Conclusions
Kinmen is a beautiful island with exuberant plants and unpolluted environment. It is a wonderful place for tourists to visit. But does this heaven-like island also be a nice place for working? From the participants’ statements, Kinmen to them is not a flawless paradise though;
there are still some rooms for adjustment for them or and also for schools. Some challenges can be overcome by the endeavor of adjustment made by the participants, while some difficulties faced by the participants were not easily solvable by themselves. Besides, there were positive experiences of staying in Kinmen from the participants. The following categories were made according to the level of adjustment. And for the final part, the researcher found the participants who have lived in Kinmen for more than four years have better adjustment thus to some degree verifying U-Curve pattern as figure2.1. shown in chapter 2 of this study.
Discomforts that Are Hard to Be Relieved in a Short Time
Things that are almost impossible to be changed in the near future and cause the participants’ grievances are organized below this item.
One related matter of to the work adjustment domains is the daily routine or regulations of schools. The teachers themselves need to adapt to things such as being early to school, stressing uniformity of students’ behaviors, and watching students’ eating order and hygiene matter, etc. For some teachers in schools with less staff, the troubling problem of attending many teacher learning courses on weekends is also not easily to disappear, unless one day, their schools can recruit more teachers to let them take turns attending courses.
Matters involved natives’ style of handling or seeing things probably have the least chance to change easily. For example, the use of relationship with people they know in organizations to procure someone’s demand is not unusual at all. For natives, they may find
it’s natural to ask for what they desire with any relative, friend, or acquaintance who is in charge of a case, however, as Kinmen is a place that more and more non-natives work or live here, those who haven’t been in Kinmen for a long time may feel they are unfairly treated since they have less advantage in the use of relationship thing. The participants are not used to the way doing things because from the researcher’s inference, many of them come from places like Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung. In busy places, it is needed to set clear “rules of games” for different situations for there are too many people in busy places and the world would go in chaos if many of them didn’t follow the publicly recognized rules. Since most people in big cities do not possess the influential power of depending special relations, they do official business according to official principals. Allowing many personal considerations to interfere with execution of public duty is not workable in a world full of people from various backgrounds. As Kinmen has much less residents, exceptional cases which do not follow the spirit of “business is business” happen more often and commonly.
Still in schools, an adjustment difficulty for participants is that they feel unfair to see some elder teachers can have more benefits and substantial rights and most importantly, the schools acquiesce in the fact. The senior teachers enjoy benefits such as being able to be subject teachers for years, no need to be even substitute homeroom teachers, skipping teachers learning courses without being corrected, and having more powerful influence at meetings. This phenomenon may not be changed with ease because it is hard to find someone in an important position in Kinmen educational field is willing to make reformation to cause senior teachers’ displease. Any important persons in Kinmen educational field have friendly relations with senior teachers in different schools; they have known each other for dozens of years. People only can wait for an initiator who is capable of reforming something injustice in schools or the present situation will stay as it is now.
There is another thing related to senior teachers in schools which is hard to have any change lately. Almost all the deans and principals in schools in Kinmen are senior natives,
and especially some principals are about the age of retirement. They grew up during the period of under military control. During that time, residents had to strictly obey military order to fully cooperate with any military affairs. It was not allowed to question or fight against any prescription from the military officers. Therefore, subordinates’ obedience may deemed by some senior natives as a natural and right act. The participants said it was not easy to have upward communication in schools and meetings were merely formality; deans and principals rarely alter their minds of decision due to other teachers’ advice. The fact has become part of the organizational culture in schools and may continue existing for a while.
The sense of one’s privacy being trespassed or insist being ignored is another thing the participants themselves need to adapt to in Kinmen. Most people living in big cities or having chance interacting with many different people are taught or learned to respect others’ private domain and the baseline for specific thing. Giving newly met persons larger psychologically personal space is a manifestation of being polite in case of offending others by saying or asking something inappropriate. But for those who have always lived in a place with not many people as Kinmen, the relationship among people is usually more than one kind since the interaction net is much simpler than that in a city. People usually become friends or acquaintances beyond single relation such as boss-subordinate, shop owner-customer, teacher-parent, etc. Under the assumption that people regardless their different backgrounds can all be familiar with each other, some natives assume people who they have just met can have closer relation with each other, and soon they might ask questions that should be asked only among close friends in some non-natives’ concept. And some participants in this study felt being offended by keeping being asked with personal questions though people who ask those things may simply carry friendly intention.
The difference in setting clear or indistinct interpersonal boundaries for some participants and natives respectively can also have some connection to the adjustment problem that many participants mentioned the pressure of being urged to drink kaoliang
liquor no matter how they refuse. From the participants’ previous experience, when they insistently say no to doing a specific thing, others would show understanding and do not force them to do so. The degree of being able to drink alcohols varies from persons to persons. For participants who cannot stand the strong taste of kaoliang liquor, no-sip-of-it is a kind of closed security zone they try to protect. But often natives overlook the boundary which participants set for their security zone. As those natives are all senior than they, the participants dare not show discontent, but they still feel culture shock by being constantly forced to do something they are clearly reluctant to do.
The current state of environment in Kinmen is another domain that the participants may have to learn to live with. Price of similar products is higher in Kinmen than in Taiwan comes from the reasons of transportation cost and monopolization of the different trades. The participants also can do nothing about the renting fee getting higher and higher. The market price of house rates is formed by multiple causes.
Difficulties that Can Be Overcome Through Actions
Streets at night in Kinmen are quieter than in cities in Taiwan. Most stores close early. If people want to have dinner after 7:30pm, they will have very limited choices of super shops.
Many participants felt bored after work in their beginning stage in Kinmen, but they also talked about what other activities they found to engage in. Doing sports and attending interesting courses in Kinmen Open University are the top choices. Kinmen provides good facilities and sites for doing different kinds of sport, and the courses in Kinmen Open University are various and cheap.
Without many physical stores in Kinmen, the participants have used to buy things through virtual stores. For nowadays things from furniture to small gadgets all can be found in online shops, the participants felt it is not troubling to buy any new things in Kinmen.
Thanks to the advance of technology again, the problem of being apart with family and
friends in Taiwan can be eased to certain degree as having conversation through interacting software is convenient, but surely the internet cannot fully replace real company. As for some people’s stereotypes about Kinmen, the stereotypes are able to be broken through communication between participants and their family or friends in Taiwan.
Differences that neither Good nor Bad
Although the participants showed a bit surprised at how frequent and close interaction Kinmen natives have with Mainland China, they are not affected by such living way of natives. None of the participants expressed they consider owning a house in Xiamen or have the habit of purchasing goods in Mainland China as many natives do. Some of them have visited there but only for tourism.
Having to attend a lot of social meals also received rather neutral comment from the participants. With the understanding that showing hospitality to school’s guests who cannot fly back to Taiwan within one day is a polite manner, the participants can join in the social occasions with willingness. Attending social occasions is not a big deal; what bothers some participants is the accompanied alcohol.
Good Feelings toward Some Differences
The participants spoke of the social safety of Kinmen in laudatory terms. Helmet just being put on a scooter by the rider is a normal scene on streets and there are many people leave home without locking front doors sometimes. Kinmen is not a place with zero case of crime, but its public security is much better than Taiwan.
Having nice landlords gave the participants good impression about Kinmen. Landlords did not hurry tenets to give rent if the participants forgot to. They even returned deposit to tenets if tenets move out before the date written on the contract for lease.
At the beginning stage of working in Kinmen, some participants were grateful to native
colleagues’ help and guidance in many ways more than things related to work. Without assistance from those ardent colleagues, the participants would spend more time fumbling about in an unfamiliar environment.
Longer Stay in Kinmen Is Related to Better Adjustment
Without statistic number for supporting, U-Curve pattern cannot be lined clearly;
however, participants who have stayed for over 4 years in Kinmen did talk about more understanding of Kinmen culture and shared more sense empathy. They shared their experience with calmer tone and less sign of culture shock compared to those who stay shorter time in Kinmen.
Suggestions
The suggestions the researcher provided were for three groups of people. One kind of suggestions is for people who are not Kinmen natives and are now considering being teachers in Kinmen. Another kind is for those who are like the participants in this study namely the incumbent teachers from Taiwan in Kinmen. The other is served as reference for Kinmen Education Bureau or principals and deans in schools.
For People Considering Teaching in Kinmen
For those who decide to be teachers and regard Kinmen as one of their options of a place to teach, they need to be prepared in mind that challenges may occur due to the differences in many ways between Taiwan and Kinmen. If one expects the external environment or the milieu people interact can be the same as where they use to live, then maladjustment may happen after they begin to work. The above findings can help to take people to see the real world in Kinmen through the vivid dictation by the participants in this study who have lived in Kinmen for 2 to 6 years. Feelings toward the same incident can vary from person to person, and people who later start teaching in Kinmen may hold different sense of perception to it.
But some facts described by the participants are more neutral than the feeling the participants expressed, so the incidents did happen in Kinmen can provide reference value for people who are thinking about being teachers here.
For Incumbent Teachers
The best suggestion the researcher can give to the incumbent is to try to have liberal view and mindset facing any differences. Some researches with Big Five have identified that openness, extraversion, sociability, agreeableness, and emotional stability are associated with psychological and sociocultural adjustment in international students, expatriate businesspeople, and sojourners (Bird, Mendenhall, Oddou, & Stevens, 2008; Alessandri, Caprara, Eisenberg, Giunta, & Panerai, 2010). Adjusting the way we see the world instead of dreaming the world can become the way we like help us live positively. Though big cities in Taiwan where most teachers came from are obviously more developed than Kinmen, it does not mean at all that Kinmen is inferior. Kinmen has wonderful scenery with exuberant plants, clean beaches and sea, good variety of creature, and many historical relics. The chance to work in a beautiful place as Kinmen is a rare experience in one’s lifetime and deserved to be cherished. Besides, with more understanding of the causes shape Kinmen culture will be a lot easier for incumbents to accept or integrate into it. And one in Kinmen has to see city life as something dispensable. Learn to have fun in the natural surroundings can help enrich one’s life quality in Kinmen.
For Administrators in Schools in Kinmen
Last but not least, this part of suggestion is for deans and principals in Kinmen schools.
For there were many participants referring to their desire of hoping schools can be have fairer organizational culture such as setting rotation system for teachers taking turns in being subject and homeroom teachers, and respecting regulations of schools rather than respecting
more of what senior teachers want.
The researcher finds the most urgent thing is to promote fair and just atmosphere in schools, which means to make sure teachers in schools have equal right regardless their difference in age. Respecting the elderly is a good tradition, but as workload for homeroom teachers is a lot heavier than subject teachers, younger teachers who have to be homeroom teachers without any year of breaking are bound to have grievance against schools’ policy of letting the senior own easier positions for good. Furthermore, some senior teachers’ act of talking to deans or directors under table making them teach the class and periods they want has made young teachers dissatisfied. It should be the decision of responsible dean or director to arrange classes for all the teachers in a school after overall consideration. The style of business is business is what teachers from Taiwan prefer due to their growing experience or because they have not stayed long enough to be able to build close relationship with some important people. When some senior natives procure their interest through special relations, schools may need to see things through the eyes of teachers from Taiwan.
If schools in Kinmen do not have determination on changing the above urging problems, it will be hard to expect teachers who feel unfairly treated can hold loyalty to the school they serve, and the result will be hastening the turnover of teachers in Kinmen. The basic conception of the equity theory (Adam, 1965) is that people do not trust the organization they serve when they find no relational satisfaction in terms of perceptions of unfair distributions of resources in any kind within the organization. Schools in Kinmen should make more effort on making the climate in schools is filled with fair and just, so to increase teachers’
willingness to devote themselves to the education in Kinmen.
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