Let me tell you about one of the "personality conflicts" that afflicts our family. We love to have the family get together every summer for a family reunion. (I have five children and thirteen grandchildren.) We have a lot of fun and love spending time with each other. But we have a problem during the planning stages of the reunion. We have some members of the family who do not feel comfortable until every activity is planned and scheduled, and the meals are planned, down to who will cook, clean up, and serve as assistants to the chef of the meal. We also have some members who become very stressed when confronted with creating such a schedule, and need lots of free time planned into our week. The first group has accepted this, and has informally divided the family into "the planners" and the "non-planners." The planners have their own Facebook group where they take care of all the details, and when it is all done, they present it to the rest of the family. This has prevented a lot of hyper-ventilation in both groups.
While acknowledging this problem, I have always wondered what is behind it all! I think I found some answers in what I have been studying this week. The anthropologist Edward T. Hall has described two different time cultures that are recognized across the world: monochronic and polychronic. The way each of these groups considers time and relationships is very different. The table below describes some of the characteristics of the different cultures. The map above shows where monochronic cultures are prevalent (in blue) and where the culture is polychronic (in red).
So how does this play into our family dynamic? Some of our ancestors are from "blue" countries, and some are from "red." Thus, our genetic makeup has left us with some monochronic family members (the planners) and some polychronic members (the non-planners). I have one daughter who swings back and forth between the two! She is forever frustrated with her need for perfect task accomplishment on the one hand, and her desire for a looser schedule on the other. (She describes herself as a "Type-A Bohemian.")
This is just one example of how our notion of time can influence what we do, how we live, and how we relate to others. We will often come into contact, when teaching, with one group or another. This can cause conflict between us and our students if we do not consider what their time culture is. How can we adjust to create a peaceful classroom, without frustration for ourselves or our students? Understanding how time affects each of us can prevent misunderstanding, and adapting to another's consideration of time can help them to feel more secure in the classroom. As with other factors in learning, we may have to have different learning activities for different groups. Do I have a student who cannot seem to turn in assignments on time? He may be polychronic. Perhaps an ongoing assignment, like journal writing, could be the answer. Do I have a student who can't seem to figure out what to do for an assignment? She may be monochronic and need explicit instructions.
Have you had any experiences working with someone with the "opposite" time reference? How did you work out a solution? Comment below!
_______________________________
Information about Edward T. Hall from lecture by John Ivers: https://video.byui.edu/media/04+Cultural+differences+in+Concerning+TIME/0_1cjop6lc
Graphics from article: "Are Your Freelancers Polychronic or Monochronic," https://habitgrowth.com/polychronic-vs-monochronic/
| Monochronic Cultures | Polychronic Cultures |
| They prefer doing one thing at a time | They prefer doing many things at the same time |
| They concentrate on their tasks and try not to disturb others | Interruptions aren’t really interruptions, they can still carry on with what they’re doing now or later |
| Time is linear, they take deadlines and time schedules seriously | Time is spatial. Deadlines and time schedules can be kept to, if possible |
| Their communication is low context | Their communication is high context |
| They need explicit information | They don’t usually need explicit information, because that is what their network is for, to keep them informed up to the minute |
| They’re task oriented | They’re relationship oriented |
| They do their work swiftly and promptly | How swiftly and promptly they work depends completely on how good the relationship is |
They make plans and keep to them
|
They make plans and change them with the greatest ease and flexibility
|
Comments
Post a Comment