The shared struggle: Issues faced by foreign teachers in the Dutch
classroom
By Danielle Beckman
Leraar Voorbereidend Hoger Onderwijs in Engels
Centrum voor Onderwijs en Leren – UU
supervisor: dr. Rick de Graaff
date: 1 July, 2012
Abstract
In Dutch education there is an increasing emphasis on internationalization
and bilingual education. Those factors combined with a teacher shortage
have led to an increase in teachers coming to the Netherlands from other
countries. A teacher coming to the Netherlands from another country has
to get accustomed to the Dutch educational culture. This research seeks
to identify issues that foreign teachers struggle with when they come to
teach in the Netherlands. This research is interested in looking into
differences in educational culture that have a direct effect on the teacher
in the classroom (with students) and their ability to function well at school
(with colleagues). This research identifies specific issues that teachers
from foreign cultures struggle with in the Dutch classroom and looks at
what steps can be made to help make the transition process easier for
foreign teachers.
In het Nederlandse onderwijs wordt steeds meer de nadruk gelegd op
internationalisering en tweetalig onderwijs. Deze factoren en het feit dat
er een lerarentekort is, zorgt voor een toenemend aantal leraren uit het
buitenland. Deze buitenlandse leraren moeten wennen aan de
Nederlandse onderwijscultuur. Dit onderzoek probeert problemen te
identificeren waar buitenlandse leraren tegen aan lopen als zij in
Nederland les geven. Er wordt specifiek gekeken naar de verschillen in
onderwijs cultuur die een direct effect hebben op de leraar in de klas (met
leerlingen) en hun functioneren binnen de school (met collega’s).
Vervolgens wordt er gekeken welke stappen er genomen kunnen worden
om het transitie proces makkelijker te laten verlopen voor buitenlandse
leraren.
1
Introduction
As our world becomes increasingly globalized, it should come as no
surprise that education is becoming more globalized as well. The
Netherlands is no exception to this trend. In Dutch education there is an
increasing emphasis on internationalization and bilingual education. Those
factors combined with a teacher shortage have led to an increase in
teachers coming to the Netherlands from other countries. As a foreigner
coming to a new country, there is a whole new culture that one must
become accustomed to. A new way of doing things. The same applies
within the world of education. A teacher coming to the Netherlands from
another country has to get accustomed to the Dutch educational culture.
Teachers with foreign training and/or experience may be operating from a
different knowledge base of education and have specific teaching and
learning methodologies which might conflict with the Dutch system.
As a teacher myself coming to the Netherlands, I struggled adapting
to a new educational culture and in discussion with fellow expat teachers I
came to realize that those teachers were struggling with many of the
same issues as well. In addition to sharing similar struggles, we also
shared the experience that our schools were generally unaware of the
issues that we faced as new expat teachers and there was not system in
place within the school to help us adapt/ prepare us for a different
educational culture.
This research, then seeks to identify issues that expat teachers
struggle with when they come to teach in the Netherlands. While there are
a number of practical issues that teachers face teaching in a new culture
(a different educational structure, different rules and regulations, and
other issues that come along with being a foreigner in a new land), this
research is interested in looking into differences in educational culture that
have a direct effect on the teacher in the classroom (with students) and
their ability to function well at school (with colleagues). While there is an
increase in foreign teachers, schools are not necessarily aware of the
challenges that these international teachers will face. The aim of this
research is to be able to identify common issues expat teachers struggle
with so that Dutch schools that employ expat teachers can become aware
of the issues that these teachers face and better be able to guide and
support them in their transition to Dutch education.
Theoretical Framework
A major part of moving to a new culture is of course, learning how to
adjust and adapt to a new culture that acts and reacts in ways that are
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new or unexpected. Adapting to this new culture is an important part of
being able to function successfully in or with that culture. Acculturation is
a well-known concept first defined by anthropologists Redfield, Linton and
Herskovits (1936): "Acculturation comprehends those phenomena which
result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into
continuous firsthand contact, with subsequent changes in the original
culture patterns of either or both groups". Acculturation, then, is an issue
which will be faced by teachers who go to teach in a foreign culture. They
will be faced with a new culture both outside and inside of the classroom
which will have an effect on the way that they function.
Holliday (1994) looks at the issue of acculturation more specifically in the
terms of how this will affect teachers in foreign cultures. He identifies a
variety of cultures that foreign teachers must become acculturated with
namely the cultures of: the nation, of the specific academic discipline, of
international education, of the host institution, of the classroom, and of
the students themselves. He goes on to say, “To be effective, expatriate
teachers must take account of all these cultures and how they influence
the attitude and study styles of their students. Instead of trying to impose
cultures of their own, they must work with the cultures that they
encounter” (29). So for teachers, then, this means to have an
understanding of the educational culture that they will be teaching in.
Looking further into literature on the acculturation process for teachers,
we come across the idea of intercultural literacy which is how Heyward
(2002) refers to the acculturation process necessary for expatriate
teachers in international settings. He defines intercultural literacy as the
understandings necessary for successful cross-cultural engagement
(p.10). Heyward goes on to say: “The interculturally literate person, in
these terms, possesses the understandings, competencies, attitudes and
identities necessary for successful living and working in a cross-cultural or
pluralist setting. He or she has the background required effectively to
“read” a second culture, to interpret its symbols and negotiate its
meanings in a practical day to day context” (11). Heyward points out that
there are many different variables that play a role in becoming
intercultural literate and to aid teachers in the acquisition of this literacy
“educational and training interventions” could be very useful (15). So
becoming accustomed to a new educational culture, then, is not
something that teachers have to do on their own but it can be useful to
have external support (i.e. trainings) in negotiating this new culture.
The Dutch context
3
While there are a number of studies dealing with the acculturation issues
that teachers face in foreign schools (Zhou et al (2008), Dooley (2001),
Boyle (2010)), this research is nearly exclusively focused on Western
nationals teaching in schools in developing countries or Eastern cultures.
For the purposes of this research however, we were interested in research
dealing with the acculturation of (mainly) Western teachers teaching in
other Western countries and this research was surprisingly sparse.
Grantham et al. (2007) encountered this same issue while carrying out
their research project on acculturation of foreign teachers in the
Netherlands. In their research, Grantham et al identified some of the
major issues that foreign teachers faced while teaching in the Netherlands
such as: the attitude and behavior of the students, language, clarity and
interpretation of rules, and hierarchy. While they identified areas in which
the teachers struggled they did not go into the specifics of what exactly
those struggles were.
What Grantham et al. also discovered was that there was very little
support available for expat teachers while 62% of the teachers
interviewed did not feel adequately adjusted to the Dutch educational
setting. Grantham et al report: “When asked whether their first school in
the Netherlands did anything specifically aimed at helping them adapt to
the differences mentioned in the previous question, only 2 of the 29
respondents replied that yes, their first school in the Netherlands had
done something specifically aimed at helping them adapt to these
differences” (p.8) While in most cases there were no special support
available for expat teachers, in the few cases where there was support
offered to expat teachers this had a positive result (p.15). Grantham et al.
concluded that there should be special trainings available to help make
the acculturation process easier for foreign teachers coming to the
Netherlands.
A study sponsored by the Dutch government (SBO, 2011) looking into the
issue of recruiting teachers from Germany and Belgium to come to the
Netherlands due to a lack of teachers in the Netherlands, also
acknowledged that differing educational cultures could serve as a hurdle
for German and Belgian teachers in Dutch education, specifically
mentioning the lack of hierarchy between students and teachers and the
feeling of empowerment of the Dutch students. It was pointed out that
these cultural differences could make it difficult for some German and
Belgian teachers to succeed in the Netherlands.
Research Question
The main question that this research seeks to answer is:
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Which of the following topics umbrella specific issues which are shared by
expat teachers in the Netherlands:
-
Behavior
Attitudes
Methods
Hierarchy
Language
General cultural differences
Methods and tools
Participants
The three preliminary interviews were carried out with three separate
teachers from different countries: America, Britain and France. All of these
teachers were teaching at different schools in the Netherlands.
The questionnaires were distributed electronically to expat teachers
teaching in the Netherlands. A teacher was in this case considered an
expat if they are not Dutch and grew up and completed their schooling
outside of the Netherlands. Due to the fact that there is no database
identifying these teachers, professional (TTO schools, British Council,
German teachers in training) and personal connections were used to
identify potential informants who were then sent a mail explaining the
purpose of the research and a link to the online questionnaire. While over
40 teachers were sent the questionnaire, 19 questionnaires were filled in
and returned. The countries of the participants and the subjects they
teach are shown in table 1 and 2.
Table 1: Nationality of respondents
Nationality # of respondents
American
4
British
4
Canadian
2
French
1
German
4
Australian 1
Russian
1
Norwegian 1
Spanish
1
5
Table 2: Subjects taught by respondents
Subject taught # of respondents
English
9
French
1
German
4
Physics
1
Spanish
1
Mathematics
2
Science
1
Questionnaire
For this research a questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire aimed
to cover 6 specific areas that were mentioned to be areas of struggle for
expat teachers in the work of Grantham et al. and SBO. Those topics
were:
•
•
•
•
•

Behavior
Attitude
Methods
hierarchy
language
general cultural differences
The questionnaire consisted of 6 open questions (see Appendix A). This
allowed the teachers to share the issues that were most prevalent for
them giving allowing for a clearer picture of exactly what issues teachers
struggle with. In addition to the open questions participants were also
asked to provide their country of origin, mother tongue and the subject
that they teach.
After developing the questionnaire three interviews were conducted with
expat teachers in the Netherlands using the questionnaire as an outline.
After those interviews, the questionnaires were slightly adapted with
feedback from the participants to improve the clarity of the questions.
Specifically extra clarification was added to show what possible kind of
topics were intended to be covered by that question. For example, the
question for hierarchy originally read: Was the expected student-teacher
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relationship different that you were accustomed to. In the interviews the
respondents had difficulty understanding what exactly was meant by this
question. Therefore more information was added to the question as
suggested by the interviewees. The new question read as follows: Was
the expected student-teacher relationship/interaction different than you
were accustomed to (i.e. hierarchical relationship)? If so, how?
The questionnaire was distributed and completed electronically. It was
possible to complete the survey in English or in Dutch. This option was
important as some foreign teachers (particularly in bilingual schools) do
not speak fluent Dutch, and vice versa, not all foreign teachers are fluent
in English. Therefore offering the questionnaire in both languages
increased the pool of possible respondents. See Appendix A for the full
questionnaire.
Analysis
Upon receiving the returned questionnaire the answers were categorized
into the 6 themes mentioned above, and the specific issues mentioned by
the teachers were isolated in order to be able to identify
common/recurring issues. Issues that were mentioned more than once
were identified as being relevant. As the questions were all open
questions, the respondents would mention the issue(s) that were most
relevant to them and not an exhaustive list of all the issues they faced.
Therefore a response was seen as relevant if it was mentioned more than
one time as this shows that it is not strictly an individual issue and it is
possible that others struggled with this topic as well even if it was not
their largest issue.
Results
Behavior
On the questionnaire respondents were asked: “Was the behavior of the
Dutch students in the classroom different than what you were accustomed
to/expecting? If so, please explain.” 17 of the 19 respondents reported
that they had issues with the behavior of Dutch students. There were
three specific issues that came up: directness (11x) pushing boundaries
(9x), and unpreparedness (no books, no homework, etc.) (6x). On the
issue of directness a respondent said that she was taken aback by the “no
nonsense” attitude of the students. “If I asked them to get started on an
assignment and they did not see the benefit in doing the work or would
rather do something else, they would simply say that. They preferred to
use class time to socialize with friends and not work and seemed to think
7
this was an acceptable option.” Concerning pushing boundaries, one
teacher wrote: “The students seem to think that everything is a
negotiation. Every instruction that I gave seemed to turn into a
negotiation process. I found this very difficult in the beginning.”
Attitude
On the questionnaire respondents were asked: “Was the attitude of the
Dutch students toward education and/or learning different than what you
were accustomed to/expecting? If so, please discuss what was different.”
17 of the 19 respondents on the questionnaire reported that they did have
initial struggles with the attitude of the Dutch students. The most common
issue that came up was related to the lack of motivation of the students.
Specific issues that were mentioned were motivation for grades(10x), and
that students did not take deadlines seriously(8x). One teacher wrote that
her students thought that “a deadline is not really a deadline, more of a
guideline.” Concerning grades, a common response was that Dutch
students go for a 5,5 and are not motivated to earn a higher grade. One
respondent said “…most students find it most rewarding to simply know
that they have "passed." Dutch students are very likely to play triage with
their grades, giving limited or no attention to courses that they know that
they are going to pass.” Also in relation to grades it was mentioned by
that students were only motivated to work if there was a grade attached
to the assignment.
Teaching methods
The respondents were asked the following question: Were the teaching
methods that you were accustomed to using different than what the
school and/or students were accustomed to? If so, please explain how
your methods were different. For this question 14 respondents mentioned
that this was an issue for them. The issues were that were mentioned
were: lack of creativity(x5), lack of preparation(x4), tests(x3),and lack of
structure (x3). One teacher said that she felt she was viewed as very
strict and “too serious” by her students and some of her colleagues for her
approach to teaching. Another responded: “I am frustrated by the
nonchalance with which some Dutch colleagues approach learning...I find
here there is less emphasis on structure and accountability than in
America.”
Hierarchy
On the questionnaire the respondents were asked: “Was the average
student-teacher relationship/interaction in the school different than you
8
were accustomed to (i.e. hierarchical relationship)? If so, how?” The issue
of hierarchy, specifically the lack of it, was an issue that was shared by
nearly all of the respondents (18). Specifically mentioned here was the
issue of respect for the teacher. A British respondent replied: “I noticed
right away that the power distance between teacher and student is much
smaller than in Britain; here instead of automatically warranting respect
as a teacher, you need to EARN it.” Another respondent reported: “I am
used to students having an automatic level of respect (or even fear) of the
teacher. I think for Dutch students that is not the case.”
Language
On the questionnaire the respondents were asked: Was your ability to
speak Dutch (fluency, accent, etc.) an issue in your teaching or with your
colleagues? If so, please explain. For this answer there was a clear
distinction between those who spoke fluent Dutch and those who did not.
All of the respondents who said that they had issues with speaking the
language were native English speakers who did not speak Dutch or did not
speak it fluently (7x). The area in which these respondents struggled was
not in the classroom but rather with colleagues. These colleagues
struggled because they couldn’t/didn’t feel comfortable communicating
with their colleagues in Dutch and there were colleagues who had the
same issues about communicating in English. One respondent said in her
interview that she felt that there were a number of colleagues who were
“threatened/ irritated/ uncomfortable” with the fact that he could only
communicate in English. Another respondent wrote about her struggles
trying to communicate in Dutch at school: “When I speak Dutch to a
colleague to whom I normally speak English, s/he reacts in one of two
ways: (1) corrects me, thus making me feel small; (2) claps and praises
me in the style of a three year old child, thus making me feeling even
smaller. The language is probably the one area I struggle with most at
school.”
General Cultural Differences
On the questionnaire respondents were asked: Were there general cultural
differences that were a problem for you in the classroom or with your
colleagues? Please explain. 9 respondents stated that there were general
cultural differences (not related to any of the topics already mentioned)
that they struggled with at school. There were a number of different
issues including: sloppy dress (of students and colleagues) (3x), disregard
for colleagues (3x), cursing (3x) time spent at work(x2) and lack of parent
involvement (x2). The other respondents then did not encounter general
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cultural differences that they felt to be an impediment to their teaching or
work at school. So, while all foreigners undoubtedly encounter cultural
differences, these differences did not seem to be a big issue in the
educational setting for expat teachers.
Table 3: questionnaire results
Various issues respondents struggled Yes No
with(yes)/ didn’t struggle with (no)
issues with behavior 17
2
Issues with students attitude towards school/ learning 17
2
Issues with teaching methods 14
5
Issues with hierarchy 18
1
Issues with language
7
12
Issues with general cultural differences
9
10
Discussion
The results indicate that not only are there general categories that foreign
teachers struggle with (as mentioned by Grantham et al. and SBO ) but
there also seem to be shared specific issues - like lack of hierarchy,
directness of students, motivation for learning, proficiency in Dutch - that
foreign teachers in the Netherlands struggle with. This information can be
very useful in preparing future foreign teachers for the Dutch educational
culture. As Holiday and Heyward mention an important part of
acculturation for foreign teachers is gaining information about the culture
of their students and schools. If teachers can be made aware of what is
typical in Dutch educational culture, and more specifically identify
potential struggles they will face in this culture, perhaps they will not have
as great of a struggle in “reading” ”(in Heyward’s terms) the culture, as
they will already be aware of some of the main issues they will encounter.
This information is not useful for the foreign teachers alone, however.
Looking back to the definition of acculturation, we see that acculturation
can be a mutual process. So not only should the foreign teacher
acculturate to the new educational culture, but the new school can also
play an integral role in the process by acculturating themselves with the
foreign teacher and the educational culture she brings with her. This not
only will help the school to better be able to understand the foreign
colleague but also be able to better guide and support her in her role at a
new school and in a new culture.
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As established by the study of Grantham et al., foreign teachers in the
Netherlands could greatly benefit from more support in preparing them for
the Dutch classroom. This study further supports that idea by showing
that there are specific issues which many foreign teachers in the
Netherlands struggle with. Interesting to look at then is how this
information could practically be used to aid the acculturation process of
foreign teachers.
I think an excellent place to begin would be to have a training or
orientation available for new foreign teachers and a counterpart from their
school in the Netherlands. While there are trainings available that are
associated with specific educational programs, not all foreign teachers
have the opportunity to follow these trainings or are aware of their
existence. The European Platform does offer programs for native speakers
of German and French teaching in the Netherlands but I have been told
that those programs focus more on the general cultural differences and do
not go in depth on differences in educational culture. Also, those programs
are of course reserved for German and French speaking foreigners,
leaving a large audience of foreign teachers from other countries
unreached.. Using the issues discussed in this research as a basis, an
orientation program then could prepare the new teachers for the new
educational culture by giving specific examples of challenging issues they
might face. In addition these trainings could give them the support they
need at school by having a colleague who also understands the specific
issues that this teacher may struggle with. Given that the European
Platform is very involved in internationalization in education and has
contact with a lot of foreign teachers who come to teach in bilingual
education, and the fact that they already offer a form of cultural training
for native German and French speakers, this could be a good institution to
facilitate such a training. Important, however, is that all schools are made
aware of this training and not only schools associated with specific
programs.
I think it is important to mention that all of the focus of this research was
on struggles that foreign teachers face. Certainly there are also positive
aspects to the Dutch educational culture, but that was not the concern of
this research.
Also, this research was not without limitations. First of all the number of
respondents from English speaking countries was dominant. This could
then lead to issues that were more a result of specific cultural differences
and would not be relevant for foreign teachers from other cultures. In
addition, it would have been useful to ask the respondents which issues
11
were most relevant/ persistent for them. This could have provided
relevant information on which topics would be most relevant to cover in a
training or in future research. Also, the number of respondents is smaller
than hoped for making these results less reliable. It would be useful if
further research was done which quantitatively tested how relevant the
issues identified on this survey were. Those results could then be
controlled for specific cultural differences of the participants to show which
issues are relevant across cultures and which issues are perhaps culture
specific.
Conclusion
Adapting to a new culture is always difficult, but for foreign teachers this
is especially the case, for not only do they have to adapt to a new general
culture, they have to adapt to a new educational culture as well. This
study shows that there are specific common issues faced by foreign
teachers in the Netherlands. This information can be used to better
prepare these teachers for the challenges that await them and help the
schools to understand and support these teachers through the
acculturation process.
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Appendix A: Questionnaire Text
International teachers in the Dutch Classroom
The purpose of this questionnaire is to gain information about issues that
expat teachers struggled with when they began teaching in a Dutch
school, specifically looking at the issues that occurred within the
classroom setting and with colleagues. Therefore when answering the
questions please think back to your initial experiences teaching in a Dutch
school. Your feedback is highly valued and hopefully this information can
be used to help prepare future expat teachers for the transition into the
Dutch classroom.
There are 8 questions in this questionnaire. Please complete all questions
and give examples to support your answers where possible.
1. Please provide the following general information: country of origin,
subject that you teach, native language.
2. Was the behavior of the Dutch students in the classroom different than
what you were accustomed to/expecting? If so, please explain.
3. Was the attitude of the Dutch students toward education and/or
learning different than what you were accustomed to/expecting? If so,
please discuss what was different.
4. Were the teaching methods that you were accustomed to using
different than what the school and/or students were accustomed to? If so,
please explain how your methods were different.
5. Was the average student-teacher relationship/interaction in the school
different than you were accustomed to (i.e. hierarchical relationship)? If
so, how?
6. Was your ability to speak Dutch (fluency, accent, etc.) an issue in your
teaching or with your colleagues? If so, please explain.
7. Were there general cultural differences that were a problem for you in
the classroom or with your colleagues? Please explain.
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8. Are there any other issues that you struggled with as a foreign teacher
in the Dutch classroom that were not dealt with above? If so, please
share.
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