Tensions between teachers and students in multicultural MBO classes over religion, sexuality, politics and the theory of evolution

At MBO schools, there are regular tensions between teachers and students about matters such as religion, sexuality, politics and the theory of evolution. Two-thirds of teachers are confronted with this, according to research by the university in Wageningen, what Trouw writes about.

About half of the teachers surveyed say they occasionally experience tension during such conversations and 13 percent do so regularly. Researcher Kennedy Tielman came to this conclusion after surveying 900 teachers from 20 schools who work in MBO classes with at least 60 percent of students who have a migration background.

The research shows that some students refused to hold the hand of their homosexual classmate during a group assignment. There were also tensions at internships, where some students have difficulty with authority. Another example is that young Muslim women from a health care academy did not want to wash male patients because of their religion.

Teachers often come across situations like this that go against their own norms and values. Many of them feel overwhelmed by increasing cultural and socioeconomic differences and other forms of diversity in the classroom, the study found. Teachers indicate that they feel ill-prepared to discuss sensitive topics.

Tielman believes that teacher training should pay more attention to acquiring knowledge and skills to deal with such situations. “Think of culturally responsive teaching, where you recognize that the cultural background of students plays a role. If you are open to the conversation and offer room for multiple perspectives, it is easier to get the students on board,” he says to Trouw. The Curaçaoan himself is a teacher trainer at Fontys University of Applied Sciences.

Sometimes things go wrong because lecturers and students communicate past each other or do not fully understand each other, he notes. “Some students don’t think it’s respectful to look someone in the eye, while the teacher expects that of them. They both have good intentions and it still hurts.”

Although teachers should also be able to draw a line, for example when it comes to homophobic remarks, thinks Tielman. “You can also name the tension and then say as a teacher: ‘but I don’t want this in my classroom’. You don’t have to negotiate discriminatory statements.”

The research also shows that teachers with multicultural skills report tension more often than colleagues who have less experience with it. This is probably because they recognize the conflicts better, are used more often in classes where there are more clashes and also report those tensions more often, the researcher explains.