultural content to strengthen the curriculum; and meet the needs of parents who are always hopeful that their children will have a 'minority' teacher who will make a difference in their lives.
LOFTY EXPECTATIONS
With such lofty expectations, the Jamaican teacher who is recruited to teach such children is rarely if ever adequately prepared for the task. The skills needed to meet the needs of the diverse populations in the classrooms of Britain, Canada and the USA (the preferred destinations) are complex and the teachers need a broad based multi-disciplinary education with a strong emphasis on cross-cultural knowledge.
In short, without a full appreciation of the social history of Black peoples and other minorities in Britain and North American society, the recruited teacher might not be able to comprehend the expectations of their new society, the cognitive and psychological needs of the students in the classrooms and the hopes and aspirations of the parents of these students.
Indeed, Jamaican teachers who are recruited to teach in Britain, USA and Canada are not targeted to fill teaching positions in all-white upscale suburbs. They are expected to assist the various school boards and educational authorities in meeting the needs of the minorities, especially the Black students.
It is assumed that these teachers will automatically be positive role models for black children and be gifted at using their cultural understandings to foster positive self esteem and discipline.
Teachers and others who migrate from Jamaica, do so in the hope of finding a "better life" and more financial rewards for their labour. Some of them also feel that by leaving, they would definitely leave the social problems behind.
Sadly many of them are ill prepared for the new social realities, especially amongst the racial minorities who include the offsprings of Jamaican immigrants.
Dr. Glenda Simms is Executive Director of the Bureau of Women's Affairs.
