Graduation, King Khalid University. April 2016
[from FB post: September 9, 2013]
I had my first classes today. Overall the students are a little on the shy side and very sweet. I keep being warned about "controlling" them. I am not sure this the calm before the storm or what? They certainly don't seem to have any rowdy potential. So at LAST I am back to teaching -- I have to admit it feels good.
Describing a typical Saudi student is a difficult task if only because there are no typical Saudis. Saudi Arabia is a tribal society and the two main tribes of the region where I worked were the Asiris and the Qahtanis. They both have very different cultures and outlooks on life. Asiris are a lot more "Western" (I used that term loosely) and the Qahtanis a lot more "Eastern". Then there is the religious layer. That is a total spectrum - I had students who were ultra-orthodox and devout and others who were closet apostates. A cultural substrate underlies everything. Respecting age, respecting a teacher, and respecting authority are huge in Saudi culture unless, of course, those things run afoul of the aforementioned tribal or religious imperatives. Confusing, right?
Thus, I had some students who were very secular, outward-looking, and up on all the latest international trends. They could have been dropped into New York City or London and lived normal lives without missing a beat (except for dating, of course, since young men never meet young women casually). I had other students in the same classes who hated everything Western, reviled anything non-Islamic, and probably thought 9/11 was a great day for Saudi Arabia (although they dared not speak it). Luckily for me the "age imperative" in Saudi culture was huge. I did not deal with the same issues that many of my younger colleagues did because I had gray hair and was automatically to be respected. That saved me 90% of the time - but not always.
Overall, in class the students were very passive. That might have been because they were bored, sleeping, or on their phones. They felt a degree was their right and honestly thought if they met the attendance requirement for a class, they should pass. Largely, the teachers were forced to push them through. Honestly, I didn't mind as I never had disruptive students. The problem was that in seeking a common denominator, a teaching level that was neither too low nor too high, that middle ground ended up being quite low. For the small minority of students who were actually intelligent and serious, the resulting classes became very easy and quite dull. I often reflected on my ex-student AQ and how much he was robbed by the Saudi university system of a good undergraduate education. It continues to amaze to me that he could possibly catch up enough to withstand the rigors of US graduate school.
The same students had no respect for the South Asian teachers (of which there were quite a few). That was a double-edged sword. The Saudis often took recommendations for new faculty from existing South Asian teachers who brought their friends in an ever-downward spiral of bad qualifications and nepotism. I worked with people who literally could not speak intelligible English and they were in the English Department teaching courses at a higher level than me! I had other supremely qualified, fluent English-speaking South Asian colleagues who were given no respect in class because, after all, South Asians were the "working caste" of Saudi Arabia and none of them could possibly be taken seriously as professors. Then there were the teachers from places like Egypt and Jordan. Here the Saudi students had met their match and I had huge respect for the "other" Arabs who took no shit from students and knew all their games. Unfortunately, the Arab teachers, too, realized that they were just as hostage to the system as the rest of us. At least they could manage their classes better than the Westerners and the South Asians. If I had to guess, the non-Saudi Arab teachers might have imparted more knowledge to their students than the rest of us and even held engaging classes. Unfortunately, they got ground down like every other foreign faculty member by a system that was very pro-student - just pass them through.
In the end, who was the typical Saudi student at King Khalid University? Well, depending on his tribe, his religious fervor, and the age and nationality of his teacher - he could have been anything. I think my initial assessment of my students was correct. Overall, they were actually quite sweet and deferential in class. As long as they knew they were on track to get their degree and an instructor didn't ask much of them, they were probably "OK". I DID end up teaching some very talented young men over my five years there. I also had a few nightmare experiences with individual students and classes that rose to the Dean's notice and made me (and everyone else) quite uncomfortable.
I used to tell people "only 10% of these students should even be here". Well, 10% isn't zero, right?