Responding to Student Emails

[pennswoods]

Since moving to Sweden, one of the other things I find really aggravating and where cultural norms clash is in student email requests. As I mentioned in my last post on education in Sweden, educational socialization is different from that of the US. There are no titles used and there is an emphasis on democratizing education such that students are meant to have a greater say in the system. This leads, I find, to more demands of accountability from the students to the teachers which take the form of more accusatory emails than I am used to getting from students in the United States. The below is an example of one I received today from a student who was put out that she/he bought the wrong books for class and wants me to explain why I changed the reading list at the last minute. I did not - she/he was obviously looking at an outdated reading list, but the fact that she/he felt entitled to ask that I justify myself is what I find grating.

Hi! I would just like to ask why you changed the course littratture list in the last minute. Because I thogut I had bought all the books. But now i turns out that I have the book "Test your pronunciation" by Michael Vaughan-Rees and i do not have "The ins outs of English pronunciation" by Sylvén and Liss Kerstin! I like to know why becasue it said the first book until like a week ago and I bougt all the english books to part 1. And the books are not cheap, so I really would like to know why, I could have used that money for food instead of a not needed book. From Future Student ****************** On bad days, when I'm feeling really stressed out, this type of email angers me. Rationally, I also know that some of what I am encountering are differences in expectations and perhaps linguistic and pragmatic norms because my students are having to compose these emails in a second language. (Though I do get a fair number in Swedish as well). This is where being able to dig deep and compose a compassionate but informative response is necessary, even when the email puts me in a bad mood. And this takes some mental space. Fortunately, I am done with teaching/observing for the day so I was able to compose the below response, which I think is sufficiently understanding and informative (and also requires the student to maybe look up a few words).

Dear Future Student, I am sorry to hear of your situation. The course list has been in place for some time and is what was consulted when we began scheduling course meetings and the examination date back in January . The official list of course readings is always available via the L&S website. Here is the link, and If you scroll down to part II you can see the official reading list. http://edu.mah.se/sv/Course/EN431B#Syllabus It is often a good idea to check this official list and to email your instructor if you note a discrepancy between what is listed there and what is listed on the course outline. Because students don't always know about this online resource, I posted a bulletin to the It's Learning site on March 3rd as a reminder with the list of required readings for part II to give everyone ample time to purchase the books before our first class meeting. Books are indeed not cheap. As an American, I learned this myself when I was a student and found myself paying upwards of US 500 (over SEK 3000) per term for textbooks. This can be a real hardship and this is why I posted the bulletin on March 3rd so that students could budget or make plans for alternate copies. If you cannot find a way to sell back the Vaughn-Rees text, you may still find that it provides a good number of short exercises for self-study which you may still find useful and which you may be able to use with your own future students. If you cannot afford to purchase the required text, perhaps you can make arrangements with a colleague in a different section so that you might be able to share the text between. This is again something my classmates and I had to do in certain semesters. It is not as ideal as having your own text, but it is one way of managing the cost of education. Best, pennswoods ****************** I think this worked as it elicited the following response. The student is still out money for a book they are not required to have but seems to feel like I heard them and gave their concern fair consideration although they seemed to have seen older texts listed there. Those were changed back in January, so I can only imagine that this student is an early-bird and bought the books early. *********** Hi again! First of all, thank you for the fast answer. The link you sent me, I looked att that before and then it said "Test your pronunciation". But I'll make the best of it. I just wanted to be sure. See you next week Future Student ************** Phew. On to my next student email.

Comments

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

You are a patient, compassionate, and diplomatic person. I'm sure you are a better teacher than I could ever dream of being.

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

I am not naturally this way and just wanted to send a snarky reply (hence the emotional space needed to master myself). But I also want to get this student on my side and now they might feel like I care/have listened to them/am compassionate and that could help get them to listen to me in turn.

I'm hoping anyway.

This could also backfire and result in them sending lots of whiny emails.