Some Food for Thought

Everybody working in our Department expects a professional working environment. This includes a civilized tone in dealing with each other, respectful behavior, and fair assessment of performance. That said, holding each other accountable is absolutely part of a professional working environment and should under no circumstance be dismissed as unprofessional or threatening, provided it is done in a factual and respectful manner. All this applies equally to everybody: providers and patients, executives and frontline personnel, academics and non-academics, learners and teachers.

These days, learner mistreatment has gained priority attention and there is zero tolerance for it in our Department. It is good that the times are gone when flying scalpels and public scolding had to be accepted as part of one’s learning experience. It is good that sexist remarks or asking for personal favors has become an absolute no-no.  It is good that there are processes in place allowing those who perceive witnessing or experiencing them report such events without exposing themselves to retaliation. And it is good that any report on anything the like will trigger an investigation.

Professionalism, however, applies, in my opinion, equally to both, learners and teachers. Not only can learners expect to be treated in a civilized manner by their teachers, but also the teachers by their learners. And there I have recently seen occasions that make me ponder whether we might have thrown out the baby with the bathwater. Is it not also mistreatment if a learner anonymously scolds a teacher on a feedback form without having to provide any factual proof, thereby negatively affecting the teacher’s performance review? Is it right when a teacher can be anonymously blamed for having held a learner accountable for a substandard performance and therefore having failed that learner? And finally, is it good that we seem to have forgotten that somebody is innocent until proven guilty? – Some food for thought.

One thought on “Some Food for Thought”

  1. That is probably true to some extent. Learners should be expected to behave professionally and differentiated between personal attacks and objective assessments.
    That being said, Teachers are still in position of power, any complaints about them should not be dismissed as a disgruntled learner opinion. If there is a pattern, frequent complaints from multiple learners, then this should be looked at closely.
    There is also the issue of subtle intimidation. The realization that you are a target of your teacher’s wrath and mistreatment, in subtle ways.
    using threats and punishment with underperformance and dismissing steps taken by learner for improvements.
    It is really dispiriting.

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