Student English Club

My line manager, the Vice Dean, called a meeting of the Cluster Unit (my two colleagues; and the unit co-ordinator, an instructor in the college) on Wednesday afternoon. The meeting was polite and much calmer than our last meeting. The Vice Dean read out the report of the meeting from VSO (which I had crafted with Belay, my programme manager) and then proceeded to explain that he had been surprised at my apparent lack of understanding of my role or the role of the other people in the unit (which simply demonstrated his lack of understanding of what I had previously tried to discuss!). This time he allowed some space for people to contribute. I was able to clarify my views and explain that the main misunderstanding from my point of view was our differing interpretations of “line manager”. Overall the meeting was satisfactory in that everyone has agreed with my extension until the end of next semester and I was able to explain my version of some of the issues. The Vice Dean’s manner at times was patronising and his understanding of certain issues was simplistic at best, but the atmosphere is now much better and he apologised for any misunderstanding on the part of the college (note: no apology for his behaviour). So, progress has been made and maybe all of us have learned something from the experience. Afterwards, Meleshew explained that in her opinion the Vice Dean is much “better” this year in how he deals with people. Last year he and the previous volunteer had more than one serious argument leaving the volunteer in tears. He apparently doesn’t shout at people so much now.

One thing which did surprise me was when he raised the issue of the small amount of teaching I had done in the 1^st semester. It turns out that all of my colleagues did not approve of me teaching and completely misunderstood why I wanted to teach. I thought I had been clear at the time that my main reason was to get some inside understanding of the pre-service training in the college and the issues faced by trainee teachers, trainees who will go on to be teachers supported by the Cluster Unit when they graduate. NOBODY questioned me on this or raised any concerns about me doing a small amount of teaching. The Vice Dean explained that because my decision had been “conscious” then he could not challenge me on it without causing offence, and the only people who could challenge or question me were VSO! This was perhaps the most revealing part of Wednesday’s meeting. I am left thinking that VSO need to improve their partner induction processes so that the partners have a better understanding of how VSO works now (as opposed to 10 years ago), the professional culture the volunteers come from and exactly what the expectations are of the designated “line manager”.

So, the Vice Dean will send the extension acceptance letter and, for now, all appears to be OK. The conclusion seems to be that the Cluster Unit Co-ordinator is “in charge” (which I always knew), but because he is an instructor we should not expect any leadership from him i.e. I should effectively provide leadership even though I am not the leader. This is supposed to be “clarity” but I can work with it!

Friday was quite a satisfying day. I spent a chunk of it teaching Meleshew how to use Word on the unit PC and she clearly enjoyed being able to produce certificates for the teachers who have been for our training. I also spent some time working with Meleshew and Mulugeta on putting together an action plan for next year. Given that there is now only four weeks until the end of the academic year getting next year’s plan sorted out is a priority.

Teaching English to Mekdes, our “day guard”, on a Saturday morning seems to be a regular event now. I improvise a lot, given my lack of knowledge of language teaching, but we seem to be making progress and it’s enjoyable for both of us in different ways. I like feeling that I’m giving something valuable to somebody else. I just wish I could be more confident that I’m doing a decent job of it.

The afternoon has been spent at college as a guest of the student English Club. I was invited to a coffee ceremony while they engaged in various poetry readings, debates, quizzes and role plays to demonstrate and practice their English. Their energy and determination to develop their English in the face of apathy and lack of support from the college that’s supposed to be supporting them is remarkable.