Teaching in Mexico

A debate has developed over on one of my favorite EFL employment discussion forums, regarding how far one should go when bringing the idea of cultural points of view into the EFL classroom in foreign countries. The debate is right here.

The main topic being discussed is whether a homosexual male American teacher should not only bring up the topic of his homosexuality with his students, but also to discuss the stereotypes and ‘bigotry’ that exist in many countries towards people of a homosexual orientation.

Here is a selection of comments thus far on the topic, culled from Dave’s ESL Cafe Mexico forum.

I am a great big homosexual. I was never asked about my sexuality when I applied for my job at a MAJOR TEC. uni / prepa here in DF.

Several weeks ago I told my boss that I am gay and he said it wasn’t a problem but I should give serious thought to not letting any of the students know. I have thought about it and I’ve decided that if any student asks me straight out, “Are you gay?” I’m going to tell the truth and say, “Yes I am.”

I lived in the closet for 40 years of my life. It’s dark and cold and scary in there. I won’t go back in there again. If I lose my job because of it, so be it. Straight teachers talk about their lives in class all the time, why can’t I?

Teachers talk about things that the students can relate to, I would think, as either part of the curriculum or to explain something. Does it relate to your students? I guess that’s up to you and your students to figure out.

Would I talk about Islam to a room full of Catholics? I would, if the topic came up and it related to the students. Would I talk about auto mechanics to a room full of lawyers? Maybe, but probably not. Would I talk about having a mistress to a room full of married couples? I’d want to think about that one first…maybe, maybe not.

I am a teacher and a professional. I cover the material in class that is needed to get points across to my students. I also believe that KNOWING your students and them KNOWING you as a teacher and a human being helps a lot in developing rapport, respect and a positive professional working relationship. Classroom discipline and management has a lot to do with your relationship with your students.

I know what is and isn’t appropriate for the age group that I am teaching.

I think you actually have a great opportunity. In the area of Mexico I know well, (I do not know D.F. well) there is quite a bit of homophobia, its stems from the same kind of ingnorace you see in the part of the US that I’m from. People’s only experiences with homosexuals are movies like Priscilla Queen of the Desert. They make statements like “I don’t know any homosexuals.” And if you tell them that infact they do, X, Y and Z are all homosexuals, they are shocked and don’t believe you. I think it not only fine to let your students know that you are gay. It’s an important part of their education. It’s important for them to see that normal professional people like yourself, might just happen to be gay. And that one can be gay without being a drag queen (I’m assuming your not. )

But as for straight people talking about their lives in class all the time, not necessarily true. I rarely do in a deep way. My current students might guess I’m married (I wear a wedding ring after all). I have mentioned that I have to leave right away to pick up my daughters. But I don’t go out of my way to tell them things about my husband, who is a graduate of this school and infact we first meet when he was in my class almost 9 years ago. Its only been in the last two years that there are no students left at the university who know that because its a small school and he’s a popular guy. I’m rather enjoying the privacy and don’t plan on releaving my private life to my students.
But that’s my story, and everyone’s situation is different.

There are several issues involved here, IMHO.

I think it comes down to what an individual teacher feels he needs to share or not share with his students in order to be “real and human” in the classroom. My personal point of view is that I don’t believe it’s anyone else’s business whether my preference for intimacy is with women or men or sheep . . . or all of the above . . . together at the same time. I don’t believe students need to know my sexual preferences in order for me to develop good rapport with them, teach them English, and be good at classroom management.

I believe in mutual respect between a teacher and his students as well as among students in my classroom. Part of that mutual respect involves what’s acceptable to ask/tell and what isn’t. I would never ask my students things like Is your family rich/poor? How often do you have sex? Are you straight/gay? By the same token, I wouldn’t consider it appropriate for my students to ask me or their classmates those things.

But that’s just me. The bottom line is that nobody here can tell you what kind of personal information you should or shouldn’t share with your students. That’s a decision you have to make.

Why are teachers obsessed with talking about their private lives? Just teach.

Why do gays feel the need to tell everyone they’re gay? Like some kind of mental challenge to whoever’s listening. Straight teachers don’t go around professing their straightness. I don’t care who’s gay and who isn’t. I don’t care which way my teacher swings as long as he/she’s a good teacher. Unfortunately this level of thinking is unattainable to most of Mexico so why even bring it up? I’ve had students, males especially that when reading a text that says something like, ‘… I went into town with my boyfriend’, will change the boyfriend to girlfriend if they are reading aloud in class.

In San Luis, the most close-minded state in Mexico, the people have nothing else to do but trade gossip. You learn not to talk about yourself. If you talk about your private life here, it literally gets spread across town. You realize this when several random strangers know where you live, what you do, who you teach, that you don’t like pozole but you do like tacos al pastor.

I find Mexicans rude in this aspect–if you give in to them and divulge your entire motivation for coming to Mexico etc. you are buena onda. If not, you are sangron(a).

The thing is, the world assumes that everyone is straight, it’s called “heterocentric”. You don’t HAVE to say to your students that you are straight, it’s already assumed.

As of yet I have not told any of my students that I’m gay, though none of them have come right out and asked me. If a student asks you what you did last weekend you might say that you went out with your girlfriend or your wife. I feel like I have to say I went out with “friends”.

If you ARE straight you may be able to sympathise but you can’t really KNOW what it is like to be gay in a hetrocentric world. If a black child gets picked on at school because he’s black he can go home and his family will be able to empathise. If a gay child gets picked on at school for being gay he generally has no one to turn to. He generally can’t go home and cry to his parents.

Don’t you think there are gay students out there that need a positive gay role model too?

Hmm. Maybe it’s that Oaxaca is different from other Mexican states, but on this campus there are several students and teachers who are openly gay/lesbian. No one else here gives a damn.

That is a part of my point. Do your gay students feel comfortable and SAFE being able to mention things about their lives in class? I think having an openly gay teacher in this school would help the gay students feel safer and allow them to have someone to go to for support and counsel if needed. Though I am not a counselor, I am a teacher.

Do you as a teacher do anything to address the heterocentrism that is inherent in western culture? And in your classrooms?

Are you a part of perpetuating bigotry and steroetypes that give tacit consent to this way of thinking? Or do you address it and TEACH your students lessons that are beyond just the textbook?

Last month I had my students do research on Darfur and the genocide going on there. That was NOT covered in the textbook. I had them learn about the issue and then write 3 letters, one to George Bush, one to Kofi Anan and one to Vicente Fox about the issue and what is being done about it. Not in the textbook but an important lesson for the students that broadened their information of the world and their place in it.

I teach not only what’s in the textbook but much much more. I think any decent teacher is intertested in helping their students learn more than just the textbook.

Who gives you the right to filter through the lessons and present those that suit you? You are an English teacher, not a priest or a parent. The students are with you to learn English, not to be lectured on the hardships of gay life. If they wanted to know where you put your *beep*, they would have signed up for that course.

Being gay isn’t just about where I put my *beep*. Any more than being straight is about where you put yours. I assume that you are straight.

I teach English and many other things about the world. Don’t you cover other topics besides what’s in the textbook?

This brings up a whole other can of worms. You’ve taken a feature of ‘western’ society, given it a name, and painted it black, or red, maybe with a bull’s eye on it. I’d say it’s never a bad idea to bring up topics that challenge the student to think…not at all, and your Darfur example is a good one for that. But, what happens when you bring this topic up?

Do you have an agenda in the class? Are you aiming to turn the students opinions, assuming they have one? Is it a topic that you can put on the table and objectively discuss? What would you do as a teacher, and not as a homosexual foreign male, if all or most of your students presented, in English, strong opinions defending heterocentrism? Or worse, if they present strong anti-gay opinions?

I think it starts to move into the murky waters of culture, and this is why the debate over discussing these issues in the US and other places is heated, often coming down to a left-right slugfest. People (parents and school administrators) have a hard time drawing the line or distinguishing between what would be open and honest discussion and what could be perceived as a ‘subversive agenda’.

I’ve done this class before…many times in fact. The way you approach it is important, to get the students thinking, challenging, but more importantly, doing it in English. I didn’t frame it as ‘heterocentrism’ though…I put it in the larger context of stereotypes, discussing racism, sexism, norms and taboos, etc, etc. And never, ever, do I push an agenda. Only ideas. Is that how you’re doing it?

YES! I think that is exactly what is needed. Students need to know you and think “our teacher is an okay guy.” “He’s gay.” “Really, wow, well, he’s still an okay guy.”

As for your other questions, my students are still mastering the difference between go and leave. I don’t think they are going to be writing letters to world leaders anytime soon. (At least not by the end of the semester…)

But I do think you have very good points. Part of the whole reason for having foriegn teachers is expose students to different people. We learn foreign languages to communicate to the people who speak them. Those people, whether native speakers of the language or other non-natives, are most likely going to be different from us. So the whole thing is an exercise in accepting, or at least dealing with, differences, in the end isn’t it?

What it comes down to is this…

One’s job as an English teacher is to facilitate learning of the English language to his/her students. You are expected as a foreign teacher to abide by the laws of the local government and should have the same respect for the cultural expectations in the region. While it is possible to expose individuals to your own cultural truths, this should be done with tact–which I’m sure everybody in this forum understands and honors.

A professional doesn’t bring his or her sexuality to the table when teaching english, negotiating a business contract, or performing other work duties. One’s preference/orientation should not affect their ability to act as a professional.

I have a friend currently doing her student teaching here in California, and when her students ask her if she has a boyfriend, (she tells me) she declines to comment, because it’s not appropriate classroom talk. I don’t think someone should have to be afraid to be honest about their sexuality, but I also think TEFL’ers should exercise discretion in revealing personal details that have the potential for disrupting a classroom or rattling the confidence administrators or parents have in an instructor.

Part of teaching in a public school system in the states is teaching people to be good citizens, which involves walking the line… staying on the straight and narrow. If you choose to teach in a society where a given behavior is deemed socially unacceptable (homosexuality, polyamory, drug use, pre-marital cohabitation)… don’t make it a part of your curriculum. It’s not your place. Plain and simple.

Are you saying that part of being a good citizen involves walking the line? And if so, that you believe students should be taught to walk the line, in order to be ‘good citzens’?

pssst, goes the sound as a whole new can of worms is opened….

Language and culture are most certainly bundled together. But how far should we go? I’m of the opinion that almost any and all topics can be used in the classroom to spur English usage. But, I have to gauge who my students are, what their cultural norms are, and what my aims are in this particular class.

It can be a both a great struggle and a rewarding experience for the foreign teacher working in another country and culture different from his or her own. We are supposed to be teaching but more often than not, what we are doing is learning, about our host country and about ourselves. Sometimes, we learn ugly truths about our own culture. How you handle crossing that threshold of the awareness of your place in the world determines what kind of teacher you become. The cultural imperialist or the truly open-minded world citizen.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 at 6:48 am and is filed under General Mexico Info, TEFL in Mexico, TEFL Worldwide. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.