Teaching and etc

Happy March! I hear that the weather is still a bit miserable in Canada, but here in Dubai, it's already air conditioning weather. It's been warm and humid- I can't wear my cool leather jacket anymore, which makes me very very sad. But no matter! I will be back in Vancouver in a month (with an 11 hour layover in London), I will have a chance to wear my leather jacket then!

Last week, I spent a lot of time teaching information literacy classes. There are three types of classes I teach- they are all essentially the same but different. The first class is called COL 120- it's a foundation course all students from Zayed University need to take before selecting their majors. I get the girls for 10 hours a semester and in this class. Some of the topics I discuss are how to break down a research question, how to search databases and the library catalogue as well as how to use APA citation. I get to spend the most time with them in this class and it is a class that REALLY emphasizes information literacy skills.

I also teach COL 150. This is another foundation course that they all need to take. However, I only get them for an hour a semester. The students have to each choose a country and they have to write a report on this country and present it to the class at the end of the semester. Basically, I go in and show them the Internet resources they can use for their course assignment. Of course, all the resources I am showing them are all authoritative and there is a huge anti-Google emphasis. Finally, I get random courses thrown at me every so often. I am the liaison librarian for math/stats, communication and information technology on the Dubai campus. If an instructor wants me to go in and show his/her student some library resources, I go in and do that. Since we don't have an education liaison librarian, I also had to teach an education course. For these classes, I usually try to get as much information about what the assignments are before hand. Sometimes it's hard to do so because they show up in my office the day before the class, and I would be like 'gulp, you want me to do what?'

So far, I think I've survived all my classes. For the one education class I taught, the databases were down that day. The girls were impatient and the class was a bit of a chaos. In general, the girls are very sweet and attentive, although easily distracted. For both COL 120 and COL 150, the girls are younger and much more manageable. I kind of lost control during one class. This is the education class I taught. I had asked the students to brainstorm concepts for their assignments in groups. Instead, they were searching in the databases. I went around the room and I told them, "No, I don't want you to be searching in the databases. I want you to brainstorm as many concepts related to your research question so you can search them in the databases later." Most of them didn't listen, unfortunately. They were obviously missing my point- I wanted them to have lots of concepts and ideas to search with, rather than doing a couple searches and calling "miss, miss, I can't find anything on my topic." This is what I find the most annoying part of my job really. They don't brainstorm, they try to get out of their tasks as quickly as they can and they kind of do a half- assed job. After a couple of searches and if they can't find something (because they didn't follow directions or try very hard), they can flocking into my office, demanding answers. And I would say, "Well, you are doing an assignment about teenagers in the United Arab Emirates, did you try to use other keywords such as "teens"? They look at me blankly. So I have to go through the whole brainstorming process with them, when they can easily to it themselves.

The maturity levels of these students are definitely lower than those in Canada. However, I love my students. They are extremely sweet and when they do pay attention and try hard, they are very very capable. I have a lot of hopes for these girls... I try to encourage them. A lot of times, they are exploring topics in which there is no research available that is specific to the UAE. For instance, there is virtually no research about teenagers in the UAE, their developmental process and things like that. I told these students to look for studies done in other countries and use the ideas and apply them in the local context. And I always add a remark like, 'you know, there isn't a whole lot of studies done in the UAE, maybe you would finish at Zayed and become a researcher?' Oh, I really hope some of them will genuinely develop an interest in research and start producing research for their country.

So that's that about teaching. It's been kind of nerve wrecking but fun. I will be better at it eventually, I am sure. I hope I never lose faith in these girls- some days it is easy to do because they are just so different and they have such different expectations. It's frustrating working with these girls at times because some of them are very needy and some just don't give a shit. I constantly need to remind myself that these girls are the first generation of women who have been educated in their country. Their mothers before them are not educated. When they have kids, they are going to be the first generation of mothers who are university educated- that's GOT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, right? I know that they still have a long way to go and as a Canadian educated librarian, I have to cultivate patience and foster an environment that will make them more keen to learn.