Reflecting on 10 Weeks

My perception of leader and follower relations as well as communication both shifted greatly over the course of my ten weeks working in Indonesia this summer. As outlined in my Personal Plan paper, I was able to acquire many transferable skills such as how to communicate effectively across cultural and linguistic barriers, form and carry out a plan, and how to form healthy relationships with my supervisors and co-workers. 

Early on in the summer, I had to learn how to navigate cultural differences and overcome the uneasiness that can stem from being in a completely foreign environment. I had to become very flexible with having a more lax schedule and adapting quickly to last minute changes. Indonesians are not ones for planning, and time is a loose concept here. In the beginning of the summer, the three of us American interns were rarely given much notice regarding the agenda for the following day and whether we would be in the classroom, assisting administratively, or on a field trip the next day was typically a guessing game. Without knowing for certain what the plan for the day ahead was, we had to be prepared for anything. Although there is a degree of freedom in not being constricted by a rigid schedule, it is also beneficial to be able to be prepared for the day’s activities. However, as the summer progressed, we gradually became more involved in what little planning there was, and we were able to play a bigger role in coordinating events and lessons. 

With this increase in responsibility, it was neat to be able to use traits unique to me to contribute to the school. Because I’m from America, I was able to share my perspective as someone who grew up going to English class every single day and recommend some of the methods used by various teachers that I have found most effective. My background as an English speaker has also enabled me to assist both teachers and students when they are searching for the English word for something, but cannot quite remember it. At other times, the things I learned in Theories and Models regarding emotional intelligence, particularly reading body language, helped me to read situations and fill in the remaining language barrier gaps. I gained good practice in honing my emotional intelligence skills and discerning other’s feelings through being more keenly aware of their body language. Because sheer language was not always the most reliable means of communicating my point, I became rather adept at conveying my meaning and intent through the way in which I said things, not necessarily the words I used. Through this process, I learned the value of tone of voice and which methods of communication generated different responses from the students as well as those I worked with.  

Eventually, I reached a point at which I was entrusted to plan and conduct lessons entirely on my own. This heightened trust was especially rewarding because it fulfilled the goal I outlined in my Site Description Paper of becoming confident enough to take the initiative and helping the people I worked with before having to be asked. For example, during my last week at the school, I was able to fill in at the last minute for a teacher who had a family emergency. I was only able to do this because I had become comfortable enough in my role to balance my own work as well as offer extra assistance. Becoming better established a rooted in my position also helped me to accomplish another goal I set in my Site Description Paper of helping to streamline the existing systems. Currently, the distribution of tasks at the school flows from the administrative team, who make the big decisions regarding when and where events are to be held, to the teachers, who handle the details of what activities, snacks, etc. will be available at said events. This system generally maintains a healthy balance of direction for the teachers mixed with the freedom to put their own personal spin on projects. I attempted to increase efficiency by indirectly encouraging my fellow teachers to plan ahead more through asking them about the finer details of the bigger events at least a week in advance. This forced them to be preemptively thinking about the event and brainstorming ideas in time to gather the necessary supplies.       

On the other hand, the teachers taught me a lot about how to be comfortable with having a looser plan and allowing things to unfold more organically. This approach was especially useful in teaching, because at times, the kids did not grasp concepts as quickly as anticipated and lesson plans had to be amended anyway. As described in my Learning Contract, I did indeed gain experience in exercising different teaching styles and overcoming cultural obstacles. Although it felt different and less formal at first, my co-workers helped me to adapt to a more discussion and activity based style of teaching. Because I was more accustomed to traditional whiteboard lessons and book work, it was very helpful for me to merely shadow a couple of the teachers for the first week, so as to observe their techniques of hands on learning and guiding the students. Working alongside the long term teachers also showed me how to handle being granted lots of freedom and independence in how to run the classroom and how to decide which activities would be appropriate for the day. 

Through observing my administrators as well as co-workers, I was also able to see how leadership and followership can take various forms. I learned that great leaders must be able to read and adapt to different situations; it is not always the loudest person in the room who has the greatest influence, nor is quietly leading by example always the best approach. Most markedly, I saw firsthand the positive effects that the transforming leadership techniques bring about by instilling followers with a sense of ownership in their work. The main leader of the English school was an excellent example of transforming leadership. He possessed the four essential characteristics of transforming leaders – individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and idealized influence – and energized his followers to overcome challenges and work for the benefit of the group. He especially demonstrated individualized consideration and inspirational motivation by always asking us how we were feeling, whether we needed anything, if we had any questions, etc. Furthermore, he genuinely took an interest in our lives outside of work, making each of us teachers feel valued and appreciated, thereby motivating us to put forth our best effort into our work. Additionally, he consistently inspired us during our staff meetings by speaking openly and honestly about his lofty goals and high hopes for the students, reminding us of our organization’s mission and that we are part of something that is bigger than ourselves. In this way, our leader used transforming leadership by giving us a place in his vision for the school, thus granting us something more to work for than mere personal gain. Our combined dedication to our organization’s cause and its leader make us teachers want to work hard and devote ourselves to doing the best job possible. One problem that this high motivation surmounts is the school’s inability to pay its teachers very good salaries. Despite the meager compensation, the teachers give their best to their jobs because they believe in both the institution and their leader’s vision. Therefore, if the measure of a charismatic leader’s success can be measured by how much he influences followers’ motivation and performance, Burns’ transforming theory of leadership seems to be qualitatively working quite well at my internship site.

Although transforming leadership worked exceptionally well with the English school staff, the approach was not quite as effective with the students. Instead of transforming or transformational leadership, transactional leadership was the main method used within the classroom walls. If one of us teachers wished to get the students to put forth more effort toward studying a concept or doing their practice exercises, we typically offered some sort of reward, such as extra time to play outside, in exchange for the completed worksheet. In this way, the transactional style of leadership helped to overcome the challenge of keeping a group of energetic elementary schoolers on task and focused. It seems as though the transactional leadership style is more effective with younger kids because the more simple basis of a reward and punishment system of the style is easier for them to grasp. The transformational leadership methods of pointing to a larger purpose and inspiring motivation through striving for a long term goal do not work quite as well with the children because it is difficult for them to focus on the long term effects of today’s choices. Due to their short attention spans, kids respond much better to the immediate gratification that often goes along with transactional leadership’s terms. Although there were some components of transformational leadership that I was able to incorporate with my younger students, such as individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation, I did not find much success relying on inspirational motivation to produce great results. While transactional leadership is undeniably more dependable for bringing about quick, short term results in the younger kids’ behavior, I would like to decipher when the appropriate time is to transition children to a more transformational leadership approach one day.

Overall, I learned far more about such a vast variety of topics throughout this summer than I could have ever anticipated in May, far exceeding the expectations I laid out in my Personal Plan and Site Description papers. However, I did unfortunately fall short in the Indonesian language learning goals I outlined in my Learning Contract due to unforeseen circumstances. Sadly, the mother of our Bahasa Indonesia teacher was in and out of the hospital all of June and later passed away in July, so our teacher often times had to cancel class or leave early if she got called away. Although I did not get to learn as much of the language as I would have liked, I learned enough to survive. Nevertheless, I am pleased with the amount of versatile transferable skills that I was able to acquire as well as the exposure I got to living and working abroad in a less affluent country. I have been considering becoming involved with a program like the Peace Corps after graduation, and I truly appreciate the perspective that living in Indonesia gave me. I will certainly take all the lessons from this summer into consideration when contemplating my next steps.