One such example of that was during an activity given to teachers that was specifically designed to elicit frustration, angst and outrage resulting from the ambiguity, randomness and timeliness of a task. The purpose was to drive home the point the need for teachers to provide lesson plans with specific instructions, clear goals and objectives - by doing the exact opposite. Well, the activity was not lost on the American teachers who (right on cue) lashed out at the indignity of the task – lack of direction and inability to complete it within the timeframe provided. However, the same activity conducted for the Ecuadorean teachers fell flat and failed to elicit such indignation or outrage. When processing the activity, the Ecuadoreans similarly expressed a lack of clarity and understanding, but resigned themselves to the fact that if this was what was demanded, they would quietly acquiesce, complete the task in a timely manner, because, as Ecuadoreans would say… “What are you going to do?” Yours is not to question why…
But nothing exemplified this blind allegiance than an episode that occurred just before the Christmas vacation (In Ecuador there is no “war on Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” as we were told that 90% of the country is Catholic, and the other 10% are “Christians”). Being a country that overwhelmingly recognizes Jesus Christ as their savior - they rightfully had been given Christmas Eve off, along with New Year’s Eve and all days off in between, as is the standard practice for schools here in the U.S. However, just days before the impending Christmas break – we all received an email that, per directive of the president (of the country, not the university), all teachers would be required to work on the days designated as vacation. Additionally, while they would not be required to work on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve, they would be required to “make up” the hours for those days on a weekend in January. Being Americans, with our inalienable right to Christmas vacation (and the fact that we knew we wouldn’t be fired), we ignored said directive. Yet, those unfortunate Ecuadoreans diligently complied….What are you going to do? The basis for this last minute version of “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas Vacation” (starring Chevy Chase as President Grinch?) is steeped in two prevailing philosophies in Ecuador.
The first of these is a result of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa pledging to improve Ecuador’s education and university system, certainly a commendable goal designed to elicit Ecuadorean educational excellence; especially given the proliferation of what President Correa calls “garage universities.” Many of these colleges, which serve almost 70,000 students, fail to meet basic standards to provide quality education. According to Mr. Correa, “Ecuador probably has the worst universities” in South America, and these schools are “cheating their students because they do not have the minimum elements to guarantee academic excellence.” To that end, President Correa deemed that teachers (and schools) should remain on the job to embark on the path to academic excellence.
This leads to the other premise in Ecuadorean labor practices – logging hours. As professionals, most teachers in the US are spared the hassle of punching a time clock. However, Ecuadoreans have an adherence to a practice that not only requires them to log in and log out, but failure to do so, and do so in a correct and timely manner, will result in loss of pay or requirement to make up hours. Yet this rigid practice went beyond your standard punching a time clock when you start and when you leave. You were required to log in at a computer station no sooner than ten minutes before your class and not later than ten minutes after the start of class. The same rigid rigmarole requirement applied to signing out at the end of class, only to be repeated for the very next class which followed immediately after. Teachers would leave class early and rush to crowd around the two log in computer terminals like it was the last Elf-on-a-Shelf at Christmastime. And should one find himself having logged in at the appropriately appointed time, yet failed to log out accordingly because he or she was helping a student or preparing for the next class, those hours did not count and it was as if you never showed up. As a result, pay would be docked, or more likely, you would have to make up the hours. Ideally, these hours would be for instructional or tutoring time for student, yet in fact, it was spent, likely on a weekend, logging in and logging out for several hours. Those Saturdays were the Ecuadorean equivalent of The Breakfast Club for teachers.
In one sense, I am outraged. How dare our professionalism be reduced to such blue-collar practices as punching in a time clock. Add to that the indignity and injustice of having work hours not count because of a mere technical formality. Teacher unions in the US have negotiated, and rightly so, benefits to include sick days, personal days, family illness days, bereavement days and grievance procedures to avert such transgressions. Yes, we may go to extremes in our gripes, protesting classroom assignments or cafeteria duty, but our hard fought rights and benefits do provide for a better work environment and, in the end, better labor practices and improved productivity. Yet, the resolve and resignation of the Ecuadoreans is something I applaud and appreciate. Rather than expend angst and attitude at such transgressions, they just suck it up and do the job. There is a certain level of acceptance that affords them a level of serenity and solitude rarely seen in the US outside of a Bikram yoga retreat. There is something to be said for this level of acceptance. But the rebel rouser in me says that these injustices must be addressed. Perhaps there is a balance between the righteous indignation of the angry American and the passive acceptance of the acquiescent Ecuadorean.
However, that balance seemed to be somewhat elusive in how Greer and I and our Americanisms approached the Ecuadorean work ethic. In much the same way that Americans are on one extreme in labor practices and Ecuadoreans on another, Greer and I were on extremes in how we dealt with the cultural conundrum that working together in a foreign country with different standard operating procedures presented. Though we may have been at a crossroads in how we handled it, we certainly were in agreement at being baffled and frustrated.
About three months into our working at UTA, and unbeknownst to us, we were tapped to not just develop a Masters program in Second Language Learning, but also to teach it. This was also part of Correa’s master plan for reform that all teachers have a Masters degree - and apparently Greer and I were just the people to make that happen – at least at the Universidad Tecnica de Ambato. Granted, Greer and I had little experience in Second Language learning (our previous three months working at the university being the extent of it) and even less in developing a Masters Program. Yet, we were informed that said program (not even developed) would be slated to start in about three to four months. But before that, we had to create the program, and this is where Greer morphed into the academic that she is, and I transformed into the loafer that I am.
WTF did we know about developing a Masters Program in anything, let alone a language program. At best, our combined expertise is in Law, Social Studies, History and Civic Education, and my erudite wife is a professor of education. I guess you need to know a language to know all those topics. Yet, the practical person (read slacker) in me said let’s just give them what they want, but the highly ethical academician in Greer was determined to provide an Ivy League level program, or at least something close to that. What they got was something in between. Needless to say, months passed and after many discussions, false starts and declarations, no such program at UTA existed.
Fast-forward two and a half years after we developed the program and almost two years since we’ve left Ecuador; we get the following email from the director of the language program dated May 15th … “I hope everything is going great. I am writing because finally the Master´s program was approved. I would like to know if you could consider to come (sic) to Ecuador again to work in it. That would be an honor to have you both in this program. We will start on July 4th. Each module will last two months, 8 hours every saturday. (total 64 hours- 80 dollar per hour) . About the time you could be here, we could agree on some specific details.
I hope you both could consider this proposal.”
And consider it we did.
To be continued …