Professional Development through Teacher Research: Stories from Language Teacher Educators 9781788927727

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Professional Development through Teacher Research

NEW PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION Founding Editor: Viv Edwards, University of Reading, UK Series Editors: Phan Le Ha, University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA and Joel Windle, Monash University, Australia. Two decades of research and development in language and literacy education have yielded a broad, multidisciplinary focus. Yet education systems face constant economic and technological change, with attendant issues of identity and power, community and culture. What are the implications for language education of new ‘semiotic economies’ and communications technologies? Of complex blendings of cultural and linguistic diversity in communities and institutions? Of new cultural, regional and national identities and practices? The New Perspectives on Language and Education series will feature critical and interpretive, disciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives on teaching and learning, language and literacy in new times. New proposals, particularly for edited volumes, are expected to acknowledge and include perspectives from the Global South. Contributions from scholars from the Global South will be particularly sought out and welcomed, as well as those from marginalised communities within the Global North. All books in this series are externally peer-reviewed. Full details of all the books in this series and of all our other publications can be found on http://www.multilingual-matters.com, or by writing to Multilingual Matters, St Nicholas House, 31–34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK.

NEW PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION: 102

Professional Development through Teacher Research Stories from Language Teacher Educators Edited by

Darío Luis Banegas, Emily Edwards and Luis S. Villacañas de Castro

MULTILINGUAL MATTERS Bristol • Jackson

DOI https://doi.org/10.21832/BANEGA7710 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Names: Banegas, Darío Luis, editor. | Edwards, Emily (Lecturer), editor. | Villacañas de Castro, Luis Sebastián, editor. Title: Professional Development through Teacher Research: Stories from Language Teacher Educators/Edited by Darío Luis Banegas, Emily Edwards and Luis S. Villacañas de Castro. Description: Bristol; Jackson: Multilingual Matters, [2022] | Series: New Perspectives on Language and Education: 102 | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “This volume aims to understand how language teacher educators around the world continue developing professionally by examining their own teaching practices. It explores the professional gains teacher educators see in conducting research with their own students/future teachers and seeks to reduce the gap between educational research and practice”— Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2021052844 (print) | LCCN 2021052845 (ebook) | ISBN 9781788927710 (hardback) | ISBN 9781788927727 (pdf) | ISBN 9781788927734 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Language teachers—Training of. | Language teachers— In-service training. | Language and languages—Study and teaching. Classification: LCC P53.85 .P77 2022 (print) | LCC P53.85 (ebook) | DDC 418.0071—dc23/eng/20220103 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021052844 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021052845 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN-13: 978-1-78892-771-0 (hbk) Multilingual Matters UK: St Nicholas House, 31–34 High Street, Bristol, BS1 2AW, UK. USA: Ingram, Jackson, Tennessee, USA. Website: www.multilingual-matters.com Twitter: Multi_Ling_Mat Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/multilingualmatters Blog: www.channelviewpublications.wordpress.com Copyright © 2022 Darío Luis Banegas, Emily Edwards, Luis S. Villacañas de Castro and the authors of individual chapters. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. The policy of Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products, made from wood grown in sustainable forests. In the manufacturing process of our books, and to further support our policy, preference is given to printers that have FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification. The FSC and/or PEFC logos will appear on those books where full certification has been granted to the printer concerned. Typeset by Nova Techset Private Limited, Bengaluru and Chennai, India.

Contents

Tables and Figures Abbreviations Contributors

vii ix xi

1

Introduction Darío Luis Banegas, Emily Edwards and Luis S. Villacañas de Castro

2

Promoting Pre-service Teachers’ Collaborative Reflective Practice: Voices from a TESOL Teacher Education Programme in Vietnam Anh Tran

13

Ghosts in the Machine? Exploratory Teaching on a Distance Learning Development Project Neil Johnson and Michael Hepworth

31

Developing Languages Pre-service Teachers’ Epistemic Agency in Using Technology in Languages Teaching Hongzhi Yang

51

Student-Teachers’ Beliefs and Emotions about an EFL Teaching Practicum: A Proposal to Support their Development Processes María Gimena San Martín

72

Exploring the Ways in which Modern Languages Student-Teachers Conceptualise Practitioner Enquiry in Scotland Alan Huang

89

3

4

5

6

1

7

Engaging Students in Learning through Teacher Research Bushra Ahmed Khurram

8

Narrative Pedagogies in Argentinean University English Language Teacher Education María Cristina Sarasa

119

Scaffolding Conscientisation and Praxis in Critical Language Teacher Education Paula A. Echeverri Sucerquia

135

9

v

104

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10 Supervising Student-Teachers’ Research: Between Reinforcing our Supervisor-Researcher Identities and Enabling Novice Teacher-Researchers Tammy Fajardo-Dack, Mónica Abad Célleri and Juanita Argudo Serrano

151

11 Mapping Transformations in Teacher Education: Colombian Teachers’ Enactments through Mentoring Liliana Cuesta Medina and Jermaine S. McDougald

167

12 Teaching Oral Skills to Student-Teachers: A Visually Impaired Teacher Educator’s Experiences Nancy N. Kamweru and Alice Kiai

185

13 Conclusion Darío Luis Banegas, Emily Edwards and Luis S. Villacañas de Castro

203

Index

212

Tables and Figures

Tables

Table 2.1

Integrating a structured, collaborative RP model into the course Table 2.2 Examples of means of labelling data Table 2.3 Principles and conceptions of teaching Table 3.1 Applied procedure for exploratory practice Table 3.2 Programme overview Table 4.1 Data collection structure and procedures Table 4.2 Group discussion arrangement and content Table 4.3 Students’ perceived confidence in using technologies Table 4.4 Participants’ reported frequency of their online activities Table 4.5 Perceived challenges in using technologies in teaching Table 4.6 Phases of the double stimulation in this study Table 5.1 Courses of the TEFL programme Table 6.1 Overview of the research design Table 6.2 CPEP questionnaire items Table 6.3 Word frequency table Table 11.1 Distribution of instruments Table 11.2 Instruments applied per semester and programme Table 11.3 Scaffolding examples from Research I course Table 11.4 Research courses description Table 12.1 Nancy’s principles as a teacher educator Table 12.2 Nancy’s planned teaching-learning activities for English Speech

19 20 23 33 36 55 56 58 58 58 65 76 94 95 96 171 172 174 175 192 195

Figures

Figure 3.1 Figure 3.2

Sample task and feedback from previous module Example of a redesigned task from the sociocultural theory unit Figure 4.1 Vocaroo activity designed by Linda (Student’s submitted assignment, 2019) Figure 4.2 Song activity designed by Annie (Student’s submitted assignment, 2019) Figure 11.1 Learners’ transformational continuum vii

37 44 63 64 180

Abbreviations

AR AT APST BA CALL CBC CfE CLIL CLT COI CPEP CSCL DTE EAL EFL ELT ESL F GTCS IELTS ICT IDL IPA ITE JAWS iTEP MA MoE NSW PE PGDE PPP PPW PT PTE

Action Research Academic Tutor Australian Professional Standards Bachelor’s degree Computer Assisted Language Learning Competency Based Curriculum Curriculum for Excellence Content and Language Integrated Learning Communicative Language Teaching Community of Inquiry Complete Collaborative Practitioner Enquiry Project Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Diploma in Teacher Education English as an Additional Language English as a Foreign Language English Language Teaching English as a Second Language Facilitator General Teaching Council Scotland Standards International English Language Testing System Information and Communication Technologies Independent Distance Learning International Phonetic Alphabet Initial Teacher Education Job Access With Speech International Test of English Proficiency Master’s degree Ministry of Education New South Wales Practitioner Enquiry Professional Graduate Programme in Education Presentation-Practice-Production Pre-Practicum Workshop Peer-Tutoring Primary Teacher Education ix

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RP ST TEFL TESL TESOL TOEFL VLE VT

Reflective Practice Student-Teacher Teaching English as a Foreign Language Teaching English as a Second Language Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Test of English as a Foreign Language Virtual Learning Environment VoiceThread

Contributors

Editors

Darío Luis Banegas is Lecturer in Language Education at the Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh. Darío is a visiting academic at universities in South America and Spain. He is actively involved in language teacher associations in Argentina and the UK, and is part of the Hornby Trust Decentring ELT initiative. His main teaching and research interests are language teacher education, action research, social justice and content and language integrated learning. Emily Edwards is Lecturer in Academic Language and Learning at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia. Emily is a member of the IATEFL Research SIG, and supports teacher research initiatives both in Australia and internationally. Her teaching and research interests are discipline-specific academic language development, learner autonomy, action research, teacher professional development and materials development. Luis S. Villacañas de Castro is Associate Professor in the Department of Language and Literature Education at the University of Valencia, Spain, where he lectures on English language teaching and teacher professional development. Through action research, Luis regularly collaborates with underprivileged schools in Valencia to realise critical and democratic orientations to education. His research straddles the fields of English language teaching (with a focus on culture and identity) and philosophy of education – especially the work of John Dewey. Authors

Mónica Abad Célleri is Professor in the Teacher Training programme at Universidad de Cuenca. She has a Bachelor’s degree in English Teaching from Universidad del Azuay and a Master’s degree in English Language and Applied Linguistics from Universidad de Cuenca, both in Ecuador.

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Mónica holds a PhD in Education from Universidad de la Plata in La Plata, Argentina. Her research areas of interest are pre-service EFL teachers’ language development and English phonology for listening. Juanita Argudo Serrano is Professor in the Teacher Training programme and in the Languages Department at Universidad de Cuenca. Juanita holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Teaching from Universidad del Azuay and a Master’s degree in English Language and Applied Linguistics from Universidad de Cuenca (both in Ecuador), as well as a PhD in Education from Universidad Nacional de la Plata (Argentina). Liliana Cuesta Medina is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Universidad de La Sabana (Chía, Colombia). She holds a PhD in English Philology (UNED-Spain). Liliana’s research areas include learners’ selfregulation, CALL, CLIL, teacher education, intercultural education, academic writing and online and blended learning, on which topics she has published in a number of indexed journals and conference proceedings. Currently she is the Academic Coordinator of the Master’s in English Language Teaching programs at Universidad de La Sabana and she serves as an evaluator for the National Accreditation Council in Colombia and various ELT programs in the country. Paula A. Echeverri Sucerquia is Professor in the School of Languages at Universidad de Antioquia. She is a member and the coordinator of the research group Culture, Identity, and Language Education. Paula holds an MS and a PhD in Education: Curriculum and Instruction from Southern Illinois University, USA. Her areas of interest are critical pedagogy, curriculum development, culture and identity. Tammy Fajardo-Dack is Associate Professor and International Relations Director at the University of Cuenca (Ecuador). She holds a PhD in Languages and Literacies Education with a specialisation in Comparative International and Development Education from the University of Toronto in Canada. Tammy also holds a Master’s degree in English Language and Applied Linguistics from the University of Cuenca and a Bachelor’s of Education Sciences with a Mention in English from the University of Azuay (Ecuador). Michael Hepworth is a Senior Lecturer in TESOL and Education at the University of Sunderland, UK. He also works for the University of Leeds and the Open University. His research interests are in argumentation and critical pedagogy and he has published book chapters on ‘Argumentation and citizenship in the adult ESOL classroom’ (2019) and ‘Teaching controversial issues in the language education of adult migrants to the UK: A risk worth taking’ (2021). In a previous life, Michael was a Teaching

Contributors

xiii

Fellow at the University of Leeds, where he completed his PhD on Spoken Argumentation in the Adult ESOL classroom. Alan Huang leads a range of undergraduate and postgraduate TESOL and modern foreign languages teacher education programmes at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. He is also the External Examiner for PGCE Modern Languages with QTS at the University of Manchester. Alan carries out research in the areas of language education, teacher professional learning and digital technologies in education. After receiving his PhD from the University of Edinburgh, Alan has worked as a teacher educator and educational researcher in the UK since 2016. Prior to that, he was a modern languages teacher at a secondary school in Edinburgh. Neil Johnson is a Senior Lecturer in Master’s Education at the University of Sunderland. He is also the Program Leader for the MA TESOL program and teaches modules both on campus and by Independent Distance Learning. Neil graduated from the Second Language Acquisition and Teaching PhD programme at the University of Arizona in 2008. His main research interests are in multiliteracies, multimodality, discourse analysis and online and distance learning. Nancy N. Kamweru is a Lecturer in French and English at Thogoto Teachers Training College in Kenya. She holds a Diploma in Teacher Education (DTE) in English and French from Kagumo Teachers Training College in Kenya, a BEd in English and Literature from the Catholic University of East Africa (CUEA) Kenya and an MA in Applied Linguistics, Intercultural Communication, Translation and Interpretation (ICTI) from the Catholic University of East Africa (CUEA). Nancy has a visual disability. She is a Women Representative of Persons with Disabilities on the executive board of the United Disabled Persons of Kenya. Alice Kiai has taught English and Linguistics at university for over 20 years, and is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Technical University of Kenya. She is the Academic Team Leader, Department of English and Creative Writing, at the Centre for Language and Communication Studies. Alice teaches communication skills to undergraduate students and applied linguistics to postgraduate students. Her research interests lie in second language acquisition, discourse analysis, materials development and academic writing. She is also an author of secondary school English textbooks and primary school class readers, which are mainly used in Kenya. Bushra Ahmed Khurram is Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Karachi, Pakistan. She has extensive experience of training English language teachers in a variety of settings in

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Pakistan and the UK. She has published book chapters in Becoming Research Literate: Supporting Teacher Research in English Language Teaching (2018), International Perspectives on Teaching English in Diffi cult Circumstances: Contexts, Challenges and Possibilities (2018) and Mobility of Knowledge, Practice and Pedagogy in TESOL Teacher Education: Implications for Transnational Contexts (2021). Her research interests include metacognition, reading strategies, learner engagement and teaching and researching in large classes. Jermaine S. McDougald is Director of ELT Business Development in the International Center of Foreign Languages & Cultures at Universidad de La Sabana (Bogotá, Colombia). Jermaine is currently the Liaison Officer and Co-founder of TESOL Colombia. His research interests include TELL, CLIL, YLs, teacher professional development and bilingual and international education, on which topics he has published in several indexed journals and conference proceedings. He is a member of the research group Language Learning and Teaching Universidad de La Sabana (LALETUS). María Gimena San Martín is a tenured Lecturer in TESOL and a Practicum Supervisor in the English as a Foreign Language Teacher Education programme, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Facultad de Lenguas, Argentina. She is also the coordinator of an online postgraduate programme. María holds an MA in Applied Linguistics and an EFL Teaching degree from Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Her research interests include teacher education, action research and materials development. María Cristina Sarasa is a Consultant Professor in the School of Humanities at Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Argentina, where she teaches graduate courses and supervises dissertations. She specialises in narrative inquiry and narrative pedagogies in TESOL teacher education. María is Co-founder and Assistant Director of the Education and Cultural Studies Research Group (GIEEC in Spanish), a team gathering Latin American narrative inquirers published in Spanish, Portuguese and English-language journals. They have established a narrative doctoral programme in education with Universidad Nacional de Rosario, where they are currently developing the potentials of narrative research in education. Anh Tran is a Lecturer at Vietnam National University in Hanoi, Vietnam. She completed her doctoral studies in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales, Australia. In Vietnam, Anh trains preservice and in-service TESOL teachers in English language teaching methodology, language assessment and course design. Her research interests

Contributors xv

include teacher professional learning, teacher mentoring, school-university partnership, and teacher research in language teaching. Hongzhi Yang is the Lecturer and Languages Curriculum Units Coordinator for the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney, with a specialisation in Language Education. Her teaching and research areas include second languages education, second language assessment, technology-assisted language learning, language teacher education, teacher agency, teacher emotion and cultural-historical activity theory.

1 Introduction Darío Luis Banegas, Emily Edwards and Luis S. Villacañas de Castro

Initial Approximations

This volume is about how language teacher educators develop professionally by carrying our research on their own practice. In the paragraphs that follow, we unpack the preceding sentence. Who are language teacher educators? In this volume, the term language teacher educator is used to refer to any professional who formally prepares future teachers for the teaching profession, in particular, language. Although teacher education also takes place through internships and practicum placements (for example, when student-teachers are supervised by school teachers acting as mentors), the teacher educators we have in mind are those working in institutions of higher education, such as teacher colleges or universities. Depending on contextual and institutional circumstances, they may be called teacher trainers, tutors, instructors, lecturers or professors, but we would like to focus on who they teach – teachers. Regardless of the modules they teach or support (e.g. linguistics, phonology, professional practice, practicum/placement), the common denominator is scaffolding professional learning. Teacher educators may also be called teachers of teachers as they are teachers who, through different trajectories, have assumed the role (and challenge!) of preparing new generations of teachers. In this volume, those studying to become teachers are referred to as ‘student-teachers’, ‘pre-service teachers’, ‘teacher learners’ or simply ‘students’. We must acknowledge that not all teacher educators are teachers themselves in a formal and restrictive sense of the term. There is a multiplicity of scenarios in this sense. For example, there are teacher educators who do not hold a teaching degree, or do not have a teaching degree in the discipline. There may be teacher educators who have a degree in the discipline in which language teaching is inscribed (e.g. linguistics, literature) or a degree in another discipline (e.g. psychology). There may also be teacher educators who have teaching experience in the levels for which future teachers are being prepared. There may be others who have limited or no teaching experience. Despite these different backgrounds which shape their professional identity, they share the goal of enabling future 1

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teachers to become critical and informed professionals who can navigate heterogeneous socioeducational settings. As the title of this volume suggests, the contributor chapters explore the impact of research on teacher educators’ professional development through the voice of teacher educators themselves. The focus falls on three interrelated concepts – teacher professional development, teacher education and teacher research – that this Introduction must clarify before it can illustrate the volume’s scope and the nature of the questions it wishes to address. To this aim, John Dewey’s philosophy of education is a better resource than many. His work articulated growth, education and scientific inquiry in a similar way to how teacher professional development, teacher education and teacher research (and their relationship) can now be understood. As read in Dewey’s (2015 [1938]) Experience and Education, the meaning of growth orbited around the different ways in which individuals might interact with their environment in order to make it amenable to further transformation and richer, ongoing experiences. While every instance of individual-environment interaction implied growth, not every form reaped the same amount, degree or quality. As a result, education emerged as the exercise of systematic analysis and manipulation of interactional situations to maximise growth for the individuals who took part in them. Educators, that is, had to make sure that any ‘person, young or old, gets out of his present experience all that there is in it for him at the time he has it’ (Dewey, 2015 [1938]: 49), precisely by designing and providing learners with situations that allowed them to refi ne and energise those dispositions and habits that would ‘contribute to building experiences that are worthwhile’ (Dewey, 2015 [1938]: 40). These were the same habits that, in due course, would allow students to take this process into their own hands and become educators of their own lives. Finally, inquiry – scientific inquiry, particularly – was the privileged means (alongside art) that Dewey identified to bend the environment to richer forms of growth and experience. Both were represented in school curricula. Cannot the relationship between growth, education and scientific inquiry help us picture how teacher professional development, teacher education and teacher research connect with one another? By pushing this parallelism forward, we could defi ne teacher professional development as teachers’ ability to transform school environments in ways that guarantee not only that they will showcase and display their best teaching qualities – which mean nothing if they do not trigger, in turn, dynamics of student learning and growth – but also that this spiralling process will be sustained, expanded and projected into the future. To do so, teachers would have to read into themselves (into their own funds of knowledge and identities) and also into their surroundings in order to draw on whatever material, immaterial and human resources they might have at hand to aptly intervene in the variables that constitute school contexts: namely, curricular subject matter,

Introduction 3

methods of instruction, facilities of the school building and its whereabouts, and students’ accumulated habits and past experiences (Dewey, 2015 [1938]: 28). Likewise, teacher education could then be understood as the series of interconnected experiences that teacher educators (who are the focus of this volume) design to provide student-teachers with a theoretical and practical knowledge of the preconditions for, and accelerators of, student growth and teacher professional development. This understanding, of course, cannot be conceived without the corresponding dynamics of growth experienced by the student-teachers – the expectation being that, by the end of their teacher education, they would be ready to secure their professional development without external supervision, and grant fulfilling experiences to their own future students in turn. Finally, if teacher education were to fulfil these aims, scientific outlooks into the profession – as represented by different traditions of educational research – would have to form part of the curriculum and also play a pivotal role in teacher educators’ course designs and experiences. Dewey’s nuanced discussion of general as opposed to scientific forms of inquiry must be introduced at this point to shed light on the nature and scope of the contributions in this volume. For Dewey, science was simply ‘the most rational, technical, and thus transformative manifestation (since it employed the most developed sets of signs and tools) of human inquiry understood as a way of being in the world’ (Villacañas de Castro & Banegas, 2020: 4). Like any living organism, human beings existed by changing and being changed by their environment in a reciprocal give and take whose outcomes and relations science had just started to systematise and, hence, control. Yet even scientific forms of inquiry were inscribed in life itself and could not be disentangled from this vital substratum. Like all the other manifestations of the life creature, science was respondent to human aims, needs and purposes. It was not an abstract endeavour but one rooted in different occupations or social practices (Dewey also called them occupations), each of which represented a specific scheme of individual-environment interaction, guided by its own aims and means. In line with practitioner and action research versions of scientific inquiry, educational research had to remain anchored in the purposes and values of education, which – as has been explained – necessarily referred back to generating more opportunities for student growth and teacher professional development. This series of interconnected concepts sets the grounds for some of the questions that the volume will potentially raise and hopefully answer. How do teacher educators conceive of, and resort to, research? Do teacher educators’ research projects intersect in any way with their professional development, understood as their ability to organise sophisticated contexts that cater for student-teacher growth? What role does educational research play in teacher education programmes and curricula, and in student-teachers’ formative experiences? Do teacher educators often include student-teachers in their own scientific inquiries, and do they

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encourage student-teachers to embark on them? If so, are student-teachers inducted into research initiatives that give them the chance to experience positively the interrelated nature of educational research, student growth and their own professional development? Does teacher education successfully lead to the creation of sustainable research networks or partnerships that accompany student-teachers as they transition into becoming inservice teachers? All of these questions have been addressed previously in the literature (Avalos, 2011; Borko et al., 2010; Darling-Hammond et al., 2017; He & Lin, 2018). The following chapters relate to them in new ways which bear witness to their lingering presence at the heart of teacher education and teacher professional development. On Teacher Educators

Teacher educators are, to a certain extent, at the top of the pyramid in the formal preparation and development of (future) teachers. In systems with explicitly delineated political-educational policy (Brennan, 2011), teacher educators are expected to align their practices and informed decisions with the curricula implemented in the educational sphere. As recognised in the literature (e.g. Freeman et al., 2019), they have the responsibility (and the power) to determine what counts as knowledge in language teaching and how additional languages should be taught. Teacher educators have the possibility to create context-responsive pedagogies and learning opportunities through the design of syllabi and experiences that allow future teachers to create learning environments considering learners’ needs, motivations and agency. To achieve this multifaceted goal, Johnson and Golombek (2020) suggest the enactment of language teacher education pedagogy which is: • • • • •

theoretically informed: dialectical thinking around the issue of how future teachers learn to teach; located: opportunities, affordances, resources and practices locally situated; person situated: experiences that recognise student-teachers’ cognition, emotions and learning biographies; goal directed: explicitly formulated goals that contribute to the externalisation and discussion of processes to achieve them; self-inquiry driven: practitioner inquiry carried out by teacher educators.

If language teacher education pedagogy is expected to be oriented towards these features, it is imperative that teacher educators deploy a wide range of semiotic resources that position them as professionals who engage in reflective practice and concomitant teacher research. In so doing, they may be extending their agentive professionalism as well as becoming models of teacher-researchers to their own student-teachers. In this regard, doing teacher research will not be seen as mere discourse or something that

Introduction 5

others do; it will be seen as performative, something that situates teacher educators as good examples of congruent practice. As Yuan (2018) has demonstrated, teacher educators often wish to identify themselves and be identified as educators whose modelling practice may encourage studentteachers to follow and improve their professional strategies. Recent studies have investigated teacher educators’ experiences (e.g. Yuan & Yang, 2020), motivations (e.g. Banegas & del Pozo Beamud, forthcoming) and qualities (e.g. Yuan & Hu, 2018). These studies agree that teacher educators exhibit a tendency to engage in the preparation of teachers guided by an interest in contributing to the common good in the contexts in which they are inserted. In addition, they are driven by an interest in contributing to the language teaching profession by sharing their teaching experience and disciplinary knowledge. Regarding this last drive, they also become involved in teacher education as a way of improving their own professional knowledge. In this sense, in their view, comprehensive understanding of the field and professional knowledge are basic qualities that teacher educators need to exhibit. The issue of qualities is inherently connected to teacher educators’ identity and roles. Yuan and Hu (2018) carried out an exploratory study on teacher educators’ qualities by conducting focus groups with preservice and in-service teachers in China. Findings showed that cognitive engagement (disciplinary knowledge), social interaction (good and conducive rapport with students) and emotional support were central to recognising teacher educators as good models of teaching. Underlying these qualities was the necessity of seeing teacher educators as able to develop and share a vision of language education through their practice and research and their capacity to enable others to construct their own vision. In this expected leadership role, once again teacher research is identified as a central activity in the professional profi le of teacher educators as it provides them with the social validation of congruent and enabling practices rooted in theory and situated, constructed knowledge. Teacher Educator Research for Professional Development

While the notion of teacher educator research for professional development is relatively new in the language teaching literature (although the practice of teacher educator research is most likely quite widespread), there is now a well-established field of research exploring how teachers develop from conducting research into their teaching (e.g. Borg, 2013; Dikilitaş & Hanks, 2018; Edwards, 2021). For instance, Edwards’ (2021) review of 21 studies published between 2006 and 2019 reveals an emergent sub-field of research into how English language teachers develop by engaging in action research. At the ‘micro’ level of the individual teacher, these studies show that doing action research can have wide-ranging benefits in terms of teaching-related development (such as a better understanding of

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learners’ needs, development of knowledge and confidence for teaching), research-related development (such as research skills, changes in beliefs about research) and general professional development (such as increased awareness or reflectivity, new teacher-researcher identities and renewed enthusiasm for their career). Similar fi ndings are reported by those investigating the impact of other forms of teacher research – such as exploratory practice, reflective practice and classroom-based research (Dikilitaş & Hanks, 2018; Farrell, 2018). In addition to benefits for the individual teacher-researcher’s professional development, Edwards (2021) identifies wider impacts of action research engagement, as reported in this emergent sub-field of research. At the ‘meso’ level of an institution, teachers conducting action research can positively affect the institution’s teaching materials, other teaching colleagues (stimulating their interest in research, empowerment of mentors) and the institutional and professional development culture (which can become more collaborative, or develop communities of practice). Even more broadly, a few of these studies reveal benefits at the ‘macro’ (societal) level, including collaboration and the development of communities of practice across institutions, and recognition and increased professionalism at the language teaching sector level. So how might teacher educator researcher development be similar to (and different from) the teacher-researcher development described above? And to what extent do the different (more formal, university) contexts in which language teacher educators work impact on their development as researchers? In one of the few studies, to our knowledge, exploring the development of language teacher educators, Barkhuizen (2021) examines the identity dilemmas involved, for one Colombian teacher, in transitioning between doing what she considered as ‘meaningful’ action research as a teacher, to being a teacher educator who has to adhere to the rules and expectations of the (less meaningful, to her) ‘system’ characterised by accountability and measurement. Can teacher educators continue to conduct meaningful research (however meaningful is conceptualised for them) in such systems, alongside or in place of types of research and publications that adhere to the expectations? What support is needed for teacher educator researchers, especially those in contexts where classroom-based research might be less favoured? It is our hope that the following collection of chapters contributes to this emerging field of English language teacher educator development as researchers by inspiring readers to reflect on and research these questions, as well as others that may transpire through reading this book. Overview of the Chapters

Following this introductory chapter, Chapters 2–12 represent the voices of teacher educators from around the globe (Argentina, Australia,

Introduction 7

Colombia, Ecuador, Kenya, Pakistan, the UK and Vietnam). All the chapters are empirically grounded in the authors’ own practice as teacher educators. While the chapters may vary in terms of organisation, they all include a conceptual framework, contextual information and a description of the study carried out. The contributors were also invited to include a few paragraphs about their motivation to contribute to this volume and how the study they conducted and the chapter write-up contributed to their own professional development. Readers will fi nd that contributors have addressed these issues in the conclusion of their chapters or in a separate section within the contribution. The fi rst of these contributions (Chapter 2) is from Tran, a teacher educator working with pre-service teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) teachers in Vietnam. She focuses on promoting reflective practice as a collaborative activity, with an emphasis on the interpersonal and affective aspects of reflection. Tran adopted Farrell’s (2015) reflective practice framework as a tool both for restructuring one of the courses she teaches, and for researching her own practice. In the redesigned course, the author encouraged her pre-service teachers to reflect with each other and their teacher educators before, during and after a micro-teaching session, through activities such as co-evaluation, co-teaching, class conferencing and peer feedback. Their reflections allowed the preservice teachers to uncover similarities and tensions in their aspirations, for example, the strong familial and cultural encouragement they all felt to join the teaching profession, and the desire to be approachable but authoritative teachers. Conducting this study assured Tran of the importance of providing clear scaffolding and built-in opportunities for collaboration in order to facilitate deep reflective practice among pre-service teachers Chapter 3 sees Johnson and Hepworth, UK-based teacher educators working with trainee language teachers on a postgraduate TESOL programme, engage in an exploratory practice approach to puzzle over ways to increase student participation in online discussions. Like Tran in Chapter 2, Johnson and Hepworth were redesigning a course and wanted to incorporate greater collaboration, especially since their course was fully online as a distance learning component of the programme, so they explored VoiceThread as a cloud-based software platform. Video and discussion activities designed on VoiceThread helped the authors to develop a cohesive ‘Community of TESOL Practice’ in which the often distant online teacher-student relationship became more personalised, and many students participated very actively. In keeping with the philosophy of exploratory practice, though, Johnson and Hepworth puzzle over the unevenness in participation, with a small group of students engaging minimally: the ‘ghosts in the machine’ referred to in their chapter title, perhaps the victims of the commodification of education, they theorise.

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Professional Development through Teacher Research

In the next chapter (Chapter 4), Yang employs a Vygotskian theoretical framework to design an intervention for her teacher education practice with the aim of enhancing pre-service languages teachers’ agency in using digital technologies in their teaching. Yang draws on two interesting Vygotskian concepts: ‘double stimulation’ – using two sets of stimuli to encourage new conceptual development; and ‘epistemic agency’ – the creation of new knowledge and then the translation of that knowledge into (in this case) teaching and learning activities. Her double stimulation teaching design involved developing participants’ awareness of conflicts in their knowledge and use of technology, and then providing opportunities for them to explore different technologies collaboratively. Working in groups, the pre-service teachers explored different types of technology such as online classrooms, voice software, screencasting, student response systems, slidedecks, information organisers and apps for language learning. The author found that her intervention was successful in initiating student-teachers’ epistemic agency, demonstrated when they were able to apply the new knowledge about technologies generated from their collaborative discussions to the design of new pedagogical resources. The role of emotions in language teaching, an area of research that has recently burgeoned (see, for example, Gkonou et al., 2020), is the focus of San Martín’s study in Chapter 5. Specifically, San Martín considers how emotions and beliefs interact in the process of teacher learning on an EFL teacher education programme in Argentina. Drawing on action research as a methodology, the author examines how two new interventions – a pre-practicum workshop and peer tutoring – contribute to the development of student-teachers’ beliefs and emotions about the teaching practicum. The practicum is an element of teacher learning that often incites multiple and contradictory emotions, such as excitement and anxiety. Overall, the author’s two interventions served to raise the student-teachers’ awareness of their emotions and beliefs about teaching, as well as to reduce their sense of isolation and loneliness on the practicum. They realised they were united in their emotions, and also supported emotionally by the peer tutors, who kept them on track. San Martín also observed that the student-teachers were able to confront some perhaps prohibitive beliefs about teaching, such as the role of L1 in the classroom. In Chapter 6, Huang explores how modern languages student-teachers on a postgraduate programme in Scotland view practitioner enquiry as part of their professional learning. In response to Scotland’s recent reconceptualisation of teachers as reflective practitioners and agents for change, Huang suggests that practitioner enquiry needs to be introduced early in teacher education programmes so that reflection and enquiry become part of student-teachers’ daily lives, following Cochran-Smith and Lytle’s (2009) notion of ‘enquiry as stance’. Working collaboratively, the author and 40 student-teachers conceptualised and planned smallscale practitioner enquiry projects (a ‘weaker’ version of action research),

Introduction 9

guided by two introductory sessions. Huang observed that the studentteachers were able to defi ne, refi ne and redefi ne their practitioner enquiry problems by drawing on both theory and practice, and in many cases their research topics derived from experiences while on school placements. The fi ndings suggest that the student-teachers were able to adopt the ‘enquiry as stance’ perspective with relative ease. The next chapter (Chapter 7) reports on Khurram’s attempts to enhance student-teacher engagement on the course she teaches within a Master’s (MA) applied linguistics programme in Pakistan, after she observed that her group of student-teachers seemed to be distracted, and unwilling to participate in class discussions or do the required pre-reading. Drawing on classroom-based research as her methodology, Khurram implemented and evaluated the effect of a range of teaching strategies to encourage active student participation as identified in the literature. The strategies used included promoting autonomy, a sense of relatedness and a sense of competence among the student-teachers. Khurram found that implementing these strategies not only helped to engage the student-teachers more actively as the course progressed, but also empowered them to take action beyond the course. The author also sensed improvements in their well-being, which she attributed to having created an ‘accessible and psychologically safe classroom culture’. In particular, the student-teachers felt cared for by the teacher educator and each other. Sarasa’s use of visual narrative inquiry in Chapter 8 constructs an interesting depiction of English language teachers’ experiences of identity and diversity. For Sarasa, storytelling is central to teacher education, and she describes her research and practice as taking a ‘narrative reflective practice approach’: telling stories but also reflecting on and learning from them collaboratively. Framed by the concept of ‘a narrative view of identity as stories to live by’ (Schaefer & Clandinin, 2019), the chapter focuses on the stories co-created by a group of 14 student-teachers in Argentina, inspired by a wordless picture book entitled The Tree House. The student-teachers’ narratives are presented collectively in terms of two themes that emerged from the analysis, providing two contrasting depictions of diversity: it can both encourage unity (for example, through learning to negotiate differences and to be flexible and adaptable) and also amplify difference (for instance, through discrimination, difficulty welcoming those who are different). Sarasa found that engaging student-teachers in narrative constructions from this picture book helped mediate their experiences of identity and diversity, and to embrace the harmonious potential in diversity. In her role as an advisor to student-teachers engaging in a classroom research project as part of a postgraduate programme in Colombia, Echeverri Sucerquia (Chapter 9) discusses the experience of scaffolding the development of ‘critical consciousness’ through reflection and praxis. She discusses how a teacher educator can facilitate the development of ‘conscientisation’ (Freire, 2000), being able to reflect critically about the world

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Professional Development through Teacher Research

and then act through praxis. Reporting on her critical inquiry into her research advisory work with four student-teachers, the author used a range of strategies to scaffold conscientisation, such as problem-posing questions, specific advice in moments of crisis, and encouraging collaborative learning. Interestingly, Echeverri Sucerquia compares the process of student-teachers engaging in research to the teaching practicum, in that they are both critical periods in learning when teachers develop through struggles and require carefully scaffolded support, but can experience significant personal and professional transformation. Chapter 10 continues the theme of advising on student-teacher research, as Fajardo-Dack, Abad Célleri and Argudo Serrano report on their trioethnographic (collaborative/trio ethnography) study of their supervision experiences, which they view as an opportunity for mutual learning. They view the practice of supervision as a social learning activity, requiring active participation and a range of skills and responsibilities, for which, as they note, many academics receive very little formal training. Undertaking this study allowed Fajardo-Dack et al., through narrating their stories, to reflect simultaneously on their practice and development as supervisors and their students’ research journeys, and the relationship between them. The authors discuss the tensions between the different identities they inhabit, and the centrality of the supervisor-supervisee relationship, in which each author draws on a combination of supervision models: the teaching model, the apprenticeship model and the partnership model. Also set in Colombia, Cuesta Medina and McDougald’s chapter (Chapter 11) adopts an exploratory qualitative research perspective in tracing the transformation of postgraduate ELT student-teachers into coresearchers, and documents the factors that influenced this evolution of identities. The authors redesigned some aspects of the courses they taught with the aim of developing student-teacher agency. Drawing on data collected over several years, Cuesta Medina and McDougald discuss the importance of teacher educators’ positive attitudes and empathy in encouraging the learning of research, effective and continuous feedback, supportive research consultation sessions and teaching academic writing skills. New advisor-student relationships emerged towards the end of the programme as they became co-researchers and, eventually, co-authors of academic publications. In the last chapter from the contributing authors, Kameru and Kiai (Chapter 12) document and reflect on the experiences of a visually impaired teacher educator (Kameru) working in Kenya. Like Tran in Chapter 2, the authors of Chapter 12 also draw on the tool of Farrell’s (2015) reflective practice framework and the narrative presentation of data to help Kameru examine her journey from a visually impaired child to an English language teacher educator who teaches oral skills. Reflecting on her philosophy of practice uncovers experiences of exclusion, while reflecting on her principles, theory and practice reveals how she has

Introduction 11

developed confidence in her ability to teach English speech and shifted from a teacher-centred to a learner-centred approach. Overall, this study shows that language teacher educators with visual impairments need not be limited in their professional development and teaching options, with important implications for institutions to incorporate systemic support. In the fi nal chapter (Chapter 13) we, the co-editors, conclude by reflecting on the teacher educators’ contributions to this volume in terms of the ways in which they have operationalised the concept of teacher research, how they have described their own professional development through engaging in research, and what the implications are for teacher educator research and practice. In the chapter, we problematise the main takeaways from the contributor chapters and discuss implications and roads to advance our understanding of language teacher educators’ professional development.

References Avalos, B. (2011) Teacher professional development in teaching and teacher education over ten years. Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (1), 10–20. Banegas, D.L. and del Pozo Beamud, M. (forthcoming) An exploration of TESOL teacher educators’ motivation. In R. Yuan and I. Lee (eds) Becoming and Being a TESOL Teacher Educator: Research and Practice. London: Routledge. Barkhuizen, G. (2021) Identity dilemmas of a teacher (educator) researcher: Teacher research versus academic institutional research. Educational Action Research 29 (3), 358–377. Borg, S. (2013) Teacher Research in Language Teaching: A Critical Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Borko, H., Jacobs, J. and Koellner, K. (2010) Contemporary approaches to teacher professional development. In P. Peterson, E. Baker and B. McGaw (eds) International Encyclopedia of Education, Vol. 7 (pp. 548–556). Oxford: Elsevier. Brennan, M. (2011) National curriculum: A political-educational tangle. Australian Journal of Education 55 (3), 259–280. Cochran-Smith, M. and Lytle, S.L. (2009) Inquiry as Stance: Practitioner Research for the Next Generation. New York: Teachers College Press. Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M.E. and Gardner, M. (2017) Effective Teacher Professional Development. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute. Dewey, J. (2015 [1938]) Experience and Education. New York: Free Press. Dikilitaş, K. and Hanks, J. (eds) (2018) Developing Language Teachers with Exploratory Practice. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. Edwards, E. (2021) The ecological impact of action research on language teacher development: A review of the literature. Educational Action Research 29 (3), 396–413. Farrell, T.S. (2015) Promoting Teacher Refl ection in Second Language Education: A Framework for TESOL Professionals. London: Routledge. Farrell, T.S. (2018) Research on Refl ective Practice in TESOL. London: Routledge. Freeman, D., Webre, A. and Epperson, M. (2019) What counts as knowledge in English language teaching? In S. Walsh and S. Mann (eds) The Routledge Handbook of English Language Teacher Education (pp. 13–24). London: Routledge. Freire, P. (2000) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum. Gkonou, C., Dewaele, J.-M. and King, J. (eds) (2020) The Emotional Rollercoaster of Language Teaching. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

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He, P. and Lin, A.M. (2018) Becoming a ‘language-aware’ content teacher: Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) teacher professional development as a collaborative, dynamic, and dialogic process. Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education 6 (2), 162–188. Johnson, K.E. and Golombek, P.R. (2020) Informing and transforming language teacher education pedagogy. Language Teaching Research 24 (1), 116–127. Schaefer, L. and Clandinin, D.J. (2019) Sustaining teachers’ stories to live by: Implications for teacher education. Teachers and Teaching 25 (1), 54–68. Villacañas de Castro, L.S. and Banegas, D. (2020) Philosophical tenets of action research in education. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. See https://oxfordre.com/ education/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.001.0001/acrefore-97801902640 93-e-1429. Yuan, R. (2018) ‘Practicing what I preach’: Exploring an EFL teacher educator’s modelling practice. TESOL Quarterly 52 (2), 414–425. Yuan, R. and Hu, Y. (2018) Teachers’ views on the qualities of effective EFL teacher educators. ELT Journal 72 (2), 141–150. Yuan, R. and Yang, M. (2020) Understanding university-based teacher educators’ boundary crossing experiences: Voices from Hong Kong. Teachers and Teaching 26 (2), 193–213.

2 Promoting Pre-service Teachers’ Collaborative Reflective Practice: Voices from a TESOL Teacher Education Programme in Vietnam Anh Tran

Introduction

Teaching is an unpredictable and contextualised profession that requires pre-service teachers to constantly learn to adapt and respond to changing realities. Among the various cognitive and social skills that preservice teachers need to acquire for their future responsibilities, reflective practice (RP) has received attention in recent years. The process of RP has been shown to assist pre-service teachers in better preparing for their future profession; however, its adoption for teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) has only arisen recently (Farrell, 2017; Freeman, 2016). The term reflection was fi rst coined by Dewey (1933) and was originally defi ned as the ‘active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends’ (Dewey, 1933: 9). In this defi nition, RP can be seen as an inner dialogue with oneself while one examines one’s beliefs and knowledge. Other researchers (e.g. York-Barr et  al., 2005) similarly view RP as a process requiring practitioners to employ high levels of conscious thinking and a desire to make changes based on new understandings of their practice. Apparently, in these conceptions there seems to be more emphasis on the cognitive aspects than the emotional/affective or moral dimensions of reflection. It is also clear from these understandings that the social elements of RP have been removed. Defi ned in this way, RP has been found to lessen its impacts on 13

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teacher learning due to limited sharing opportunities in the community (Mann & Walsh, 2013). Exploring not only the personal and cognitive but also the interpersonal and affective aspects of RP, the current study examines the collaborative experiences of a group of pre-service teachers in the context of a TESOL teacher education programme in Vietnam. For the purposes of this chapter, the defi nition put forward by Farrell (2015: 123) will be used as a way to understand RP in this study: ‘a cognitive process accompanied by a set of attitudes in which teachers systematically collect data about their practice, and, while engaging in dialogue with others, use the data to make informed decisions about their practice both inside and outside the classroom’. According to this defi nition, pre-service teachers can engage in RP as both a sole and a group activity.

Theoretical Background Dimensions and tools of reflective practice

In order to encourage practitioners to take multiple perspectives in the practice of reflection, a number of researchers (e.g. Jay & Johnson, 2002; Mann & Walsh, 2013) have suggested typologies of RP in teacher education. A common typology involves three dimensions of RP: descriptive, comparative and critical. Descriptive reflection involves the practice of answering the question, ‘What’s happening?’, with a consideration of contexts, causes, consequences and possible solutions to a problem. Comparative reflection is a matter of thinking about issues for reflection from different perspectives or views to gain new insights or better understandings. Critical reflection advises pre-service teachers to stand outside their practices and evaluate their practice from a wider perspective and make informed choices based on evidence. Obviously, the creation of a typology does not imply that practitioners should integrate all of its dimensions in their practice; rather, they can consider the typology as a tool mediating their reflection on multiple levels. Earlier research has documented that pre-service teachers are given numerous opportunities to engage in different sorts of reflection. For example, in the study by Dooly and Sadler (2013), pre-service teachers are encouraged not only to respond reflectively to their academic readings, but also to critically examine the values, assumptions, theories and strategies underlying their classroom behaviour and then to make informed decisions based on these reflections. RP has been embedded in language courses, teaching methods courses, micro-teaching and during schoolbased experiences, in order to develop reflection routines (e.g. Dooly & Sadler, 2013; Widodo & Ferdiansyah, 2018). Among a wide range of tools that may be used for RP, written reflections, or reflective essays, seem to dominate (Mann & Walsh, 2013).

Promoting Pre-service Teachers’ Collaborative Reflective Practice

15

However, other artefacts, tools and technologies have also proved to be effective in promoting pre-service teachers’ RP. For example, Widodo and Ferdiansyah (2018) investigated a group of Indonesian EFL pre-service teachers in their teaching practicum using video-mediated journaling and photovoicing. The participants documented their teaching by using digital photography and wrote reflective journals after watching filmed footage. At the end of this reflective process, these pre-service teachers (re)constructed their sense of agency, increased their confidence and developed better understanding of praxis. In another study, conducted in the Turkish setting (Gungor, 2016), video-recorded micro-teaching and lesson plans were successfully used along with reflective journals to foster pre-service and in-service teachers’ RP. This accumulating positive evidence from the literature points to the necessity of teacher education programmes including the varied use of artefacts and tools to stimulate effective RP among pre-service teachers. Farrell’s (2015) framework of reflective practice

Research on RP has been criticised for having disparate theoretical underpinnings. The majority of existing studies lacked a theoretical base to guide practice. The introduction of Farrell’s (2015) comprehensive framework of RP, therefore, serves as an important, ground-breaking basis for researchers exploring RP. Following previous research (e.g. Farrell & Kennedy, 2019), this study used Farrell’s (2015) framework to restructure a course for pre-service TESOL teachers and to guide data collection and analysis. Below, I explain the five stages of this framework: philosophy, principles, theory, practice and beyond practice. I also review related studies conducted specifically to explore each of these stages. Philosophy

This stage requires pre-service teachers to think about issues such as socioeconomic background and family and personal values which are believed to exert interactive effects on developing language teacher identity. In a similar manner, pre-service teachers could be requested to narrate who they are as a person, who they are as an English learner and what kind of teachers in the past may have influenced them, and then reflect on how they may still influence them (Farrell, 2017). In simple terms, preservice teachers are encouraged to associate their previous learning with their current learning-to-teach practice or to map on their future teaching experience. A body of research that examines pre-service teachers’ reflection on their philosophy is concerned with the concept of teacher identity (e.g. Trent, 2010; Yuan & Mak, 2018). In these studies, reflection facilitates identity development because it offers pre-service teachers space ‘to think’ and ‘to question’ (Trent, 2010: 164) and increases their awareness of who they are and what kind of teachers they want to become.

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Professional Development through Teacher Research

Principles

The aim of this stage is to get pre-service teachers to reflect on beliefs, assumptions and concepts of teaching and learning. It involves exploring their perspectives on what constitutes effective teaching and learning in general. Studies (e.g. Alvarado Gutiérrez et al., 2019) investigating this stage of RP reported that pre-service teachers became more aware of their personal principles in teaching. Theory

At this level, pre-service teachers examine their choice of approaches, methods and techniques for teaching a particular lesson. During this process, pre-service teachers reflect on specific teaching techniques they opt to use (or may wish to use) in their lessons and the extent to which these techniques are (or should be) consistent with their selected approaches and methods. In other words, this stage allows pre-service teachers to investigate how they put theory into practice, and how they construct their own theory of practice. Morton and Gray (2010) reported that teachers’ reflection on theory, through the use of collaborative lesson planning conferences, resulted in a broader range of instructional methods and better awareness of the connection between theory and practice. Practice

Most commonly, pre-service teachers can be directed by teacher educators or school teachers to reflect on visible behaviours in the classroom and the rationales underlying their decisions before and during teaching practice. In this way, they can reflect while they are teaching (reflection-inaction), after they teach (reflection-on-action) or before they teach (reflection-for-action). This stage, according to Farrell (2015), can easily be undertaken collaboratively with peers and teacher educators in the course. Beyond practice

This stage requires a high level of criticality and aims to guide preservice teachers to attend to sociocultural issues that may affect teaching and learning inside and outside the classroom. Interestingly, most studies on reflection beyond practice utilise writing as the main reflective tool. Participants in Birbirso’s (2012) study were asked to keep a journal in which they recorded and responded to the constraints they faced during their practicum. As a result of this investigation, the participants were able to reflect on practices at the school level and identify how these practices influenced classroom events and interactions. While Farrell’s (2015) framework provides a clear guideline for practitioners to reflect at multiple levels, it seems to place more emphasis on the intellectual, cognitive and meta-cognitive aspects of RP. Although the spiritual, moral and emotional non-cognitive dimensions of RP can be addressed in the last stage, practitioners undoubtedly need more specific guidance on how RP can be

Promoting Pre-service Teachers’ Collaborative Reflective Practice

17

directed. In addition, the framework only highlights the collective elements of RP in the practice stage, which appears to be quite limited given that engaging in dialogue with others is acknowledged as one important tenet of RP (Farrell, 2015). A collaborative model of reflective practice

To change the dominantly individualised nature of RP, Mann and Walsh (2013) argue that different collaborative activities can be used. They can range from co-planning for teaching and pair or group discussions before and after teaching, to conducting lesson study projects and undertaking peer observation. This argument is strongly supported by sociocultural views of learning which emphasise that ‘social activity is the process through which human cognition is formed’ (Lantolf & Johnson, 2007: 878). A good example of how a collaborative model of RP can be applied in teacher education programmes can be found in research conducted in Mexico by Godínez Martínez (2018) or a study in the Chilean context by Alvarado Gutiérrez et al. (2019). In the latter investigation, a 10-week workshop in the teaching practicum was developed to introduce preservice EFL teachers to structured, conversational and collaborative reflection. The study concludes that it is fundamental for pre-service teachers to move beyond ‘self-reflection’ and even beyond ‘learning from colleagues’, towards dialogic, collaboratively constructed reflection and identity development. The current study, therefore, attempted to apply a collaborative model of RP with various forms of cooperation among preservice teachers, their peers and the teacher educator that can occur before, while and after teaching. Methods Case study

This study employed qualitative methods that include a case study approach to explore the impacts of a collaborative model of RP guided by Farrell’s (2015) framework on pre-service TESOL teachers’ learning-toteach. The research aim necessitated the usage of a combination of several data sources, as described in the section below on ‘Data collection procedures’, to produce a detailed, in-depth understanding of various aspects of collaborative RP within the context of the study (Baxter & Jack, 2008). Research context

This study was carried out in a four-year undergraduate TESOL honours programme at Lima University (pseudonym) in the north of Vietnam.

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Professional Development through Teacher Research

In this programme, pre-service teachers undertake Teaching Practice as a compulsory course before they take part in their six-week practicum in the fi nal semester. Before enrolling in this course, pre-service teachers had completed prerequisite teaching methods courses where they experienced micro-teaching practice. The 15-week Teaching Practice course was originally designed to provide pre-service teachers with another opportunity to teach for their peers before their school-based experience. After five years of implementation, the course instructors (a group of three teacher educators including the author of this chapter) collectively examined the course guide and our past teaching experiences to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the course. We realised that RP only served as one component in the assessment package, through the medium of a reflection essay. Such RP only took place after micro-teaching sessions ended. We carefully considered similar experiences in the international literature, being particularly enlightened by the line of research on RP in TESOL teacher education. We then co-constructed a revised syllabus, stressing the critical dimension of RP besides descriptive and comparative dimensions. We chose to adopt a collaborative model of RP that urged students to work with their peers and the teacher educator in the process, as we believed that it would foster their learning. We asked preservice teachers to use various artefacts, tools and technologies during RP under the structure of Farrell’s (2015) framework (see Table 2.1). The course was fi nally renamed Reflective Teaching Practice. As Table 2.1 shows, pre-service teachers were placed in pairs or groups of three to embark on the process of critically evaluating a given lesson plan, presenting their evaluations in front of the class and receiving feedback, adapting the lesson plan, co-planning and co-teaching the lesson to their peers, peer observing, class conferencing, and fi nally reflecting in written essays. The process started with teacher educators’ input (defi nitions, nature, models, dimensions, procedure and tools) on RP in language teaching in the fi rst two weeks. The cycle of structured RP lasted from Week 3 to Week 15 of the semester. My roles as the teacher educator and researcher

It is important to note that I worked with the other two teacher educators in adapting the course syllabus with a desire to foster the collective elements of RP. We continued our discussions throughout the course around classroom activities and assessment as we taught three different classes. Apart from these mutual discussions, I was determined to undertake a systematic case study of my own students’ learning while observing and reflecting on the change in our course. My goals were twofold: (1) to investigate how the collaborative model under the structure of Farrell’s (2015) framework impacted on pre-service students’ learning; and (2) to address pre-service teachers’ needs arising during the learning process.

Promoting Pre-service Teachers’ Collaborative Reflective Practice

19

Table 2.1 Integrating a structured, collaborative RP model into the course Week

RP activities

Nature of activities

Farrell’s stages

1–2

Discussing the what and how of reflective practice

Individual, pair and group discussion

Philosophy

3–5

Evaluating the lesson plan given by the teacher educator

Pair work/group work

Principles and theory

Presenting to class the outcome of their evaluation and their proposed changes

Pair work/group work

Principles and theory

Peer and teacher feedback and class conferencing

Class conferencing

Principles, theory and practice

Adapting the lesson plan based on feedback and planning for a micro-teaching of the lesson

Pair work/group work

Principles, theory and practice

6–12

Micro-teaching

Pair work/group work

Theory and practice

Peer observation, oral and written feedback

Pair or group discussion

Principles, theory and practice, and beyond practice

13–14

Reflecting on the process of reflective practice

Class conferencing

All five stages

14–15

Writing reflective essays

Individual work

All five stages

To start off, in our first meeting I shared with the pre-service teachers my research intentions and the data collection process. In the consent forms, I noted that the interview data would enable me to address their needs during the course, and the grading of their assignments would not be influenced by the data collection process. In the first two weeks of the course, I played the role of an instructor while leading discussions on the definitions, process, nature, dimensions and tools of RP. Between Weeks 3 and 5, I acted as a facilitator in their evaluations of lesson plans, while between Week 6 and Week 13 I was a participant-observer and guide. Throughout this time, I tried to facilitate the process of RP with an open mind and heart so that my students could feel that they had space to reflect on their own and their peers’ practice without being judged. Although the process of RP was assessed at the end of the semester, I always assured them that RP was necessary for their professional development, and that assessment would take into account the entire learning process. I was also conscious that the research journey mirrored my own reflective practice. I thus felt excited when awaiting what I could learn along the way. I believed that the use of various research tools that led to systematic data collection, recording and analysis would provide mechanisms for my learning. While I made attempts to become a critical and reflective decision maker in the process, I discussed extensively with colleagues in order to create an optimal learning environment for myself and the pre-service teachers.

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Professional Development through Teacher Research

Data collection procedures

To examine how a collaborative approach to RP influenced the preservice teachers’ learning, multiple data sources were collected. These included teaching artefacts (i.e. original and adapted lesson plans and PowerPoint slides), audio-recordings of class conferencing, peers’ written feedback, video-recordings of micro-teaching practice, observation notes, reflective essays, and audio-recordings of group interviews (see Appendix 2.1). Data collection was carried out over a 15-week period. Table 2.2 gives details of the type of data, labelling codes and time of collection. Labelling codes will be used in the report of fi ndings to keep track of the data source; for example, Lan (R) refers to the extract taken from the reflective essay by Lan. It is important to note that among the data sources detailed above, teaching artefacts, peers’ written feedback and reflective essays were part of the assessment package of the course. For the purpose of my own research, I collected video-recordings of micro-teaching sessions and audio-recordings of class conferencing, and I organised group interviews after micro-teaching or one week after micro-teaching outside class time. Farrell’s (2015) framework not only guided the restructuring of the course but also facilitated the data collection procedure. Questions for group interviews, class conferencing, reflective essays and peer’s written feedback were constructed in the light of the five stages suggested in this framework. During data collection, I myself engaged in RP by going back and forth through the notes taken in class conferencing and group interviews with pre-service teachers. Audio-recordings were listened to again after each interview, enabling me to adjust my teaching plan in the following weeks. Most visibly, my guiding questions in class conferencing were altered as a result of talking with pre-service teachers in group interviews. I also clarified the requirements for the reflective essay when two preservice teachers posed inquiries relating to this task.

Table 2.2 Examples of means of labelling data Type of data and labelling codes

Time of collection

1. Teaching artefacts (original and revised lesson plans and PowerPoint presentation slides) = A

After micro-teaching (Week 3–13)

2. Peers’ written feedback = F

After micro-teaching (Week 6–13)

3. Video-recordings of micro-teaching

During micro-teaching (Week 6–13)

4. Teacher educator’s observation notes = O

During micro-teaching (Week 6–13)

5. Audio-recordings of class conferencing = C

After micro-teaching (Week 6–13)

6. Audio-recordings of group interview = I

Post-teaching or one week after micro-teaching (Week 7–14)

7. Reflective essays = R

Week 14 and 15 of the semester

Promoting Pre-service Teachers’ Collaborative Reflective Practice

21

Case study of the three pre-service teachers

Data were collected from all 16 members of the class but only the three pre-service teachers in one group (Lan, Mai and Thu – pseudonyms) were selected as specific cases for the present study. Before this course, these three pre-service teachers had gained previous teaching experiences outside their teacher education programme. Among the three pre-service teachers, Lan was the most articulate and could speak at length about her experiences, beliefs and assumptions about English teaching. Since her sophomore year, Lan had undertaken a number of teaching-related jobs, from being a teaching assistant to being a real English teacher for young learners in English centres around Hanoi. Her diverse experiences in teaching gave her enormous confidence in evaluating the lesson plan given and in reflecting on actions and for actions. Mai, the second member, had an outgoing personality. Unlike the other two members, she had come back from an exchange overseas programme, so this course was her first time micro-teaching a lesson. Thu, the leader of the class, on the other hand, described herself as having a bold character. She used to be a shy child in her childhood, but turned into a responsible and unbending person when she entered a secondary school that demanded strict regulations on student behaviour. Data analysis

Data were coded and analysed in the light of Farrell’s (2015) guiding framework. In each stage, a procedure of thematic analysis (Clarke & Braun, 2013) was used to search for emerging themes. Along with another teacher educator who was trained in the coding techniques, we assessed the quality of the data by checking for its credibility through prolonged engagement and systematic coding. As the study took place over an intensive 15-week period, this duration established sufficient time for our extensive engagement with the data. Findings

This section outlines the three pre-service teachers’ reflective journeys through Farrell’s (2015) five-stage framework of philosophy, principles, theory, practice and beyond practice. In each stage, emerging themes recurring in the data set were reported. Philosophy

Collected evidence from the three cases shows that there was a strong influence of family backgrounds, history of learning English and personal values and issues on their decisions to enrol in the TESOL programme and on their initial teacher identity development.

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The three pre-service teachers were born into middle-class families in Hanoi, which all placed a strong value on education and showed a great respect for the teaching profession. Lan’s parents had high expectations for her academic performance as she was the first child in the family. Lan began to fall in love with the English language and its culture after she had extensive experience with native English teachers. Through learning English, she encountered Western movies and books which projected ‘a life of independence, freedom and choices’ (Lan, R). Despite her love for this language, Lan had no personal intention of becoming an English teacher. Her decision to enrol in the TESOL teacher education programme was strongly influenced by her extended family members: ‘My whole family talked me into English teaching’ (Lan, R). However, after nearly four years in the programme, her love for the profession gradually grew stronger and she admitted that becoming a preservice teacher was the best decision she had made in her life. Similarly, Thu’s decision to enrol in the TESOL programme was partially influenced by her father, who insisted that ‘teachers don’t get hurt’ (Thu, R), persuading her that teaching was a safe profession no matter what changes might happen in society. The image of a secure profession, projected into her mind by her father in her teenage years, eventually developed into a positive attitude towards teaching, as she became part of the teacher education programme at Lima University. Mai’s desire to undertake the TESOL teacher education programme was also motivated by her family’s teaching tradition. Her mother and aunt were teachers, so a clear path for her future profession had been envisaged since she was young. Mai did not object to this idea as she loved talking and explaining things to people around her. Clearly, the three pre-service teachers shared many common features in their English learning backgrounds and their decisions to train as English teachers. Mai was the only participant whose desire to become an English teacher was hers alone. By and large, their choice of future profession was principally affected by their family members. Principles

The participants’ stated beliefs and assumptions about teaching and their perceived role as a teacher fell into two categories: approachability and authority. Their principles and conceptions of teaching are summarised in Table 2.3. The theme of approachability featured in the data through the participants’ aspiration to create a friendly, relaxed and supportive learning atmosphere, while the theme of authority was apparent in their wish to exert a certain power over students’ learning. A clear example of how the two themes were intertwined can be observed in Lan’s case. Working as a teaching assistant in a class for young learners, Lan defi ned her teaching

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23

Table 2.3 Principles and conceptions of teaching Principles and conception

Lan

Mai

Thu

Principle 1: Approachability

– Make jokes, create activities, initiate small talk – Maintain a friendly relationship with students

– Be a confident, supportive, and attentive teacher – Develop rapport as sister and friend

– Create a relaxing, motivating environment for student learning – Be a counsellor as well as a teacher in their life

Principle 2: Authority

– Get students to do homework and stop misbehaving in class

Conceptions of teaching

– Non-materialistic profession – Creating students’ positive attitude towards learning

– Exercise power and manage the class with a strict attitude – Developing language proficiency – Bringing changes to many people’s lives – Flexibility and freedom to pursue interests

– Accounting for students’ needs

environment as ‘relaxed’, as she believed that the aim of teaching was to create ‘students’ positive attitude towards English’ (Lan, R). Viewing teaching as a ‘non-materialistic’ profession, Lan valued her relationship with her students and felt appreciative when they started sharing their secrets and personal experiences. Her relaxed and friendly teaching style, however, contributed to her challenges in maintaining an authoritative role in managing the classroom, rewarding students and assigning homework. There was an internal conflict in the two roles she had assumed: being a friendly teacher who could create a trustworthy relationship where ‘needs are communicated without pressure’ (Lan, C), and being an authoritarian who wanted to maintain a strict attitude and to exercise control over student learning. Theory

At this stage, the pre-service teachers were guided to examine their choice of approaches, methods and techniques for teaching the lesson they had been assigned. Lan, Thu and Mai were provided with a pronunciation lesson plan to evaluate and adapt for their micro-teaching. Their reflections at this stage centred on the connection between teaching content and teaching the methodology of pronunciation. Mai was ‘confused’ when looking at the teaching activities and Lan could not make sense of the methodology adopted in the lesson plan (class conferencing). There was evidence that the pre-service teachers’ personal theories aligned with their conceptions of teaching reflected in the second stage. The group adhered to the communicative approach for teaching pronunciation when they decided to add a lead-in activity to motivate students

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and a communicative activity to encourage students’ production of the target language. They were also determined to shift from using classwork and individual work to more group-work activities. They believed that such changes ‘provide students with the opportunities to use language in real life situations’ (Thu, R) or ‘expose students to L2 materials and naturally learn to speak like the natives’ (Mai, R). During this stage, I made some adaptation to the learning activities as a result of my dialogic interactions with the pre-service teachers. While discussing theory of practice, I recognised that this group and their peers tended to be rather brief in the descriptive dimension of RP and had not included comparative or evaluative dimensions of reflection. I then made efforts to encourage further elaboration by asking them to respond to Wh-questions (what, who, when, why, etc.). I also fostered the evaluative and comparative dimensions of RP by requesting pre-service teachers to compare their current teaching behaviours with those in their previous micro-teaching. Practice

At this stage of RP, the three pre-service teachers were engaged in reflection for, in and on action. Class conferencing and group interviews prompted them to reflect on the decisions made before and during the micro-teaching session. Notably, all changes made by the group to the original lesson plan aimed to cater for the diverse needs and proficiency level of their (assumed) learners and to create meaningful interaction opportunities in the classroom – practices that closely aligned with their stated principles and theories. For example, they added a group-work activity in which their peers had to role-play a dialogue that could happen in real life. This change reflected Mai’s desire to connect her lessons with authentic life situations so that ‘students can understand what they are studying is meaningful’ (Mai, R). In addition, through the process of reflecting on practice, pre-service teachers were highly critical of their own and their peers’ weaknesses and strengths. Thu realised that her greatest strength was ‘selecting and facilitating the right activities to achieve the predefi ned lesson objectives’ (Thu, R). The group received constructive comments from their peers, such as maintaining a positive classroom atmosphere, achieving lesson objectives and using a variety of activities. However, the three participants admitted that their classroom language did not match the students’ proficiency level. Mai claimed: ‘As I talked, they looked very lost, which caused me to panic because I realised I was not making myself understood. When I tried explaining myself by using less complicated vocabulary, I stumbled because I was not prepared for that’ (Mai, C). She reflected forward by ‘consciously reminding myself to keep my vocabulary as simple as possible, and preparing what I will have to say

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in both English and Vietnamese’, and preparing ‘the back-up Vietnamese version to resort to’ (Mai, R). This evidence indicates that pre-service teachers had gained increased awareness of their gains and deficiencies, and were also determined to seek out alternative solutions for their problems. Beyond practice

Based on the guiding questions for the group interview and reflective essay, the participants were able to link their previous teaching experiences to broader sociocultural issues in the Vietnamese context. Mai showed her growing teacher identity most clearly when she associated her experiences of meeting different people with her values in life and consequently how this connection interacted with her conception of teaching. She wrote in her reflective essay: I look around people in our field, and they are working hard not for money, but for people, and to make the world a better place. I also met people in history, education, and I realised they care much more about human, how to create goodness and change in this world, and I thought, I want to eventually become that kind of person in my teaching. (Mai, R)

In another instance, she admitted: Unconventional and controversial as those experiences are, they gave me the joy of doing what I long for, and made me realise how wonderful a place this world could be. I am confident about becoming a supportive teacher who will perpetually encourage my young students to strongly believe in their capability of doing whatever their heart wants, and bold enough to eventually do it, just like I did. (Mai, R)

In the above two extracts, Mai proved that she was able to move beyond her practice of teaching to reflect on social issues like educating children for the world and creating change in society, through which I believe she was addressing the ultimate goals of education. An important theme emerging was that all of the pre-service teachers were aware of the benefits of a structured cycle of RP on their learning at this stage of reflection. Lan planned to involve her future students and colleagues in her reflective process by facilitating ‘a short meeting session where they can reflect on themselves, on their studying and on me’ (Lan, R). She was mindful that ‘receiving feedback is not reflective enough’ (Lan, R), and felt the necessity to be involved in critical thinking and taking feedback on board. Increased awareness of the significance of RP was also observed in Mai’s case, who said in the group interview: ‘I always remind myself to deliberately seek to broaden my knowledge, and think critically about myself in relation to the world’ (Mai, I). Group interviews and reflective essays in these examples served as vital mediating tools, allowing the participants to articulate their intentions of taking on a reflective practitioner identity in the future.

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Discussion

The analysis of the three pre-service teachers’ reflections indicates that there was a strong thread linking their philosophy, principles, theory, practice and beyond practice with each other. The fi rst emerging theme throughout the reflective journey of the participants in this research is approachability, a fi nding that has also been highlighted in Farrell and Kennedy’s (2019) study. The high respect for the teaching profession running through their families resulted in the preservice teachers’ positive attitude towards the job and their desire to become supportive and approachable teachers. From their teaching experiences they came to recognise and appreciate friendly and relaxed teachers, and considered establishing a good rapport with their students as the most important goal in their future job. In other words, they saw themselves as care providers, counsellors and friends of their students. This conception was built into their principles of teaching when they aimed to create a relaxed atmosphere and to maintain a positive relationship with the students. Their assumptions and beliefs informed their theory of teaching, evident in their wish to generate more group-work activities and meaningful situations for their students. In their pronunciation lesson, the adoption of communicative language teaching as the teaching approach and the use of role-play as a communicative activity also revealed the line of connection among different stages of the RP framework. On the other hand, the second theme of authority appeared to be prevalent in Thu and Lan’s cases, who had experience in teaching young children. Their assumptions and beliefs indicate that these participants also wanted to take up the role of a mother who wants to get their children to accomplish various learning tasks under their control, a fi nding which aligns with Farrell (2010). In traditional Vietnamese culture, a teacher can be regarded as a second mother, and students are expected to respect and listen to their teacher. Lan’s wish for her students to be under firm control might have been influenced by her own experiences in a secondary school where strict rules on student behaviour were applied. The study also demonstrates that the collaborative model of RP – through a wide array of collective activities such as co-evaluation, coteaching, teacher and peer feedback, class conferencing and group interview – enabled participants to examine and articulate their own thinking about teaching and their roles as teachers (Godínez Martínez, 2018; Yuan & Mak, 2018). As a researcher examining this process, I came to realise that the strength of a structured and collaborative model of RP lies in its descriptive capability. It makes explicit what constitutes teaching from the perspectives of pre-service teachers as a group, which is highly beneficial to teacher educators like me in planning our instruction. This study also sheds light on how teacher educators can support pre-service teachers in their journey of collaborative learning-to-teach through

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setting specific and achievable goals and providing adequate scaffolding for deep reflection. Support can range from providing lesson plans for them to evaluate, adapt and co-teach, to using mediating tools like lesson plans, evaluative essays, class conferencing and peer-feedback sessions to strengthen their RP. The participants in this study also developed strong teacher identities through reflecting on who they believed they were, how they saw their roles in teaching and how they should act as teachers. Through the process of reflecting for, in and on action, these participants were empowered by their developing awareness that they could defi ne, deconstruct and overcome their limitations. Within this course, they were given space to think critically about different aspects of teaching. In line with Trent’s (2010) claim, I strongly believe that pre-service teachers do not need to wait until the end of a course before writing down their thoughts in reflective essays.

Conclusion and Implications

This chapter has outlined and discussed three TESOL pre-service teachers’ reflective journeys in a TESOL teacher education programme, through Farrell’s (2015) framework of RP. The fi ndings suggest practical implications for TESOL teacher educators. This study argues that a balance of a collaborative and an individual version of RP can bring about enormous impacts on pre-service teachers’ learning-to-teach. The structure of our programme proved to be beneficial and successful, so teacher educators can similarly encourage pre-service teachers to collaborate with their peers and/or teacher educators to set up reflection groups, class conferencing and group interviews that can be used to combat the individual nature of teaching. If pre-service teachers have been trained to reflect in collaboration, they can become more familiar with this collective nature of their work. By so doing, they may become accustomed to seeking external support when encountering problems and thus may feel less isolated, particularly in the first years of teaching. The observation of different layers of reflection in this study suggests further adoption of Farrell’s (2015) holistic framework as a theoretical basis and an analytical tool for teacher educators. As this framework can enable pre-service teachers to make links between philosophy, principles, theory and practice, it can be incorporated into the process of pre-service TESOL teachers’ learning to encourage them to reflect on different levels and to cultivate a reflective disposition in the long run. I would like to end this chapter by turning the analytical and reflective lens inwards. As the teacher educator in the course and simultaneously as a researcher, the conduct of this study contributed to my expanding knowledge of RP and of possible ways to enhance my own teaching.

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My ‘discovery trail’ (Schwab, 2017) commenced with initial discussions with colleagues and extensive reading of the RP literature in order to become able to make informed decisions in course adaptation. Academic readings were reflected through the lens of my prior experience, allowing me to generate new understandings of RP and challenging my former teaching practice in the course. In the process of recording data and reflecting on the line of thinking in this research, I was intrigued by what was happening in and outside my own classroom. I realised that taking a more attentive and ‘exploratory’ perspective in the research empowered me to enrich experiences for myself and for the pre-service teachers. The whole process of co-constructing knowledge of RP between me and the pre-service teachers was permeated with dialogue, mutual understanding and respect. It was the critical reflection and constructive feedback from the pre-service teachers in group interviews and class conferencing that shaped the direction of the course assessment. Some participants expressed great interest in the way I incorporated group interview outside class time, enabling them to raise their voices about their learning. One comment made by a pre-service teacher in her reflective essay – ‘I want to be a reflective teacher like the teacher educator’ – captured my entire efforts in the course. The research was indeed a continuous and enlivening experience that brought the teacher educator and pre-service teachers closer and taught us beyond the course plan. My identity of being a researcher was also enhanced during the process of writing this chapter. Writing occurs at the end of the research process but it urged me to constantly make connections with the academic literature and reconstruct my new understandings of the collected data. This study, like other projects I had conducted and am undertaking, ignites my interest in research into TESOL teacher education for improving my own practice. The TESOL teacher education programme I am part of provides me with a rich environment to become a research-active practitioner once I return to Vietnam after my PhD studies. The fi ndings of this study strengthen my belief that the quality of pre-service teachers’ learning in a teacher education programme is largely dependent on the learning journey of the teacher educators. Appendix 2.1 Examples of group interview questions

(1) What was your goal in the collaborative process? (2) How did you divide the tasks among yourselves? (3) What difficulties did you experience as you prepared for lesson plan evaluation, lesson adaptation and co-teaching? (4) How did you resolve difficulties as a pair/group? (5) What did you learn from the process?

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(6) How did you know you were learning? (7) Do you have any suggestions for the course instructor about materials, instruction and assessment? Examples of guiding questions for the essay

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

Who am I as a person? Who am I as a student of English? Who am I as a pre-service teacher in this programme? How do I teach as a pre-service teacher? What does teaching mean to me now and in the future?

References Alvarado Gutiérrez, M.V., Neira Adasme, M.A. and Westmacott, A. (2019) Collaborative reflective practice: Its influence on pre-service EFL teachers’ emerging professional identities. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research 7 (3), 53–70. Baxter, P. and Jack, S. (2008) Qualitative case study methodology: Study design and implementation for novice researchers. The Qualitative Report 13 (4), 544–559. Birbirso, D.T. (2012) Reflective practicum: Experience of the Ethiopian context. Reflective Practice 13 (6), 857–869. Clarke, V. and Braun, V. (2013) Teaching thematic analysis: Overcoming challenges and developing strategies for effective learning. The Psychologist 26 (2), 120–123. Dewey, J. (1933) How We Think. New York: Heath & Co. Dooly, M. and Sadler, R. (2013) Filling in the gaps: Linking theory and practice through telecollaboration in teacher education. ReCALL 25 (1), 4–29. Farrell, T.S. (2010) Exploring the professional role identities of experienced ESL teachers through RP. System 39 (1), 54–62. Farrell, T.S. (2015) Promoting Teacher Refl ection in Second Language Education: A Framework for TESOL Professionals. London: Routledge. Farrell, T.S. (2017) Research on Refl ective Practice in TESOL. London: Routledge. Farrell, T.S. and Kennedy, B. (2019) Reflective practice framework for TESOL teachers: One teacher’s reflective journey. Refl ective Practice 20 (1), 1–12. Freeman, D. (2016) Educating Second Language Teachers. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Godínez Martínez, J.M. (2018) How effective is collaborative reflective practice in enabling cognitive transformation in English language teachers? Refl ective Practice 19 (4), 427–446. Gungor, M.N. (2016) Turkish pre-service teachers’ reflective practices in teaching English to young learners. Australian Journal of Teacher Education 41 (2), 9. Jay, J.K. and Johnson, K.L. (2002) Capturing complexity: A typology of reflective practice for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education 18 (1), 73–85. Lantolf, J.P. and Johnson, K.E. (2007) Extending Firth and Wagner’s (1997) ontological perspective to L2 classroom praxis and teacher education. The Modern Language Journal 91, 877–892. Mann, S. and Walsh, S. (2013) RP or ‘RIP’: A critical perspective on reflective practice. Applied Linguistics Review 4 (2), 291–315. Morton, T. and Gray, J. (2010) Personal practical knowledge and identity in lesson planning conferences on a pre-service TESOL course. Language Teaching Research 14 (3), 297–317.

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Schwab, S. (2017) My discovery trail from a novice EFL teacher to a teacher educator and researcher. In S. Etherington and M. Daubney (eds) Developing as an EFL Researcher: Stories from the Field (pp. 75–76). Harrogate: IATEFL. Trent, J. (2010) ‘My two masters’: Confl ict, contestation, and identity construction within a teaching practicum. Australian Journal of Teacher Education 35 (7). Widodo, H.P. and Ferdiansyah, S. (2018) Engaging student-teachers in video-mediated self-reflection in teaching. In K.J. Kennedy and J.C.K. Lee (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Schools and Schooling in Asia (pp. 922–934). London: Routledge. York-Barr, J., Sommers, W.A., Ghere, G.S. and Montie, J. (eds) (2005) Refl ective Practice to Improve Schools: An Action Guide for Educators. New York: Corwin Press. Yuan, R. and Mak, P. (2018) Reflective learning and identity construction in practice, discourse and activity: Experiences of pre-service language teachers in Hong Kong. Teaching and Teacher Education 74, 205–214.

3 Ghosts in the Machine? Exploratory Teaching on a Distance Learning Development Project Neil Johnson and Michael Hepworth

Introduction

This chapter reports on an exploratory practice project designed to better understand the affordances and constraints of using a cloud-based software platform (VoiceThread) to facilitate online discussion with trainee language teachers on an MA TESOL Independent Distance Learning (IDL) programme at a university in the north-east of England. Exploratory practice (Allwright, 1992, 2003, 2005) can be defi ned as ‘research generated by practitioners working to understand their own practices and their own lives’ (Allwright, 2005: 345). Such research typically begins with a puzzle (Allwright, 1992, 2005; Hanks, 2017) or an issue related to practice that requires development and improvement. In our case, the puzzle arose after we had been tasked with rewriting and improving the MA module, Theories of Second Language Learning, which sits within an MA TESOL IDL programme. As teacher educators, we both developed a strong sense that the pedagogical model operating within this programme emphasised the transmission of knowledge through self-paced, independent and individual study at the expense of collaborative dialogue and participation. Indeed, student feedback pointed to a need for more participation in high-quality online discussions. Participation in existing discussions via virtual learning environment (VLE) platforms was patchy and had, in our view, begun to feel a little tired. As a result, our students, many of whom were practising teachers, were, we sensed, being positioned very passively in the teaching and learning process. Having worked with Open University VLE platforms for many years, we were aware that other possibilities were available. For these reasons, we wanted to explore something new and, crucially, to develop our own 31

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pedagogical practices around online discussions at the same time – a need that has been given greater impetus by the shift to online learning necessitated by Covid-19. Based on previous experience in other contexts (e.g. teaching academic writing in a Japanese context), we set out to redesign our online discussions around the VoiceThread software platform. The chapter documenting our experiences is organised as follows. We begin by outlining the approach to exploratory practice developed by Allwright and colleagues (1992, 2003, 2005) and subsequently highlight how the suggested steps map onto our own work in redeveloping practice within the micro and macro aspects of our own context. This then allows us to articulate the reasons for exploring the changes in our practice, and our analysis of what these changes ultimately meant, and can mean, for the participants. Exploratory Practice

Exploratory practice has a long history in language education research, and was originally developed almost as a guide to allow practitioner teacher-researchers to better understand their own classrooms, thus cutting out the middleman of the distant and high-level academic researcher who may otherwise dictate practice that is not suited to any specific context (Allwright, 2005). As a framework, it has been used to successfully reflect on practice and has been part of broader changes both in classroom practice and in how participants relate to each other across a variety of contexts (see Hanks, 2019, for discussion). Allwright (2005) distanced himself from his earlier step-by-step approach to exploratory practice, since he wanted to avoid a ‘problem – solution’ type of inquiry which can become overly simplistic. However, as newcomers to this type of research (and very much challenged for time and resources), we found the guidelines from the earlier model (1992) helpful (with the potential weaknesses described by Allwright [2005] very much in mind – see later discussion) in designing our approach and writing up the fi ndings to this project. Following the suggestions from Allwright (1992), then, we sought to reflect on and explore our practice as teacher educators within the new IDL context that we found ourselves in, when asked to teach and develop an existing module of work for an online programme. This involved planning, developing and working through distinct passages of work, in line with the suggested procedures from Allwright (1992), which are summarised in Table 3.1. First Procedure: Identifying the Puzzle

To identify the puzzle, the fi rst step was to take a broader view of our own context and see the task at hand in terms of where we were as educators, locating this within the shifts in thinking that are taking place in

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Table 3.1 Applied procedure for exploratory practice Process for exploratory practice

Applied to current project

(1) Identify a puzzle area

The IDL context and pedagogical approach within our given context

(2) Refine thinking

The need for more participation and interaction and positioning of students as professionals

(3) Particular topic for focus

Theories of Second Language Learning IDL Module – interaction through task design

(4) Select appropriate procedure

VoiceThread files embedded into Canvas VLR

(5) Interpret the outcomes

Community of Inquiry model

(6) Decide on implications and plan accordingly

Analysis and discussions related to future practice

Source: Adapted from Allwright (1992).

terms of technology and independent distance education. The online learning experience is developing so rapidly that it was estimated that by 2017 the proportion of all students taking at least one course online would grow to 33.1%, from 31.1% in 2016 (Lederman, 2018). This shift towards online education has been driven, fi rstly, by developments in technology, which have meant that distance education can be handled much more effectively, with online platforms providing digital space for materials, interaction and feedback. This means that, as Kurzman (2013: 331) pointed out, ‘it is now possible to offer college and university education to more people, at a greater convenience, and often at a lower cost’. Secondly, the shift to online education has its roots in relatively recent global shifts, in a world characterised as one of global flow by Appadurai (1996). This world can be broadly characterised as neoliberal, defi ned as: a theory of political and economic practices that proposes that human wellbeing can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterised by strong private property rights, free markets and free trade. (Harvey, 2005: 2)

Under neoliberalism, education is commodified (Anderson, 2017) and marketised (Giroux, 2014; Luke, 2008). This is evident across higher education and within the English language and TESOL fields more specifically (Block et  al., 2013; Hall & Knox, 2009; Walker, 2014). Here, practitioners desire the higher status that an MA TESOL qualification provides to develop their career and professionalise away from private sector work, characterised (e.g. Walker, 2014) by low pay, low prestige and exploitative working conditions. In such a context, a distance learning degree offers professional development while the student is able to continue working. Given the precarious nature of much of the work in the TESOL sector, this is important, although how it impacts on motivation and professional development is not yet fully understood. Under

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neoliberalism, as a result of the commodification of knowledge and skills, there is a danger that teacher educators and students are positioned as passive consumers rather than as active participants in learning. As Giroux (2011: 3) has warned, pedagogy can be reduced to ‘a set of strategies and skills to use in order to teach pre-specified subject matter’. Challenges of distance learning

Pedagogical deficits and impoverished learning experiences may account for the fact that dropout rates for distance education are an increasing problem (Cohen, 2017) and higher than in conventional learning environments (Boston et al., 2012). Some studies have suggested that this trend poses an existential threat to distance education institutions (e.g. Cohen, 2017; Simpson, 2013). Research suggests that online students struggle with lower levels of motivation (Hartnett, 2016) and generally experience lower levels of satisfaction (Cole et al., 2014), and that dropout in online education relates to broader social issues, with many students trying to combine full-time work, family responsibilities and self-study (Ashby, 2004). That said, the learning experience offered also greatly impacts dropout rate. While there will always be circumstances beyond the control of the institution, those involved in the delivery of distance learning need to maintain student interest and drive student learning by providing a rich, satisfying pedagogy. Research has found that the amount of instructorstudent interaction and learner-content interaction, and internet selfefficacy, are all important predictors of student satisfaction (Kuo et al., 2014) and that the amount of learner-instructor interaction can have a decisive effect on student dropout (Croxton, 2014), with a lack of online participation being a barrier for teacher educators and something that can have a negative impact on the student experience (Berg, 2005). In this regard, Anderson and Dron (2011) suggested that distance pedagogy has gone through cognitivist, constructivist and now connectivist phases, where pedagogies that assume access to digital technology are built around networked relationships and problem solving through information access and retrieval. Part of the challenge with teaching through distance, as we enter the so called ‘network and connective future’ (Anderson & Dron, 2011), is to keep developing systems of practice that actively involve the student within a community of online learners (Hauk et al., 2016). Garrison et al. (2001) developed this into an influential model known as community of inquiry (COI), comprising three interdependent components: social presence, cognitive presence and teaching presence. These components provide a contextualised view of online teaching in which the students, content and instructors play a central role in creating the desired COI. The model assumes that, in the absence of face-to-face interaction,

Ghosts in the Machine?

35

participants in online distance learning must attempt to ‘recreate the social and knowledge building processes that occur via the moment by moment negotiation of meaning found in the classroom’ (Shea et al., 2010: 10). Research within this framework has largely focused on understanding each of these three main constructs (e.g. Arbaugh, 2008; Garrison et al., 2001), with researchers analysing the content of online postings and thematically coding the interactions according to function. Ways of developing an online community have been widely discussed in the education media (e.g. Darby, 2019) as well as the distance learning literature (e.g. Moore, 2014; Vesely et al., 2007), with research noting the importance of the medium used to stage learner-instructor interactions (Mishra, 2002) and confirming the importance of: a strong and active presence on the part of the instructor – one in which she or he actively guides the discourse – is related to students’ sense of both connectedness and learning. (Shea et al., 2005: 77)

Other researchers (see Dennen, 2008; Preece et al., 2004) have tried to understand the behaviour and performance of students in and around discussion boards, which are the most obvious places to try to track participation and learning. Walker et al. (2010) summarise much of this work and describe the distinction between ‘lurkers’, ‘posters’ and ‘shirkers’ as terms to encapsulate different modes of behaviour within an online community. Posters are those students who actively participate with postings and responses, while lurkers are seen as co-participants who read and can learn from the community, without actually contributing their own thoughts and ideas. Shirkers are the students who do not even log in or appear within the community, even though they have access to it. As Walker et al. (2010) comment, very little is known about these absent students, although in one study they were found to comprise as much as 10% of the total cohort (Egan et al., 2006). The programme

We were acutely aware of all these issues through the ongoing restructuring within our own institution, with programmes being cut and staff losing working hours and roles as a consequence of the free-market model adopted by UK Higher Education (e.g. Radice, 2013). We felt that it was important to understand what pitfalls there were with delivering online education in a neoliberal context, and how we could potentially improve our own offer and the learning experience of our students. In our case, the MA TESOL programme in question was well established and running for its 20th year, having been one of the earliest TESOL programmes in the UK to offer a distance learning component when it started back in 1999. The optional module, Theories of Second Language Learning, was offered online in the Spring semester from January 2019 until the final submission

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Professional Development through Teacher Research

Table 3.2 Programme overview Phase of programme

Modules

Timing

Certificate

Principles and Practice Linguistics for ELT

October–January

Diploma

Theories of Second Language Learning The Research Process

January–May May–September

Master’s

Dissertation

October–February

of assignments was complete in May of that year. The programme was structured as shown in Table 3.2. The IDL module ran in parallel with the on-campus course that was taught over 12 weeks with two 2-hour sessions per week. There were a total of 26 students taking the module by distance. These were distributed around the world in China, Japan, the USA and other parts of the UK, as well as the Middle East and Africa. The project was cleared through the University of Sunderland ethics procedures. This meant that all participants in the module were given electronic notification of the research project that we were undertaking, and asked to give their consent to their work and their feedback being included in any writeup of the project. It was made clear that any reference to their work would be anonymous, they could choose not to participate, and that they could also withdraw from the project at any time. All of the students on the module agreed to participate in the project. The module was housed in the VLE known as Canvas. Learners were organised into sub-groups and assigned an academic tutor (AT) who worked at a distance and dealt with academic, administrative and technology-related problems. The module was managed on campus by the module leader. Content, organised around 10 short units and covering different SLA theories, consisted of printed text and target readings and follow-up question and ‘model answer’ sequences, as exemplified in Figure 3.1. Students worked through these materials at their own pace and in their own time. Follow-up discussions were posted in the asynchronous discussion tool that accompanied the module. While these materials provided the basis for establishing a baseline understanding and knowledge of each theory, they did suggest a particular type of transmission learning, premised upon an autonomous, independent learner. The single ‘model answer’ potentially positions our learners as passive recipients of received knowledge that was not open for negotiation or challenge. It seemed to us that the IDL context of our programme, with remote students and materials posted by an unknown instructor, was the type of teaching-learning process where Giroux’s (2011) concerns could easily become realised. This then defi ned our puzzle. How were we, given the time and resource constraints we were under, going to position our learners more

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Figure 3.1 Sample task and feedback from previous module

positively as professionals and co-constructors of knowledge? Further, in keeping with the ethos of exploratory practice, how were we going to better understand the whole process from the learners’ perspective? Second Procedure: Refine Thinking

With these broader contextual concerns about education as a commodified product and with task design issues in mind, we sought to develop our pedagogy and practice and to present the learners with a different kind of task, where the ‘answers’ were not clearly defined and problems were more open to discussion that would be shaped by the learners themselves. Related concerns to us as educators, of course, were the real constraints on time and resources (Malcolm & Zukas, 2009) that we had at our disposal. These constraints, plus pressures to actually produce classroom materials within quality management constraints, meant that we had to consider adapting existing resources. Fortunately, various Web 2.0 technologies are currently available to provide different communication channels, including text, voice and audio, and each has the potential to improve the learner experience in IDL contexts. For our purposes, VoiceThread (VT), featuring text, audio and video comment sharing, was selected, primarily because the authors were familiar with it from previous teaching projects. VT allows collaborators to make audio or video presentations, and to comment on individual or group video clips or images (e.g. photos and concept maps), through text, audio fi les, video and drawings. These multimedia artefacts can help

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learners effectively construct understanding of target learning materials (Hsu et al., 2014). This multimedia capacity means that online collaboration using VT can be interactive and multimodal, where learners can see and hear their collaborators in simulated asynchronous face-to-face interaction (Ching & Hsu, 2010; Kidd, 2013). For our purposes, the multimodal aspect of VT was attractive and we felt that it was in accordance with our overall collaborative goals for the module. It was also compatible with the VLE that supported our online programmes, allowing VT material to be placed into each study unit within the module. Learners were required to sign up to the site and to sign in once they accessed the links through Canvas. Third and Fourth Procedures: Particular Topic for Focus and Appropriate Procedure

The PowerPoint slides of each classroom session were recreated in VT and learners were encouraged to comment or ask questions, much as they would be expected to do so in the face-to-face classroom. Similarly, concepts brought together important quotes with images, and students were asked to make connections and think through issues raised. Language learning data from research papers were also presented and learners were asked, in the well-known words of Goffman (1974), to answer the question: ‘What is it that is going on here?’ Included in each unit, in keeping with our redesign, were video-recordings of the lecture slides, related questions for discussion posted within the slides, and related learning tasks that were designed to facilitate participation, stimulate discussion and engender more discovery-based interactional sequences, as described above. In more general terms, we hoped to position our learners as coexplorers of meaning within the area of second language learning theories. By having students respond to images and data from representative studies, we hoped that they would feel valued as contributors to the growing understanding that may be distributed throughout the group. It was hoped that this experience would provide a powerful and effective learning experience for these teacher trainees. For the Sociocultural Theory unit, for instance, students were presented with a short quote from a key thinker in the area, in this case Vygotsky (Wertsch, 1985), and next to this is a a photo of a child interacting with their carer. No further context was given, and learners, based on their reading, were asked to make sense of the juxtaposition which related to Vygotsky’s theory of mind. Various interpretations were possible, meaning that students were invited to discuss and explore possible connections and what these connections might mean for practice. We analysed the data as follows. The VT site allowed access to the data for each class posting so patterns of participation could be tracked. At the conclusion of the module, postings from the VT site were downloaded,

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placed into a Word file and organised according to topic. An example topic was then coded for both social presence (Appendix 3.1) and cognitive presence, using the COI framework (Garrison et al., 2001) and the coding definitions developed by Shea et al. (2010). This analysis allowed us insight into how the learners and instructors had been working together throughout the semester. In order to understand how the students were feeling about this experience, participants were also offered a short questionnaire (Appendix 3.2) on their experience as learners with the VT system, and how the module had progressed from their perspective. The questionnaire was sent out electronically on the completion of the grading process, and responses were anonymised to comply with ethical concerns and to protect the identities of the participants. We very much wanted them to give us their full and frank feedback on their experiences. There were 10 questions with a mixture of closed questions (Krosnick, 2018) that collected factual information regarding the degree to which they felt they had participated in the module, and open questions where students could express more personal insights and perspectives on their learning and interactional experiences. Out of the 26 students enrolled in the module, a total of nine students responded with detailed responses to the online questionnaire, and a further four students returned their feedback by email. The comments and other feedback received through email and course feedback were collated and coded using a thematic coding consistent with qualitative data analysis protocols (see Friedman, 2012). The researchers coded independently and then met to discuss categories, themes and any inconsistencies with the coding process. These data were used to contextualise the online interaction data (Hauck et al., 2016). Within the data collected, exemplar interactions were chosen to highlight emerging themes in the overall data set. We selected the discussion around ‘Acculturation Theory’ to code and analyse in more detail because it was the discussion with the most contributions and allowed us to highlight interaction features common to all of the interactions over the 12-week period. The sample coding in Appendix 3.1 highlights the factor of social presence within the discussions, because we were particularly interested in social presence within VT since the development of professional identities was an overriding concern for us in teaching this module. The coding categories and defi nitions have been adapted from Shea et  al. (2010). Following individual and collaborative coding, we now interpret the outcomes of our research. Fifth Procedure: Interpreting the Outcomes

As outlined by Allwright (1992), exploratory practice involves interpreting the outcomes in light of our original puzzle, in order to better understand the teaching-learning context as well as the particular needs

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of all stakeholders in the process. In this section, then, we discuss our fi ndings. The data show that interaction and participation were initiated by the self-introduction videos that staff members left for students to interact with. Just being able to introduce oneself or present content audio-visually personalises the often distant teacher-student relationship and is therefore of considerable value in promoting a sense of group cohesion within an online community of practice (Wenger, 1999). Participation was then maintained for most of the module with a small group of the students contributing to discussions throughout, until participation dropped off in the fi nal three weeks of the module. This pattern reflects the shift in the pedagogy towards the fi nal assignment. It is also noteworthy that some students were not participating actively, but were ‘lurking’ (Dennen, 2008), following the content and discourse more passively. The relatively high number of views, compared with contributions, of the VT fi les, provides a clear indication of this. Closer examination of the data confirmed that it was the same group of students, comprising 12 students, who were actively participating in posting and discussing throughout the module. A further four students were less involved, although they did appear in various discussion posts. In general terms, there was clear evidence that the VT experience had been a positive aspect of the module. For example, S1 made the following comment: Very useful. I enjoyed the video lectures and the discussions. They were far more interactive than Canvas. The conversations were lively; response to comments by tutors were quick, the black background for me makes the platform warm unlike Canvas which I found austere. (S1)

This is a comprehensive endorsement of the VT experience, when compared with the text-based discussion forum experience that learners had experienced the previous semester. A different student (S2), supported this idea and reported that VT had helped to reduce the isolation I had felt as a distance learner. The interactive nature of it, being able to make and see others’ comments, engendered a more social experience. (S2)

The interaction and the more visual presence that existed on VT meant that the student felt more engaged and less isolated, within a community of learners. Continuing this theme, S7 commented at length about the use of VT in her experience: Distance learning requires a tool that can effectively bring all participants together in a pleasant way. VoiceThread made this happen for me. It has a different flavour. It supports the existence and creation of knowledge and I think that more people contributed to the discussions than in the forum in Canvas. (S7)

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The idea of community was emphasised by the notion of everyone coming together and contributing in the VT site, a perspective that was  echoed by S8, when asked to compare VT with other learning platforms: Thanks – I really enjoyed VoiceThread – it really helped me but more than that it made me feel part of a community. This was lacking in the fi rst modules for me. (S8)

Our data show all the characteristics of high social presence (e.g. vocatives, humour, instruction), and this was a positive in our study. There is evidence that, for example (see Appendix 3.1), students were able to use humour, self-disclosure and the use of emojis to express emotions – behaviours that are all associated with the creation of community and that have been shown to stimulate further interaction (Shea et al., 2010). More subjectively, just reading through the online discussions again made it clear that many of the students were engaged and that real learning was taking place. There was also evidence that one of our stated goals as educators had been realised. From the outset, we were keen on trying to position our students, discursively, as near-peers and professionals. As S4 commented in email feedback received on 20 June 2019: This was very useful for me. I got more confidence by sharing my ideas more. I want to feel like I am a professional and share with other professionals in TESOL. (S4)

We saw this as evidence that it increased participation with peers and instructors can have the positive effect of professionalising the discourse, making learners feel that they are becoming part of a community of practice as they move through the programme. This was commented upon by S6, in explaining that the multimodal tasks were a part of the enjoyment and learning, but also emphasising that that they were becoming part of a community of TESOL practice. In response to Q5, which asked for an example of positive learning within VT, S6 wrote: I enjoyed the picture task and text – looking at original quotes from the literature and making sense of them – sharing ideas and thoughts. This is what I imagined I would be doing – like, now I’m an MA student for real! (S6)

For S7, the experience of interacting with the problem-based tasks allowed them to become part of the ongoing discussions with the profession: This made me think about my teaching and myself as a teacher – do I understand theory enough? No – I want to be taking part in the conversations in my field or my area. This was good practice for that time! (S7)

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This idea of sharing and communicating about key ideas in the field resonated as being an important part of becoming a researcher and/or professional within TESOL. Here there is evidence that the design of the tasks themselves was starting to position the student as a professional and as part of a community of practice. We saw this as a positive sign that a dialogic and exploratory approach to the classroom interaction was proving beneficial and that some of the learners at least felt that this kind of interaction was what they were expecting as students studying at this level. Despite all this, our data revealed that levels of participation in the intervention were uneven. Thus, of the 26 students enrolled, seven students did not participate in VT at all – they were the so-called shirkers – and several other students only contributed in a very minimal way. Dennen (2008) made the distinction between ‘lurkers’ – who actively read the posting of others, perhaps as a way into their own participation – and ‘free-loaders’, who are those students who do not take part, yet still benefit from the work of their peers. With a more positive perspective on this phenomenon, Fritsch (1997) discussed the learning that can occur with ‘witness learners’, by which he meant those students who take part without there being any evidence of participation within the interaction. It is still not clear to us what was happening in our own context, since – perhaps a touch ironically – these were students who also, by and large, elected not to participate in the research questionnaire or to offer their feedback on the module. The Canvas VLE provided notice of the total time each member spent online in the module space, and for this module the participation rates went from a high of 77.28 hours down to one hour and 14 minutes. A total of nine students were online for less than five hours throughout the 11 weeks in total for the module. These students were examples of what have been termed ‘shirkers’, or what Beaudoin (2002) called the ‘invisible’ students of online education. How, then, might we explain this unevenness in participation? There is evidence that, for some students, technology itself can prove to be an insurmountable barrier to participation in these contexts. These comments mostly related to the process of actually using the VT technology, embedded as it was within another system – the VLR. Although embedded within Canvas, then, VT did not provide a seamless experience. Learners had to log in to another site and remember another password. Thus, in this regard, S8 commented that ‘I found it difficult to sign up and found most of the content I needed on canvas’. These thoughts correlated with the comments of S9, who did not seem to have understood the nature of the VT experience: ‘I did, but didn’t enjoy it. I preferred to read text and not log onto another website to be told information. (Sorry)’. There could also be issues with access due to Wi-Fi efficiency or other technology hardware related issues. In several cases, this barrier was enough for learners to report that they could not actively participate.

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Other students voiced their opinions about the navigability and usability of VT, expressing frustration and sometimes even irritation with the technology. In the following excerpt, S10 perhaps saw this as a problem of their own technological skill and understanding: Many comments or slides were timed, and if you didn’t let the entire time elapse (e.g. you read the comment quickly and moved on to the following slide); the slide/comment would remain marked as unread. This was really irritating, because for ages I would log in and think there was new material and hunt around for it, only to fi nd that there wasn’t. Admittedly, this could just be my inability to grasp its proper usage. (S10)

These fi ndings are in keeping with previous fi ndings (Chen et al., 2010), where internet experience and efficacy were found to be a strong indicator of performance in online learning tasks. In addition to problems around the use of technology, students also attributed their lack of participation in the intervention to time constraints. As shown in Table 3.1, the students had already studied two modules without VT. S12 made a typical comment: ‘I don’t have time to use the extra site. Actually, I never used it. I just want to get to the assignments’. The idea of just wanting to skip to the assignment is a difficult one for us to accept as educators, although we respected both the candid nature of the comment and the fact that we had no real understanding of the constraints that the student was working under. S13 elaborated on this theme and gave us a clearer sense of why time might have been such an issue: ‘I work full-time and therefore I have set days/times for studies. Therefore, I found the interaction less helpful as it did not always suit the time I had available to study’. This excerpt provided an insight into a harsh reality for many distance learners who seemed to be struggling to get through the programme while leading busy professional and personal lives. The comments of S11 rather confirmed this: I didn’t fi nd it useful. I preferred just using the texts/answers/information on each module. It’s difficult when working overseas. I don’t have enough time for this extra activity. (S11)

From our perspective, this is perplexing, since the extra activity described was really the core pedagogical activity of the module. The module descriptor set out the assumed amount of self-study (300 hours) that was meant to provide an equivalent study experience for online and distance learners. In light of the concerns expressed regarding distance education in times of the marketisation of educational processes, we are left to ponder what, if anything, we can do as educators to try to reach all of the cohort and engender much wider participation. Reminder emails about participation were sent, but most often not answered. Some of the students were evidently distant as well as working by distance, and much more research

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is required to better understand what happened in such cases. We might speculate that for some of the elusive and invisible students, the Master’s certificate itself had become the goal of their joining the programme, rather than the learning itself. In a commodified world of higher education, Shumar (2008: 73) contended that, ‘like the commodities in the stores, students come to think of course work and research as another commodity form’. We do not have clear evidence that this was the case, although it is difficult to reach a different conclusion, given the very low rates of engagement that we saw on this module from some of the students. However, it might simply be the case that students think distance learning is not going to be as time-consuming as face-to-face learning and sign up before realising that they do not really have the time to be studying alongside all the other things they are doing. Sixth Procedure: Implications and Plans

Our initial goals were to improve the learning experience for our students and, we hoped, position them more as developing professionals within a community of practice. As we reflected back on the experience as educators, we agreed that we had confirmed our own ideas about the value of continuing to explore ways to energise online discussions in terms of maximising student participation and of humanising/personalising distance learning provision. In terms of the pedagogical implications, integrating texts and tasks with discussion, rather than conducting discussion more remotely on an asynchronous discussion board, is perhaps one positive recommendation that we can take from the VT experience. Designing tasks in which difficult SLA concepts could be explored collaboratively, in relation to authentic language learning data, rather than searching for a simple answer, is one way forward. For us, introducing tasks and activities, such as the SCT example described in Figure 3.2, models good practice in developing online pedagogies and positions students as potential academics as well as teachers, providing them with the opportunity to apply the insights of SLA theory to the often messy details of real language learning. For us, too, harnessing the multimodal capabilities of VT helps to personalise and humanise distance learning and promote a sense of a community of practice.

Figure 3.2 Example of a redesigned task from the sociocultural theory unit

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In terms of research, we need to better understand what happens with students who pay a considerable fee and then seem to pass through the module of work, like ghosts, with little meaningful participation, focused only on submitting the assignments that will accrue academic credit. The challenges they face need to be better understood. With this in mind, our questionnaire could have focused more on capturing the broader context of the learning and life situations that our students faced as they balanced the challenges of full-time work, family and online study. Furthermore, reading around the idea of exploratory practice (Allwright, 2005), it was also clear that a ‘problem – solution’ way of conceptualising our approach was not going to be viable. We needed to develop a much better understanding of the whole notion of learning online and by distance in the TESOL field and what that means in the current neoliberal climate of higher education. In these terms, our fi ndings were to some degree both problematic and incomplete. This will be the focus of future research work on our programme and is an area still little understood, despite the growth in distance education. The experience has certainly made us more aware as educators, very much in keeping with the thoughts of Allwright (2005), that our task is not simply one of refi ning or improving our pedagogical design – which was our initial focus. Perhaps, however, what we learned as practitioners more than anything through this process is that distance learning presents unique challenges and situations that we need to be more mindful of as we approach future iterations of our own teaching. In particular, however good the software and task design, participation in a module, mainly through online discussions, is often constrained by factors other than the pedagogical. We really need to understand better what these factors are and how they interact, whether these be personal, technological – i.e. accessing and manipulating online software and systems – or more ideological, in the form of an increasingly instrumental student approach to education, one which may prioritise assessment-related tasks and discourage participation in that which does not seem directly relevant to fi nal accreditation.

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Appendix 3.1: Example Coding of VoiceThread Interaction for Social Presence: Acculturation Theory Unit Social presence in VoiceThread

Social presence (categories)

Indicators

Definition

Examples

Affective

Expressing emotions

Conventional expressions of emotion

However, to my surprise, my Korean only stayed on day to day surviving level after two years, just like Alberto

Use of humour

Teasing, cajoling, irony, sarcasm, understatements

If you are familiar with the U-curve which illustrates the phases of culture shock, I got stuck at the bottom of the curve for a while!

Self-disclosure

Details of life outside of class – likes, dislikes, preferences

I’ve lived in the UAE for 6 years now

Use of unconventional expressions to express emotion

Unconventional expressions of emotion: includes repetitious punctuation, conspicuous capitalisation, emoticons

Thanks for your stimulating questions :)

Expressing value

Expressing personal values, beliefs and attitudes

I do not see how learning Arabic will add value to me if I do return to my home country.

Open communication

Referring to others’ messages

Direct references to content of others’ posts

Hi Student 1 & Instructor 1 – some interesting issues raised here. As pointed out ‘motivation’ and its role in SLA is a popular area of research. I agree with instructor 1’s comment about qualitative research

Asking questions

Students ask questions of other students or other participants

Was Schumann at any point concerned about accuracy?

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Group cohesion

47

Complimenting

Complimenting others or content of others’ messages

This has been a very fascinating read and discourse

Expressing agreement

Expressing agreement with others or content of others messages

Similar to what Student A’s experience, when I was in Korea for two years, I’ve never felt the needs to learn their language

Personal advice

Offering specific advice to classmates

I would recommend reading into language socialisation approaches to SLA

Vocatives

Addressing or referring to the participants by name

Similar to you Instructor 1 – when first arriving in Korea I was totally flummoxed by the language

Addressing or referring to the group using inclusive pronouns

Addressing the group as we, us, our, group

We will look at Eva Hoffman’s book in the unit on identity a little later in the module

Phatics, salutations and greetings

Communication that serves a purely social function; greetings or closures

Hi all, Sorry I’ve joined in rather late

Course reflection

Reflection on the course itself

Thank you, these slides plus narration really help!

Appendix 3.2: Questionnaire

(1)

How often did you interact with VoiceThread during the ELTM11 module? Never 1–5 6–10 11–15 More than 15

(2) If you did not use VT can you explain why not? (3) If you did use VT – did you fi nd it useful? Why or why not? (4a) VoiceThread allows various kinds of texts and tasks. Select below those you found the most helpful/useful: Video introductions/Spoken text over lecture slides/Text comment/ Spoken comment/Discussion task around data/quotes

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(4b) Briefly explain your choice. (5) Can you describe an example where VoiceThread activity helped you understand and learn the content of the course? (6) Were there any negative aspects of using VoiceThread? Please explain below. (7) Overall, how would you rate VoiceThread as a learning space for MA TESOL modules? Not Useful 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10. Very useful (8) Please explain your selection in Q7. (9) How would you compare VT with other ways of communicating with your classmates/instructor, such as the discussion forum in Canvas? Would you use these tools differently? Same? (10) Compare studying a module that has VT with a module that does not. References Allwright, D. (1992) Integrating ‘research’ and ‘pedagogy’: Appropriate criteria and practical possibilities. Centre for Research in Language Education Working Paper No. 13. Lancaster: UIL Lancaster University. Allwright, D. (2003) Exploratory practice: Rethinking practitioner research in language teaching. Language Teaching Research 7 (2), 113–141. Allwright, D. (2005) Developing principles for practitioner research: The case of exploratory practice. The Modern Language Journal 89 (3), 353–366. Anderson, G. (2017) How education researchers have colluded in the rise of neoliberalism: What should the role of academics be in these Trumpian times? International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 30 (10), 1006–1012. Anderson, T. and Dron, J. (2011) Three generations of distance education pedagogy. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning 12 (3), 80–97. Appadurai, A. (1996) Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, Vol. 1. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Arbaugh, J.B. (2008) Does the community of inquiry framework predict outcomes in online MBA courses? International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning 9 (2). Ashby, A. (2004) Monitoring student retention in the Open University: Defi nition, measurement, interpretation and action. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning 19 (1), 65–77. Beaudoin, M.F. (2002) Learning or lurking?: Tracking the ‘invisible’ online student. The Internet and Higher Education 5 (2), 147–155. Berg, G.A. (2005) Lessons from the Edge: For-profi t and Nontraditional Higher Education in America. Westport, CT: Greenwood. Block, D., Gray, J. and Holborrow, M. (2013) Neoliberalism and Applied Linguistics. Abingdon: Routledge. Boston, W., Ice, P. and Burgess, M. (2012) Assessing student retention in online learning environments: A longitudinal study. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration 15 (2), 1–6. Chen, Y.Y., Huang, H.L., Hsu, Y.C., Tseng, H.C. and Lee, Y.C. (2010) Confi rmation of expectations and satisfaction with the internet shopping: The role of internet selfefficacy. Computer and Information Science 3 (3), 14.

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Ching, Y.H. and Hsu, Y.C. (2013) Collaborative learning using VoiceThread in an online graduate course. Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An International Journal 5 (3), 298–314. Cohen, A. (2017) Analysis of student activity in web-supported courses as a tool for predicting dropout. Educational Technology Research and Development 65 (5), 1285–1304. Cole, M.T., Shelley, D.J. and Swartz, L.B. (2014) Online instruction, e-learning, and student satisfaction: A three year study. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning 15 (6), 111–131. Croxton, R.A. (2014) Leading the e-learning transformation of higher education: Meeting the challenges of technology and distance education. Quarterly Review of Distance Education 15 (2), 61–66. Darby, F. (2019) How to be a better online teacher. Chronicle of Higher Education, 17 April. See https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/advice-online-teaching (accessed February 2020). Dennen, V.P. (2008) Pedagogical lurking: Student engagement in non-posting discussion behavior. Computers in Human Behavior 24 (4), 1624–1633. Egan, C., Jefferies, A. and Johal, J. (2006) Providing fi ne-grained feedback within an online learning system – identifying the workers from the lurkers and the shirkers. Electronic Journal of e-Learning 4 (1), 15–24. Friedman, D.A. (2012) How to collect and analyze qualitative data. In A. Mackey and S.M. Gass (eds) Research Methods in Second Language Acquisition: A Practical Guide (pp. 180–200). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Fritsch, H. (1997) Host contacted, waiting for reply. (Evaluation report of virtual seminar held January – March, 1997). Garrison, D.R., Anderson, T. and Archer, W. (2001) Critical thinking, cognitive presence, and computer conferencing in distance education. American Journal of Distance Education 15 (1), 7–23. Giroux, H.A. (2011) On Critical Pedagogy. London: Continuum. Giroux, H.A. (2014) Neo-liberalism’s War on Higher Education. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books. Goff man, E. (1974) Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Hanks, J. (2017) Exploratory Practice in Language Teaching: Puzzling about Principles and Practices. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Hanks, J. (2019) From research-as-practice to exploratory practice-as-research in language teaching and beyond. Language Teaching 52 (2), 143–187. Hartnett, M. (2016) Motivation in Online Education. Singapore: Springer. Harvey, D. (2005) A Brief History of Neo-liberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hauck, M., Galley, R. and Warnecke, S. (2016) Researching participatory literacy and positioning in online learning communities. In F. Farr and L. Murray (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Language Learning and Technology (pp. 97–113). London: Routledge. Hsu, Y.C., Ching, Y.H. and Grabowski, B.L. (2014) Web 2.0 applications and practices for learning through collaboration. In In M. Spector, M.D. Merrill, J. Elen and M.J. Bishop (eds) Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology (pp. 747–758). New York: Springer. Kidd, J. (2013) Evaluating VoiceThread for online content delivery and student interaction: Effects on classroom community. In Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 2158–2162). New York: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Kuo, Y.C., Walker, A.E., Schroder, K.E. and Belland, B.R. (2014) Interaction, internet self-efficacy, and self-regulated learning as predictors of student satisfaction in online education courses. The Internet and Higher Education 20, 35–50.

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Krosnick, J.A. (2018) Questionnaire design. In The Palgrave Handbook of Survey Research (pp. 439–455). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. Kurzman, P.A. (2013) The evolution of distance learning and online education. Journal of Teaching in Social Work 33 (4–5), 331–338. Lederman, D. (2018) Online data ascends. Inside Higher Ed, 7 November. See https:// www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/11/07/new-data-online-enroll ments-grow-and-share-overall-enrollment (accessed 15 January 2020). Luke, A. (2008) TESOL in the corporate university. TESOL Quarterly 42 (2), 305–313. Malcolm, J. and Zukas, M. (2009) Making a mess of academic work: Experience, purpose and identity. Teaching in Higher Education 14 (5), 495–506. Mishra, S. (2002) A design framework for online learning environments. British Journal of Educational Technology 33 (4), 493–496. Moore, R.L. (2014) Importance of developing community in distance education courses. TechTrends 58 (2), 20–24. Preece, J., Nonnecke, B. and Andrews, D. (2004) The top five reasons for lurking: Improving community experiences for everyone. Computers in Human Behavior 20 (2), 201–223. Radice, H. (2013) How we got here: UK higher education under neoliberalism. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies 12 (2), 407–418. Shea, P., Li, C.S., Swan, K. and Pickett, A. (2005) Developing learning community in online asynchronous college courses: The role of teaching presence. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks 9 (4), 59–82. Shea, P., Hayes, S., Vickers, J., Gozza-Cohen, M., Uzuner, S., Mehta, R. and Rangan, P. (2010) A re-examination of the community of inquiry framework: Social network and content analysis. The Internet and Higher Education 13 (1–2), 10–21. Shumar, W. (2008) Space, place and the American university. In J.E. Canaan and W. Shumar (eds) Structure and Agency in the Neoliberal University (pp. 67–83). London and New York: Routledge. Simpson, O. (2013) Student retention in distance education: Are we failing our students? Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning 28 (2), 105–119. Vesely, P., Bloom, L. and Sherlock, J. (2007) Key elements of building online community: Comparing faculty and student perceptions. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching 3 (3), 234–246. Walker, B., Redmond, J. and Lengyel, A. (2010) Are they all the same? Lurkers and posters on the net. eCULTURE 3 (1), Art. 16. Walker, J. (2014) ESOL as business: Time for the market-oriented teacher? TESOL Journal 5 (1), 159–171. Wenger, E. (1999) Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wertsch, J.V. (1985) Vygotsky and the Social Formation of Mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

4 Developing Languages Pre-service Teachers’ Epistemic Agency in Using Technology in Languages Teaching Hongzhi Yang

Introduction

Digital literacy has become mandatory for teachers in the 21st century. Worldwide, a challenge in most teacher education programmes is to provide pre-service teachers with sufficient experience of using technologies in teaching practice (Instefjord, 2015). The recent review report on the teaching of information and communication technologies (ICT) in initial teacher education in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, also called for better preparation for an increasingly digital world (NESA, 2017). Although the younger generations have been regarded as ‘digital natives’ (Prensky, 2001), many pre-service teachers encounter challenges in transferring their everyday knowledge about using technology into the teaching context. One resolution to this problem is to cultivate teachers’ conceptual knowledge of using technology for teaching, which can facilitate the transfer of knowledge from practical experience to the conceptual domain (Erickson, 2012). At the same time, the re-conceptualisation of digital literacy means not only the acquisition of a set of skills (Underwood et al., 2013: 481), but also viewing the learner as an agent in the process of configuring the digital tools (Gee, 2000: 191). This impacts on the idea that a teacher educator should enhance pre-service teachers’ agency in exploring digital technologies for knowledge creation. The initial need is to raise their motivation for learning via some intriguing problem (Eriksson & Lindberg, 2016) that will drive their agency in learning. Double stimulation would be a suitable formative intervention method, as students’ agency would be stimulated through problem-solving and interaction (Lund & Rasmussen, 2008; Sannino & Engeström, 2016). As a 51

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researcher and practitioner, I conducted a formative intervention with the double stimulation method in my course precisely to enhance pre-service languages teachers’ agency in using technologies in their pedagogical design. Double stimulation and epistemic agency

Originating in Vygotsky’s (1987) work, double stimulation is a structured method to ‘actively promote the transition from the current state of affairs to a new (not yet existing) one’ in which the subject is provided with a problem first and then ‘active guidance towards the construction of a new means to the end of a solution to the problem’ (Van der Veer & Valsiner, 1991: 169). The two key aspects of double stimulation are the conflict of motives and volitional agency (Sannino, 2015; Sannino & Engeström, 2016). As Thorne (2015: 23) notes, ‘the process of double stimulation begins with a confl ict of motives which is resolved through volitional action or will’. Double stimulation includes four key phases: (1) conflict of stimuli caused by a clash of demands/expectations, which also fulfils the function of the object directing the subject’s activity; (2) conflict of motives triggered by the conflict of stimuli; (3) the subject may then change their motive/purpose and take control over their actions in connection with the second stimulus, which is important for the formation of agency and facilitates the activity; and (4) making a decision based on the external stimulus (Sannino, 2015; Vygotsky, 1987). The conflict of motives could be invoked by showing the participants the problematic aspect of the activity or conflicting evidence (Sannino & Engeström, 2016). For example, a pre-service teacher may face the need to create digital resources for teaching but lack the knowledge and resources to fulfi l this task. However, this confl ict of motives could lead to novel ideas, actions and resolutions (Hopwood & Gottschalk, 2017) with the facilitation of the auxiliary stimulus. Van Oers’ (2015) study revealed that teachers had a conflict of interest between the mandated curriculum and students’ interests. The auxiliary stimulus enhanced their agency in taking a play-based curriculum. Therefore, teachers should help students to become aware of their own learning needs (van Huizen et al., 2005). In addition, one aspect of ‘teaching about teaching’ is ‘conceptualising teaching as being problematic’ (Loughran, 2014: 275). Accordingly, this study used an online survey investigating students’ technology use to raise their awareness of any conflicting aspects of their knowledge and practice. Engeström (2009) highlighted the significance of double stimulation, especially of the second stimulus, in building agency in learning knowledge and skills, via different levels of collective knowledge construction (Cripps Clark et  al., 2016; Lund & Rasmussen, 2008). Studies using double stimulation in an educational context highlighted epistemic agency

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as a key concept for the learners’ intention and capacity to ‘take responsibility for building knowledge and practice within a community’ (Cripps Clark et al., 2016: 31; Stroupe, 2014). Epistemic agency emerged from students’ initiation of ideas, relating their own to others’ via negotiation, and their responsibility for improving their knowledge (Scardamalia, 2002), evidenced in the actions of ‘deliberately creating, organising, and working with artefacts aimed at knowledge advancement’ (Paavola & Hakkarainen, 2014: 62). Individual epistemic agency could be enhanced through carefully structured knowledge building and sharing opportunities for explanation, disagreement and mutual regulation (Kárpáti & Dorner, 2012). Epistemic actions include goal setting, group discussion and synthesis of ideas (Maclellan, 2017). The key focus is to explore the area of knowledge creation in terms of developing and translating ideas into concrete, tangible knowledge objects, such as design, plans or explanations (Bereiter, 2002). For instance, a teacher could externalise the knowledge or ideas into materialised artefacts, like teaching and learning activities or materials, which are the signs of knowledge creation (Paavola & Hakkarainen, 2014). In Cripps Clark et al.’s (2016) study, student-teachers’ epistemic agency in analysing and evaluating digital technology was displayed in their creation of a list of criteria for judging the accuracy and reliability of online information. The double stimulation method could demonstrate the process of tool or artefact mediation during the process of problem solving (Ritella & Hakkarainen, 2012) and building agency in knowledge sharing and transformation (Engeström, 2009, 2011; Sannino, 2015). In studies using double stimulation in ICT education (Lund & Rasmussen, 2008; Sannino & Engeström, 2016), students were given the opportunity to negotiate and complete the task while appropriating the tools for their collaboration (Lund & Rasmussen, 2008). These studies used various types of technologies as the second stimulus, such as an interactive whiteboard (Thompson, 2013), wiki (Lund & Rasmussen, 2008), websites (Cripps Clark et al., 2016) or general ICT tools (Sannino & Engeström, 2016). The common fi ndings highlighted: (1) a connection between the second stimulus and the agency in choice making and decision making; and (2) the necessity to incorporate technology-supported collaboration and raise students’ awareness of the affordances and constraints of technology. The incorporation of collaboration and reflective practice followed the paradigm for teacher professional learning and development (van Huizen et al., 2005). These fi ndings informed my study and encouraged me to incorporate group collaboration in the double stimulation design to boost pre-service teachers’ agency in exploring and applying technologies in their languages pedagogical design. Sannino (2015) called for more research on the interplay between double stimulation and agency, especially in the context of computer-supported collaborative learning. In the area of teacher

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education, little attention has been paid to the practices of teacher educators as designers (Bennett et al., 2017). Thus, it is necessary to research teacher educators’ design practice in the process of ‘teaching about teaching’ (Loughran, 2014: 272). Therefore, this study aims to explore how the double stimulation design helps pre-service languages teachers’ epistemic agency in creating language teaching design by using digital technology. Methodology Research context

This project was conducted in a teacher education programme at an Australian university. The participants were enrolled in a languages pedagogical course which prepared them to become secondary school language teachers. One focus of the course is language teaching with technology. This is one of the requirements in Australian Professional Standards (APST) for Teachers to use Information and Communication Technology (ICT): Graduate teachers need to implement teaching strategies for using ICT to expand curriculum learning opportunities for students (2.6.1) (AITSL, 2017). The assignment requires student-teachers to design a language teaching e-resource for a Stage 4 or 5 class (Years 7–10). The e-resource needs to be related to a specific teaching context, have syllabus links and be supported by pedagogical literature. This formative intervention study used double stimulation as the design, which took conflict of motives as the driving force for novel ideas, and highlighted agency as the outcome of the intervention (Engeström, 2011). Data collection and participants

Table 4.1 illustrates the design structure, participants and data collection process, following the four phases of double stimulation. In the year of data collection, there were 45 students enrolled in the languages pedagogical course. Participants could ‘pick and choose’ to participate in one or more of the research activities. (1) Using online survey questionnaire (Phase 1) to trigger conflict of motives (Phase 2) The online survey aimed to reveal the participants’ conflict of motives in using technology for different contexts and the gaps in their knowledge. This presented genuine problems for students to explore and the opportunity for them to develop an object and agency in problem solving (Davydov et al., 2003). An online anonymous questionnaire was conducted when introducing the topic of ICT in language learning in the lecture. The survey included seven items. The fi rst item was a 5-point Likert scale question asking students to rate their confidence in using technologies for daily purposes and for language teaching

Students in the tutorial were divided into 7 groups of 3–4. (1) In each group, students needed to go through the list of tools in the worksheet assigned to their group and then discuss and fill in the description of the affordances for each technology onto the worksheet assigned to their own group. They also needed to discuss the possible application of these types of technology in language classrooms and of learning theories/principles supporting the application. (2) Each group searched and added one more technology to the list for each type. (3) Each group presented their findings to the whole group, including the use of these types of technology for the language classroom (3 mins for each group). After that, students could move around the room to go through the types of technology covered by other groups by looking at the worksheets shared by other groups, and plan for the technologies they wanted included in their own e-resource design.

Every student needed to design an e-resource for teaching their target language at Stages 4 & 5 in a high school context and to include a rationale, appraisal and selfevaluation for their design.

Activity 2: the 2nd stimulus

Activity 3: new practice

Phase 3: connection with second stimulus

Phase 4: connection between an external stimulus and the decided reaction

Present a problem/issue to the student. Students completed an anonymous online survey investigating their self-perceptions about using digital technologies for both daily purposes and teaching and learning.

Activity 1: the 1st stimulus online survey

Phases 1 & 2: using conflict of stimuli to trigger conflict of motives

Activities (student chooses to participate in any or as many of the following)

Data collection stages

Phases of double stimulation

Table 4.1 Data collection structure and procedures

45 responses of those who participated in the online survey Six language preservice teachers (pseudonyms used): Group 2: Linda (German); Michael (Spanish); Susan (Italian). Group 4: Annie (French); Jason (Chinese); Kitty (Japanese).

Linda and Annie gave consent for work sample analysis

Audio-recorded group discussion and worksheets collected from those who gave consent for recording group discussion and worksheet analysis

The participants’ assignments on e-resource design; those who gave consent to retrospective work sample analysis were downloaded after the marks had been released

Participants included in this paper

Students’ anonymous responses to the online survey

Data collected

Developing Languages Pre-service Teachers’ Epistemic Agency in Using Technology 55

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(1 = not confident at all to 5 = very confident). Using a 6-point Likert scale, five items asked students to rate their frequency of engaging with various technology-supported activities (1 = hourly to 6 = never). The purpose was to obtain some background information about their prior experiences of using technology. The last item was an open-ended question asking them to indicate their challenges in terms of using technology in languages teaching. These challenges could indicate gaps in their knowledge. The survey results were shown to the participants immediately after they finished the survey to raise their awareness of the gaps in their knowledge and their learning requirements. This also prepared them for the next activity designed to bridge these gaps. (2) Group discussion (Phase 3 connection with second stimulus) The second stimulus included collaborative group discussion and discussion worksheets about sets of digital technologies for language learning. The group discussion was part of the tutorial activities and was not assessed. The whole class was divided into groups of three to four students. Each group was randomly assigned a type of technology to explore. As suggested, the second stimulus should consider the affordances and constraints of technologies (Lund & Rasmussen, 2008). In each group there were four to six software programs/apps for students to explore in terms of their features, key affordances and constraints, possible applications and activities, and learning and teaching principles, which structured the worksheet for them to complete. The six students who provided written consent for the audio-recorded group discussion (shown in Table 4.1) were assigned to Group 2 and Group 4 for the tasks (marked with an asterisk in Table 4.2). The group discussion and worksheet aimed to bridge the gap between their knowledge and skills in using technologies for daily uses and teaching and learning purposes, and to enhance their agency via Table 4.2 Group discussion arrangement and content Types of technology for each group

Listed software/apps for exploration

Group 1

Shared digital outputs/online classroom

Wikispaces; Prezi; Google Classroom; Weebly; Edmodo; Smore; Wix

Group 2*

Voice software

Audacity; VoiceThread; GarageBand; YouTube; Vimeo; Voki; Vocaroo

Group 3

Screen casting and video editing tools

Camtasia; Kaltura; Office Mix; iMovie

Group 4*

Student response systems

Kahoot; PeerWise; Mentimeter; Quizlet

Group 5

Slidedeck

MS Word; PowerPoint; Prezi; Google Drive/Forms; FLIKR

Group 6

Information organisers

Wordle; Padlet; AnswerGarden; Coggle. it; Bubble.us; iBrainstorm

Group 7

iPhone/iPad apps for language learning

Babble; Duolingo; Brainscape; Memrise; Ankapp; Pons.de

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rich interaction, such as questioning and reshaping the object of learning in the double stimulation process (Sannino & Engeström, 2016). To incorporate collectiveness and interdependence in the design of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) (Lund & Rasmussen, 2008), after completing the group discussion each group shared and exchanged information with other groups. Their ideas emerged from group discussion, information sharing and the engagement with the listed technologies, and worksheets could be viewed as the evidence of the development of their agency. (3) Retrospective assignment analysis (Phase 4 connection between an external stimulus and the decided reaction) Retrospective analysis of student assignments involved purposively coding the de-identified student assignments for evidence of the preservice teachers’ epistemic agency in creating conceptual artefacts that had evolved from the ideas in their group discussion and worksheets. Two students, Linda and Annie (pseudonyms), gave consent for the assignment analysis (see Table 4.1). Data analysis

There were three rounds of data analysis. First, the responses to the Likert scaled survey questions were analysed and presented as percentages to show the types and frequency of the online activities the participants engaged with, and the levels of their confidence. The responses to the open-ended question were categorised through thematic analysis to show the types of perceived challenges and the percentage and number of participants for each type. This indicated the confl ict of motives in their learning. As for other qualitative data (including the group discussion transcripts, worksheets and assignment), the coding followed the key elements in the design of double stimulation: the fi rst stimulus, the second stimulus and the outcome of this learning design. The second round of coding focused on their epistemic actions, including goal setting, reshaping objects, and negotiating and synthesising of ideas. The third round of analysis focused on the comparative analysis across the key concepts which emerged from the first two rounds of analysis: the link between the conflict of motives and the evidence of the participants’ epistemic agency. Results Conflict of motives: Survey results

As shown in Table 4.3, 88.89% of the participants were confident in using technologies for daily purposes, but less than half of them (47%) felt confident in using technologies for teaching, with a similar number of students having only some confidence.

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Table 4.3 Students’ perceived confidence in using technologies (n = 45) Survey questions

Not confident at all

Not very confident

With some confidence

Confident

Very confident

Describe your level of confidence in using any of the above technologies for daily purposes

0

0

11.00%

51.00%

38.00%

Describe your level of confidence in using any of the above technologies for teaching

0

6.70%

47.00%

36.00%

11.00%

Table 4.4 Participants’ reported frequency of their online activities (n = 45) Frequency

Chatting online

Watching YouTube

Posting on social media

Online languages learning

Hourly

58%

11%

0

Daily

38%

62%

2%

Weekly

3%

25%

31%

31%

Monthly

0%

2%

47%

18%

Annually

0%

0

11%

9%

Never

2%

0

9%

4%

5% 33%

Table 4.4 showed the frequency of some online activities the participants were involved in. The most frequent hourly activity was online chatting (58%). The most frequent daily activities were watching YouTube (62%) and online chatting (38%), followed by online language learning (33%). There were equal numbers of students participating in online language learning (31%) and posting on social media (31%) at a weekly frequency. Posting on social media was the most frequently engaged in activity on a monthly basis (47%) and an annual basis (11%). The gaps between the frequency of online activities for entertainment and learning were generally consistent with their perceived confidence level for these two areas. There were 35 responses for the open-ended question: ‘What are the constraints for you to make better use of technologies in your teaching?’ The thematic analysis of their responses indicated three major constraints (shown in Table 4.5). Table 4.5 Perceived challenges in using technologies in teaching (n = 35) Challenges

Number of responses

Percentage of responses

Lack of knowledge of teaching with technologies

17

49%

5

14%

12

34%

1

3%

Distraction caused by technology Technology breakdown/availability None

Developing Languages Pre-service Teachers’ Epistemic Agency in Using Technology 59

Nearly half of the students (49%) indicated that lack of knowledge about using technologies for teaching was the major challenge. Concerns with technology breakdown and accessibility were perceived as another major constraint (34%), followed by the issue of distraction caused by technology in learning (14%). Within the responses regarding the lack of knowledge, the key issue was the gap between their knowledge of technology and knowledge of teaching, such as: ‘I know how to be entertained by the internet or to self-learn but it’s harder to use it as a teaching resource’; ‘Lack of exposure to seeing these technologies being used in a teaching capacity’. The survey results revealed the gap between their knowledge of using technologies for teaching and for daily purposes, which could be viewed as the conflict of motives for using technologies. Based on this, the second stimulus was designed to bridge this gap and achieve the task. The second stimulus and collaborative group work

The data collected in this stage included their group discussion worksheets and extracts of the transcripts, which revealed the emergence of their epistemic agency. As shown in Appendix 4.1, Group 2’s worksheet transcript, this group of students had a brief description of each item of software. In their evaluation of the affordances and constraints of each software item, they especially commented on its accessibility, such as whether it was free or accessible in a school context, and its availability for multi-language use. This demonstrated their emerging awareness of using the technology in the teaching context, as shown in Extract 1 of their discussion about using YouTube: Extract 1 Turn

Pseudonym

Talk

1

Linda

Students are not allowed to use YouTube in school.

2

Michael

Really? Does that mean I cannot put the YouTube link in my e-resource?

3

Susan

I think teachers can still play YouTube [from their account].

4

Linda

They [the students] can still watch YouTube at home.

5

Michael

In that case, we can leave watching YouTube clips in the target language as homework.

6

Linda

Yes, that’s a good idea.

(Group 2 discussion recording, 18 August 2019, 5:44–6:00)

There were negotiations and exchanges of ideas about using YouTube videos, from stating the information (Turn 1), posing a question (Turn 2), clarification (Turn 3), and contributing ideas for the context of usage and accessibility (Turns 4–5). This was evidence of their knowledge-building actions.

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Another example of knowledge sharing in their discussion was about using Vocaroo: Extract 2 Turn

Pseudonym

Talk

1

Michael

My laptop stops working …

2

Linda

I will check … the Vocaroo site is very simple and easy to run [playing recorded sound].

3

Susan

So this is your voice?

4

Linda

Yes. [operating the software on her laptop] And then happy to record, and then you can download as MP3.

5

Michael

Nice!

6

Linda

And then you can do this, you can add a link to it and embed it.

7

Michael

Yeah!

8

Linda

[operating the software on her laptop] That’s cool! Embed it … embed your recording …

9

Michael

[reading the instruction on the website] to whatever website … that’s cool! Can you do that with Voki?

10

Susan

You can embed the link, but I am not sure …

(Group 2 discussion recording, 18 August 2019, 20:40–23:46)

During their trialling of Vocaroo, there was information sharing regarding the function and usage of the software (Turns 2, 4, 6, 8, 9) and evaluation (Turns 5, 8, 9), as well as comparison with another software item, Voki (Turn 9). In the worksheet shown in Appendix 4.1, their knowledge of using technology was extended and externalised in some ideas for learning activities, such as ‘students […] creat[ing] their website of voice’ for Vocaroo. This indicated novel ideas of applying the technology in a general language learning context. In the last column, they moved from ideas about learning activities to underpinning pedagogical principles. This group demonstrated their conceptual knowledge in connecting the activities with various theories and approaches to learning, such as constructivism, behaviourism and project-based learning, and concepts such as cross-curriculum connection and creativity. These ideas included in the completed worksheet and group discussion could be viewed as the conceptual artefacts created during the knowledge-building discussion. These are the signs of their epistemic agency in making meaning of these technologies, moving from describing the software, to linking with learning activities, to the pedagogical principles of using the software in language learning. Group 4 also demonstrated their understanding of the usage of each piece of software through the description in the worksheet (Appendix 4.2). Regarding affordances and constraints, this group gave more evaluative comments, such as ‘not deep learning’ and concerns about whether

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the software could moderate students’ errors. Their ideas about the applications considered the context of using the software and students’ needs, such as ‘if the teacher could make it [Mentimeter] compulsory and leave the feedback at the end for students to listen, it would be engaging’; or whether the use of PeerWise could ‘reduce students’ foreign language anxiety’. These evaluations and considerations showed their capacity in connecting the software to the language learning contexts and learners’ needs. They also related these ideas to theories of learning, mixed with some ideas about learning activities such as incorporating questions and comment posts for Quizlet. In addition, they demonstrated agency in analysing an additional item of software for students’ responses – VoiceThread – with detailed descriptions and ideas for using it. As shown in one extract of their group discussion: Extract 3 Turn

Pseudonym

Talk

1

Kitty

Quizlet has flashcards, and games … and you know, those matching exercises.

2

Annie

Very behaviourism

3

Kitty

It is also tailored to what the teacher wants. Like the teacher made something very specific to your class. Is it a positive? I am not sure …

4

Annie

Yes. I think so.

5

Jason

[How about] affordance?

6

Annie

I think about access, esp. in low socio-economic area, students have limited access to internet.

7

Kitty

I also don’t think it is deep-learning. Only single vocabulary or sentence structure.

8

Jason

Application and activities? I can think of competition game.

9

Annie

Yes. We can also use is as revision.

10

Kitty

Recap?

11

Jason

[can we make it] interactive? I think [it is] similar to Mentimeter.

12

Annie

Yeah

13

Jason

Can we post questions?

14

Annie

Technically you could [do that] by adding to the flash cards. I guess there are more than one way to do that.

15

Kitty

and post comments and questions … and again we could embed the link into Edmodo or Google classroom

(Group 4 discussion recording, 18 August 2019, 10:15–10:40)

In this discussion they were very active in posing questions (Turns 5, 8, 10, 13), evaluation (Turns 2, 3, 4, 7), and contributing ideas for accessibility (Turn 6) and activities (Turns 8–11). These were evidence of knowledgesharing practice.

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Final product: Assignment analysis

This section analysed Linda’s and Annie’s e-resource assignments in terms of their evidence of knowledge creation and relation to their group discussion. Linda’s assignment analysis

Linda was from Group 2, which explored the voice software. Her e-resource was hosted on a Google site, as complementary learning material for a Year 10 German class in a public school, with an emphasis on German language grammar and verb conjugations. The topics she designed were sports, music and weather. Regarding the use of technology, Linda stated in the rationale that: This website uses several aspects of digital language learning technology as effective tools to engage students. Every topic has several options for interacting with the German language in a multimodal way, featuring videos, quizzes, sound clips, articles and comics. (Student submission, 2019: 2)

Linda’s e-resource embedded YouTube videos for every topic, to introduce some background and cultural knowledge and target language input. The reason was to provide ‘an opportunity for students to access texts online spoken by native German speakers’ (Student submission, 2019: 3). As a non-native speaking teacher, Linda was aware of her accent when speaking German and wanted to provide these authentic materials to enrich her students’ learning experience: ‘This is a valuable supplement to the students’ experience of hearing their fluent but non-native teacher’s German accent, which may have a slight accent’ (Student submission, 2019: 3). This aligned with ideas in her group worksheet for using YouTube videos as modelling. At the same time, following their group discussion about issues of technology accessibility and safety, she showed her awareness by choosing the Google site which is ads-free, but acknowledged that there was a potential risk of ads on YouTube and Voki. In addition, Linda included netiquette rules on the fi rst page of the Google site. This was evidence of her agency in creating a safe online learning environment, based on the group discussion. Moreover, for the topic of music, she used Vocaroo to create three scenarios with avatars in a listening and responding task, which required students to take on the role of music experts to listen and record their response to three vocals (see Figure 4.1). Compared with the ideas coming from her group discussion regarding using Vocaroo – ‘students could create their website of voice’ – this task was more manageable and specific in terms of students’ roles and the learning context. In addition, she used Padlet for students to brainstorm adjectives to describe a picture of athletes, and used Quizlet for students to practise vocabulary on the topic of music, which was also evidence of her agency in learning from other

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Figure 4.1 Vocaroo activity designed by Linda (Student’s submitted assignment, 2019)

groups’ discussions and applying them in a new context. Her epistemic agency was demonstrated by applying these ideas in a new context, integrating multiple technologies as epistemic artefacts. Annie’s assignment analysis

Annie was from Group 4 Student Response System. She designed a French learning website hosted by Microsoft Sway, a digital storytelling app, on the topic of School Life for Year 7 students. She stated that the aim of her e-resource was to ‘provide[s] students with essential language input of listening and reading materials in order to facilitate them generating and manipulating the target language’ (Student Assignment, 2019: 2). Similar to Linda, Annie also assigned the first section to netiquette rules and expected behaviours in using this online resource. She justified this by referring to the anti-bullying policy (2021) and Quality Teaching Framework (2008) of the New South Wales Department of Education. In addition to the use of software covered in her own group discussion (e.g. Quizlet), she also appropriated some tools from other group discussions and worksheets, such as the use of Coggle.it and Padlet from Group 6 (information organiser), and the use of YouTube videos and songs suggested by Group 2 (voice software). Annie integrated multiple tools into one task. For example, in the section on teaching vocabulary, she provided students with five YouTube

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Figure 4.2 Song activity designed by Annie (Student’s submitted assignment, 2019)

videos on teaching French pronunciation. After that, she designed a quiz on the Quizlet website for her students, followed by a sentence building and translation exercise using Google Docs for students to give responses. At the end, she invited students to give anonymous feedback for the e-resource using Padlet. In another activity, she asked students to listen to a YouTube song on school life, and then put their notes into a Coggle.it board as a collective construction, followed by an online listening comprehension quiz (see the screenshot of the activity in Figure 4.2). There were ideas derived from the group discussion, such as embedding online quiz software for a recap of the learning. In addition, these ideas were contextualised in language learning activities and integrated with other teaching resources. This was evidence of the integration of her pedagogical, content and technological knowledge and her agency in creating new artefacts by appropriating tools and reapplying them in a new context. Annie referred to the literature on language teaching to justify the pedagogical underpinning of her design, such as the communicative language teaching approach and self-determination theory. However, there was a lack of explicit justification for using certain technologies in terms of the software’s features and pedagogical functions, such as Quizlet and Socrative, although they covered these in the group discussion (Appendix 4.2). This might indicate a lack of integration between the selection of technologies and the conceptual understanding of the design. Discussion

Regarding the research question, the fi ndings revealed that the double stimulation design enhanced pre-service languages teachers’ epistemic agency in creating language teaching design with digital technology. Table 4.6 illustrated how their epistemic agency developed from the conflict of motives in the fi rst stimulus and then via the engagement with the second stimulus to the fi nal product.

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Table 4.6 Phases of the double stimulation in this study Phases of the double stimulation

Details

(1) Conflict of stimuli

Survey revealed gap between their experience of using technology for daily purposes/ entertainment versus the expectation for using technology for teaching.

(2) Conflict of motives

The task to design e-resources versus perceived challenges.

(3) Connection with second stimulus

Each group explored a list of technologies; group discussion; the worksheet included the description, affordance, application and learning theories/principles of each technology. Discussion and agreement with some ideas of using technology and the context and accessibility of technology.

(4) Connection between an external stimulus and the decided reaction

Based on the discussion, students created their own e-resources.

In Phase 1, the survey revealed the gap between the students’ knowledge and experience of using technology and the expectations of the task, which was the confl ict of stimuli. This further triggered their confl ict of motives expressed in their perceived challenges in completing the task (Phase 2) – a lack of knowledge of teaching with technologies and technology accessibility, which also formed their initial object of learning. In Phase 3, their epistemic agency emerged during the process of interacting with the second stimulus (the group discussion, set of technologies and worksheets). During this process, their object was shaped from a rather general issue (teaching with technology and accessibility) to some specific ideas of learning activities using specific software, mediated by dialogue, including posing questions, contributing and exchanging ideas, integrating ideas (comparing with other technologies), confi rming one other’s ideas, and incorporating new ideas in the pedagogical design (Stroupe, 2014). This was evident in their discussion regarding the accessibility of YouTube (Extract 1; Turn 6 in Extract 3) and their ideas regarding designing learning activities using these technologies (Turn 5 in Extract 1; Turns 8–11 in Extract 3). In the discussion worksheets, their knowledge and understanding progressed from the description of the software, to evaluation, then ideas for learning activities, and fi nally conceptual knowledge about teaching and learning. The participants demonstrated their responsibility in the process of collaborative trialling, evaluating, selecting, organising and adapting digital technology for their languages e-resources design. Their agency developed through negotiation and collaboration in the dialogues (Sorensen & Brooks, 2018). The group discussion and the worksheets could ‘crystallize’ their cognitive process (Ritella & Hakkarainen, 2012: 239).

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In addition to the ideas constructed in the dialogue, another sign of their epistemic agency was the epistemic artefacts created in their e-resource design (Phase 4 in Table 4.6), via adopting the ideas from the second stimulus and synthesising and applying them to a new context. Compared with their initial perceived challenges in the survey, their ideas were more contextualised and further objectified in the creation of e-resources integrating multiple technologies, with clear learning outcomes, learning content, and justifications. For instance, based on the group discussion about cyber safety and the accessibility of using YouTube, Linda applied it with a clear purpose and justification. This was a sign of using the stimulus to serve her own purpose (Vygotsky, 1997). In addition, both Linda and Annie adapted tools from viewing other groups’ ideas, such as the use of Padlet and Coggle.it as the tools to collect students’ responses and input, demonstrating their agency in making meaning of, appropriating or transforming the tools offered in the second stimulus (Engeström, 2009; Lund & Rasmussen, 2008; van Oers, 2015). Sannino (2015) has called for more research on the connection between the task and double stimulation. This study showed that if the design of the double stimulation aligned with the identified issue in the task, it could help the participants to complete the task, as suggested by Vygotsky (1987). The second stimulus bridged the gaps in the participants’ knowledge and experience in using technology through a multistep process. It confi rmed that the process of knowledge creation was scaffolded through engagement with the materials incorporating these technologies (Ritella & Hakkarainen, 2012). Linda and Annie selected multiple technologies with clear purposes, as was the creation of knowledge artefacts in the digital form. Compared with Linda, Annie’s assignment lacked explicit pedagogical justification for using particular technology, which could be traced back to the mixed notes of activities and pedagogical principles in her group discussion worksheet, reflecting a less clear differentiation between activity and conceptual underpinnings. Their worksheets, discussions and assignments could be taken as evidence of agency in knowledge building and practice, as well as the diagnostic tools indicating the areas in their learning that needed improvement. These confi rmed that epistemic agency was a process where ‘Crystallization, externalization, and materialization of ideas to knowledge artifacts facilitate advancement of inquiry’ (Paavola & Hakkarainen, 2014: 62). Implications and Conclusions

This intervention study has pedagogical, theoretical and methodological implications for design-based research in teacher education. Teacher education should go beyond introducing a set of skills and tips to studentteachers, and raise their awareness of the issues, the emerging needs and

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diverse ways of teaching and creating resources (Loughran, 2014). The use of double stimulation as the design in this study provided a way of raising students’ awareness of the need for learning via triggering their conflict of motives by the initial stimulus. The second stimulus, including the structured collaborative group discussions, assists the participants to negotiate and construct ideas that help them solve the problem. This design builds the link between agents, task and stimuli, as well as the integration and mutual reinforcement of practical and conceptual knowledge, which is one outcome of initial teacher education. The pedagogical implication is that teacher educators should design learning tasks for students to experience a need for new learning via intriguing problems, and follow up with collaborative learning opportunities (Eriksson & Lindberg, 2016; Loughran, 2014) to enable and enhance students’ agency in knowledge creation. The double stimulation design in this study could be an innovative intervention design, one that could be applied across other subject areas in teacher education research. Theoretically, the multiple stimuli in the double stimulation method crystallised students’ cognitive process. The worksheets, group discussion transcripts and work samples allowed me to trace the development of students’ epistemic agency. They not only revealed students’ learning potential but also areas for improvement. This study only focused on students’ learning on one topic with a small sample size. Future research could be a longitudinal study with larger data samples to show the impact of the double stimulation intervention on students’ epistemic agency. Finally, pre-service teachers’ digital competence is more than a skillsbased competence and needs to include both theoretical and practical aspects in the design (Lund et al., 2014). This study included the affordances and constraints of technologies as well as the links between practice activities and theoretical knowledge, which enriched our understanding of computer-supported learning. In this study, technology was used as a mediating tool as well as an object for their learning, with less emphasis on technology as a cultural tool in relation to the task, which will be the subject matter of another future research area.

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Appendix 4.1: Transcript of Group 2’s Completed Worksheet on Voice Software

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Appendix 4.2: Transcript of Group 4’s Completed Worksheet on Students’ Response System

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References Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership (2017) Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards Bennett, S., Agostinho, S. and Lockyer, L. (2017) The process of designing for learning: Understanding university teachers’ design work. Educational Technology Research and Development 65 (1), 125–145. Bereiter, C. (2002) Design research for sustained innovation. Cognitive Studies 9 (3), 321–327. Cripps Clark, J., Rawson, C., Hobbs, L., Oughtred, C., Hayes, K., Kelly, L. and Higgins, J. (2016) A pedagogy for epistemic agency in the judgment of accuracy and reliability. Qwerty – Open and Interdisciplinary Journal of Technology, Culture and Education 11 (2), 27–47. Davydov, V.V., Slobodchikov, V.I. and Tsukerman, G.A. (2003) The elementary school student as an agent of learning activity. Journal of Russian & East European Psychology 41 (5), 63–76. Engeström, Y. (2009) The future of activity theory: A rough draft. In A. Sannino, H. Daniels and K. Gutièrrez (eds) Learning and Expanding with Activity Theory (pp. 303–328). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Engeström, Y. (2011) From design experiments to formative interventions. Theory & Psychology 21 (5), 598–628. Erickson, L.H. (2012) Concept-based teaching and learning. International Baccalaureate Organization Position Paper. See http://blogs. ibo.org/positionpapers/2012/07/12/ concept-based-teaching-and-learning/ (accessed 20 February 2015). Eriksson, I. and Lindberg, V. (2016) Enriching ‘learning activity’ with ‘epistemic practices’ – enhancing students’ epistemic agency and authority. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy 1, Art. 32432. Gee, J.P. (2000) The new literacy studies: From ‘socially situated’ to the work of the social. In D. Barton, M. Hamilton and R. Ivanic (eds) Situated Literacies: Reading and Writing in Context (pp. 180–196). London: Routledge. Hopwood, N. and Gottschalk, B. (2017) Double stimulation ‘in the wild’: Services for families with children at-risk. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction 13, 23–37. Instefjord, E. (2015) Appropriation of digital competence in teacher education. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy 4, 155–171. Kárpáti, A. and Dorner, H. (2012) Developing epistemic agencies of teacher trainees – using the mentored innovation model. In A. Moen, A. Mørch and S. Paavola (eds) Collaborative Knowledge Creation (pp. 219–232). Rotterdam: Sense. Loughran, J. (2014) Professionally developing as a teacher educator. Journal of Teacher Education 65 (4), 271–283. Lund, A. and Rasmussen, I. (2008) The right tool for the wrong task? Match and mismatch between fi rst and second stimulus in double stimulation. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning 3 (4), 387–412. Lund, A., Furberg, A., Bakken, J. and Engelien, K.L. (2014) What does professional digital competence mean in teacher education? Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy 9 (4), 280–298. Maclellan, E. (2017) Shaping agency through theorizing and practising teaching in teacher education. In D.J. Clandinin and J. Husu (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Research on Teacher Education (pp. 139–142). London: Sage. NESA (NSW Education Standards Authority) (2017) Digital Literacy Skills and Learning Report. See https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/2de46e4e0783-4d6e-a220-ad1e088795ac/Digital+Skills+and+Learning+Report.pdf?MOD =A JPERES&CVID (accessed 19 October 2020). Department of Education (2021) Anti-bullying. https://education.nsw.gov.au/studentwellbeing/attendance-behaviour-and-engagement/anti-bullying

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Department of Education (2008) Quality Teaching to support the NSW Professional Teaching Standards. https://theelements.schools.nsw.gov.au/introduction-to-theelements/policy-reforms-and-focus-areas/quality-teaching-framework.html Paavola, S. and Hakkarainen, K. (2014) Trialogical approach for knowledge creation. In S.  Tan, H. So and J. Yeo (eds) Knowledge Creation in Education (pp. 53–73). Singapore: Springer. Prensky, M. (2001) Digital natives, digital immigrants. Part 1. On the Horizon 9 (5), 1–6. Ritella, G. and Hakkarainen, K. (2012) Instrumental genesis in technology-mediated learning: From double stimulation to expansive knowledge practices. International Journal of Computer-supported Collaborative Learning 7 (2), 239–258. Sannino, A. (2015) The principle of double stimulation: A path to volitional action. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction 6, 1–15. Sannino, A. and Engeström, Y. (2016) Relational agency, double stimulation and the object of activity: An intervention study in a primary school. In A. Edwards (ed.) Working Relationally in and across Practices: Cultural-historical Approaches to Collaboration (pp. 58–77). New York: Cambridge University Press. Scardamalia, M. (2002) Collective cognitive responsibility for the advancement of knowledge. Liberal Education in a Knowledge Society 97, 67–98. Sorensen, E.K. and Brooks, E.I. (2018) Promoting agency and identity building in dialogic learning communities online. In M. Bajic, N.B. Dohn, M. de Laat, P. Jandric and T. Ryberg (eds) Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Networked Learning 2018: Maintaining Collaborative, Democratic and Dialogue-based Learning Processes in Virtual and Game-based Learning Environments (pp. 390–398). See https://www.networkedlearningconference.org.uk/abstracts/papers/sorensen_51.pdf (accessed 20 October 2020). Stroupe, D. (2014) Examining classroom science practice communities: How teachers and students negotiate epistemic agency and learn science-as-practice. Science Education 98 (3), 487–516. Thompson, I. (2013) The mediation of learning in the zone of proximal development through a co-constructed writing activity. Research in the Teaching of English 47 (3), 247–276. Thorne, S.L. (2015) Mediated life activity, double stimulation, and the question of agency. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction 4, 62–66. Underwood, C., Parker, L. and Stone, L. (2013) Getting it together: Relational habitus in the emergence of digital literacies. Learning, Media and Technology 38 (4), 478–494. Van der Veer, R. and Valsiner, J. (1991) Vygotsky and gestalt psychology. In R. van der Veer and J. Valsiner (eds) Understanding Vygotsky (pp. 155–180). Oxford: Blackwell. van Huizen, P., van Oers, B. and Wubbels, T. (2005) A Vygotskian perspective on teacher education. Journal of Curriculum Studies 37 (3), 267–290. van Oers, B. (2015) Implementing a play-based curriculum: Fostering teacher agency in primary school. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction 4, 19–27. Vygotsky, L.S. (1987) Problems of General Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vygotsky, L.S. (1997) The instrumental method in psychology. In The Collected Works of L.S. Vygotsky: Vol. 3. Problems of the Theory and History of Psychology (pp. 85–89). New York: Plenum Press.

5 Student-Teachers’ Beliefs and Emotions about an EFL Teaching Practicum: A Proposal to Support their Development Processes María Gimena San Martín

Introduction

Teacher learning (Freeman & Richards, 1996) is a complex multidimensional process. Richards and Farrell (2005) describe four conceptualisations of teacher learning, all of which draw on different assumptions about teacher development processes. These views conceive of teacher learning as skill learning (i.e. mastering different teaching skills), a cognitive process (i.e. exploring teachers’ beliefs and decision-making processes), a personal construction (i.e. reorganising and reconstructing personal knowledge) or reflective practice (i.e. reflecting on- and inaction). These conceptualisations sometimes overlap and co-exist in teacher education programmes. Considering the student-teacher (Freeman & Johnson, 1998) necessarily implies taking into account the learner’s individual processes. Among them, we can mention the affective dimension. All learning, including teacher learning, is influenced by the multiple and diverse emotions that learners experience as well as by other affective variables such as beliefs. In sum, both cognitive and affective factors are at play in the learning-to-teach process. Most teacher education programmes include different forms of teaching practice as a core requirement and, therefore, afford student-teachers opportunities to gain field experience in teaching. The practicum or placement is considered a stepping stone and seems to trigger a multiplicity of emotions and beliefs. My experience as a teacher educator and practicum supervisor suggests prospective teachers have a great yearning for teaching practice but, at the same time, look at it expectantly and anxiously. Numerous factors, for example, their motivation, self-confidence, the 72

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relationships with their university supervisors and school-based mentor teachers, the teaching context, among others, have a major impact on the way that teachers-to-be initiate and go through the practicum. In addition, their prior experiences both as students and, in some cases, practising English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers enact a wide range of beliefs about teaching and learning. Therefore, emotions interact with different beliefs during teacher learning. Understanding the relationship between emotions and beliefs is relevant since it can inform how teacher cognition evolves and how it affects practice (Barcelos, 2015) as well as the process of learning to teach (Barcelos & Kalaja, 2013). In the context of an EFL teacher education programme in Argentina, a research team made up of three novice teachers, four former student-teachers and me – a teacher educator – have explored student-teachers’ emotions and beliefs about the practicum since 2017. Theoretical Background Teacher emotions and beliefs

This study is theoretically anchored on the role of emotions in teacher learning. In a study conducted in a language teacher education course at the Federal University of Mina Gerais, Brazil, Aragão (2011: 302) defi nes emotions as ‘bodily dispositions for situated action’, which represent ‘various ways of being in relation to the dynamics of the immediate environment’. Along similar lines, Zembylas (2003) claims that teachers’ emotions are not just personal dispositions or psychological phenomena, but social constructions. Both defi nitions highlight the intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions of emotions. Therefore, emotions are better understood as processes distinct from emotional states (Aragão, 2011; So, 2005), since they are interactive, dynamic and ‘form a complex network’ (Barcelos, 2015: 309–310). Besides, Miller and Gkonou (2018) conceive of teacher emotions as relational, contingent and dialogical phenomena. Another key construct that guides this investigation is that of teacher beliefs. Borg (2003: 81) defi nes teacher cognition as ‘what teachers know, believe, and think’, whereas Barcelos (2014) defi nes beliefs as: a form of thought, constructions of reality, ways of seeing and perceiving the world and its phenomena which are co-constructed within our experiences and which result from an interactive process of interpretation and (re)signifying, and of being in the world and doing things with others. (Barcelos, 2014, as cited in Kalaja et al., 2016: 10)

In a similar vein, Aragão (2011) and Barcelos and Kalaja (2013) describe teacher beliefs as contextual, dynamic, personal and socially constructed. Furthermore, beliefs shape teachers’ perceptions (Aragão, 2011), mediate decision-making processes and help them develop an understanding of teaching and learning (Barcelos & Kalaja, 2013; Borg, 2003; Pajares,

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1992; Woods, 1996). Teachers’ language learning and teaching beliefs also influence their actions and teachers’ actions influence their beliefs, so they are interactive (Barcelos & Kalaja, 2013). Although Bernat and Gvozdenko (2005) refer to learners’ beliefs as facilitative or inhibitive, in this study the same concepts have been adopted since they may apply to student-teachers’ perceptions during teacher learning. Research into student-teachers’ emotions and beliefs

The last decades have witnessed a steady growth of descriptive and correlational studies on language student-teachers’ emotions. As to descriptive accounts, Nguyen (2014) explored the emotions of one preservice teacher of English as an additional language during the practicum and found that the participant mostly experienced negative emotions of disappointment, frustration, anxiety, and intimidation, which far outnumbered positive emotions. Mosaddaq (2016) and Sammephet and Wanphe (2013) investigated the sources of anxiety among practicum EFL student-teachers in Palestine and Thailand, respectively, and identified numerous causes such as classroom management, lesson planning, fluency in the language, time management and being observed. Other studies have correlated different variables, such as Çelik’s (2008), which examined EFL pre-service teachers’ concerns regarding the practicum and the levels of anxiety each concern generated. An increasing number of studies have also centred on teachers’ beliefs in teacher education. Decker and Rimm-Kaufman (2008) explored preservice teachers’ beliefs about teaching at the University of Virginia. Participants were found to give priority to teacher-centred classroom environments and teacher-directed instruction, and displayed a negative view of students’ motivation. Requena et al. (2011) explored prospective teachers’ perceptions of some aspects of the teaching practicum in a teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) programme in Argentina. Participants reported insufficient articulation between theory and practice and a focus on content and the learner during the practicum. Other studies have sought to provide evidence of belief change. Durán Narváez et al. (2017) analysed nine EFL pre-service teachers’ beliefs about teaching strategies, and found that their self-perceptions as teachers and their perceptions about their students and teaching changed significantly during the practicum, as they moved from more traditional to more learnercentred practices. In a longitudinal study involving 60 EFL student-teachers in Ankara, Özmen (2012) tracked their beliefs about language learning and teaching. The results suggested that different phases of the TEFL programme promoted some belief change, while other factors such as student-teachers’ engagement also played a significant role in belief development. Similarly, varying processes of belief change in an EFL practicum were also reported by Yuan and Lee (2014).

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One of the most significant fi ndings of this body of research indicates that beliefs and emotions are closely intertwined. Some attempts at understanding the beliefs–emotions relationship (e.g. Aragão, 2011) have found an interplay between feelings of shame, fear and inhibition and the participants’ self-concept, as they reported feeling inferior to more able classmates or idealised models such as the university teachers. Student-teachers’ emotions about their upcoming practicum were also examined by De Zordo et al. (2019). Both quantitative and qualitative data revealed that their beliefs regarding their teaching as well as team teaching skills were related to positive and negative emotions. Research has shown that teacher beliefs and emotions relate to each other in a dynamic, interactive manner (Barcelos, 2015), and they are intrinsically related to teacher identity (Aragão, 2011; Barcelos, 2015; Barcelos & Kalaja, 2013; Zembylas, 2003). Since these constructs influence teachers’ lived experiences (Miller & Gkonou, 2018), understanding the multiplicities and complexities of student-teachers’ emotion processes and belief change about the practicum and providing them with opportunities to reflect on and address them become a significant enterprise. Some intervention methods have been suggested to promote belief change, including awareness raising, reflective practice and alternative-seeking tasks (Barcelos & Kalaja, 2013). To the best of my knowledge, few studies have reported on specific actions to support student-teachers’ emotions and belief processes, since they have mainly centred on describing them or correlating them to other variables. Drawing on the fi ndings of the diagnostic phase of an action research (AR) study, this chapter seeks to examine to what extent both a pre-practicum workshop and peer-tutoring help teachers-to-be reflect on and address their emotions and beliefs about different aspects of teaching practice.

Methods Context and participants

This investigation was carried out in a five-year TEFL programme at the Facultad de Lenguas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba in Argentina. Table 5.1 lists the courses of the programme. Practicum I is a fourth-year course, which aims at having prospective teachers gain experience through fieldwork at local state secondary schools as well as a language school, where general English courses are offered to adults. Once student-teachers have been assigned a course for teaching practice, the practicum extends from April until October. It comprises the systematic observation of ten lessons, followed by two microteachings and eight to ten 60- and/or 40-minute lessons. In addition, the student-teachers are required to design detailed lesson plans, hold weekly tutoring sessions with supervisors, and develop teaching materials. During the fi rst semester, they also attend

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Table 5.1 Courses of the TEFL programme Area

Modules/classes

Not applicable

Introductory courses English & Spanish

Foreign Language (English)

English Language I, II, III, IV & V Introduction to Grammar Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology

Linguistics

Grammar I & II Phonetics and Phonology I & II Linguistics I & II History of the Language Research Methods in Applied Linguistics

L1 (Spanish)

Spanish Language I & II

Classical Languages

Latin I & II

Culture

Introduction to Philosophy Introduction to Research Anthropology Cultural Studies I & II

Literature

Introduction to Literary Studies Literary Studies English Literature I & II Research Methods in Literature

Educational Science

Philosophy and Pedagogy Educational Psychology

Methodology

Foreign Language Teaching and Learning Special Foreign Language Teaching I & II Practicum I & II

weekly reflective sessions to get ready for actual teaching. Classes are quite large in general, ranging from 15 to 20 students at the language school, and from 30 to 40 students at secondary schools. The practicum is understood to be a progressive process in which student-teachers are mentored, supervised and assessed, by both cooperating teachers and university supervisors. Thirty-four 2019 Practicum I student-teachers participated in the study. Twelve participants had one to three years of prior teaching experience gained at private language schools only, where they had taught small classes of adults, adolescents and/or children. Five participants were and/ or had been student helpers of English Language I and Grammar I courses at university. Three of them had tutored individual teenage students. None of the participants had experience teaching at either private or state secondary schools. In all, 14 prospective teachers lacked teaching

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experience, and for them Practicum I meant standing up in front of a class for the fi rst time. Regarding the research team, the three novice EFL teachers graduated from the programme under study here from two to five years before the study was conducted. Four former student-teachers also participated in the study. They had taken and passed Practicum I and were about to graduate. Three of them were also student helpers in the same course during 2019. Finally, I was the head of the team. I am an EFL teacher and have 21 years of teaching experience; I have been a teacher educator and practicum supervisor for eight years. Research design

The present study is framed within AR. Burns (2011) and Grifee (2012) claim that AR contributes both to curriculum renewal and innovation and to professional development. In view of that, Grifee (2012) states that AR is teacher oriented, aims at problem solving and involves structured reflection and theory creation. Grifee (2012) suggests different stages, which are described below in relation to the study conducted: Initial awareness

As a practicum supervisor, I have been concerned about multiple matters such as student-teachers dropping the practicum, struggling with all the requirements and sometimes experiencing multiple emotions and holding negative beliefs. In addition, several former pre-service teachers have voiced concerns regarding the practicum and the impact it had on their emotions, which were gathered later on through research instruments at the exploration phase. Exploration and initial response

In 2017, we formed a research team and submitted a research proposal to a researcher development programme launched and funded by our university. This programme aims to provide mentoring and research development opportunities to undergraduate students and novel university graduates. In 2017 and 2018 the team explored student-teachers’ emotions and beliefs during the practicum. In brief, student-teachers’ language learning trajectories provided evidence of significant beliefs regarding teaching a foreign language, which were found to be triggered by the emotions they had experienced as language learners. Other main fi ndings indicated that, prior to the practicum, they mostly communicated positive emotions in terms of their career wants and the rewards of being a teacher. However, immediately before taking up Practicum I, several student-teachers reported a feeling of unease about practicum schools. A survey administered at the beginning of the course showed that teaching at a state-run secondary school worried them the

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most mainly because of the population age, the lack of resources and discipline problems (Escobar Bosco & Flores, 2019). In a similar vein, Albrecht et al. (2018) identified some recurrent inhibitive beliefs about the practicum schools, secondary school students, discipline and the use of technology, which awoke numerous emotions such as anxiety and fear. San Martín and Escobar Bosco (2018) found that the emotions experienced by the student-teachers changed throughout the practicum. Multiple widespread concerns they expressed at the while-practicum stage included lesson planning, the relationship with their university supervisor and the cooperating teacher, being observed, classroom management and integrating technology in the lesson. Even though negative emotions outnumbered positive emotions at this stage, towards the end of the practicum more positive ones were observed, including happiness, satisfaction and relief. Create a plan and do the plan

To help student-teachers reflect on and deal with their emotions and beliefs during the practicum, in 2019 we devised and implemented two interventions to complete the fi rst AR cycle. Drawing on the results we obtained, a second AR cycle was outlined to be carried out in 2020, to capture the effects of the different actions on the dynamic nature of emotions and beliefs more fully. Pre-practicum workshop (PPW)

The PPW was held in April 2019, three days after the student-teachers got to know their practicum course and school. It consisted of a discussion and reflection session, which was meant to raise their awareness of their emotions and some of the inhibitive beliefs we had identified at the fi rst phase of the study in 2017 and 2018. Four members of the research team participated in the session, all of whom were or had been student-helpers in Practicum I. Three of them acted as facilitators and conducted the workshop and the fourth one acted as an observer. Four different activities were carried out: (1) writing down one’s emotions awoken by the upcoming practicum, followed by small-group discussion; (2) whole-class discussion about student-teachers’ preconceived ideas about the pros and cons of undertaking teaching practice at the different schools available; next, they watched and listened to six former student-teachers talk about their practicum experiences and compared/contrasted them to their beliefs; (3) whole-class discussion on tips to start the practicum (e.g. techniques to learn students’ names or build positive rapport); facilitators shared a list of tips collected from former student-teachers; and (4) debriefi ng. Peer-tutoring (PT)

PT extended from late May (after the observation period was over and when student-teachers started planning their lessons) until mid-October

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(when they fi nished the process). This action had the purpose of providing them with emotional support at certain points such as after being observed for the fi rst time, after failing, and when starting to plan lessons, among others. Three researchers, who were also student helpers in Practicum I in 2019, were in charge of PT. The activities consisted of: (1) preparing checklists in order to remind student-teachers about important aspects to take into account; they were designed using technological tools and shared through a Facebook group; and (2) contacting them through Facebook after being observed for the first time or failing. Although these interactions were mostly initiated by the researchers, it must be noted that sometimes student-teachers initiated them themselves. Interacting with student-teachers sought to help them stay focused, talk over their emotions and beliefs, reflect, value and identify their strengths, fi nd alternatives to overcome difficulties, and set goals and priorities, among others. Evaluate the plan and report the results

As for the PPW, an online survey was administered to the participants to rate the effectiveness of the PPW (close-ended item #1) and report their beliefs and emotions before and after the intervention (open-ended items #2–#6). Furthermore, data were collected through field notes taken by the observer and three reflective journal entries written by each of the workshop facilitators. To evaluate the impact of the PT, written feedback was elicited from the participants at the end of the practicum. The data sets were analysed following inductive analysis (Mackey & Gass, 2005), by identifying and coding the participants’ linguistic choices and elaborations and inducing recurrent themes. We also resorted to investigator and methodological triangulation to enhance the validity and reliability of the study. Findings

The fi ndings report on the effects of both the PPW and PT on the student-teachers’ emotions and beliefs. The participants’ identities have remained anonymous, so they have been identified as ST (student-teacher) and F (facilitator, i.e. student-researchers). All the names mentioned by the informants have been deleted and replaced by an X. Emotions

Getting to know the assigned practicum course and school brought to the surface a multiplicity of emotions, which the PPW aimed to help the participants cope with. The survey revealed that, at the beginning of the PPW, 21 participants were fi lled with mixed emotions, whereas 13 only communicated negative feelings. No instances of just positive emotions were found, as they were embedded in mixed feelings expressions.

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Regarding positive emotions, the participants reported feeling happy, pleased, enthusiastic and eager in the survey. These emotions were mainly triggered by the upcoming practicum experience itself (n = 14) and, to a lesser extent, by some contextual variables such as the learners (n = 8) or the institution where they would teach their lessons (n = 3). Two teachersto-be also conveyed their positive emotions in relation to their practicum expectations: I’m really pleased with the school I was assigned. (Survey, ST20) I’m happy. I want to learn more, do my best and have a nice experience. (Survey, ST21)

Negative emotions were found in all the participants’ answers to the survey, and were also identified by the facilitators and the observer. The most recurrent linguistic choices were ‘fear’ and ‘scared’, and their sources included contextual variables, different aspects of teaching practice and/ or the actors involved in the process, as shown below: I noticed anxiety about the unknown, fear of not being able to fi nish the practicum and stress caused by lesson planning. (Journal, F1)

Surprisingly, two student-teachers also reported being scared of their perceived lack of teaching competence. In addition, they felt nervous, anxious, worried, uncertain, insecure and stressed. However, fear vastly outnumbered other emotions. All in all, the evidence collected shows that similar aspects triggered positive or negative emotions for diff erent student-teachers. The data gathered through different instruments revealed that all prospective teachers perceived the PPW to have a considerable positive impact on their emotions. Words to refer to negative emotions such as ‘fear’, ‘insecurity’, ‘worried’ and ‘nervous’ reappeared, only to evoke the initial feelings. What was surprising to notice here was that nine participants mentioned in the survey having felt lonely in facing the challenges the practicum posed to them, an emotion also found in the journal entries. After attending the PPW, the feeling of loneliness had been redressed since they realised most of their peers shared similar feelings of fear, uncertainty and anxiety, among others, and consequently they felt the activities carried out contributed to feeling accompanied, as seen in the following extracts: Many feelings were shared (anxiety, fear of standing in front of the class, of not being able to teach, of failing to live up to expectations, among others) and most of them mentioned that knowing they weren’t the only ones feeling that way made them feel calmer. (Journal, F2) Really nice session! It makes you feel accompanied and less lonely in this process, which is sometimes a bit uncertain and scary. (Survey, ST10)

A closer look at the data showed that different positive emotions had been triggered by the session. Firstly, the journals, the observer’s field notes and

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23 survey replies showed that the participants felt ‘calmer’. As the adjective was used in its comparative form, it can be inferred that the PPW made them feel less worried or more relieved about aspects they did not feel confident about at the beginning. Moreover, the participants’ prior positive emotions increased at the same time. Again the use of the comparative form of adjectives provides evidence of this: It [the workshop] made me feel calmer, and now I’m more enthusiastic than ever. Listening to former student-teachers’ experiences at school helped me a lot. (Survey, ST4)

Twenty-three participants also found the workshop useful. Even though they did not mention an emotion in particular, the way in which they phrased their ideas reflected a feeling of calm similar to the one described above. Realising what the practicum would be like awoke different positive emotions after the PPW: It [the workshop] helped me realise that the practicum builds our career and teaches us through good experiences and errors, too. (Survey, ST1)

Finally, the participants also indicated that the workshop had been beneficial in reducing anxiety, discussing and putting their emotions into words and doing away with their negative feelings. Drawing on the data collected during 2017 and 2018, PT was organised to help prospective teachers deal with their evolving emotions throughout the practicum. As participants reflected retrospectively at the end of the practicum, they mentioned several practicum-related concerns, including lesson planning, class management and the relationship with the supervisors and the cooperating teachers: In a lesson before the winter break I was in crisis because they [the students] misbehaved, I managed to complete all the activities but it was my fi rst lesson and I had high expectations, so I got frustrated. (End-of-term feedback, ST5) Lesson planning is stressful. I fi nd it hard to be creative; it’s [the practicum course] a 6th year course and I sometimes don’t know what they [the students] like and what they may fi nd silly. (End-of-term feedback, ST18)

Moreover, it was found that student-teachers expressed certain emotions that were triggered by specific concerns. For instance, lack of discipline caused ST5 to be in crisis, whereas lesson planning made ST18 feel stressed. They recurrently reported having felt stressed and nervous and, to a lesser extent, upset, overwhelmed and frustrated. In spite of these negative emotions, student-teachers also reported enjoying the practicum, even during the more hectic stages of lesson planning, materials development and teaching. Two positive emotions, wellbeing and calm, were found in the data: I felt well when I was observed; I was eager to have the supervisors observe me and give me constructive feedback. I wasn’t nervous. In fact, after 5

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minutes, I forgot she [the supervisor] was there. I was so concentrated that time flew. (End-of-term feedback, ST30)

As was also observed during the PPW, the same issues often seemed to be something to worry about or not to be concerned about for different student-teachers. As to how the student-teachers evaluated PT throughout the practicum, two important points need to be made. On the one hand, checklists were considered useful reminders and organisers, which contributed to lowering their anxiety: Starting to plan the fi rst microteaching was a big issue because there are so many things to remember (…) the teachers had explained everything the fi rst class back in March and all the points were also explained in the practicum guidelines, but you feel so overwhelmed by the new stuff that you get lost. Luckily, the girls [the student-researchers] drew up a checklist with key points. Then it [the checklist] was helpful to focus our attention and lower our anxiety. (End-of-term feedback, ST30)

On the other hand, interacting with the student-researchers was evaluated in a positive light. Twenty-three participants mentioned that PT helped them feel accompanied. As mentioned before, student-teachers voiced a feeling of loneliness at times, so they could count on the student-researchers to provide them with advice and/or emotional support: On some occasions they [the student-researchers] would talk to us in class or in the corridors, just to ask how everything was going on. That was very good because they accompanied our practicum process from a perspective different from the teachers’. (End-of-term feedback, ST9)

Another significant fi nding suggested that private messages sent through Facebook helped them move on. All the student-teachers evaluated this action positively; they especially highlighted how student-researchers helped them to stay focused and self-assess their performance critically and constructively: After I was observed a second time, X sent me a message through Facebook. It was a really nice message. I told her that I had been observed and that the lesson hadn’t been that nice. She told me that that [not teaching a perfect lesson] wasn’t a defi ning point in the practicum, that it was just ONE part of the whole and didn’t defi ne the kind of teacher I am. It was really encouraging. (End-of-term feedback, ST11) Beliefs

When it comes to prior beliefs identified during the PPW, the evidence gathered unveiled some inhibitive beliefs (Bernat & Gvozdenko, 2005), as in: Teenagers are indifferent and they get bored easily. (Survey, ST14) Many [student-teachers] mentioned some of the beliefs which have been reproduced for many years, for example, the question that discipline is a big problem at some of schools. (Journal, F2)

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By the end of the session, it cannot be confi rmed that these beliefs had evolved or changed. The effects of the PPW were context sensitive, i.e. it aimed at addressing student-teachers’ issues of concern at the time of getting to know their practicum courses and schools and starting the practicum. In addition, data were collected during and immediately after the workshop was over. Still, some significant claims can be made. Evidence of an increasing awareness of some mistaken beliefs (Bernat & Gvozdenko, 2005) was found in the data. The following extracts account for some of the slight changes observed: My ideas about teaching are starting to change. Spanish plays an important role in the lesson. It isn’t prohibited. (Survey, ST20) One student-teacher said what called her attention the most was the fact that lack of discipline at the practicum courses had not been a concern for former student-teachers, so she realised that, in fact, she should concentrate on motivating students. (Journal, F3)

A significant fi nding pointed to the great value attached to the activities that drew on former student-teachers’ experiences during the practicum: Sharing true experiences was really positive; their [former student-teachers’] testimonies and opinions helped a lot. After watching the videos, many of them were extremely surprised to see they were wrong, for example, ‘students from school X are active and participate in class’. Most felt relieved because they could understand that many of their fears were grounded in misconceptions. (Journal, F2) The workshop helped to demolish some myths and show from experience what the practicum is like, in fact. (Survey, ST14)

Turning our attention now to the impact of PT on student-teachers’ beliefs, it must be acknowledged that written feedback provided little evidence of belief change that can be strictly attributable to PT. Other important variables such as content knowledge gained by attending the different language teacher education courses, experiential knowledge acquired through fieldwork alongside a cooperating teacher, and student-teachers’ varied prior and concurrent experiences as learners and teachers, among many other factors, may have contributed to keeping or changing their beliefs. A more comprehensive understanding of the extent of the impact of PT on beliefs still remains to be gained. Discussion and Implications

This chapter has reported an AR experience in a TEFL programme in Argentina. The different interventions planned and designed by the research team to help student-teachers reflect upon and collaboratively discuss their emotions and beliefs during the practicum were evaluated in a positive light by all the participants. Therefore, the findings lend support

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to the benefits of AR as a process of collaborative systematic exploration, observation, action and reflection, which enacts qualitative and meaningful changes (Burns, 2011; Grifee, 2012). In addition, Ellis (1997, as cited in Grifee, 2012) claims that AR can also be used for the sake of teacher awareness. As reflective practice permeated this study from the perspective of both student-teachers and researchers, everyone involved in the project became more aware of the role emotions and beliefs play in the teaching and learning processes. Throughout the practicum, the participants of the study expressed both positive and negative emotions in relation to different aspects of teaching practice. These emotions were defi nitely situated (Aragão, 2011; Miller & Gkonou, 2018; Zembylas, 2003) and reflect the interactive and dynamic nature of emotions (Barcelos, 2015) in relation to different contextual aspects of the phenomena under study. Both the PPW and PT were found to play a major role in helping student-teachers deal with their emotions. Firstly, understanding student-teachers’ emotions as processes (Aragão, 2011; So, 2005) accounts for the positive effects the interventions had. The different actions were implemented throughout Practicum I, thus providing student-teachers with year-long opportunities to verbalise, reflect upon and discuss their emotions. As a result, the participants reported that the PPW and PT were effective as they provided emotional support and helped them stay focused. Secondly, the interventions were also evaluated in a positive light since they were contingent, thus addressing the contingent nature of emotions (Miller & Gkonou, 2018). The actions planned were especially aimed at intervening at certain key moments of the practicum, and also allowed for self-initiated interactions, so they served to support student-teachers’ evolving and context-sensitive emotions throughout the process, by redressing negative emotions and fostering positive ones, among others. New ‘bodily dispositions’ in response to ‘the dynamics of the immediate environment’ (Aragão, 2011: 302), such as feeling encouraged to face a second observation, attest to how emotions work in relation to the environment. Thirdly, during the PPW and PT, student-teachers were offered multiple opportunities to discuss and interact with others, either fellow student-teachers or the student-researchers. Although emotions are embodied personal experiences (Zembylas, 2003), they are also social constructions, and thus dialogically constituted (Aragão, 2011; Miller & Gkonou, 2018). As emotions are constantly shaped and reshaped through language and interaction with others (Zembylas, 2002), the participants highlighted the positive effects of the PPW and PT because they helped them elaborate on their emotions, address them discursively in collaboration with others, feel accompanied and realise about the shared emotions and experiences. In sum, the PPW and PT afforded student-teachers specific ways to reflect upon their practicum-related emotions, in line with theoretical perspectives.

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As regards student-teachers’ beliefs about the practicum, it was also found that student-teachers held several inhibitive beliefs (Bernat & Gvozdenko, 2005). Belief change cannot occur on the spot, so claims should be carefully made. Taking into account that beliefs are defi ned as constructions of reality (Barcelos, 2014, as cited in Kalaja et al., 2016), belief change can be better measured longitudinally. In spite of the methodological limitations, some slight changes in their beliefs could be observed after the PPW as student-teachers reported having realised certain aspects or manifested that their ideas started to change. These fi ndings evinced some emerging facilitative beliefs (Bernat & Gvozdenko, 2005), which helped them develop a better understanding of pedagogical processes (Borg, 2003; Pajares, 1992; Woods, 1996). Moreover, the participants valued positively those activities that brought true experiences into the discussion and involved hand-by-hand exchanges with former student-teachers, since they could gain new insights from these discussions. These fi ndings lend support to the fact that beliefs are constructed and reconstructed through personal and interpersonal processes in order to make sense of different phenomena (Barcelos, 2014, as cited in Kalaja et al., 2016). In sum, the PPW had positive effects since it promoted some degree of belief change by raising student-teachers’ awareness and promoting collaborative reflective practice (Barcelos & Kalaja, 2013). Although PT was designed along the same principles, methodological limitations failed to fully account for belief change. To conclude, the fi ndings provide evidence of the belief–emotion relationship. The PPW and PT catered for awareness raising on both constructs. Since the participants highlighted the role of others in this process, and bearing in mind the contextual nature of both emotions and beliefs (Barcelos, 2015), both interventions can be said to have fulfi lled their purposes to some extent as ways of addressing affective aspects regarding the practicum and enacting reflection on teacher learning. Limitations

Two major methodological limitations should be noted. First, belief change could not be effectively accounted for as data about PT were collected retrospectively. Moreover, the effects of the PPW on student-teachers’ beliefs should be understood as evidence of awareness raising and not necessarily belief change. To address these shortcomings, changes at both the action and the reflection phases should be introduced. Since the PPW and PT were implemented as separate interventions, but had a common purpose, PT could encompass a number of systematic actions, including the PPW, throughout the practicum. Other PT actions could include monthly meetings between student-teachers and student-researchers to discuss major practicum-related themes such as understanding the school culture, lesson planning and lesson observation, among others. These

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meetings could help complement the PT actions planned initially. Regarding data collection, supplementary techniques could also be employed. Firstly, all the messages exchanged between the studentteachers and the student-researchers through Facebook could be used for documentary analysis, which would allow researchers to capture the dynamic evolving emotions and beliefs and, consequently, overcome the drawbacks of retrospective written feedback. Secondly, student and researcher journals could also be used to gather comprehensive data on the effects of the different PT interventions on student-teachers’ emotions and beliefs. Finally, as a teacher educator, I participated in the research design and data analysis; however, I was not involved in the actual implementation of the interventions or the data gathering. These decisions regarding my role affected the study positively. Studying one’s own context raises several concerns such as striking a balance between the educator and researcher roles and affecting the participants’ performance during data collection. Second, the pedagogical interventions designed and implemented in this investigation were context-responsive actions to address specific concerns of a practicum course in Argentina, so the fi ndings may not be directly transferable to other educational settings. However, since similar emotions and beliefs regarding the practicum have been reported in the literature, the actions described here could be adapted and deployed in other language teacher education programmes. Rich description of the context and the fi ndings has contributed to addressing this limitation. Implications

This study carries some important implications. Since this research stemmed from my former students’ and my own concerns, it is expected to motivate other language teacher educators and researchers to adopt a reflective stance and further inquire into how they can learn and develop in collaboration with novel researchers. Furthermore, the AR design proved to be an effective framework to encourage more practitioner research and an examination of the learning and teaching experiences they apply. A study like this one both explores and informs practice, all of which can be considered to help research advance. From a pedagogical perspective, the fi ndings of this research heighten the need for teacher educators to rethink the role of student-teachers’ emotions and beliefs regarding the practicum and their impact on teacher learning and development. As teacher emotions and beliefs are shaped and unfold dialogically in relation to the dynamics of the context, the interventions offered practical ways in which these two constructs can be actually tackled in line with recent research developments. The findings reported in this chapter also buttress a possible model for enhancing teacher learning and introducing changes into EFL teacher education processes.

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Conclusion

This three-year research project, which involved collaborative work with novel EFL teachers and former student-teachers, has been an enriching experience. Collaboration always grants participants plenty of developmental opportunities. Carrying out this research study has contributed to my professional development as it meant a bottom-up exercise which triggered my potential as problem-solver and action-researcher (Kumaravadivelu, 2003). Moreover, conducting research along with those who had been involved in the phenomena under study enhanced the methodological design of the study and the actions designed, which in turn made the study more context responsive. Dialogue and collaborative enquiry as well as sustained reflection throughout the research process have helped me broaden my understanding of the learning-to-teach process, and thus develop a more critical point of view of my self-efficacy as a teacher educator. From a personal perspective, this study has taught me to better acknowledge my students’ contributions and cultivate our relationships. The learning outcomes are not only mine. I deeply believe all the members of the team found their voice in this research project. Our gains include a higher degree of teacher autonomy (Kumaravadivelu, 2003) and empowerment (Grifee, 2012). References Albrecht, M.E., Flores, L.M. and Stang, M.M. (2018) El proceso de aprender a enseñar: El vínculo entre el docente en formación y los alumnos [Learning to teach: Studentteachers’ relationships with their students]. Unpublished manuscript, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Aragão, R. (2011) Beliefs and emotions in second language learning. System 39, 302–313. Barcelos, A.M.F. (2015) Unveiling the relationships between language learning beliefs, emotions and identities. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching 2, 301–325. Barcelos, A.M.F. and Kalaja, P. (2013) Beliefs in second language acquisition: Teacher. In C.A. Chapelle (ed.) Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics (pp. 1–6). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Bernat, E. and Gvozdenko, I. (2005) Beliefs about language learning: Current knowledge, pedagogical implications, and new research directions. TESL-EJ 9 (1), 1–21. Borg, S. (2003) Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do. Language Teaching 36 (2), 81–109. Burns, A. (2011) Action research in the field of second language teaching and learning. In E. Hinkel (ed.) Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning, Vol. II. New York: Routledge. Çelik, M. (2008) Pre-service EFL teachers’ reported concerns and stress for practicum in Turkey. Education and Science 33 (150), 97–109. Decker, L.E. and Rimm-Kaufman, S.E. (2008) Personality characteristics and teacher beliefs among pre-service teachers. Teacher Education Quarterly 35 (2), 45–64. De Zordo, L., Hagenauer, G. and Hascher, T. (2019) Student teachers’ emotions in anticipation of their fi rst team practicum. Studies in Higher Education 44 (10), 1758–1767. Durán Narváez, N., Lastra Ramírez, S. and Morales Vasco, A. (2017) Beliefs of pre-service teachers about English language teaching: Course and practice. Folios 45, 177–193.

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Escobar Bosco, A. and Flores, L.M. (2019) Student-teachers’ emotional experiences before, during and after the 2017 teaching practicum at two institutions in Córdoba, Argentina. Bachelor’s thesis, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Freeman, D. and Johnson, K.E. (1998) Reconceptualizing the knowledge-base of language teacher education. TESOL Quarterly 32 (3), 397–417. Freeman, D. and Richards, J.C. (eds) (1996) Teacher Learning in Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press. Grifee, D.T. (2012) An Introduction to Second Language Research Methods: Design and Data. Berkeley, CA: TESL-EJ Publications. Kalaja, P., Barcelos, A.M.F., Aro, M. and Ruohotie-Lyhty, M. (2016) Beliefs, Agency and Identity in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching. London: Palgrave. Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003) Beyond Methods: Macrostrategies for Language Teaching. London: Yale University Press. Mackey, A. and Gass, S.M. (2005) Second Language Research: Methodology and Design. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Miller, E.R. and Gkonou, C. (2018) Language teacher agency, emotion labor and emotional rewards in tertiary-level English language classes. System 79, 49–59. Mosaddaq, Y.B. (2016) A study of the sources of EFL student teachers’ anxiety during their practicum experience. European Journal of Research and Reflection in Educational Sciences 4 (1), 16–25. Nguyen, M. (2014) Preservice EAL teaching as emotional experiences: Practicum experience in an Australian secondary school. Australian Journal of Teacher Education 39 (8), 63–84. Özmen, K.S. (2012) Exploring student teachers’ beliefs about language learning and teaching: A longitudinal study. Current Issues in Education 15 (1), 1–16. Pajares, M.F. (1992) Teachers’ beliefs and educational research: Cleaning up a messy construct. Review of Educational Research 62, 307–332. Requena, P., Helale, G. and San Martín, M.G. (2011) Perceptions on the practicum by Argentinean EFL teacher training community. Unpublished manuscript, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Richards, J. and Farrell, T. (2005) Professional Development for Language Teachers: Strategies for Teacher Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sammephet, B. and Wanphe, P. (2013) Pre-service teachers’ anxiety and anxiety management during the fi rst encounter with students in EFL classroom. Journal of Education and Practice 4 (2), 78–87. San Martín, M.G. and Escobar Bosco, A. (2018) Las emociones de los docentes en formación durante el proceso de aprender a enseñar una lengua-cultura extranjera [Student-teachers’ emotions during the EFL learning to teach process]. Unpublished manuscript, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. So, D. (2005) Emotion processes in second language acquisition. In P. Benson and D. Nunan (eds) Learners’ Stories: Difference and Diversity in Language Learning (pp. 42–55). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Woods, D. (1996) Teacher Cognition in Language Teaching: Beliefs, Decision-making and Classroom Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Yuan, R. and Lee, I. (2014) Pre-service teachers’ changing beliefs in the teaching practicum: Three cases in an EFL context. System 44, 1–12. Zembylas, M. (2002) ‘Structures of feeling’ in curriculum and teaching: Theorizing the emotional rules. Educational Theory 52 (2), 187–208. Zembylas, M. (2003) Emotions and teacher identity: A poststructural perspective. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice 9 (3), 213–238.

6 Exploring the Ways in which Modern Languages Student-Teachers Conceptualise Practitioner Enquiry in Scotland Alan Huang

Introduction

Teacher education and what it means to be a teacher are being reconceptualised in Scotland (Donaldson, 2011, 2014). With the publication of Teaching Scotland’s Future (Donaldson, 2011), the document that has shaped and continues to shape the landscape of teacher education in Scotland, teachers becoming enquiring practitioners is at the centre of this re-conceptualisation of the profession (GTCS, 2017). The role of teacher educators, therefore, is to prepare future teachers who are reflective professionals and who are agents of change in the 21st century (Donaldson, 2011). The importance of practitioner enquiry for professional learning is also evident in the General Teaching Council Scotland Standards (GTCS, 2012) and other key Scottish education policy documents in recent years (e.g. Scottish Government, 2016a, 2016b, 2017). It is an area of teacher professional learning and a way for teachers to become more engaged with research and its relevance to practice. Practitioner Enquiry (PE) was defi ned by Menter et al. (2011) as a ‘fi nding out’ or an investigation into teachers’ practice with a rationale and an approach that can be explained or defended. Similarly, Cochran-Smith and Lytle’s (2009) notion of enquiry as stance argues that, for teachers to become leaders of change, they need to develop expertise in using enquiry and reflection as part of their daily skill sets. PE is usually undertaken in the practitioner’s own practice/context or in collaboration with others. This chapter is concerned with the issues of practitioner enquiry for student-teachers in a professional graduate programme in education (PGDE) programme in Scotland. More specifically, I will explore the 89

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process and the ways in which modern language student-teachers conceptualise their small-scale PE projects. Through the process of reflecting on their professional practice, engaging with the literature and negotiating a PE question, the participants in this study were able to develop their knowledge and understanding of language education related issues. As the Findings and Discussion section illustrates, such a negotiation follows a meaning-making cycle where student-teachers defi ne, refi ne and redefi ne their PE ideas in an iterative manner, grounded in practice and driven by their pedagogic beliefs. Models of Practitioner Enquiry

As a defi ning feature of the teacher professional learning process, ‘enquiry’ advances an epistemological stance on teaching as a profession of engaging with the interrelatedness of theory and practice. According to Cochran-Smith and Lytle (2009: 123), enquiry as a stance ‘is grounded in the problems and contexts of practice in the fi rst place’. Such a view on teacher education highlights the local learning and teaching contexts as the origin of all enquiry activities. Furthermore, they argue that teachers who adopt enquiry as stance to study practice often act on problems ‘in the best life interests of the learning and life chances of students and their communities’ (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009: 123). Therefore, an enquiryoriented approach to professional learning presents teachers with a context-sensitive and systematic way of understanding the issues that they encounter in practice, which ultimately informs the development of professional judgements and competences. The idea of teachers reflecting on their practice, engaging in professional learning and improving their future practice is often associated with the concept of action research in the teacher education literature (e.g. Elliot, 1991; Kemmis et al., 2014; Townsend, 2013). Initially coined by Lewin (1946: 34), action research refers to teachers working systematically through a ‘circle of planning, action and fact-finding about the result of the action’. Townsend (2013) summarises a cycle of steps of action research: plan, action, observe and reflect. Rather than adopting an instrumental approach to engaging with research, he argues that our emphasis on investigating and developing practice should be more fluid and dynamic. In other words, there is a need for flexibility in action research, where the process of investigation involves defining, refining and redefining ideas and questions through successive cycles of meaning-making (Elliot, 1991). This resonates with Kemmis et  al.’s (2014) model of participatory action research – a model that gives prominence to the vital role that discussion among practitioners plays. It is a means of teachers developing and coconstructing a shared understanding of practice. Ponte et al. (2004: 618– 619) undertook a descriptive case study and investigated teacher educators’ experiences of ITE programmes based on an action research approach.

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They concluded that student-teachers must learn to master simple, nonsystematic forms of reflection first before conducting systematic enquiry into their own practice. They outlined the complexity of implementing action research in teacher education at the macro level and suggested that there is a need to develop a shared culture and understanding in order for teacher education institutions and their partners to embed action research within their own curriculum infrastructure. By developing a deeper understanding of real-world problems, practitioners can implement change and carry out an evaluation of the process which could potentially lead to new investigations. Informed by Elliott’s (1991) view, it can be argued that the active role that practitioners play is part of a meaning-making endeavour. It is not the intention of this chapter to provide a typology of action research; however, it is clear that despite the ongoing debates about the conceptual parameter, the scope and scale of action research in education literature, it often entails a series of linked meaning-making enquiry activities derived from their classroom practice. The present study seeks to explore the initial stages of the enquiry process in which the student-teachers on a one-year ITE programme identify and conceptualise a small-scale PE project. In many ways, we can argue that the term ‘practitioner enquiry’ is a ‘weak’ version of action research in which the practitioners (teachers) engage with the evidence, generated from their everyday classroom settings as well as from the education literature, for the purpose of advancing their own professional learning and effecting change in their local teaching context. I find the module proposed by the New Zealand Government, the ‘Teacher for better Learning’ model, particularly helpful for understanding the enquiry elements involved in this process: deciding on learning priorities; deciding on teaching strategies; enacting teaching strategies; examining impact; deciding on and actioning professional learning priorities; and critiquing the education system (Aitken et al., 2013). The model encourages teachers to be committed to questioning practice as key to developing adaptive expertise. Timperley (2013) notes that, in contrast to the traditional understanding of teacher development from novice to routine expert (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986) which accentuates procedural efficiency and practice, the idea of adaptive expertise recognises learning from experiences and the emergence of the co-construction of knowledge and joint identification of the great complexity of learning. She proposes five underlying principles for teachers to develop adaptive expertise: (1) develop knowledge of practice by actively constructing conceptual frameworks; (2) build formal theories of practice by engaging everyday theories; (3) promote metacognition and self-regulated learning; (4) integrate cognition, emotion and motivation; and (5) situate learning in carefully constructed learning communities. This is a deliberative orientation towards learning from experiences – an explicit commitment to the process of an enquiry approach to professional learning.

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Collaborative Practitioner Enquiry

An enquiry-oriented approach to professional learning is not an individualist process. In fact, its application can have more social features (Townsend, 2013). When Stenhouse (1975) fi rst coined the term ‘teacheras-researcher’, not only did he caution that engaging in teacher research goes beyond the development of the curriculum, he also argued that there are profound implications concerning teacher identity and teacher agency. This can be exemplified in the implementation of ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ (CfE) in Scotland – the national curriculum framework for Scottish schools. CfE organises all educational activities in order to promote four capacities: the successful learner, the confident individual, the responsible citizens and the effective contributors. As part of the modern curricular reform, CfE explicitly positions teachers as agents of change, creating a context for teachers to be developers of the curriculum at school level. It highlights the active role that they should play in shaping their contributions and conditions in the workplace (Biesta et  al., 2015; Goodson, 2003). As active agents, teachers are also stakeholders where their professional voice and professional judgement are crucial to the development of the profession. In Stenhouse’s (1975: 144) term, ‘systematic self-study’ – the capacity to study ‘the work of other teachers and the testing of ideas by classroom research procedures’ – reflects teachers’ capacity for autonomous professional learning in which a mutually supportive collaborative environment is crucial. In a way, collaboration is a scaffolding process itself; through collaboration, teachers work together while identifying their own strengths and weaknesses at the same time. Sachs (2003) and Mockler (2005) outlined the conditions for collaborative and transformative practice in which teachers work together in a process of systematic enquiry and share their fi ndings. Similarly, in Baumfield et al.’s (2012) model of PE, the authors highlighted that the creation of supportive communities where practitioners share their experiences promotes a more collaborative enquiry process. Wall and Hall (2017a) proposed three key principles for doing PE: autonomy, disturbance and dialogue. The first principle, autonomy, refers to teachers’ ability to formulate questions about their practice and to provide solid evidence when answering them. An autonomous enquiry process recognises teachers’ secure grasp of pedagogic knowledge and skills and the fact that they are part of a wider community of enquirers. The principle of disturbance relates to the idea of PE as an iterative endeavour. As teachers seek to answer questions, they are likely to cause disturbance both in their own thinking and in their actions that follow. Therefore, this model called for all teachers to become strategic and metacognitive in their own professional learning (Wall & Hall, 2017b). The third principle, dialogue, resonates with my discussion about the dialogic nature of reflective practice earlier in this section. Sharing of thinking and

How Modern Languages Student-Teachers Conceptualise Practitioner Enquiry 93

communicating the process of enquiry with the wider community increases the robustness of any type of research. Members of the community offer supportive but appropriately challenging feedback, which then has the potential to refi ne and even transform the thinking and actions of the enquirer. The practitioner enquiry framework proposed in the present study underlines the key role that the enquiry process plays in bridging theory and practice. For the purpose of this study, I refer to ‘theory’ as the professional knowledge and understanding that student-teachers develop in relation to learning, teaching and assessment. In the ITE context, this is primarily the result of university learning. By ‘practice’, I refer to the professional skills and abilities that student-teachers develop when they are on school placements. Therefore, when we link PE to professional learning, we are encouraging student-teachers to take an active and enquiring stance towards their daily experience as a learner and as a teacher. As a ‘weaker’ version of action research, PE sits on a continuum between routine reflective practice and rigorous educational research methods. As will be explicated in the Methodology section, the participants of the present study were in the fi rst few months of their ITE programme. How they conceptualised the notion of PE was crucial to their future professional development as teachers. Recognising the importance of the social dimension of PE, the design of the study, which will be explained in the section that follows, aimed to create a professional learning community where participants in the same enquiry group could support each other during the initial uncertain stage.

Methodology

The aims of this chapter are to contribute to an ongoing dialogue on the importance of PE in PGDE programmes and to explore how it relates to teacher professional learning. Doing so, alongside greater critical engagement with the central tenets behind reflective practice in education, can provide a frame of reference for examining and thus guiding how modern languages student-teachers learn during the early stages of their teaching career. Therefore, the research question is: how do modern languages student-teachers conceptualise PE in PGDE? The fi ndings presented in this chapter are part of a larger study where the overall purpose of the project was to study the ways in which studentteachers conceptualise, plan, implement and evaluate a small-scale PE project as part of their professional learning during the initial teacher education (ITE) stage. The design adopted a collaborative model where student-teachers had the role of researcher and classroom teacher. On the one hand, they conceptualised a PE project informed by the academic literature and their observation of more experienced teachers. On the

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other hand, they planned, implemented and evaluated a series of lessons in order to answer the PE question. This chapter reports fi ndings from the fi rst phase – conceptualisation. The collaborative nature of the research design means that the participants worked with each other and with the teacher educator in every phase of the study. For the initial conceptualisation phase, they were given three specific goals: (1) to develop ideas about an individual PE project; (2) to act as each other’s critical friend; and (3) to revise the PE question based on feedback. As the fi rst stage of PE, conceptualisation can be challenging (especially for student-teachers who are new to the profession and to this concept). In order to facilitate the conceptualisation of PE, I (the teacher educator) designed and delivered two introductory sessions where modern languages student-teachers (n = 40) on a one-year PGDE programme were fi rst introduced to the concept of PE and its links to teacher professional learning. These sessions were part of a larger module on curriculum and pedagogy which ran throughout the academic year. The professional experience of the modern languages student-teachers on this programme varied. Some of them were recent graduates of modern languages. Others had spent some time working as language assistants in the target language countries. There were also mature students who were native speakers of the language they intended to teach, but had worked in other professions before. In terms of the range of languages being offered, there were French, Spanish, German, Italian and Mandarin. Table 6.1 provides an overview of the phases of the research design. After the fi rst taught session, the participants were asked to identify an issue or an area of language pedagogy in which they were interested through classroom observation, professional dialogue/discussions with school mentor and peers, and the study of academic literature. In the second taught session (two weeks later), students worked in their enquiry groups, reviewed the progress so

Table 6.1 Overview of the research design Taught session 1

• Introduction to practitioner enquiry • Linking practitioner enquiry to professional learning • Introduction to the National Framework for Languages

Placement 1

• Student-teachers identify their PE question • Student-teachers carry out classroom observations of more experienced teachers

Complete Collaborative Practitioner Enquiry Project (CPEP) questionnaire Taught session 2

• Student-teachers share their CPEP responses and develop their PE question • Student-teachers decide on evidence for their CPEP • Student-teachers begin to plan their series of lessons

Placement 2

• Student-teachers plan and deliver a series of lessons based on their discussion of the PE question • Student-teachers analyse evidence and impact on their own professional learning

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Table 6.2 CPEP questionnaire items • What language(s) are you teaching? • What is your PE question? Describe the question in as much detail as you can. • What do you need to know/learn about this topic in order to develop pupil learning? • Why is this topic important to you? • What academic readings have informed your thinking? Write a summary of the findings on this particular topic.

far, and planned for a series of lessons to carry out a pedagogical intervention. The design aimed to help student-teachers to develop a better understanding of the key issues in language classrooms and to encourage them to reflect on practices in action (Schön, 1983). As Table 6.1 suggests, student-teachers were asked to carry out routine classroom observations and engage with academic literature before completing the CPEP questionnaire (see Table 6.2). As the participants worked in different schools during their placements, they were able to bring authentic classroom experience to their thinking. The CPEP questionnaire was designed to get the participants to record their initial ideas about the PE project. It explored their justification of the PE question: their prior knowledge, motivation to carry out the investigation and current understanding of the academic literature. Following the completion of the CPEP questionnaire, I organised the second taught session where the participants worked in small groups. The grouping strategy was based on my initial analysis of the CPEP data. Participants who had similar PE questions were grouped together so that they could share their CPEP responses and develop their PE question. Furthermore, they were also asked to decide on the evidence needed in order to answer the PE question. Throughout the session, I created a supportive professional learning environment where the participants engaged in professional dialogue (Huang et al., 2020). Data analysis followed the principles outlined by Creswell (2003) using NVIVO. I first read the data multiple times in order to understand them better. Initial thoughts about the data were noted down. I then examined the data for groups of meanings, themes and assumptions and tried to understand how these were linked to the theoretical models of PE (Creswell, 2003; Ryan & Bernard, 2003). Emerging themes illustrated by raw data were connected to the research question. Findings and Discussion

In this section, I fi rst present the fi ndings from my initial analysis of the CPEP questionnaire (word frequency and PE topic distribution). This is followed a more in-depth analysis of the qualitative parts of the questionnaire where I delineate two key themes that emerged from the data.

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Table 6.3 presents the result of a word frequency analysis of the CPEP questionnaire data (18,237 words). The table indicates that student-teachers’ responses centred around the following key concepts: ‘language’, ‘learning/pupils/students/learners’, ‘teachers/teaching’, ‘classroom’, ‘use’ and ‘need’. This suggests that even though the participants of this study were at the beginning stage of their ITE careers, they were very aware of a number of key concepts in the field. In terms of the topics for their PE projects, the participants were primarily interested in the following: •

Inclusive practices ASN and dyslexia (4 teachers) EAL and others (3 teachers) mixed ability teaching and differentiation (2 teachers) Teaching strategies digital technologies (2 teachers) behaviour management and collaborative learning (3 teachers) motivation (4 teachers) formative assessment (4 teachers) ○ ○ ○

•

○ ○ ○ ○

Table 6.3 Word frequency table Word

Count

1

Language

271

2

Learning

255

3

Pupils

200

4

Students

137

5

Teachers

127

6

Classroom

122

7

Use

114

8

Learners

110

9

Teaching

98

10

Need

87

11

Class

79

12

Motivation

74

13

Assessment

74

14

Practices

71

15

Readings

65

16

Speaking

62

17

Professionalism

62

18

Engagement

61

19

Understanding

59

20

Differently

57

How Modern Languages Student-Teachers Conceptualise Practitioner Enquiry

•

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Teaching skills: listening and speaking confidence (7 teachers) target language (3 teachers) fluency and pronunciation (4 teachers) Teaching vocabulary and grammar (4 teachers) ○ ○ ○

•

The list above suggests that even though all the participants in this study were modern languages student-teachers, they were primarily interested in generic educational/pedagogical issues such as inclusive practices and teaching strategies. Fewer students were interested in language-specific issues. However, it is worth noting that a large number of students were interested in the confidence issues in speaking. The next two sections report the results from my in-depth analysis of the qualitative data from the CPEP questionnaire. I focus on two overarching themes that emerged from the data: the defining, refining and redefining of the PE problem; and the practice-oriented and pedagogy-driven approach to PE project development. Defining, refining and redefining the problem in PE: Reflecting on prior knowledge and personal/professional experience

The student-teachers (STs) who participated in this study demonstrated their awareness of what they needed to know/do in order to carry out the PE project. It’s essential that I undertake further research into what motivates students in the modern languages classroom and how I can tap into those motivations when carrying out activities in the class … I feel it is necessary to delve into some further reading on the topic of teacher praise and how this can impact student motivation. (ST 1) I need to read and improve my understanding of dyslexia and fi nd out more about how it affects a child’s literacy skills. I then need to follow this up with more research on how this then impacts on them learning a new language … I need to fi nd research which has proven what techniques work to better aid language teaching to a pupil with dyslexia. (ST 2) I want to investigate and put into practice techniques which encourage pupils to feel relaxed and more receptive to speaking in class – I have noted that there have been studies related to Willingness to Communicate, and am keen to find out whether this area of research will provide some insight into how to encourage more confidence around talking in French. (ST 3)

It is clear from the preceding evidence that the participants adopted an enquiry-oriented approach to professional learning. During the process of negotiating a PE question, they drew on their professional experience (ST 2 and ST 3) and the knowledge and understanding of the academic literature (ST 1). For example, when discussing what they needed to know in regard to their chosen CPEP topic, all three participants indicated the

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importance of developing a good understanding of both the research in their area of interest and their local knowledge about classrooms/schools in which they were working. The fi ndings are in line with Elliot’s (1991) and Townsend’s (2013) notion about the process of defi ning, refi ning and redefi ning PE ideas as meaning-making cycles. Even though the participants of this study were at the early stage of their ITE programme (the fi rst school placement would take place two months after the start of the course), they were beginning to develop their awareness of how their knowledge about research and the classroom/school could shape the formation of their PE question. The CPEP reflection exercise enabled the participants to think back and articulate their existing and future knowledge about the profession (Kramarski & Kohen, 2017). Even though they were still in the process of making sense of the link between content and pedagogical knowledge (Schulman, 1986), in many ways the fi ndings represented the participants’ evolving understanding of ‘reflection-on-action’ (Schön, 1983), whereby practitioners question alternative views and allow new information gained to inform their experience. ST 3, for example, was able to conceptualise her experience of teaching speaking in the class and her newly acquired knowledge on Willingness to Communicate to refi ne her PE project. Developing practice-oriented and pedagogy-driven PE projects

In addition to reflecting on their prior knowledge and professional experience, as student-teachers conceptualised their PE projects, they also noted what motivated them to carry out their projects. This topic is important to me because my first language is not English and I would like to let the pupils know that it is possible to ‘survive’ in a place where people don’t speak the same language as you … As my Personal Commitment to Social Justice in the school, I’d like to enable EAL pupils to success [succeed] in the ML class. (ST 4) This topic is important to me because I’m dyslexic. I always struggled at school to have good marks. I spent too much time on the weekend to study and I couldn’t know why. 2 years ago I made the test, and actually I am dyslexic and none of my teachers could even suspect I had a disability. (ST 5)

The comments by ST 4 and ST 5 suggest that the conceptualisation of PE can be influenced by student-teachers’ personal backgrounds. The fact that ST 4 was studying at an English speaking university, even though English was not her first language, had motivated the conceptualisation of her project. More specifically, she intended to use the PE project as a tool to support English as an additional language (EAL) pupils in the class. ST 5’s conceptualisation of the PE project was derived from her own personal experiences at school. Being dyslexic meant that she had to work

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harder than the other pupils in the class when she was at school. This led to the decision to explore issues related to dyslexia in the PE project. The following STs conceptualised their PE projects based on the interests that they had developed during school placement. After observing different lessons, it was interesting to see the varying degrees of pupil engagement, interaction and different classroom environments. Group work and collaborative learning techniques can prove difficult especially when trying to manage behaviour in a classroom. It will be interesting to explore how different techniques could be implemented successfully, and which activities aid and enrich learning. (ST 6) While on placement, the issue I have noticed is the following: many pupils seem to get very nervous when they have to do a talking assessment in a foreign language … I need to fi nd and select teaching strategies (evidencebased) that are most likely to help my pupils feel more comfortable in talking a foreign language. (ST 7) I’d like to explore this topic as throughout my fi rst placement, I have been in ASN classes observing and I fi nd it interesting to see how these pupils respond to learning a language and how they engage with the teacher. (ST 8) Through observation across many levels and teaching classes, I have discovered that students are less inclined to join in when the activity or lesson is revolved around speaking … There is confidence issue with a lot of pupils in just saying it even if it is wrong, but they would rather stay quiet than make a mistake. (ST 9)

ST 6 considered the importance of using collaborative learning principles to manage the modern languages classroom. This interest was derived from their classroom observation during school placement. The enquiry was grounded in practice which, in the context of ITE, was mainly concerned with professional learning through observation. For ST 7, school placement made them realise that nervousness tended to be one of the barriers affecting their pupils’ performance during a speaking assessment. The decision to carry out PE in this area was pedagogy driven. On the one hand, ST 7 was interested in finding and selecting appropriate evidencebased teaching strategies. On the other hand, they were interested in fi nding the connection between how these teaching strategies can reduce pupils’ affective fi lters when speaking in another language. This suggests that the development of PE projects allowed student-teachers to justify their pedagogical decision making based on research, which has the potential to improve teacher autonomy (Toom et al., 2010). Similarly, ST 8’s topic for their PE project was also derived from classroom observation during the fi rst placement. The enquiry was, therefore, grounded in practice and very much a student-centred approach to their own professional learning. This also applies to ST 9 who noticed that confidence in speaking might be the reason behind a quiet modern

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languages classroom. The decision to investigate how to improve pupil confidence in speaking a foreign language indicated that ST 9’s PE project was grounded in practice. As Cochran-Smith and Lytle (2009) suggest, enquiry activities can be grounded in the local learning and teaching contexts. The notion of ‘enquiry as stance’ argues that for teachers to become leaders of change, they need to develop expertise in using enquiry and reflection as part of their daily skill sets. Timperley’s (2013) concept of adaptive expertise also highlights learning from experiences during PE. The participants in the present study actively constructed conceptual framework by theorising their everyday theories from practice. Their conceptualisation of PE projects can thus be considered as practice oriented and pedagogy driven. Conclusion and Implications

This chapter deepens our understanding of the role that reflective practice and professional dialogue play in facilitating teacher professional learning, and argues for the need for teacher educators to embed PE as part of their programme design and restructuring. By interacting with their peers on a common enquiry question through different lenses, student-teachers in the present study were able to develop the confidence and an area of expertise beyond what the ITE programme was able to offer at the time of the investigation. Therefore, it has implications for the future (re-)design of ITE programmes and for my own development as a teacher educator. As the fi ndings of this chapter suggest, the conceptualisation stage of PE involves defi ning, refi ning and redefi ning the problem, and the projects tend to be practice oriented and pedagogy driven. Furthermore, effective professional dialogue is at the core of any PE activity as it is through dialogue and reflection that teachers develop their professional learning. Where applicable, the redesign of modules should consider ways in which they can support student-teachers in developing what was outlined above at the early stage of their professional learning journey. The dispositions and skills to systematically identify, collect, interrogate and synthesise evidence (including research evidence) are crucial to becoming the type of professionals required in the 21st century. In order to embed PE as part of the ITE programme we need to create the context for student-teachers to start thinking about the relevance of PE for professional learning at the early stage of ITE. As has been shown, the key here is to develop a habit of mind or the disposition of systematically scrutinising their understanding and teaching approaches in light of the complex relationship between theory and practice. At the initial phase of this project, for instance, there were some confusions. Given the open-ended format where they were given the opportunity to freely investigate any problems, a common issue was that

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they did not know where to start. Furthermore, as the project was introduced at the early stage of the participants’ ITE career, some of the concepts might be too abstract or challenging. For future iterations of the project, it would be better to provide student-teachers with more scaffolding activities and resources. Some sample PE projects, for example, would make the task more accessible, especially for those who were initially confused by the breadth and scope of the investigation required. Studentteachers should be given the opportunity to gradually develop their enquiry skills as part of their decision making in teaching throughout their time during ITE – this will ultimately lead to them undertaking an independent piece of PE. As Darling-Hammond and Lieberman (2012) point out, there is a need for actors at all levels in the education system to be able to access and coconstruct common knowledge and shared beliefs with the ultimate aim of improving education outcomes for young people and bringing about social change. The chapter provides a forum for the development of a more focused approach to teacher professional learning where enquiry is at the centre. Likewise, writing this chapter has enabled me to reflect on my own practice as a teacher educator. I went through the process of formulating an idea, designing and delivering PE-related taught sessions as well as the research instrument, collecting and analysing the data, and writing up the fi ndings, which has been beneficial to me professionally. While it highlights the importance of developing research-informed teaching materials, the embedding of an additional project within an already full ITE curriculum was a challenge that stimulated and developed my own thinking about what can and cannot be achieved at the early stages of an ITE programme. As the design of the project was in line with the latest teacher education policy in Scotland and the educational research literature, the change can be justified. The writing of this chapter has also helped me as a teacher educator to gain some initial insights into the way in which language student-teachers learn, including, for example, reading the academic literature, carrying out classroom observations and engaging in professional dialogue. References Aitken, G., Sinnema, C. and Meyer, F. (2013) Initial Teacher Education Outcomes: Graduate Teacher Standards. Auckland: University of Auckland. Baumfield, V., Hall, E. and Wall, K. (2012) Action Research in Education. London: Sage. Biesta, G., Priestley, M. and Robinson, S. (2015) The role of beliefs in teacher agency. Teachers and Teaching 21 (6), 624–640. Cochran-Smith, M. and Lytle, S.L. (2009) Inquiry as Stance: Practitioner Research for the Next Generation. New York: Teachers College Press. Creswell, J.W. (2003) Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (2nd edn). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Darling-Hammond, L. and Lieberman, A. (2012) Teacher Education around the World: Changing Policies and Practices. New York: Routledge.

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Donaldson, G. (2011) Teaching Scotland’s Future: Report of a Review of Teacher Education in Scotland. Edinburgh: Scottish Government. Donaldson, G. (2014) Teacher education and curriculum change in Scotland. European Journal of Education 49 (2), 178–191. Dreyfus, H. and Dreyfus, S. (1986) Mind over Machine: The Power of Human Intuition and Expertise in the Era of the Computer. New York: Free Press. Elliot, J. (1991) Action Research for Educational Change. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Goodson, I.F. (2003) Professional Knowledge, Professional Lives. Maidenhead: Open University Press. GTCS (2012) The Standards for Registration: Mandatory Requirements for Registration with the General Teaching Council for Scotland. Edinburgh: General Teaching Council for Scotland. GTCS (2017) National Model of Professional Learning. Edinburgh: General Teaching Council for Scotland. See https://www.gtcs.org.uk/professional-update/professionallearning/professional-learning.aspx (accessed 2 October 2020). Huang, A., Klein, M. and Beck, A. (2020) An exploration of teacher learning through reflection from a sociocultural and dialogical perspective: Professional dialogue or professional monologue? Professional Development in Education. doi:10.1080/1941 5257.2020.1787192 Kemmis, S., McTaggart, R. and Nixon, R. (2014) Action Research Planner: Doing Critical Participatory Action Research. Singapore: Springer. Kramarski, B. and Kohen, Z. (2017) Promoting preservice teachers’ dual self-regulation roles as learners and as teachers: Effects of generic vs. specific prompts. Metacognition and Learning 12, 157–191. Lewin, K. (1946) Action research and minority problems. Journal of Social Issues 2 (4), 36–46. Menter, I., Elliott, D., Hulme, M., Lewin, J. and Lowden, K. (2011) A Guide to Practitioner Research in Education. London: Sage. Mockler, N. (2005) Trans/forming teachers: New professional learning and transformative teacher professionalism. Journal of In-service Education 31 (4), 733–746. Ponte, P., Beijard, D. and Ax, J. (2004) Don’t wait till the cows come home: Action research and initial teacher education in three diff erent countries. Teachers and Teaching 10 (6), 591–621. Ryan, G.W. and Bernard, H.R. (2003) Techniques to identify themes. Field Methods 15 (1), 85–109. Sachs, J. (2003) The Activist Teaching Profession. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Schön, D. (1983) The Refl ective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. London: Basic Books. Schulman, L.S. (1986) Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher 26, 4–14. Scottish Government (2016a) Evaluation of the Impact of the Implementation of Teaching Scotland’s Future. Edinburgh: Scottish Government. Scottish Government (2016b) National Improvement Framework for Scottish Education: Achieving Excellence and Equity. Edinburgh: Scottish Government. Scottish Government (2017) Initial Teacher Education: Content Analysis. Edinburgh: Scottish Government. Stenhouse, L. (1975) An Introduction to Curriculum Research and Development. London: Heinemann. Timperley, H. (2013) Learning to Practice. Auckland: University of Auckland. Toom, A., Kynaslahti, H., Krokfors, L., Jyrhama, R., Byman, R. and Stenberg, K. (2010) Experiences of a research-based approach to teacher education: Suggestions for future policies. European Journal of Education 45 (2), 331–344.

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Townsend, A. (2013) Action Research: The Challenges of Understanding and Changing Practice. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Wall, K. and Hall, E. (2017a) Teachers as metacognitive role models. European Journal of Teacher Education 39 (4), 403–418. Wall, K. and Hall, E. (2017b) The teacher in teacher-practitioner research: Three principles of inquiry. In P. Boyd and A. Szplit (eds) International Perspectives: Teachers and Teacher Educators Learning through Enquiry. Kraków: Association for Teachers Education in Europe.

7 Engaging Students in Learning through Teacher Research Bushra Ahmed Khurram

Introduction

Recent decades have seen extensive research on student engagement. According to Sinatra et al. (2015: 2), student engagement has been ‘one of the hottest research topics in the field of educational psychology’. This is perhaps because student engagement is ‘often hailed as the core of the education enterprise’ (Dörnyei, 2018). Reyes et al. (2012) assert that student engagement is vital for academic achievement. Indeed, a sound body of literature has established robust relationships between student engagement and desirable educational outcomes such as social engagement, academic achievement, interest, student persistence and satisfaction (Chickering & Gamson, 1987; Christenson et al., 2012; Finn & Zimmer, 2012; Kuh & Vesper, 1997; Pace, 1995; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). In recent years, therefore, student engagement has become a buzzword in higher education (Kahu, 2013), and enhancing student engagement has become the pedagogical goal in higher education settings around the world (Trowler, 2010). In this chapter I report on a teacher research based study that attempted to increase student-teachers’ engagement in the TESL (teaching English as a second language) course that I teach in an MA in Applied Linguistics programme at a public university in Pakistan. First, I discuss the term student engagement. Next, I offer a brief background to the study and then present the key motivational antecedents for engagement that I used. Lastly, I discuss the outcomes of the study. Student Engagement

According to Mercer and Dörnyei (2020), student engagement is at the heart of successful language learning. Coates (2009: 3) defi nes student engagement as ‘students’ involvement with activities and conditions likely 104

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to generate high-quality learning’. Similarly, Hu and Kuh (2001: 3) defi ne engagement as ‘the quality of effort students themselves devote to educationally purposeful activities that contribute directly to desired outcomes’. These defi nitions place the onus for engagement on students. However, it is noteworthy that the literature also points out that expecting students to become engaged in learning on their own accord is ‘magical thinking’ (Chang et al., 2005: 10–11). That is to say, students do not alone bear the crucial responsibility for engagement; rather, the responsibility lies with institutions and students collectively. Indeed, a growing body of research suggests that the teaching faculty plays an important role in the facilitation of engagement (Harbour et  al., 2015; Trowler, 2010; Umbach & Wawrzynski, 2005). In this regard, for instance, Handelsman et al. (2005: 184) assert that ‘effective teaching stimulates and sustains student engagement’. In a similar vein, Smith et al. (2005: 88) argue that ‘to teach is to engage students in learning’. Student engagement is considered a ‘complex’ (Kahu & Nelson, 2018) and ‘multidimensional’ (Handelsman et  al., 2005: 185) phenomenon. Mercer (2019) states that student engagement comprises three core dimensions, namely, the behavioural, the affective and the cognitive. Behaviourally engaged students follow the rules, adhere to classroom norms, are involved in academic tasks and demonstrate ‘behaviours such as effort, persistence, concentration, attention, asking questions, and contributing to class discussion’ (Fredricks et  al., 2004: 62). Affectively engaged students experience positive affective reactions such as interest, value and affect (Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2003). Lastly, cognitively engaged students pay focused attention and construct their own knowledge (Svalberg, 2009). In this study, the key markers of affective, cognitive and behavioural engagement are on task behaviour, students’ questions, students’ heightened interest and contribution to class discussion. In an attempt to enhance engagement in my class, I supported the three fundamental psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness of my students (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Briefly, autonomy refers to the students’ feeling that their behaviours are self-regulated and that ‘their actions stem from and are supported by volition and willingness versus feeling alien, forced or compelled’ (Ryan & Deci, 2017: 51). Ryan and Deci (2017: 11) indicate that competence wanes in contexts where tasks are ‘too difficult, negative feedback is pervasive’ and social comparisons are made. Relatedness is concerned with students’ ‘sense of belonging in their classrooms and school as well as positive group dynamics and supportive friendship groups’ (Mercer, 2019: 11). I decided to support these three key psychological needs of my students since the literature indicates that when these psychological needs are met they create in students a willingness and readiness to engage with learning opportunities (Jang et al., 2012; Reeve, 2012).

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Professional Development through Teacher Research

Background of the Study

This teacher research-based study was undertaken in the English department of a public university in Pakistan. TESL is taught as a course in the MA Applied Linguistics programmes offered by the university. The curriculum for the TESL course is designed by the senior faculty of the department. In this study, as per the course requirement, the aim of the lessons was to explain the teaching of reading skills to the MA students. In this study, I examined my class of 28 female student-teachers. On average they were 23 years old and belonged to middle-class families. I observed that the students in my TESL class were distracted during the lessons. More specifically, the student-teachers were seen to be either using their mobile phones, completing assignments for other subjects or talking to each other during the lessons. Furthermore, most of the student-teachers took little or no part in class discussions or did not complete the assigned readings before coming to the lessons, which led to their lack of engagement in the TESL lessons. I therefore decided to discover how I could generate and increase student-teacher engagement in my TESL class. My quest took me to the literature on student engagement. I found that the research suggests that teachers’ specific behaviours and deliberate interventions can enhance student engagement (Harbour et al., 2015; Shernoff, 2013). This further developed my interest in providing instruction that could foster engagement in my university-level students. Given that I am interested in teacher research engagement (Borg, 2010; Ellis, 2010; Nunan, 1993), I decided to use a classroom-based research procedure which drew from action research as a methodological framework for my study. It seemed to me that a classroom-based study was suitable for practitioners like me who wanted to ‘understand some aspect of a professional practice as a means of bringing about improvement’ (Richards, 2003: 24) and to ‘generate new knowledge’ (McNiff & Whitehead, 2012: 14). Moreover, I thought that a classroom-based study would allow me to integrate theory on student engagement with practice in the classroom (Crookes, 1993). In sum, such a procedure would allow me to reflect on my practice and thereby would lead to my own professional development.

Procedures of the Study

The study was carried out over 11 lessons during a period of four weeks. The duration of each lesson was 50 minutes and the lessons focused on the teaching of reading strategies to ESL students. The strategies that were focused upon during the lessons were prediction, activating prior knowledge, visualisation, using context clues to deduce meaning, and summarising. Data were gathered from April to May 2019. To make the fi ndings of my teacher research study reliable, I employed multiple methods for data collection in keeping with Wallace’s (1998) suggestion.

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Throughout the study, I wrote reflective notes in my journal on my own actions: what I did to promote engagement in students, when, how and why in each lesson, soon after completing the lesson. What also helped me reflect on my practice in my reflective journal were the checklists that I fi lled in to monitor my teaching and the students’ level of engagement in the lessons, following Kane et al.’s (2004) suggestion. For instance, I filled in a checklist taken from Saphier and Gower (1997: 95) at the end of each lesson (see Appendix 7.1). The checklist aims to help teachers self-assess whether they give equal attention and opportunities to participate to all students in the lesson. The checklist helped me reflect on my ability to create a positive and inviting environment in the classroom to cater for students’ need for relatedness. Also, at the end of each lesson, I sought anonymous feedback from each student-teacher by using a slip of paper called an ‘exit slip’ on these aspects: whether the student-teachers felt they had some degree of control and influence over what they did and how they did it in the lesson; whether student-teachers could manage the given tasks; whether they felt psychologically safe in the class; and suggestions for the next lesson. I planned the next lesson in light of my own reflections on each lesson and the student-teachers’ evaluative feedback. In addition to asking student-teachers to evaluate the individual lessons, at the end of the study the student-teachers filled a form to provide feedback on their engagement in the lessons. The form elicited from them information on the following aspects: how they felt being a studentteacher in the TESL class; the quality of relationship of students with the teacher and other classmates; and the strengths and weaknesses of the TESL classes in terms of supporting a sense of autonomy and competence in students (see Appendix 7.2). Moreover, I took pictures of the lessons, with the student-teachers’ permission, to review and reflect on student engagement in the lessons later. For data analysis, in this study I adopted thematic analysis since it is considered a ‘useful and flexible method for qualitative research’ (Braun & Clarke, 2006: 77). Braun and Clarke (2006) indicate that in qualitative research the process of analysis can start during data collection when the researcher notices and identifies interesting features in the data. In this study, the process of analysis started in the act of teaching. I began to notice the interesting aspects of my data as I read the ‘exit slips’ at the end of almost every lesson. Moreover, as I read my reflective journal I began to become familiar with the world captured in them. Strategies Used to Engage Students

I used a number of strategies to trigger student participation and involvement in my TESL classes. Broadly speaking, these included: (a) promoting student autonomy, (b) fostering a sense of relatedness and (c)

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promoting a sense of competence in students. This section briefly discusses these strategies which are distinct but interdependent. Promoting student autonomy

Reeve (2006) states that teacher behaviours that support student autonomy are most effective in promoting student engagement. Keeping this in mind, in this study I took a number of measures to cater for student-teachers’ psychological need for autonomy. To begin with, at one level, student-teachers were provided with opportunities to exercise choice during the lessons from the fi rst class onwards. In this regard, in some pair activities students were given the choice to select the partner they wanted to work with. Additionally, students were encouraged to select a group leader as well as to decide the role each group member would undertake during group reading activities. Besides that, when student-teachers were asked to develop reading activities for a group of students as part of an assignment in the third week of the study, they were given the choice of selecting the grade and the type of school – English medium, Urdu medium, Madarsah – they wished to develop the activities for. At another level, student-teachers were offered opportunities to participate actively in the decision-making process. For this purpose, they were offered the chance to select which assignments they wished to include in the portfolio for me to mark for examination in the fourth week of the study. For some assignments, they were also encouraged to select the kind of output they wished to create. These options for ‘choice and voice’ were built in the lessons since the literature indicates that ‘learners are more likely to be engaged when they can influence their own actions making decisions that match their own interests’ (Mercer, 2019: 7). I noticed that giving students some control over what they did and how they did it led to higher levels of engagement in the student-teachers. To address student-teachers’ need for autonomy, steps were also taken to help student-teachers understand the relevance of the work assigned to them (Assor et al., 2002). To this end, the objectives, relevance, applicability and importance of the course, as well as of the specific tasks, to teaching in the real classroom were explicitly discussed with the student-teachers during the lessons. Shernoff (2013: 57) states that ‘students will not remain engaged unless they are shown the payoff it will have, either in terms of an immediate reward, subsequent schooling, future employment, future earnings, or some combination’. It was also expected that this would help student-teachers value the course and the tasks and consider them congruent with their own intrinsic interests. Keeping Reeve’s (2006) list of autonomy-supportive teacher actions in view, from the very fi rst lesson I also listened attentively when studentteachers addressed me, and showed trust, empathy and respect towards

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them through my behaviour. It was expected that this would not only support student-teachers’ sense of autonomy but relatedness as well. Fostering a sense of relatedness

To cater for the sense of relatedness and the need to belong (Baumeister & Leary, 1995) in student-teachers, I tried to develop a positive relationship with them as well as a positive psycho-social environment in the class. For this purpose, I tried to remember and use the names of studentteachers from the second lesson onwards. Haddad (2006) asserts that using students’ names in the lesson encourages student participation as it builds an inviting classroom environment and positive teacher–student relationship. Moreover, it shows that the teacher regards each student as an individual and is interested in them. In addition to using student-teachers’ names, I also tried to understand their thoughts and feelings by taking anonymous feedback from them at the end of each lesson. Moreover, I kept two boxes in the classroom from the second week of the study to encourage feedback or the sharing of concerns, after I noticed that some student-teachers wanted to share their feelings with me even when I did not have a scheduled class. I labelled one of them ‘cheers box’ and the other one ‘tears box’. I informed the studentteachers that at any time during the week they could write down and place sad messages in the tears box and happy messages in the cheers box for me to read. I read the messages weekly and responded so as to develop trust and confidence in the student-teachers to engage with me. While responding to their messages, I showed respect and care, expressed trust and empathy, and recognised students’ individuality and uniqueness (Gkonou & Mercer, 2017). I carried out these practices in the course of the project to build a close and caring teacher–student relationship, since the literature indicates that a positive teacher–student relationship is important in ‘generating the security and confidence learners need to engage in learning contexts’ (Mercer, 2019: 7). In addition, I provided student-teachers with opportunities to interact with me during the lessons. One of the steps I took in this regard was to arrange the seating in a U-shape in the second lesson. This not only allowed me to remain physically close to the students, but also encouraged students to approach me with a question or a comment which was not possible when they were sitting in rows and were physically distanced from me. The U-shaped seating arrangement also helped me monitor and acknowledge student-teachers’ on-task behaviour and work. This led to positive energy in the lessons and it seems that it met their psychological need for relatedness. I also made myself available to my students beyond the classroom, since a greater sense of relatedness and belonging makes students ‘feel more confident, work harder, cope more adaptively, show more positive affect, and perform better’ (Furrer & Skinner, 2003: 149). For this

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purpose, a WhatsApp group was created at the end of the fourth lesson, in which student-teachers shared their concerns, questions and interests related to learning. Additionally, student-teachers were welcome to email me or send me a private WhatsApp message if they were facing any challenges related to learning, so that they felt that their learning mattered to me. Student-teachers were encouraged to engage in micro conversations with me before the start or at the end of the lesson from the third lesson onwards. I hoped this pedagogical caring would make them more engaged in the lessons and experience deep and satisfying learning. To create a positive psycho-social environment in the lessons, I followed the principles of ‘invitational education’ from the first week of the study. Invitational education recognises that ‘people are able, valuable, and responsible and should be treated accordingly’ (Purkey & Stanley, 1991: 15). It suggests enriching the psychological environment of the classroom by creating an inviting atmosphere as that could tap unrealised potential in students. In this regard, O’Keefe and Johnson (1989) point out that those teachers who are intentionally inviting are more likely to be responsive to their students. In line with invitational education, during the lessons I paid equal attention to student-teachers of all abilities. I also invited ideas from all student-teachers during the discussions. I informed studentteachers in the first lesson that they were very welcome to laugh ‘with’ each other but not ‘at’ each other, in order for students to develop a sense of psychological safety and the courage to engage. Student-teachers also signed an agreement for productive classroom dialogue in the first lesson that emphasised listening to and respecting one another’s point of view. To further support student-teachers’ sense of relatedness, I encouraged student collaboration during the tasks. To this end, students were encouraged to work in pairs or small groups and were made responsible for one another’s success. In other words, I encouraged ‘positive interdependence’ (Bennett et  al., 1991) among student-teachers. Following Pressley and Gaskin’s (2006) suggestion for promoting student motivation, I also encouraged peer support among student-teachers. This was achieved by asking student-teachers to read and explain the procedure for carrying out the assigned tasks to each other as and when needed. Student collaboration was encouraged in the lessons since it is well established in the literature that in a classroom ‘the healthy growth of individual motivation depends very much on the quality and level of interpersonal support provided in the social learning environment’ (Ushioda, 2008: 28). It seems relevant to mention here that the literature indicates that motivation can serve as ‘an antecedent or precursor of engagement’ (Christenson et al., 2012: 814). Promoting a sense of competence

To promote a sense of competence in student-teachers, I assured them that they could manage the tasks assigned to them and that they could

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improve if they learnt the right strategies. For this purpose, studentteachers were instructed to share the strategies they used to comprehend the texts and to carry out the tasks with their peers in the fourth lesson. This was initially done in groups, which was followed by a whole-class discussion. In addition, ‘study buddies’ were assigned to each studentteacher in the third lesson of the study so that they could achieve the desired goals and targets with the assistance of another student. As noted earlier, it was important to help student-teachers realise that they could grow and improve and nurture their sense of efficacy so that they became willing to expend energy and effort on the assigned readings and tasks. In this regard, Mercer (2015) states that students have to believe in their abilities and competence in order to become willing to put effort in learning. At the start of the term, I also selected readings that were easy to comprehend. In order to select texts that were neither too easy nor too challenging for the student-teachers to comprehend during the lessons, I administered an academic reading test at the start of the study to determine students’ reading ability. Selecting a text with the appropriate level of difficulty is important, since selection of too difficult a text may erode students’ confidence and reduce motivation to read (Griffiths, 2008). Change in Students’ Engagement in the Lessons

As mentioned earlier, most of the student-teachers appeared distracted in the TESL lessons at the start of the study. However, student-teachers’ attention, engagement and interest in the lessons increased as I incorporated the intervention strategies described above. This was evident through a number of changes in the student-teachers’ behaviours that are discussed below. Increased class participation

Student-teachers’ heightened engagement in the lessons was noticeable from the fact that almost all student-teachers took active participation in the classroom tasks and activities. Some student-teachers even suggested group activities that could be undertaken in the lessons. They also created a WhatsApp group for the purposes of continuing the class discussion. At times, they contacted me if they wanted to discuss some construct or idea, as I noted in a journal entry that I made in the third week of the study: Over the last few days many students have visited my office or have called me to discuss the reading strategies that skilled readers use during academic reading. Much to my delight, they not only wanted to learn how to teach them to others in the best possible ways but also wanted to use them during their own academic readings. Some of them also informed me that

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they have taken permission from the chairperson of the department to teach reading strategies to students of other classes and they want my supervision in this regard. One of the students told me that she has started teaching reading strategies to students studying in the departmental library and that she is getting a very positive response. (Extract, Teacherresearcher’s journal, 26 April 2019)

The above extract shows that student-teachers were motivated and willing to undertake directed and meaningful actions in future to improve the reading skills of other students as well as of themselves. Put differently, rather than simply ‘going through the motions’ of meeting the teacher’s expectations by participating in classroom tasks, student-teachers were even going beyond the requirements of the course. It therefore appeared that they proactively and intentionally employed their agency to coconstruct their learning experiences (Reeve, 2012; Reeve & Tseng, 2011) and displayed an enhanced sense of ownership. This implies that studentteachers were cognitively and affectively invested in the lessons. The study showed that what increased student-teachers’ interest and engagement was not only the realisation that what they were learning in the course was relevant, but also the creation of an accessible and psychologically safe classroom culture through the use of techniques such as ‘cheers’ and ‘tears’ boxes. An increasing sense of well-being in studentteachers was evident from the comments made by them in the exit slips. For instance, one of the student-teacher thought that the teacher’s availability and willingness to interact with the students shows that ‘our learning matters to the teacher’. This made her ‘want to learn’. Along similar lines, another student-teacher commented that ‘I am happy to see that you care to fi nd out our ideas and feeling. I wait for your classes throughout the week’ (Extract, Anonymous exit slip). Furthermore, student-teachers at the end of the study reported having increased self-confidence and a better self-image, which suggests that their psychological need for competence was met to some degree during the course. The following comments exemplify the feedback I received from the student-teachers: I think I can do the tasks. I used to think I am not a good student and I cannot perform well. I will now work hard, learn and as a result get good marks. (Extract, Exit slip, 19 April 2019) Students tell me that my ideas are good. I never thought so. I have become interested in sharing my views and participating in all activities. (Extract, Exit slip, 2 May 2019)

The extracts above reveal that the positive engagement experiences in the lessons had a facilitating effect on student-teachers since they appeared willing and ready to engage in sustained learning action in future. This is congruent with the literature that indicates that ‘enhanced engagement can be expected from interventions that target improvements of academic motivation’ (Green et al., 2012: 1120).

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Positive behavioural changes

Positive changes in student-teachers’ behaviours were also noticeable from the fact that they appeared to be concentrating and thinking about the assigned tasks. My observations also showed that all student-teachers stopped using their mobile phones during the lessons. Also, they were no longer found completing assignments for other subjects as they did at the beginning of the academic term. They did not engage in small talk during the lessons and most of the student-teachers completed their essential readings before coming to the lessons. This provided evidence of student-teachers’ engagement in the lessons, since the literature claims that ‘when students are optimally engaged in their studies, they are on task, thinking, and enjoying the learning process’ (Quint Oga-Baldwin & Nakata, 2017: 152). Increased student collaboration in the lessons

Student-teachers’ active interaction and collaboration during the pair and group activities also signalled their increased engagement in the lessons. Student-teachers felt cared for and socially connected while working in pairs and groups. This can be seen from the following comment: In all courses students should carry out tasks in pairs or groups. Feelings of loneliness or lack of success occur less as others are there to support and help you. You are also able to help others which lends a positive feeling. (Extract, Exit slip, 24 April 2019)

It is noticeable from the extract above that collaboration during pair and group activities provided student-teachers with a sense of comfort and security. It also gave them a feeling of making a meaningful contribution in their social setting (Ryan & Deci, 2017). This shows that the lessons responded to student-teachers’ need for relatedness to some degree. Another student-teacher thought that discussions in class or in groups promoted a healthy exchange of ideas between students. This can be evidenced in the extract below: Asking opinions and valuing them in group discussions removed our hesitation in sharing our thoughts with our class fellows. We learned how others work. We also became frank with other students and started asking for help. This made learning enjoyable. (Extract, Exit slip, 3 May 2019)

Here, it can be seen that the student-teachers valued working in groups. It may therefore be that student collaboration had a positive impact on students’ engagement level since they found learning ‘enjoyable’ as a result of collaboration with others. However, perhaps it was in a spirit of reflexivity that during the lessons I remained concerned as to whether my students truly benefited from these and other instructional practices. I asked myself if I had influenced students’ thinking during the lessons, due to which they

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reported being interested in pair work, group work and other activities. This then made me wonder whether the students really cared about TESL. Since in response to this question I was left with only more questions, I decided to remind the student-teachers time and time again during the lessons that I wanted their honest feedback on the lessons as that could help me shape future lessons. I also asked student-teachers to reflect deeply on why they liked or disliked whatever they did during the lessons. Conclusion and Implications

Based on the teacher research study described in this chapter, it can be argued that supporting the three core psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness in a classroom can generate, increase and sustain behavioural, cognitive and affective engagement in students. The study suggests that engaging students in lessons is possible, if the teacher can work at building a positive teacher–student and student– student relationship. This fi nding echoes the existing literature which underlines ‘the importance of close, caring teacher-student relationships and high quality peer relationships for students’ academic self-perceptions, school engagement, motivation, learning and performance’ (Furrer et al., 2014: 102). The study also illustrates that for triggering and sustaining student engagement in the lessons, students should feel safe and accepted as members of a group, and should have responsibility for their own as well as other students’ learning. Additionally, the fi ndings of the study demonstrate that in order to trigger and enhance active authentic engagement in learning opportunities, teachers can work at meeting the core needs of the autonomy and competence of students. The fi ndings of the study also suggest that positive engagement experiences can affect students’ readiness and future willingness to engage cognitively, behaviourally and affectively in the lessons. On a pedagogical level, the fi ndings of this study may act as a reminder for educators teaching TESL courses to pay more attention to the students’ core psychological needs during teaching. What educators may wish to bear in mind is that it is possible to generate and sustain student engagement through teacher motivation and agency. I decided to write this chapter because undertaking the study has been a highly rewarding experience for me in many ways. It has given me an insight into how I could engage students in my TESL course which I had often wondered about while teaching students in my university. While I went into the study ‘cold’, not knowing which components of engagement suggested by the existing literature would work in my context, during the study I developed an understanding of the instructional practices that could enhance student-teachers’ engagement in my context. Lastly, doing this research on my own practice had a deeply personal impact on me. Intellectually, I have become more reflective. Engaging in

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this study has developed my interest in other forms of teacher research as well. I am now also keen to explore how in my role as a teacher educator in Pakistan I could assist other teachers to gain insights from this research. I hope that on the basis of my study I might kindle desire in some teachers in Pakistan to become involved in teacher research in the area of student engagement, since ‘the best motivation to do reflective work in one’s own context is to see that others have done the same – to their benefit, to that of their students, and to that of fellow professionals’ (Wharton, 2007: 486). Appendix 7.1: Self-Assessment Checklist

Many teachers classify students as ‘brights’ and ‘slows’ and act differently towards them, thus creating self-fulfi lling prophecies. The flowing checklist can be used as a self-assessment or a peer observation protocol: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)

Do I smile and nod towards ‘highs’? Do I lean more towards ‘brights’? Do I look ‘brights’ more in the eyes? Do I give ‘slows’ fewer opportunities to learn new material? Do I give ‘highs’ more clues when they fail to get an answer – more repetition or more rephrasing? Do I pay closer attention to the responses of the ‘gifted’? Do I allow ‘brights’ longer to respond? Do I have more frequent academic contact with ‘highs’? Do I give ‘highs’ more praise per correct response? Do I give ‘lows’ more criticism per incorrect response? Source: Saphier and Gower (1997).

Appendix 7.2: Reflections

Please answer the following questions: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)

How does it feel to be a student in TESL class? What are some of the things you least like about this class? What are some of the things you most like about this class? Describe in your own words how you see your teacher. How do you feel towards your teacher? How do you feel your teacher sees you as a class? Describe in your own words how you see other students in your class. How do you feel towards them? What are some things you would most like to change about this class? Could the TESL lessons be made more interesting, more attractive, or more relevant to students’ needs, interests and concerns, and if so, how? Did you want to learn what you were taught in the lessons?

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(10) How did you feel about the tasks you undertook in the lessons? Were they difficult/easy, relevant/irrelevant, useful/useless, etc.? (11) Express any feeling you wish that is relevant to the classes. (12) Please use the back of this page to write any comments you have about your class, the teacher, or any observations you care to make. References Assor, A., Kaplan, H. and Roth, G. (2002) Choice is good but relevance is excellent: Autonomy-enhancing and suppressing teacher behaviours predicting students’ engagement in schoolwork. British Journal of Educational Psychology 72, 261–278. Baumeister, R.F. and Leary, M.R. (1995) The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin 117 (3), 497–529. Bennett, B., Rohlheiser-Bennett, C. and Stevahn, L. (1991) Cooperative Learning: Where Heart Meets Mind. Edina, MN: Interaction. Borg, S. (2010) Language teacher research engagement. Language Teaching 43 (4), 391–429. Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3 (2), 77–101. Chang, M.J., Chang, J.C. and Ledesma, M.C. (2005) Beyond magical thinking: Doing the real work of diversifying our institutions. About Campus 10 (2), 9–16. Chickering, A.W. and Gamson, Z.F. (1987) Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin 39 (7), 3–7. Christenson, S.L., Reschly, A.L. and Wylie, C. (eds) (2012) Handbook of Research on Student Engagement. New York: Springer Science. Coates, H. (2009) Engaging Students for Success – 2008 Australasian Survey of Student Engagement. Victoria: Australian Council for Educational Research. Crookes, G. (1993) Action research for second language teachers: Going beyond teacher research. Applied Linguistics 14 (2), 130–144. Dörnyei, Z. (2018) Engaging language learners: Focus on the school context and the learner’s peer group. YouTube, 19 April. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg6BS bpVgVU. Ellis, R. (2010) Second language acquisition, teacher education and language pedagogy. Language Teaching 43 (2), 181–201. Finn, J.D. and Zimmer, K. (2012) Student engagement: What is it? Why does it matter? In S.L. Christenson, A.L. Reschly and C. Wylie (eds) Handbook of Research on Student Engagement (pp. 97–132). New York: Springer. Fredricks, J.A., Blumenfeld, P.C. and Paris, A.H. (2004) School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research 74 (1), 59–109. Furrer, C.J. and Skinner, E.A. (2003) Sense of relatedness as a factor in children’s academic engagement and performance. Journal of Educational Psychology 95 (1), 148–162. Furrer, C.J., Skinner, E.A. and Pitzer, J.R. (2014) The influence of teacher and peer relationships on students’ classroom engagement and everyday motivational resilience. National Society for the Study of Education 113 (1), 101–123. Gkonou, C. and Mercer, S. (2017) Understanding Emotional and Social Intelligence among English Language Teachers. London: British Council. Green, J., Liem, G.A.D., Martin, A.J., Colmar, S., Marsh, H.W. and McInerney, D. (2012) Academic motivation, self-concept, engagement, and performance in high school: Key processes from a longitudinal perspective. Journal of Adolescence 35, 1111–1122.

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Reeve, J. (2006) Teachers as facilitators: What autonomy-supportive teachers do and why their students benefit. Elementary School Journal 106 (3), 225–236. Reeve, J. (2012) A self-determination theory perspective on student engagement. In S.L. Christenson, A.L. Reschly and C. Wylie (eds) Handbook of Research on Student Engagement (pp. 149–172). New York: Springer. Reeve, J. and Tseng, C.-M. (2011) Agency as a fourth aspect of students’ engagement during learning activities. Contemporary Educational Psychology 36 (4), 257–267. Reyes, M.R., Brackett, M.A., Rivers, S.E., White, M. and Salovey, P. (2012) Classroom emotional climate, student engagement, and academic achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology 104 (3), 700–712. Richards, K. (2003) Qualitative Inquiry in TESOL. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Ryan, R. and Deci, E.L. (2000) Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist 55 (1), 68–78. Ryan, R. and Deci, E.L. (2017) Self-determination Theory. New York: Guilford Press. Saphier, J. and Gower, R. (1997) The Skillful Teacher: Building Your Teaching Skills. Carlisle: Research for Better Teaching. Shernoff, D.J. (2013) Optimal Learning Environments to Promote Student Engagement. Dordrecht: Springer. Sinatra, G.M., Heddy, B.C. and Lombardi, D. (2015) The challenges of defi ning and measuring student engagement in science. Educational Psychologist 50 (1), 1–13. Smith, K.A., Sheppard, S.D., Johnson, D.W. and Johnson, R.T. (2005) Pedagogies of engagement: Classroom-based practices. Journal of Engineering Education 94 (1), 87–101. Svalberg, A.M.-L. (2009) Engagement with language: Interrogating a construct. Language Awareness 18 (3–4), 242–258. Trowler, V. (2010) Student Engagement Literature Review. Lancaster: Lancaster University. Umbach, P.D. and Wawrzynski, M.R. (2005) Faculty do matter: The role of college faculty in student learning and engagement. Research in Higher Education 46 (2), 153–184. Ushioda, E. (2008) Motivation and good language learners. In C. Griffiths (ed.) Lessons from Good Language Learners (pp. 19–34). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wallace, M. (1998) Action Research for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wharton, S. (2007) Social identity and parallel text dynamics in the reporting of educational action research. English for Specifi c Purposes 26 (4), 485–501.

8 Narrative Pedagogies in Argentinean University English Language Teacher Education María Cristina Sarasa

Introduction

The narrative turn in English language teaching scholarship has produced studies into (future) teachers’ identity as a lived process negotiating shifting self-meanings vis-à-vis the world (Barkhuizen, 2016; Beijaard, 2017; Golombek & Johnson, 2017). This visual narrative inquiry engaging in narrative pedagogy is inscribed in the sophomore language course Overall Communication in the English Language Teacher Education programme, in the School of Humanities at the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Argentina. As a mature English language teacher educator and researcher, this contribution is part of my 10-year-long narrative inquiries into prospective English teachers’ experiences of identities and diversity. Negotiating these aspects is important: national core guidelines for foreign language teacher education introduce culture and interculturality as a core curricular area. Its topics should be included in all other areas to foster intercultural awareness about identities and diversity. Likewise, core learning priorities for teaching foreign languages in our schools adopt a plurilingual and intercultural stance comprising linguistics, cognition and sociocultural identity construction processes. Teaching practices should encourage respect towards intercultural and linguistic differences. Lastly, federal curriculum guidelines for comprehensive sex education mandate specific subjects and cross-curricular contents. Language courses should provide opportunities for reflecting on diversity and co-constructing knowledge to create informed discernment. In this context, narrative inquiry is now a time-honoured qualitative research methodology that focuses on understanding experience and identification as sources of knowledge. It can help prospective English teachers 119

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and their educators explore their narratives of diversity and difference in order to retrieve lived classroom experiences that could illuminate (future) school practices. The driving force behind my research involves generating a linguistic and cultural site where student-teachers can learn with their own diversity and identity stories rather than about critics’, native speakers’, book writers’ or professors’ stories. Thus, my research question here addresses the ways in which engaging in narrative constructions from a wordless picture book inductively mediates 14 student-teachers’ experiences of identity and diversity. The theoretical framework embraces a narrative view of identity as stories to live by, underpinning student-teachers’ lived experiences of selfidentification and diversity (Akinbode, 2013; Schaefer & Clandinin, 2019). These visions are co-constructed by means of narrative pedagogy, the actual language practice carried out by student-teachers and educators. They engage in living, telling, reliving, retelling and thinking with their stories in university classrooms with the aim of cultivating shared conceptual understandings rather than devising instrumental techniques for teaching discrete contents (Huber et al., 2013; Seiki et al., 2018). The research design adopts visual narrative inquiry as its methodology (Huber et  al., 2014). Drawing on the TED Talk The Danger of a Single Story (Adichie, 2009), I worked as a teacher educator, specialising in language and culture, and participant inquirer with 14 student-teachers in our English Language Teacher Education programme. These prospective teachers fi rst composed in writing, and then shared orally, their individual stories of diversity and identity inspired by the picture book The Tree House (Tolman & Tolman, 2010). This chapter presents my inductive narrative thematisations interweaving the stories gathered during our class meetings. It ends by re-examining the research question and problematising the issues emerging from the student-teachers’ stories. Finally, I discuss the meanings of cultivating storytelling in English language courses through narrative pedagogies with the hope of raising teachers’ and students’ awareness of concepts they must operationalise in schools, reflecting on the intersection between their experiences and their practices to cultivate their personal practical knowledge within our educational contexts (Clandinin, 2016). Theoretical Framework

Narrative identity is rooted in experience, revealing the interactive ways in which we exist, think and act, with our minds, bodies and affects (Dewey, 1998). It becomes significant as the object and subject of reflexivity, a central lens for understanding identity. Experience is something lived or witnessed from which we can draw and communicate knowledge: stories about experience engage us with who we are, how we live (Pereira & Doecke, 2016).

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Narrative inquiry begins with continuous and interactive experiences expressed in (future) teachers’ lived and told stories that can become educational. It considers narrative as a form of being and knowing (Bruner, 2004), defi ning identity as stories teachers live by (Schaefer & Clandinin, 2019). Narrative inquiry is not an instrumental research technique: it comprises the phenomena of storied experience through (re)living and (re)telling, interpreted by observing existences and listening to their accounts (Clandinin, 2016). It is also a commitment to teacher education that engages in narrative pedagogies. These involve a relational way of exploring ‘students’ and professors’ experiences’ to create a ‘space’ where participants ‘reflect on’ their ‘stories and learn with each other’s stories’ (Seiki et al., 2018: 12, italics added). Thus, the central purpose of narrative inquiry, embraced in my research, is a narrative reflective practice approach. It engages in living, telling, reliving and retelling studentteachers’ and educators’ stories of experience and identity, in this case in a language course, to begin nurturing personal practical knowledge (Huber et al., 2013). In this way, by letting stories shape the fabric of our lives, we could gradually start to appreciate the insights that they might yield for us as educators and prospective teachers. We might reconceptualise content subject classrooms as sites where we come together to share experiences by telling stories, imagining diff erent possibilities, and becoming more fully responsive to the diversity around us (Doecke, 2015). In the fi elds of English language teaching and teacher education, defi nitions of identity have shifted from psychological, ethnic-racial and linguistic constructs to embrace sociological, diverse, postcolonial, decolonial and gender reconceptualisations in a glocal world. Identity is struggling, varied, simultaneously agentive and reproductive (Norton & De Costa, 2018). For instance, Barkhuizen (2016) created three levels of story emerging from research on English teachers’ identities. The fi rst is intra-personal ‘story’ within its immediate context; the second is interpersonal ‘Story’ within an institutional milieu; and the last is the macro stage of ‘STORY’. In another case, Han (2017) used diff erent story modes to conceptualise Korean teachers’ professional identities, disclosed as (English) teacher, learner identity, national, public servant, gender, personal and national. For their part, Golombek and Johnson (2017) created teachers’ narrative inquiry as professional development by teachers and for teachers. Positioned within a Vygotskian perspective, they recorded the ways in which teacher educators create sites, dialogues and instruments for transformative (prospective) teachers’ narrative inquiry. English language teacher education research has drawn on the concept of funds of identity. It refers to lived experiences of the self, constructed in social interactions and including artefacts that students create to express and understand themselves in relation to their contexts. For

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example, multimedia identity texts voice students’ knowledge and learning experiences to connect them with academic knowledge and formal learning practices (Subero et al., 2017). This is the case of a research project in a Master’s programme in teaching English as a foreign language that retrieved student-teachers’ funds of identity to translate them into curriculum proposals in classroom settings. The study may be relevant to different teacher education programmes, since participants resorted to their own knowledge and experiences to connect to the local curriculum they teach, rather than receiving knowledge from sources external to their contexts (Villacañas de Castro, 2020). Methodology

My research context is the English Teacher Education Program, in the School of Humanities at the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Argentina. Its curriculum is structured into four domains: linguistic skills, linguistic foundations, cultural contents, and pedagogy and practicums. From the start, courses are delivered in very advanced English by qualified local faculty, using bibliography meant for higher education instruction in English speaking countries. The participants were 14 student-teachers attending my high-level English skills and cultural content sophomore course, Overall Communication, within the linguistic skills curricular area. After signing their informed consent, they chose the following individual pseudonyms: Alfon, Cleo, Cornelia, Julieta, Luz, Nere, New Creature, Pisces, PM, Quote Me at My Highest, Renata, Ruperta, Tessa and Tefi. I have worked as a tenured professor dedicated to the linguistic and cultural curricular domains within our English Teacher Education Program and as a researcher devoted to studying the construction of teacher narrative identity: this chapter forms part of my ongoing investigations. As an experienced teacher educator and conscientious participant inquirer, I tried to minimise power asymmetries and concerns, disclosing research procedures to students. I adopted visual narrative inquiry (Huber et al., 2014) as my research methodology into student-teachers’ construction of their experiences concerning identity and diversity. To carry out this inquiry, I engaged in narrative pedagogy. I fi rst asked the participants to access Adichie’s TED Talk The Danger of a Single Story (2009) before our fi rst meeting. As a follow-up, during the opening and closing sessions of the semester, they were simply asked to compose in class for 60 minutes, and then to share with their partners during the remaining hour, their individual, freely created stories based on their personal interpretations of the sequences illustrated in the wordless book The Tree House (Tolman & Tolman, 2010). In the next paragraph, I provide my synthesis of the visual story in the book to familiarise readers with its pictures.

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The illustration sequences portrayed in The Tree House can be summarised as follows. The book opens with a polar bear surfing on a whale that reaches a tree house situated on an islet. Then, a brown bear and three fishes canoe towards this tree house. The two bears settle down in their new home. As the waters around the islet ebb, the bears sit reading their books until a flock of flamingos, bringing along a rhino, approach them. As the rhino attacks the tree trunk, two pandas and a peacock rush towards the tree house. Next, a stork hovers by, while all the flamingos leave. The pandas hang from branches as the rhino sleeps on the second floor of the tree house. The brown bear talks to a white owl. The polar bear rests on the first floor with the peacock and a grey owl. A hippo sits against the trunk. Four flamingos re-approach the tree. Starlings come to inhabit the branches. When a black bear drifts on a flying sailboat, the rhino stays on the roof of the tree house. The hippo sits on the second floor as one panda hangs from a branch. The peacock stares from the first floor with the brown bear, with three owls at its feet. The polar bear smiles at the flamingos. Then, the peacock greets the black bear. The rhino beams at the white owl in the top room and the pandas hang from different branches. The brown bear and the polar bear sit on the first floor with the hippo and a starling. Subsequently, most animals leave the tree house, except for the polar bear and the brown bear. The bears have retrieved their book, lighting a lamp surrounded by butterflies. As snowflakes fall, the polar bear watches them from the second floor. The brown bear sits on the first floor catching the butterflies with a net. Finally, the bears get together on the roof, contemplating the moon. The book choice is grounded in the procedures of visual narrative inquiry (Clandinin et al., 2007). In this type of inquiry, there are different ways of asking participants to delve into experiential meanings. These modes are often indirect and figurative, since these meanings are complex and seldom expressed transparently by language. They have a rich texture that frequently rests on metaphorical and analogical expressions to convey their multifaceted connotations (Polkinghorne, 2007). Thus, the picture book becomes a mentoring text to establish text- to self-connections, or subjective links with students’ experiences, without forcing emerging associations, striving to evaluate cause-effect relationships or aiming at direct applicability (Subero et al., 2018). The wordless text allowed us to (re)live and (re)tell experiences of identity and diversity through our reinterpretation of the scenes The Tree House displayed, spanning borders between images and words (Arizpe et al., 2014). Moreover, adopting a visual text instead of requesting direct and self-centred verbal accounts avoids repetitive, trite stories of who we are (not), problematising instead silenced issues. Concurrently, referring to others allows us to see ourselves in a new light (Miller, 1998). The decision to ‘reiterate’ the stories during the opening and closing meetings reflects narrative inquiry’s commitment to (re)living and (re)telling experiences (Huber et al., 2013).

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Once I had retrieved all the stories, I followed narrative thematic analysis procedures. I read participants’ stories several times to explore their contents. Then, I extracted significant quotes relating to identity and diversity while exploring their meanings. Next, I grouped the excerpts that revealed similar meanings to conduct an inductive analysis that disclosed thematic commonalties across narrated experiences (Butler-Kisber, 2018). Two thematisations concerning identity and diversity became apparent from these commonalties. I used both to interweave participants’ extracts to create two collective narratives that are presented below, inviting readers to construct their own interpretations. The fi rst is unity in diversity, emplotting quotations from student-teachers’ stories to create a narrative of varied identities. The second is an account of difference against diversity, likewise interweaving passages from students’ stories that suggest problems with accepting otherness. Narrative Thematisations Unity in diversity

This harmonious version opens with the defi nition of learning New Creature offered in her story: Learning is about being flexible … and working to improve. Learning is about being tolerant and humble, even when these qualities shake your comfort zone. Learning is about adaptation and negotiation …. Learning is accepting that everyone has a different pace but that does not mean that the ones who are walking at a slow pace are inferior. (New Creature)

For her part, Cleo started by defi ning knowledge: ‘people come to our lives and leave, but their knowledge and what they teach us always stay. It does not matter where you come from or who you are, you always have something to share, something to teach’. In the same vein, Tefi indicated that the tree in the picture book ‘shared with its visitors the knowledge of life. This knowledge had come from thousands of stories and experiences told in the tree for years’. Following the illustrations more closely, Ruperta began ‘a story about the magic of the treetop house’, where ‘life is a story shared with others’. The treehouse attracted ‘the good’. Its residents became ‘warmth and love’ and they felt ‘invincible’ (Alfon). In turn, Cornelia saw ‘the polar bear searching for a purpose in life’, sailing ‘towards self-discovery’, and coming across ‘issues and other animals that shaped it in many different ways’. Luz indicated that, when brown bear arrived, ‘both had to learn how to ask for and accept each other’s help … they realised both could be useful in different situations’. Ruperta specified that ‘polar and brown bear made sure that the tree and the treetop house were ready for more animals to come and heal sharing their stories and the wonderful view. Because what is life but a story shared with others?’

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Several participants emphasised the fact that the two bears read stories in their own books. For PM, ‘they did not know, but it was their story. Their story would be full of beautiful and colorful moments, sometimes there would be cold days but nothing to worry about’. Nere described how: As they read the fi rst lines of the books magic unfolds. A beautiful new world is there … In this new world, beautiful animals come to visit them … Both friends spend the whole day reading stories, listening to stories, telling stories. (Nere)

Renata explained that the animals in the treehouse ‘came from different environments, different backgrounds’ although, ‘after some time’, they found out that they ‘had a lot more things in common’. She wrote that the animals ‘were different, that’s true, but it is also true that little by little they learnt how to live together, how to enjoy life together’. Likewise, Tessa wrote that they spoke different languages and had nothing ‘in common’, not even ‘relatives’, but they all fell in love with the others’ ‘accents’. This participant considered that this was the best part, because they could teach the rest something new. Luz considered that: All the animals were very different from each other, but they had … good stories to tell … they learnt that there is no single story … . Through working all together and helping the rest they sorted difficulties and each of them could fi nd his/her own voice. This led them to get to know each other and defi ne who they were …. They [all grew] personally and learnt valuable life experiences. (Luz)

Thus, the animals learnt that ‘life can sometimes be unfair but that they would always be able to fi nd a way to go on’ (Renata). Several students expressed the idea that, as these creatures found out that they had many things in common, they felt comfortable and remained together. Thus, ‘each member of that family was different … blending is hard at times. But bad? Never … Giving love a second chance – giving life a second chance was not bad at all’ (Cornelia). As students drew the story to a close, Cleo said that, when autumn started, ‘it was time’ for most of the animals ‘to leave’, although ‘they were not sad because they had cherished their time together and would remember it for the rest of their lives’. Renata expressed the idea that polar bear and brown bear were ‘alone in the tree house as at the beginning. However, there was a difference. Both … had changed … each of the animals who had stayed … had taught them something … had made them better animals’. Together, they ‘learnt to look at the sky and, instead of complaining about the cloudy night, to be thankful for the shiny stars’. According to Quote Me at My Highest, the two bears remained ‘true to each other, authentic’ since ‘their bond was too strong … Nothing would break that bond; same way water would not take the tree down’.

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For her part, Tefi concluded that there are as many stories as lives in the world: The bears found out that it was not the magic of the tree that gave them the power of wisdom but the sharing and exchanging of stories, experiences, and knowledge of others. The tree was only an excuse to get together and learn from each other. There is no single story. (Tefi)

At the very end, Pisces suggested that: The house itself was unchanging. It showed consistency while the world changed around it. The level of water rose and fell. The sky changed colors, the seasons moved. The treehouse was a place of wonder where diversity could happily coexist in unity. (Pisces)

Finally, Tessa hoped that maybe the two bears should ‘pack a blanket and go on a journey’ to ‘visit roommates on the way or … just sail the ocean to fi nd another treehouse or an island’, indicating that ‘it was time to wait for more beautiful spring stories’. Difference against diversity

In this more discordant version, we fi nd New Creature’s opening definition of existence: ‘life is about being flexible, about understanding others, Life is about sharing … Life is about helping others. Life is about accepting the fact that people will come to you and will go from you’. Cordelia regretted the fact that: Life’s not always easy. Sometimes you must struggle through a rough storm to get somewhere. What makes it harder is to sail all the way on your own. And it is even worse if you had company and in the middle lost it. (Cordelia)

In this grimmer account, Cleo indicated that the polar bear ‘came from far away. It had suffered starvation, global warming, changes in weather pattern, the melting of the sea, and the loss of its father’. Analogously, Ruperta believed that staying in the tree house ‘was not an easy decision to make, you see, polar bears don’t usually live in trees and defi nitely not in treetop houses’. This student related how, when brown bear sailed by, both animals noticed their differences from the start: – Hey, brown bear – polar bear said – you, brown bears, don’t sail. – Hey, polar bear – brown bear replied – we, bears, don’t live in trees. – And defi nitely not in treetop houses! – both yelled. (Ruperta)

Tessa regretted that ‘when brown bear settled in the treehouse, it switched on the light, changed the color of the leaves and sat next to polar bear, who felt shy and unwilling to break the ice’. The same participant explained how, as time passed by, many animals landed in the treehouse,

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wanting to develop ‘their own way of branching’. Nobody knew whether ‘they were always ready to welcome more strangers. Many didn’t want to make room for someone else to come over’. Although several student-teachers stressed the idea that the animals had stories to tell, Julieta clarified that ‘there are tragic and sad stories’, but ‘the big problem is nobody would dare tell them’. Next, Julieta made the polar bear voice the following opinion in the first person: I told everyone the truth about myself: from then on, I was going to be a purple bear. I explained … I did not feel like a white bear and I wanted to change my color. At that very moment, I realised they started looking at me differently, as if I was weird or even insane. I tried to explain to them that the color I chose did not mean anything and that I felt it deep down my heart that I did not want to be white anymore. (Julieta)

This student-teacher made the polar bear ponder on these rejections: At that moment, I felt sad about myself, for not being accepted the way I am. Stories like this made me think about other animals who might feel like me, sitting alone in their own place hiding their real story. Everyone should be able to share the stories they cherish and live the life that want. (Julieta)

Next, Ruperta described how: A flock of flamingoes brought a rhino to the treetop house. The rhino was very angry. It did not enjoy being helped by the flamingoes. It kept saying it was strong and needed nobody else. … It pushed the tree over and over again to see if he could bring it down. It shouted that two bears living in a treetop house was outrageous and that it was personally offended. (Ruperta)

Nere considered that this rhino’s aggressiveness shook the animals’ precarious world: It stamped its way into the treehouse and told its story. It was a young creature who was discriminated against because it was rude. No animal wanted to be its friend because it is easier to judge than to fi nd out, to understand. It had been a lovely rhino, once surrounded by many friends. One day, its mother passed but nobody kept it company. Its heart darkened with disappointment. It put on a shield around itself so as not to become hurt again. (Nere)

Nere indicated that, ‘just like this rhino, many other living creatures undergo life-shaping hardships, disappointments, and experiences’. Next, to make matters worse, a flying ship ‘brought a black bear as a captain, who was a master of mischief. It convinced all the animals … to leave for a larger tree. Sad part is that it convinced them all. Only the fi rst two bears stayed behind’ (Quote Me at My Highest). Alfon concluded the story by elaborating on how the two bears wanted to remain together sharing their ideas, although they knew ‘their union

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would never be supported, for white and brown bears in other places were always set apart’. Then, dark forces struck. No new creatures could reach the treehouse: They were forced to stay where they had come from, shut in their closets, hidden, For diversity would never server the purposes of the big man. Only the white and brown bear were left in the treehouse. But … white and brown bears were not the same. (Alfon)

When brown bear was sent to work and polar bear was told to stay inside, ‘everything the bears had built was torn apart’. Alfon drew her narrative to a close by warning her audience that ‘this is not how the story ends. Open your eyes to listen to the revolution of the bears. It is coming. It will come’. Discussion

I reconsider here my original inquiry question concerning how engaging in narrative constructions from a picture book inductively unveils participants’ experiences of identity and diversity. The connections between the collective narratives and these discussion points are open to manifold interpretations, located at ‘the interaction between the personal and social’ as well as in the ‘place or places where experiences are lived’ (Lessard et al., 2015: 246). Firstly, participants’ contributions suggest that identity emerges through their narrated reflections concerning other beings, which share their common existences and their different backgrounds, families, languages or aspirations. Thus, all the creatures in the tree house are textually represented as united in their diversity. Next, student-teachers portrayed difference as pitted against diversity, the former threatening harmony in any habitat. After telling the stories, we became aware of identity as a process involving co-negotiation of complex, shifting, self-meanings in the world (Beijaard, 2017). By sharing stories about connections and divergences, we realised that diversity is something harmonious, to be embraced and celebrated everywhere. Secondly, identity was revealed as diverse through the narratives’ expression of appreciation of, and respect towards, unique personal features such as family origins, language or physical and idiosyncratic traits. It is conceived as positively different in statements that underline good intentions prevailing over contrasting backgrounds and appearances. There are negative portrayals of difference, textually manifested in repudiations of originality, e.g. newcomers, refugees, or creatures looking different from the majority or acting idiosyncratically. Furthermore, identity is narrated as divergent, strange and separate when some members of the tree house community refuse to accept deviances from their established views or prejudices. It is also articulated as conflictive, marked by rejection of dissimilar social viewpoints or racial origins. These thematisations

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seem to agree with contemporary defi nitions of identity that involve contingent and struggling social, national and gender diversities at the crossroads between the local and the global in the world (Norton & De Costa, 2018). They stand as a relevant background to our plurilingual and intercultural classrooms. Thirdly, some identities are constructed as a site for educational investments, i.e. ‘the commitment to the goals, practices, and identities that constitute the learning process and that are continually negotiated in different social relationships and structures of power’ (Darvin & Norton, 2018: 2). Most stories about the treetop house showed beings who are pedagogically invested in their community. They draw on their narrative potential by sharing their experiences and learning collaboratively from them. There is a commitment to learning and living through recited stories to generate heuristic knowledge about living in a complex world. It hints at student-teachers’ dedication to their course of study and future profession. This pledge embodies narrative inquiry’s practice of living, telling, reliving and retelling student-teachers’ and educators’ stories of experience to co-cultivate personal practical knowledge about the self and others (Huber et al., 2013). Fourthly, the exacerbated differences presented in several accounts indicate sociocultural, racial, gender and class conflicts relating to intrapersonal ‘stories’, interpersonal ‘Stories’ and macro ‘STORIES’ (Barkhuizen, 2016; Han, 2017). Some participants reported sociopsychological contradictions solved harmoniously through learning to become tolerant and respectful. Others referred to emotional, gender and racial disagreements that remained unsolved when stories manifested that it is easier to condemn than to understand. Furthermore, several rejections and conflicts were forced to remain voiceless through a communal lack of empathy towards creatures’ lives marked by physical transformation, racial or social diversity and individual pain. These representations implied a link between what could happen in classrooms and in life, where personal articulations and understandings may stay silent or disconnected from the world, thus stifling their experiential continuity (Dewey, 1998; Doecke, 2015). Fifthly, other markers of identity emerge in relation to difference. One such indicator is a sense of respectful balance among numerous stories that stresses the benefits of listening to, and telling, many classroom narratives as opposed to the perils of adhering to single, essentialising versions (Adichie, 2009). Another marker is the feeling of belonging to a learning community, in this case the tree house that cherishes narrative identities. Tensions posed by the freedom of living differing racial or gender identities are retold either as settled through revolt or as unanswered by their social milieu. Furthermore, the thematisation in Unity in Diversity includes representations turning on themselves – becoming meta-stories, stories about stories or stories about self-learning, engaging

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in their own narrative pedagogies (Li et al., 2019) – to express the search for friendship, acceptance, voice, home and calm to live out the stories narrators and depicted characters wanted. In this way, narrative as a form of knowledge is displayed as endlessly re-created by making identity tensions and experiential harmonies visible in our linguistic course within our English Language Teacher Education programme (Bruner, 2004). The narratives gathered would suggest that prospective teachers believe that teaching and learning could reside in storytelling as inquiry (Schaefer & Clandinin, 2019; Seiki et al., 2018). Finally, identity and diversity in our thematisations resonate with narrative inquiry’s three-dimensional space which includes temporality, sociality and locality (Huber et al., 2014). Temporality alludes to the past-present-future ceaselessness of experience. Sociality involves both collective and personal interactions. Locality refers to concrete spaces and places (Nguyen & Dao, 2019). Our storied temporal dimensions of narrative identities involve a continuity-change dialectics between sameness and transformation in lives and their surroundings: uniformity and sedimentation of feelings and home do not exhaust self-identification and diversity but rely on constancy, faithfulness and commitment interacting with tellers’ and protagonists’ external and internal psychosocial variations (Ricoeur, 1984). This is manifested in the enduring bonds of friendship against all odds that emerged in the tellings. Additionally, the inhabitants of the tree house never stop learning about unity and diversity. Next, interpretations of locality in the gathered stories also show the stability and permanence of the tree house and the island for sharing stories against the background of a shifting community and world. Finally, in the social dimension, self-perceptions and self-defi nitions echo inward and outward in those sections of the narratives where different creatures want to change who they are and what they look like, but are prevented from doing so by their peers’ prejudices after facing their rejection. The three-dimensional space implies that our identity is, once again, complex, dynamic, both personal and contextualised. In this respect, our diverse identities are always temporally, socially and locally related to others’ self-experiences and prejudices (Garner & Kaplan, 2019). To sum up, in agreement with the inspirational TED Talk on the danger of a single story provided in advance (Adichie, 2009), the narratives emerging from the mentoring text were meant to establish natural, spontaneous connections to students’ funds of identity experiences without compelling participants to make automatic connections that would have resulted in artificial stories (Subero et al., 2018). They explicitly denied the existence of single identity accounts. Our narratives made diversity, difference, divergence and conflict visible in our lives. Their plots hinted at issues that reflect actual, solved and unsolved tensions concerning race, origins, gender, power, feelings and social relationships. In this sense,

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student-teachers’ intercultural awareness was enriched by engaging in our narrative inquiry. Conclusion

This visual narrative inquiry into this group of Argentinean studentteachers’ narratives concerning identities and differences helps us learn about their lived experiences on key concepts such as self-identification, diversity and plurality that are part of the core curriculum for English teacher education in our country as well as being core learning priorities that English teachers must promote in schools. In this respect, we agree with research on English language teacher education that claims that educators must listen to prospective teachers’ often silenced lives, voices and subjectivities (Doecke & Pereira, 2012). Likewise, we concur with the idea that student-teachers should be encouraged to begin constructing knowledge from models related to their authentic practices in their situated contexts, displaying their creativity and originality (Villacañas de Castro, 2020). As an experienced English language teacher educator and practised narrative inquirer engaging in narrative pedagogy, I invited my students unintrusively to use a picture book to start reflecting about sensitive issues involving their lives, professional knowledge and future teaching practices. During this process, we all learned with our own stories rather than about outsiders’ stories. In agreement with the practices of narrative inquiry, participants saw many dimensions of identity and diversity: it is important to recognise similarities and differences in order to understand who we are and become in relation to Others. By inquiring within the safe, non-invasive space provided by the wordless book, they seemed to awaken in relation to themselves and, when sharing their stories, they awakened in relation to alterity (Huber et al., 2014). In English language teaching and learning, narrative inquiry is uniquely positioned to ‘illuminate identity negotiation, given that narratives are co-constructed and shaped by social, cultural, and historical conventions’ (Norton & De Costa, 2018: 104). In a more general sense, this research contributes to inquiries on teacher education and professional development as praxis by engaging in narrative practices and conceptualising them. Again, it retrieves pertinent student-teachers’ personal practical knowledge in a language course in a local English teacher education programme. Personal knowledge comes to us all before other forms of learning. It is originally shaped by social, institutional, cultural, linguistic and familial narratives. We have already suggested that teacher education is rarely aware of this knowledge: we have tried to render its ubiquity visible here (Lessard et al., 2015). By carrying out narrative pedagogy practices, this visual narrative inquiry bears implications for teacher education and development by

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bridging the gap between the focus on received stories and personal accounts. Therefore: narrative-incorporated instruction can enable teachers and teacher educators to tell of and relive some of the experiences in their personal and professional lives … teacher educators’ use of their own personal and cultural narratives as an instructional pedagogy can help connect what pre-service teachers learn about language, culture and diversity in theory into practice. (Ates et al., 2015: 307)

Finally, this research pays attention to lives, staying open to their ways of knowing and being and responding to them. It is guided by the belief that teacher education programmes need to engage with lived experiences of identity engaging the imagination, producing stories not normally heard or included in curricula (Huber & Yeom, 2017). There is a pressing need to generate safe linguistic, cultural and pedagogical courses that support these identities and nuances of diversity (Edwards, 2019). I hope these stories will echo with their readers, who can, in turn, construct new meanings stemming from their own personal practical knowledge. Thus, these narratives can become starting points for other teachers’ and teacher educators’ inquiry questions and situated accounts. Closing Remarks

My initial motivation to write this chapter was to share my ongoing studies within an academic and professional community of practice involved in teaching English to a variety of students in many situated contexts. From this standpoint, it has been inspirational to, once again, share contributions in this volume with teachers and researchers from virtually the world over and thus enjoy the opportunity of communicating this visual narrative inquiry to a knowledgeable, understanding, peer group. My 10-year-old narrative inquiry practices have taught me to fearlessly engage in actual, free, narrative classroom practices in my courses. Writing about them here and in other publications can contribute towards raising practitioners’ and researchers’ overall awareness about the value of retrieving future teachers’ lived experiences concerning, in this case, diversity and identity. These are key concepts theoretically expressed in teacher education curricula, also involving linguistic and sociocultural contents that should be taught in our local schools. In this regard, English teachers should create their own personal practical knowledge in order to be able to address core learning priorities for teaching foreign languages in Argentinean schools. They can begin to do so by engaging in storytelling, shunning received accounts and ‘applicable tips’. Finally, on a more personal level, this chapter has once again allowed me to intertwine, on the one hand, my knowing and writing as a narrative inquirer and, on the other, my doing and working as a teacher educator in

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cultural and linguistic content courses. Being an experienced professorresearcher involves bridging two identities (Taylor, 2017). The former is often accused of focusing on the immediate and practical, while the latter is blamed for unembodied theorising. Visual narrative inquiry engaging in narrative pedagogies is a praxis that contributes to narrowing this gap by allowing teacher educators to publicly articulate research that stems from their actual teaching practices (Banegas & Cad, 2019). In this way, deprivatising language classroom stories such as these ones by granting them a published voice constitutes a living unity where research, teaching and existing create an experiential whole that contributes to our comprehensive, never-ending development as educators and inquirers. References Adichie, C. (2009) The Danger of a Single Story [Transcript]. TED Talk. See https://www. ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language =en (accessed 1 August 2019). Akinbode, A. (2013) Teaching as lived experience: The value of exploring the hidden and emotional side of teaching through reflective narratives. Studying Teacher Education 9 (1), 62–73. Arizpe, E., Colomer, T. and Martínez-Roldán, C. (2014) Visual Journeys through Wordless Narratives: An International Inquiry with Immigrant Children and ‘the Arrival’. London: Bloomsbury. Ates, B., Kim, S. and Grigsby, Y. (2015) Cultural narratives in TESOL classrooms: A collaborative reflective team analysis. Refl ective Practice 16 (3), 297–311. Banegas, D.L. and Cad, C. (2019) Constructing teacher research identity: Insights from Argentina. European Journal of Applied Linguistics and TEFL 8 (2), 23–38. Barkhuizen, G. (2016) Narrative approaches to exploring language, identity and power in language teacher education. RELC Journal 47 (1), 25–42. Beijaard, D. (2017) Learning teacher identity in teacher education. In D.J. Clandinin and J. Husu (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Research on Teacher Education (pp. 139–142). London: Sage. Bruner, J. (2004) Life as narrative. Social Research: An International Quarterly 71 (3), 691–710. Butler-Kisber, L. (2018) Qualitative Inquiry: Thematic, Narrative and Arts-based Perspectives. London: Sage. Clandinin, D.J. (2016) Engaging in Narrative Inquiry. London and New York: Routledge. Clandinin, D.J., Steeves, P. and Chung, S. (2007) Creating narrative inquiry spaces in teacher education. In B. Johnston and K. Walls (eds) Voices and Vision in Language Teacher Education. Selected Papers from the Fourth International Conference on Language Teacher Education (pp. 17–33). Minneapolis: UNM, CARLA. Darvin, R. and Norton, B. (2018) Identity, investment, and TESOL. In J.I. Liontas (ed.) The TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching (pp. 1–7). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. Dewey, J. (1998) Experience and Education. Indianapolis, IN: Kappa Delta Pi. Doecke, B. (2015) Storytelling and professional learning. Changing English 22 (2), 142–156. Doecke, B. and Pereira, Í.S.P. (2012) Language, experience and professional learning (What Walter Benjamin can teach us). Changing English 19 (3), 269–281. Edwards, E. (2019) English language teachers’ agency and identity mediation through action research: A Vygotskian sociocultural analysis. In H. Kayi-Aydar, X. Gao, E.R.

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Miller, M. Varghese and G. Vitanova (eds) Theorizing and Analyzing Language Teacher Agency (pp. 141–159). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Garner, J.K. and Kaplan, A. (2019) A complex dynamic systems perspective on teacher learning and identity formation: An instrumental case. Teachers and Teaching 25 (1), 7–33. Golombek, P.R. and Johnson, K.E. (2017) Re-conceptualizing teachers’ narrative inquiry as professional development. Profi le Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development 19 (2), 15–28. Han, I. (2017) Conceptualisation of English teachers’ professional identity and comprehension of its dynamics. Teachers and Teaching 23 (5), 549–569. Huber, J. and Yeom, J.S. (2017) Narrative theories and methods in learning, developing, and sustaining teacher agency. In D.J. Clandinin and J. Husu (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Research on Teacher Education (pp. 301–316). London: Sage. Huber, J., Caine, V., Huber, M. and Steeves, P. (2013) Narrative inquiry as pedagogy in education: The extraordinary potential of living, telling, retelling, and reliving stories of experience. Review of Research in Education 37 (1), 212–242. Huber, J., Li, Y., Murphy, S., Nelson, C. and Young, M. (2014) Shifting stories to live by: Teacher education as a curriculum of narrative inquiry identity explorations. Refl ective Practice 15 (2), 176–189. Lessard, S., Schaefer, L., Huber, J., Murphy, M.S. and Clandinin, D.J. (2015) Composing a life as a teacher educator. In C.J. Craig and L. Orland-Barak (eds) International Teacher Education: Promising Pedagogies, Part C (pp. 235–252). Bingley: Emerald Group. Li, J., Yang, X. and Craig, C.J. (2019) A narrative inquiry into the fostering of a teacherprincipal’s best-loved self in an online teacher community in China. Journal of Education for Teaching 45 (3), 290–305. Miller, J. (1998) Autobiography and the necessary incompleteness of teachers’ stories. In W. Ayers and J. Miller (eds) A Light in Dark Times: Maxine Greene and the Unfinished Conversation (pp. 145–154). New York: Teachers College Press. Nguyen, X.N.C.M. and Dao, P. (2019) Identity exploration and development in TESOL teacher education: A three-dimensional space narrative inquiry perspective. TESOL Journal 10 (4), e492. Norton, B. and De Costa, P.I. (2018) Research tasks on identity in language learning and teaching. Language Teaching 51 (1), 90–112. Pereira, Í.S.P. and Doecke, B. (2016) Storytelling for ordinary, practical purposes (Walter Benjamin’s ‘The Storyteller’). Pedagogy, Culture & Society 24 (4), 537–549. Polkinghorne, D.E. (2007) Validity issues in narrative research. Qualitative Inquiry 13 (4), 471–486. Ricoeur, P. (1984) Time and Narrative I. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Schaefer, L. and Clandinin, D.J. (2019) Sustaining teachers’ stories to live by: Implications for teacher education. Teachers and Teaching 25 (1), 54–68. Seiki, S., Caine, V. and Huber, J. (2018) Narrative inquiry as a social justice practice. Multicultural Education 26 (1), 11–16. Subero, D., Vujasinović, E. and Esteban-Guitart, M. (2017) Mobilising funds of identity in and out of school. Cambridge Journal of Education 47 (2), 247–263. Subero, D., Llopart, M., Siqués, C. and Esteban-Guitart, M. (2018) The mediation of teaching and learning processes through identity artefacts: A Vygotskian perspective. Oxford Review of Education 44 (2), 156–170. Taylor, L.A. (2017) How teachers become teacher researchers: Narrative as a tool for teacher identity construction. Teaching and Teacher Education 61, 16–25. Tolman, M. and Tolman, R. (2010) The Tree House. London: Lemniscaat. Villacañas de Castro, L.S. (2020) Translating teacher funds of identity into curricular proposals for the EFL classroom: A model for student-teacher innovation and professional development. Journal of Language, Identity & Education 19 (1), 25–41.

9 Scaffolding Conscientisation and Praxis in Critical Language Teacher Education Paula A. Echeverri Sucerquia

Introduction

I became acquainted with critical pedagogy and the work of Paulo Freire while pursuing doctoral studies in the United States. However, my previous undergraduate education at a large public university in Latin America predisposed me with a sensitivity to critical education, and a critical attitude towards systemic issues of power, socioeconomic status, gender, poverty, and so on. It was easy to relate to Paulo Freire’s ideas when I navigated them. When I returned to my native Colombia, I was resolved to continue a critical agenda, both as an educator and a researcher. My first move was to create a study group on critical pedagogy with fellow language teachers at my university. We discussed our growing understanding of critical pedagogy and our search for possibilities for praxis in our educational contexts. The study group provided us all with a great learning opportunity, although it was a challenging one as well: we needed to unpack and make sense of critical pedagogy theory – a theory that has been criticised for being elitist and impractical (Hawkins & Norton, 2009). We entered a process of individual and collective meaning-making about critical pedagogy through collaborative learning, while confronting the theory with our own biases, beliefs and practices (Echeverri Sucerquia & Restrepo, 2014). However, we found that integrating critical pedagogy in language education is not only a matter of gaining conceptual clarity; it is also about developing a critical consciousness about oneself and the world. Both conceptual/theoretical clarity and critical consciousness are the foundation for enacting a humanising pedagogy in language teaching (Echeverri Sucerquia et al., 2014). The experience within the study group served as preparation for my role as a graduate student advisor in a Master’s programme in Foreign 135

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Language Teaching and Learning. This being a research-based programme, all students are expected to develop a research project during their second year. Some of their projects involve actions like implementing a curricular unit in their classes, while others have been interpretive case studies. All of my advisees have developed their research thesis from a critical perspective, which has entailed challenges for both of us. For them the challenges have been: understanding classroom research, and educational research in general; understanding principles of critical pedagogy, critical literacy or critical interculturality, while trying to incorporate them in their teaching and research; and, last but not least, critical selfreflection. For me, as an advisor, the greatest challenge has been facilitating all of the above. Reflection is at the core of many teacher education programmes in Colombia (e.g. Fandiño, 2013; Fandiño-Parra, 2011; Rico et al., 2012). However, I believe that even though reflection is an important component of teacher education, more attention needs to be paid to a praxis that is more conducive to context-responsive language education. In a characterisation of teacher professional development programmes in Colombia, Sierra-Piedrahita (2016) found that these programmes had focused on preparing language teachers with the knowledge and skills to achieve the standards set by the government, while lacking a commitment to prepare teachers in sociocultural, critical and social justice approaches. I argue that such is the case of language teacher education programmes as well. At my university, we have tried to design and develop programmes that transcend reflective teaching. The programmes have been inspired, more increasingly with time, by ideals of social justice. While towards the end of the 20th century and the fi rst decade of the 21st century a history of promoting reflection through action research in the undergraduate teacher education programme prevailed, with the launching of the Master’s in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning programme in 2010 we have a stronger emphasis on critical language education as a means to effect social change. During the 10 years I have been working in the programme, I have endeavoured to fi nd ways to become a better teacher educator and thesis advisor. Specifically, I have worked to improve the way I facilitate the process of becoming a critical educator while doing research from a critical perspective – from the formulation of research questions, to the understanding of critical theories, to the development and implementation of critical curricular units. Against this background, the question that guides this critical inquiry is: How have my actions as an advisor facilitated my graduate students’ process of scaffolding critical consciousness and praxis, while doing classroom research? In this chapter, I discuss the results of data I collected from four of my graduate student advisees who implemented a critical curricular unit as part of their research. The collected data include students’ answers to an

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open-ended questionnaire, an interview, and additional follow-up questions that I asked them during informal conversations. I discuss how I implemented the concept of scaffolding conscientisation, following Sleeter et al. (2004), to support my advisees’ development of critical consciousness as they designed and conducted their research. I describe their process of professional and personal transformation as they enacted, through their pedagogical practice, principles of a critical education, which allowed them to test their own biases and their understanding of abstract concepts while educating for critical consciousness. On the other hand, I explored my own experience as a research and thesis advisor. I discuss the complexities of such an endeavour, whereby I tried not only to facilitate my advisees’ learning and praxis, but also to deal with the emotions that teaching from a critical perspective involved. Critical Language Teacher Education

Hawkins and Norton (2009) argue that critical language teachers are in a key position to address inequality because of the subject matter they teach, language, which is a tool to both empower and marginalise, a means through which ideologies are reproduced. They further explain that ‘critical language teachers work with their students to deconstruct language, texts, and discourses in order to investigate what interests they serve and what messages are both explicitly and implicitly conveyed’ (Hawkins & Norton, 2009: 32). The authors also characterise accounts of the teacher education practices they found and identify the principles they shared: • • • • •

the situated nature of programmes and practices (working innovatively using their cultural and historical knowledge of their context); responsiveness to learners (teacher educators took into account the teacher-learners and their own knowledge, personal histories, etc., that were brought to the learning environment); dialogic engagement (collaborative dialogue to construct and mediate meanings and interpretations); reflexivity (on practices); praxis (in the interests of educational and social change).

These principles echoed Giroux’s (2009) idea that teacher education programmes ‘should center their academic and moral objectives on the education of teachers as critical intellectuals’ (Giroux, 2009: 438, emphasis added). In other words, teacher education should be linked to critically transforming the school setting and, by extension, the wider social setting. A critical educator should be someone who is concerned with the struggles of the disenfranchised, who is able to analyse various interests and contradictions and who treats students as critical agents. In order to foster these critical intellectuals, teacher education programmes need to

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assist prospective teachers in developing critical language to explain the world around and within them – the whys and how of what is happening in society. I must clarify the idea of critical that I advocate for, in the context of this inquiry. Within the diversity of perspectives that are possible within the critical realm, I particularly draw on Pennycook’s (2004) take on the critical as problematising practice. He defi ned it as ‘a perspective that insists on casting far more doubt on the categories we employ to understand the social world and on assumptions about awareness, rationality, emancipation and so forth’ (Pennycook, 2004: 329). Pennycook acknowledged that this perspective has its own challenges, like the complex language and concepts, the constant self-questioning and the resultant pull towards the vortex of relativity (Pennycook, 2004: 330). Hawkins and Norton (2009) have identified three additional challenges: the possible political sanctions a teacher may receive for disrupting power relations; the resistance from those students who have been educated into specific ideologies; and the perceived impracticality of critical pedagogy.

Conscientisation

Conscientisation is a term that Freire (2000) used to describe the critical consciousness of human beings as subjects, of their position in the world – their critical reflection about the world to act upon it through praxis. Unfortunately, as Leistyna et al. (2004) argued, the ongoing process of reflection and action is often left out of teacher education programmes. Self-reflection is important because the way we position ourselves in the world, our ideological posture, influences the ways educators perceive students and act in the classroom. Sleeter et al. (2004) maintained that: Conscientisation rarely is a one-time awakening, but rather it is a process with multiple avenues of insightful moments as well as difficult times of denial and pain (…) Conscientisation about one’s actual reality takes place by submersion and intervention in it; hence, the necessity of doing inquiry mediated by reflective dialogue. (Sleeter et al., 2004: 83)

Sleeter et al. (2004) further explain that the process of critical understanding is social and mediated by dialogue. It entails ‘unveiling myths created by the oppressors to maintain the status quo’ (Sleeter et al., 2004: 82). Developing conscientisation, or critical consciousness, is a very complex process. In the case of teacher-learners, it requires great support from teacher educators to interpret reality, facilitate reflection and be guided towards informed, critical practice. In this respect, the concept of scaffolding conscientisation (Sleeter et al., 2004) becomes a useful tool for critical teacher educators.

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Scaffolding conscientisation

Drawing on Vygotsky (1978, as cited in Sleeter et al., 2004: 92), scaffolding involves interaction between members of a group with differential levels of abilities as they engage in a specific task. It also entails guidance and a gradual transition from external control to self-control, appropriation of strategies, and collaboration (Sleeter et al., 2004: 93). The teacher provides a conceptual framework to serve as a basis so learners construct their own and become more independent in their praxis. In the process of scaffolding conscientisation, problem-posing is a powerful pedagogy to engage teacher-learners and students in questioning the world around them and in raising questions about what they may take for granted (Sleeter et al., 2004: 83). Freire (2000: 83) claimed that ‘in problem-posing education people develop their power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they fi nd themselves; they come to see the world not as a static reality, but as a reality in process, in transformation’. Freire and Faundez (2018) argue that, as part of this critical consciousness, a reflection about daily life is fundamental: how ideas become concrete in real life. As a teacher educator, I fi nd the notion of scaffolding conscientisation to be of methodological relevance to my own practice. Teacher-learners may fi nd it difficult to appropriate the critical discourse and concepts to explain their pedagogical experience and to integrate them into their practice, in spite of their desire to do so. This often happens because they have been trained in traditional language teaching practices that focus on language structures and communicative functions. The following is an account of my experience as a Master’s advisor helping teacher-learners develop critical consciousness and practice through a scaffolding process, while they developed critical research that included the design and implementation of a critical curricular unit. Method of Inquiry

I locate my self-reflective, critical exploration within the perspective of critical inquiry, which Crotty (2003: 157) defines as ‘an ongoing process. It is a cyclical process […] of reflection and action’. Critical inquiry strives for justice, freedom and equity, and while these may seem utopian goals, critical inquirers believe ‘it is a worthwhile struggle, nonetheless, because it may lead to some form of justice’ (Crotty, 2003: 157). In the particular context of language learning, Cannella and Lincoln (2009: 55) note that ‘critical researchers are interested in the language games that maintain power relations, that appear to prevent transformative action and that insistently shape dulled, misled, and/or false public consciousness’. They urge critical researchers to ask ‘how we construct research practices that facilitate our becoming aware of social issues, rhetoric and practices that

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would continue forms of marginalisation or that could construct new forms of inequity and oppression’ (Cannella & Lincoln, 2009: 69). Context and participants

As explained earlier, this experience took place in a Master’s programme in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning, at a public university in Colombia. This is a programme that explicitly subscribes to a critical perspective on language education; however, students may choose among a range of specialty areas to concentrate on in their research, including teacher professional development, technologies of communication and information in language teaching, language policies and critical perspectives on language education. I have taught courses and supervised research within the latter specialty area for the past ten years. Within the programme there is a course called Tutoring every term. This course is for the advisee to work on their thesis, with the support of the advisor. In the first semester they are required to decide on the issue to be researched; in the second, students write their proposal. In the third semester they collect data, and in the fourth semester they analyse data and complete the writing of their thesis. Advisor and advisee are expected to meet at least once a week. The approach I have used as an advisor has slightly changed over the years, but has been consistent in using the following strategies: •

•

•

Encouraging students to use the concepts and terms that they learned in the course on Critical Perspectives on Language Education during our conversations. Whenever these concepts were not clear, I would provide examples from our daily lives that depicted those concepts or theoretical principles. Engaging students in Socratic dialogue, using problem-posing questions (Freire, 2000; Freire & Faundez, 2018). Rather than providing answers to questions they posed about concepts or situations they faced in their classroom or research, or providing feedback on their work, I asked problem-posing questions. I did not always have the answers for these questions, because my goal was to engage in a collaborative quest for understanding and learning about their critical education experience. Providing advisees with support in moments of crisis when conscientisation threatened to ask too much of them.

For the purposes of this chapter, I collected information from four of my former advisees. I selected those students who had designed and implemented a curricular unit as part of their research. Developing research like this required a great effort on both their part and mine. For them, the challenge was unpacking and understanding complex concepts and theories, while designing their research and planning for a class that was based

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on critical theories. The challenge for me was to make the process easier for them, to scaffold their conscientisation without imposing. All the participants were experienced teachers, for whom it was their fi rst time doing their own research. Paula was an experienced teacher and curriculum designer. When she came to me, she had defended her thesis proposal but had not yet designed her curricular unit. Her research was about developing critical awareness of gendered discourses in advertisements using a critical language awareness approach, which she implemented in an intermediate English course for teenagers (Rojas-Escobar, 2019). She suspended her studies for about a year due to personal issues around the time she received the evaluators’ feedback on her thesis, but once she returned, she completed her thesis in due time. Nata entered the programme in 2014 after graduating from the Bachelor’s in Foreign Language Teaching. She was part of my former study group on critical pedagogy, where I encouraged her to undertake the Master’s. She developed her research in an English programme for children, where she implemented a critical media literacy unit to foster her students’ critical analysis of food advertising (Arias-Patiño, 2017). Nati, on the other hand, was a translator who eventually became an English teacher, with some experience in instructional materials design for adult learners. Her thesis was about exploring how her critical intercultural unit helped her students develop critical intercultural competence (AlarcónPenagos, 2017). Nata and Nati were the only two who coincided in the same class and actually worked together very often, with a group of students. Lastly, Maure had recently graduated with a Bachelor’s in Language Teaching. She conducted her classroom research in a language school, within one of the social programmes geared towards students from ethnic minority groups, supported by the American government. Her research was about implementing a critical intercultural unit to foster her students’ critical awareness of their race identity (Aguirre-Ortega, 2019). Now I will describe the process of data collection and analysis. The inquiry process

Being a thesis advisor within the critical perspectives research line of the Master’s programme is a rewarding experience. Scaffolding conscientisation (Sleeter et al., 2004) is a term I have become interested in understanding, in order to improve my practice. I expected this improvement to be in terms of facilitating students’ use of the recently learned theories in their research. Hence, the question that guided this critical reflective inquiry was: How have my actions as an advisor facilitated my graduate students’ process of scaffolding critical consciousness and praxis, while doing classroom research? As mentioned earlier in this chapter, I have found in my practice that scaffolding critical consciousness to engender praxis is crucial when

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guiding students who intend to develop research from a critical perspective. Assuming that understanding critical concepts and constructs is necessary to critically reflect and act upon the world, the development of a critical consciousness prepares the ground for performing a critical reading of one’s educational context, identifying the issues of power taking place there as well as actions to counteract those issues. Thus, I developed an interest in reflecting and exploring the extent to which my actions as an advisor supported my students in their effort to do critical research. To answer this question, I decided to collect and systematise evidence of the process, after obtaining my students’ consent. I collected data when they fi nished their thesis research, but asked my students’ authorisation to use information about the process. The data included students’ answers to an open-ended questionnaire, an interview, and some additional follow-up questions that I asked them during informal conversations. The open-ended questionnaire consisted of a list of questions, sent via email, that they could answer in any form they wanted: written responses, an essay, a video or a voice recording. The questions were about the challenges and opportunities they perceived when doing research from a critical perspective, the critical characteristics that they identified in their research, and their opinions about my role as an advisor in either helping or constraining critical consciousness and praxis. During the interviews, we explored in detail their responses to the open-ended questionnaire. Lastly, the follow-up questions were intended to validate (or not) what I found in my analysis of the previously collected data. I analysed the data inductively, letting the data speak (Patton, 1990) – that is, letting the categories emerge from the data. Yet, critical pedagogy was my lens to read and interpret the content of the data collected. Once I had transcribed and organised the data, I carefully read the data to identify recurrent patterns and preliminary categories until I had established the defi nitive ones. For member checking, I discussed the preliminary fi ndings with my advisees through informal conversations. Findings

Overall, my students reported having a positive and rewarding, albeit challenging, experience while they were developing their research and scaffolded critical consciousness. Here I report on these experiences in terms of what favoured or constrained their growing critical consciousness and their engagement in critical education and critical research, including my role as their advisor. Even though I analysed the data inductively, I will sometimes refer to Hawkins and Norton’s (2009) principles of critical language teacher education mentioned earlier: the situated nature of programmes and practices; responsiveness to learners; dialogic engagement; reflexivity on practices; and praxis in the interests of educational and social change.

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Developing critical consciousness as a condition to foster critical consciousness in the classrooms

To foster critical consciousness as a problematising practice, following Pennycook’s (2004) notion of the critical, educators need fi rst to develop critical consciousness themselves (Freire & Faundez, 2018): about their own identities, biases, assumptions and positioning in the world. In my case, this is facilitated by permanent self-reflection, constant reading of theory and, surely, teacher research. An awareness of our personal trajectories and identities is a must if we are to understand the factors that come into play when developing critical consciousness. I discussed this condition with my advisees, and they agreed this is necessary to inspire students to develop critical consciousness. Paula explained: As a human being, I was able to confront my own beliefs and assumptions about the issues that we discussed throughout the research, because if I did not develop that critical competence myself, it would be very difficult to lead my students to question the issues that we proposed in the project. (Paula, Open-ended questionnaire)

The development of a critical consciousness and attitude is not an easy endeavour. For example, Nata commented: ‘Doing critical research necessarily implies questioning beliefs as a person: How I see myself, what things affect me, how I read the world, and how I act upon that reading, and why I make the decisions I make’ (Open-ended questionnaire). Maure, on the other hand, explained that developing critical consciousness required time: … a long path of self-analysis to later translate all that experience into something tangible. In order to develop a critical attitude, it is necessary to break all those previously conceived paradigms, stereotypes and ideas that we have, and to do this takes time, requires will and self-understanding. (Maure, Open-ended questionnaire)

Awareness of the intricate relationship between our own critical consciousness and our students’ is not raised automatically. For example, among my advisees I observed that, even though they had a positive predisposition towards critical teaching practices, it was most challenging to use their critical consciousness in the designing of their curricular units. Because our identities and value systems are so rooted in problematic issues of power that privilege some and marginalise others, to a point that they become naturalised, my advisees were not always aware of some of the biases they still held; they posed questions that still reflected, for example, cultural or gender stereotypes. Through problem-posing and a dialogical approach, we identified those persisting biases that they intended to counter, not reproduce, as an exercise of continuous selfreflection in action. During the interview, Maure expressed that this process of self-reflection and self-knowledge helped her strengthen her

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character as a researcher and educator, because it helped her gain confidence to become more assertive when expressing her position about a particular topic, in her interactions with others. In my experience as a language teacher educator with a critical agenda, I have seen that it is necessary to create a learning environment that helps teacher-learners to unveil and critically reflect about who they are – one of Hawkins and Norton’s (2009) principles for critical language teacher education. In addition to acknowledging issues of one’s identity, becoming aware of the traditions language education subscribes to is also important, and helps teacher-learners move out of the comfort zone these traditions represent for them. In this respect, Nata explained: During the bachelor’s program, we were used to applying different methodologies and approaches to improve English learning in a more or less manageable and predictable way. Conversely, using a critical approach to teaching English is another story (…) it was less controlled language teaching, more student-centered. (Nata, Open-ended questionnaire)

Similarly, Paula commented: It was very positive that this pedagogy challenged my personal beliefs when teaching: what I thought I should do in the classroom, what was correct and what was the only and best way to teach the language. I realised that there are other ways to develop communication skills. (Paula, Open-ended questionnaire)

This gradual steering away from traditional language teaching was not an easy process. Fortunately, since my advisees believed in the possibilities of language education to engender social change through conscientisation (Freire, 2000), they were not resistant to changing their practices. In fact, during our advisory sessions, it was common to talk about the fact that, when educators engage in a critical educational agenda, they may undergo a process of personal and professional transformation. Once language educators practise self-reflection about their identities and their practice, and as they gain more experience reading the world critically, paying attention to how power operates in society and through language, there is no way back, as Nati said. This ever-evolving critical consciousness on the part of educators is a prerequisite to foster critical consciousness in the classroom; otherwise, such an attitude may not be inspired in others. The role of the advisor in facilitating and encouraging critical consciousness

In addition to better understanding the development of critical consciousness in teacher-learners, I was also curious about the ways in which my role as an advisor facilitated or constrained this process. My advisees identified a range of actions that helped them cope with their own

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individual struggles. For instance, Nata was concerned with fi nding ways to help the children in her English class unpack the problematic messages embedded in food advertisements. She explained that even though critical media literacy was not a particular field of my expertise, she benefited from my experience in critical education in general. She also said that she would have liked to devote more time during advisory sessions to talking not only about their research, but also about the actual implementation of the curricular unit, so that Nati or I could have guided her with relevant teaching strategies to promote critical media literacy. Nati, on the other hand, felt overwhelmed by the body of theories they were exposed to and that she explored as part of her research. In dealing with complex concepts and ideas, I provided explanations and examples from the literature and from our (her and my) experience. Counting on the fact that these were not necessarily enough to help her make sense of the theory and her research, I used to encourage her and Nata to talk about their research with other peers in class, using problematising questions similar to the ones I asked during advisory sessions. The aim of these questions was for them to verify whether (and how) their biases were present in their research, and how and whether their pedagogical practice was reproducing the banking education practices that they intended to counter. Nata found these dialogues with peers enriching: Another factor that I think helped a lot in my process is that you promoted collaborative work. Knowing what my classmates in the critical research line were doing, being part of their process, receiving their opinions about my work, was very enriching (…) We received comments from perspectives other than yours and we also learned about other critical projects and participated as ‘experts’ when commenting on what they were doing. The work of others also gave us insights into our process. Also, understanding that we all go through similar ‘crises’ helped a little. (Nata, Open-ended questionnaire)

Nati also emphasised that receiving regular and timely feedback from me, in addition to collaborative learning, significantly helped her make sense of her research. Paula complained about how difficult it was for her to understand concepts and the differences between critical language education approaches and theoretical frameworks, as mentioned earlier in this chapter. She had come from a process where she did not know how to use theory to create the curricular unit, and explained that I facilitated this process with my questions (instead of providing answers), especially when helping her make sense of how it was possible to integrate her educational goals and her research agenda. She said that as an advisor I helped her grow not only as a teacher and researcher, but also as a person who critically consumes media. However, she expressed that she needed more support during the time when she received comments from her evaluators and

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had to make corrections. She did not agree with the feedback from one of the evaluators and expected her advisor to be on her side since she was going through a particularly difficult time. After withdrawing temporarily from the programme for almost a year, she returned to her thesis corrections and was able to fi nish successfully.

Problem-posing and scaffolding critical consciousness

As an advisor, I deliberately used a problem-posing pedagogy, where instead of providing answers, formulas and solutions, I engaged my advisees in a Socratic dialogue where I posed questions about their decisions, positions and the justifications behind their actions. Often these questions were intended to raise awareness about: (1) activities they designed that unintentionally reproduced problematic relations of power; (2) how certain activities or procedures they designed in the context of their research reflected their biases; and (3) the need to focus on language teaching, since sometimes they focused too much on raising awareness about social issues and forgot about language. During the advisory sessions, as well as in written interactions, I perceived that they struggled with this approach. They were used to a relationship with their teacher where she provided answers and treated them as passive objects, not as subjects or agents. Nati, for example, said: A particular characteristic of your style as advisor is that you don’t say what to do and how to do it (as in other cases, with other advisors). This can be complex when we are used to doing what we are told and when one is insecure and inexperienced. However, there was always an attitude of trust on your part, and although I always had my doubts, everything was taking shape in the end. (Nati, Interview)

She also said that she and some classmates used to talk about the methodologies used by different advisors. They compared my methodologies to others’, who were more directive in style and more specific about what they wanted them to do in their theses. They said that they wished for this kind of guidance at times, but that in time they came to understand that a problem-posing pedagogy is more coherent with a critical educational agenda, as it helped them develop independence and create their own meanings; thus, at the end of the Master’s programme, they really owned their project. In a similar vein, Maure expressed: The most significant thing for me was that your support allowed me to fi nd myself (…) I think that having the support of someone who lets me try and guides me through questions, helped me reflect and understand my research better, allowed me to learn to make decisions and follow my principles. Thanks to this, my learning process was very much my own and allowed me to get involved on a personal level. (Maure, Interview)

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In the context of a process of developing critical consciousness as a prerequisite for praxis, teacher-learners are faced with numerous challenges and lessons learned. Despite these challenges, the teacher-learners whose experience I report here acknowledge that they were able to implement some critical lessons which were characterised by: •

• • • • • • • • •

a continuous questioning and uncovering of problematic representations of the Other and an intention to promote critical awareness: of fast-food products, advertisements, cultural representations, gender stereotypes, among others; activities that promote critical awareness, respect and curiosity towards diversity; reflection and critical thinking not only about the language content, but also self-knowledge; use of authentic sources for teaching materials to foster a critical reading of media; integration of mandatory content (in the contexts where research took place) and the critical educational goals they had set up for their research; treatment of students as subjects, not passive objects in the educational project; use of student knowledge of the world, both as a source of class content and as an object of analysis; critical analysis of dominant discourses and ideologies and how they influence people’s behaviour and ideas about themselves and the world; critical reflection of personal biases, and pedagogical practice; a researcher who does not impose her own position.

My students recognised that the implementation of such practices becomes more challenging at institutions where critical pedagogical practices are not encouraged, or where the language curriculum focuses on linguistic content or communicative functions. The way they sorted this out was by acknowledging the principles underlying those curricula and adapting content in such a way that they still strived for the achievement of the language learning goals established at the institution and the goals they derived from the theory and concepts they withdrew from to develop their research. They did so taking into account their students’ identities and the particular context where language learning took place. Discussion and Conclusions

As a teacher educator working from a critical perspective, I always fi nd the task very challenging but enriching, intellectually, pedagogically and personally. Critical scholarship requires not only a commitment to contribute to and transform the field, but also continuous self-reflection (for example, about how my pedagogical practices hinder or foster the

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relations of power as an educator and researcher committed to social justice), and open-mindedness to learn alongside students. I see the thesis research development period as a time where graduate students try to ‘reconcile three competing domains: the knowledge and ideas gained through their formal study; the history, beliefs and embodied practices they bring with them; and the constraints and possibilities presented by the particular teaching context’ (Pennycook, 2004: 334). The critical education best suited to meeting this challenge is one that evolves from the challenges and opportunities that students fi nd in their teaching and research process, one that organises itself around a continuous dialogue about the meanings they are building about the world and about language education, and their evolving positioning in the world and as language educators. I agree with Pennycook’s (2004) position that critical work – in this case, critical language education – does not need to focus so much on raising big critical issues, as he calls them, but in ‘working toward a way of questioning some as yet unexplored issues with critical consequences’ (Pennycook, 2004: 341). It must be a language education where we teachers wait for the critical moment to occur and seize it. The evidence collected from my advisees shows that they were highly motivated and committed to developing critical research in their language classrooms. All of them expressed having experienced a process of personal and professional growth because of their critical consciousness about themselves and the world. They also acknowledged challenges in terms of critical self-reflection, and understanding of critical concepts and theories, and using these to create a curricular unit. Now, for me, this complex process implied dealing with an array of emotions resulting from students’ occasional feelings of hopelessness (like when they could not understand theory), inner conflict (as they faced their own biases), despair and anxiety. These feelings implied, at times, that some of the advisees needed to rely and become even more dependent on my guidance. This contrasted with my perseverance in using a problem-posing approach to scaffolding conscientisation – by answering with more questions, instead of providing the expected answer. I did this under the assumption that this approach would be more effective in helping them to appropriate their research and gain confidence as researchers and educators. I also believed that doing this might have a longer lasting effect in the teaching practice. However, drawing on the collected data, I must say that sometimes my students needed me to refrain from using this approach in order to focus on providing emotional support, when their critical research seemed overwhelming. Being a thesis advisor within the critical perspectives research line of the Master’s programme is a very enlightening experience, not only because of the students’ professional growth, but because of their personal transformation, in terms of how they perceive and position themselves in the world. I have witnessed in all of them a process of empowerment as a result of growing conscientisation (Freire, 2000); that is, an increasing

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critical consciousness of the relations of power that take place in the world and a greater sense of self agency, and also a greater awareness of how their own identity and their role as educators may engender or resist the systemic relations of power they learn about. On the other hand, this advising experience is also stimulating. Firstly, they become familiar with critical theories and concepts that explain language education, in order to make sense of them. Secondly, they use these theories and concepts to explain the world around them, and aspects involving their own identities, including their preconceived assumptions and representations about themselves and the Other, and to understand their own pedagogical actions. Lastly, they prepare themselves to plan their research and their curricular unit, to promote the very same process they have been undergoing as students in the programme, among their own students. I embarked on the writing of this chapter because I found in it an opportunity to fi nally systematise and critically reflect upon my actions as a teacher educator with a critical agenda. I believe this is relevant to the field of ELT teacher education, given the common perception of critical theories as impractical and abstract, due to the complex language that they use. For this reason, many educators do not feel confident in embarking on a critical pedagogical agenda, so my purpose was to encourage language teacher educators to do so. My experience shows that helping teacher-learners to scaffold conscientisation is possible by striving for conceptual clarity, creating a collaborative and emotionally supportive learning environment, and engaging in a dialogue through problem-posing. References Aguirre-Ortega, M.C. (2019) Young Afrodescendant EFL learners exploring their identities through a critical intercultural approach. Unpublished dissertation, Universidad de Antioquia. Alarcón-Penagos, N. (2017) Implementing a critical intercultural approach to foster adult English students’ intercultural communicative competence. Unpublished dissertation, Universidad de Antioquia. Arias-Patiño, N. (2017) Using a critical media literacy approach to analyze media texts in an English class for children. Unpublished dissertation, Universidad de Antioquia. Cannella, G.S. and Lincoln, Y.S. (2009) Deploying qualitative methods for critical social purposes. In N.K. Denzin and M.D. Giardina (eds) Qualitative Inquiry and Social Justice (pp. 53–72). Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press. Crotty, M. (2003) The Foundations of Social Research. London: Sage. Echeverri Sucerquia, P.A. and Restrepo, S.P. (2014) Making sense of critical pedagogy in L2 education through a collaborative study group. PROFILE: Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development 16 (2), 171–184. Echeverri Sucerquia, P.A., Arias, N. and Gómez, I.C. (2014) La pedagogía crítica en la formación de docentes de inglés: La experiencia de un grupo de estudio. Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura 19 (2), 167–181. Fandiño, Y. (2013) Knowledge base and EFL teacher education programs: A Colombian perspective. Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura 18 (1), 83–95.

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Fandiño-Parra, Y.J. (2011) English teacher training programs focused on refl ection. Educación y Educadores 14 (2), 269–285. Freire, P. (2000) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum. Freire, P. and Faundez, A. (2018) Por una pedagogía de la pregunta. Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI. Giroux, H. (2009) Teacher education and democratic schooling. In A. Darder, M.P.  Baltodano and R.D. Torres (eds) The Critical Pedagogy Reader (2nd edn) (pp. 438–459). New York: Routledge. Hawkins, M. and Norton, B. (2009) Critical language teacher education. In A. Burns and J. Richards (eds) Cambridge Guide to Second Language Teacher Education (pp. 30–39). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Leystina, P., Lavandez, M. and Nelson, T. (2004) Introduction. Critical pedagogy: Revitalizing and democratizing teacher education. Teacher Education Quarterly 31 (1), 3–15. Patton, M.Q. (1990) Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Pennycook, A. (2004) Critical moments in a TESOL practicum. In B. Norton and K.  Toohey (eds) Critical Pedagogies and Language Learning (pp. 327–345). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rico, D.Z., Trujillo, J.A., Cáceres, M.M., Becerra, L.D., Vera, M.V. and Parra, G.E. (2012) How can a process of reflection enhance teacher-trainees’ practicum. HOW 19 (1), 48–60. Rojas-Escobar, P.A. (2019) Reading gendered media texts critically: Challenges and possibilities of using CLA principles in an EFL class. Unpublished dissertation, Universidad de Antioquia. Sierra-Piedrahita, A.M. (2016) Contributions of a social justice language teacher education perspective to professional development programs in Colombia. PROFILE: Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development 18 (1), 203–217. Sleeter, C., Torres, M.N. and Laughlin, P. (2004) Scaffolding conscientization through inquiry in teacher education. Teacher Education Quarterly 31 (1), 81–96.

10 Supervising StudentTeachers’ Research: Between Reinforcing our Supervisor-Researcher Identities and Enabling Novice Teacher-Researchers Tammy Fajardo-Dack, Mónica Abad Célleri and Juanita Argudo Serrano

Introduction

Working in the academic world involves taking on several roles and positions within different landscapes of practice (Wenger, 2010; WengerTrayner & Wenger-Trayner, 2015) such as teaching, doing administrative activities, researching and supervising theses. Supervising is perhaps one of the most important activities. However, it is usually neglected by faculty members because of the many responsibilities one has when helping with the development process of a research piece that will be produced by a student-teacher who is just being introduced to the research culture. Nevertheless, being a supervisor-researcher is a critical role in that it enables student-teachers to complete their theses and learn how to conduct research, and it provides opportunities for our continuous professional development. Through a trioethnographic approach, in which the researchers are completely involved through descriptions of reactions, occurrences and expectations (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2008), this chapter retrospectively describes our experiences and pedagogic practices as full-time professors at a public university in Ecuador, managing to cope with the Higher Education Law by organising and complying with teaching, supervising, research and administration hours. To write this piece, we decided to use one of the modes of positioning in an ethnography suggested by Van 151

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Maanen (2011) and use confessional writing, which involves adopting a personal style and using the fi rst person. The use of the pronouns we/our include the three authors of the chapter. We are three bilingual teacher educators navigating our dual role as supervisor-researchers of English as a foreign language (EFL) studentteachers working on their fi nal graduation project as a requirement to fi nish their Bachelor’s (BA) in English Language Teaching (ELT) or Master’s (MA) in ELT programmes. Through our dialogues and stories, the tensions of the different roles and positions we hold are unpacked, explaining our own path to professional development: firstly as researchers, by observing and analysing our EFL student-teachers’ research journey; and secondly as thesis supervisors, helping students construct their understanding of the importance of researching their own classroom, not only to reflect on and improve their practice but most importantly to develop professionally and acquire a teacher-researcher identity. Therefore, as a result of the combination of both roles, we take a supervisor-asresearcher reflective stance which enables us to reflect on and research our own supervision practice. By being involved in the process of supervision with such a standpoint, we learn from the process per se and foster our professional development as supervisors and researchers. Drawing on qualitative data from our conversations and written contributions, our experiences, journeys and reflections are interpreted and framed within the literature, providing insights about the benefits that arise from researching our students and learning from them while they write their theses. Furthermore, the voices of our student-teachers, also collected through written contributions, are intertwined in our conversation to describe their thesis journey and relationship with us, their supervisors. Supervision as a social learning activity

The thesis supervision process can be considered and interpreted as a social learning activity that could be analysed through the lens of Wenger’s (1998) social theory of learning which places learning within lived experiences and participation in our own contexts while constructing identities. The theory is built upon assumptions about the importance of learning and the nature of knowledge. As social beings, we are part of learning processes, which are a social activity that requires active participation. This social participation shapes who we are, what we do and how we interpret what we do (Fajardo Dack, 2017). The social theory of learning highlights the relationship between the individual and the world, activity, cognition, learning and knowing (Lave, 1993; Lave & Wenger, 1991). That is, learning involves meaning, negotiation, active participation and the construction of identities (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998).

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As a social learning activity, supervision involves what Grant and Graham (1999) term a pedagogical relationship, in which supervisors and supervisees actively participate in a relationship that includes academic, emotional, professional and personal characteristics. In this regard, Vehviläinen and Löfström (2016) claim that as a pedagogical activity, supervision not only calls for research experience but also for pedagogical expertise which will facilitate a learning and participatory process that aims to shape the identity of the supervisee. The supervisor acquires different roles and, within each role, responsibilities, in an activity/relationship that involves the several dimensions mentioned above, and depending also on the personality and trajectory of each supervisor and supervisee, the stance taken towards the roles and responsibilities may vary. Dysthe (2002) distinguishes three different models of supervision based on disciplinary, institutional and personal factors: (1) the teaching model which describes the traditional power dynamic, student-teacher, where the student depends strongly on the knowledge of the supervisor being transferred to the student, the prescriptive feedback and the correction of the text; (2) the apprenticeship model in which both actors participate and cooperate, but the supervisor still takes the lead; however, supervisees observe and are not as dependent on the supervisor; and (3) the partnership model where the pedagogical relationship is seen as equalitarian and based on dialogue and negotiation; responsibilities and expectations are joined and there is a strong sense of collaboration. In this last model, feedback is more constructive and it aims to develop students’ critical thinking and judgement skills. Dysthe (2002) suggests that these three models are not mutually exclusive, but rather that there can be aspects that overlap among them. Most thesis supervisors – dare we say all of them – have been appointed as such without having prior experience or proper training. Usually, a professor is given the supervisory task based on the assumption that having a Master’s degree or having undertaken research courses is enough. Halse and Malfroy (2010) and Lee (2007) questioned whether there is a necessity for thesis supervision training, especially for those who did not have successful experiences as supervisees themselves; after all, our own trajectories as learners likely direct our practices as teachers and supervisors. Nevertheless, we should be aware that ‘some of what was learned during the apprenticeship-of-experience must be unlearned if they do not serve the supervisees’ (Ashari, 2012: 36). In the words of Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner (2015): Reflecting on our own trajectories as learners, most of us will be amazed at how many practices we have engaged in, dabbled in, visited, encountered, or avoided over the years. In some cases, joining or leaving a practice involved crossing a significant boundary and constituted a major event or transition. (Wenger-Trayner & Wenger-Trayner, 2015: 19)

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The supervision journey might be a rewarding learning experience for both the supervisor and the students, as this pedagogical relationship should be bilateral; that is, supervisors also learn from supervisees (Bailey, 2012). However, it might be a road with issues and difficulties, especially when not knowing the strategies for becoming a good supervisor. Ashari (2012) suggested two strategies to achieve successful supervision which usually lead to achieving a good thesis. She mentions key factors such as setting expectations, for the supervisor and the supervisee, in terms of meetings and revisions, following advice, and providing timely, constructive and supportive feedback in written form and in person. Furthermore, she recommends that the supervisor must have particular competencies to improve the supervising journey/relationship. A supervisor must have technical and interpersonal competencies, the former to be able to read, write, listen, and edit students’ work; the latter – to us the most important and which includes patience, respect, care, consideration and humility – to provide feedback and support that goes beyond the intellectual, research domain. Ashari (2012) mentions: A supervisor must be patient with the supervisees, especially when they are struggling between writing and juggling their responsibilities as a student, employee, spouse, or parent. Supervisors must be supportive of their supervisees. Although supervisors are regarded as being in a position of power (Lynch, 2014), common human courtesy of respecting one’s fellow human being must prevail. (Ashari, 2012: 36)

Having interpersonal competency relates directly to Casanave’s (2014) distinction between being/having a supervisor and a mentor. All students writing a thesis have supervisors, but not all of them have mentors. Being a mentor requires giving intellectual and emotional support equal importance, becoming a role model, being co-learners in the learning process and, in the long term, providing opportunities for mentees to participate in professional activities, which results in great benefits to students. In this regard, Lee (2007) emphasises that an emotional bond should be seen as a strength in the mentor-mentee relationship as it helps to develop the confidence and empowerment novice researchers need. As mentioned before, supervision is considered as a social learning activity in which both the supervisor and the student mutually learn from each other and fi nd opportunities for constant growth. During the time we have been supervising theses, accompanying the design, writing and presentation processes of student-teachers, we have experienced benefits and some downsides; however, the several learning advantages that the supervising activity involves overcome any shortcoming. Thus, considering our and our students’ stories and the connections to relevant literature, we decided to examine our journeys as supervisor-researchers in order to make connections between our stories and our students’ experiences while writing their theses. This study and the writing of this chapter

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as a result have allowed us to revisit and reflect on our practices and our students’ perceptions of working with us, using that reflection process as a tool for our professional development.

Methodology

In this chapter, we use a qualitative trioethnographical approach to explore our experiences as supervisor-researchers. We decided on this approach as we consider that it allows us to tell our stories and elaborate on the tensions and negotiations involved in our journeys. Ethnography engages processes and forms of representation that differ from other approaches (Rinehart & Earl, 2016). The three types of ethnography, namely autoethnography, duoethnography and collaborative ethnographies, allow the researcher(s) to narrate personal stories that are reflections of personal and social experiences lived. Before focusing on the collaborative one, which is the type we adopted, we offer the defi nition of autoethnography provided by Adams et  al. (2015) which we consider serves as an umbrella for the other types. According to these authors, an autoethnography is a research method that: uses a researcher’s personal experience to describe and critique cultural beliefs, practices, and experiences; acknowledges and values a researcher’s relationships with others; uses deep and careful self-reflection; shows ‘people in the process of figuring out what to do, how to live, and the meaning of their struggles;’ balances intellectual and methodological rigor, emotion, and creativity; strives for social justice and to make life better. (Adams et al., 2015: 1–2)

For us it made sense to choose ethnography as an approach to tell our stories, and even more a collaborative type, a ‘trioethnography’, borrowing the term coined by Breault et al. (2012). In this (collaborative/trio) ethnography, which according to Lassiter (2005: 84) is ‘the collaboration of researchers and subjects in the production of ethnographic texts, both fieldwork and writing’, we wanted to examine similar events from multiple viewpoints and with multiple lenses, not to arrive at the ultimate single truth, but to portray that our realities are valid individual representations and interpretations of the social (Richardson, 2000). In this analysis process we, the researchers or ethnographers in this case, become what Weinsten and Weinsten term as the interpretative bricoleur who ‘produces a bricolage – that is, a pieced-together set of representations that are fitted to the specifics of a complex situation’ (as cited in Denzin & Lincoln, 2000: 4). For this type of work, it is important to clarify our connection to the research or, in the words of Rowe (2014), our positionality, which frames our stance in ‘in relation to the social and political context of the study – the community, the organisation or the participant group’ (Rowe, 2014:

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628). The nature of our work in the university as teachers, educational administrators, researchers and thesis supervisors allowed us to take on various roles at different times, but for this specific research we took a dual role. Our positioning remained emic because we looked at ourselves as supervisor-researchers of our own students which has aided in our participatory and reflective processes of co-inquiring, changing and challenging issues (Rowe, 2014). Following Breault et  al.’s (2012) claim that duo(trio)ethnography should remain open, avoiding being prescriptive, we have included the analysis and interpretation of our individually written dialogues and narratives to engage in critical collaboration. We completed two levels of coding (Creswell, 2014) to firstly holistically organise the information into categories, and secondly to analyse the data looking for thematic units (Creswell, 2014). Furthermore, as we wanted to better understand and delve into our position and roles, we included our students’ voices in our narratives. We collected information about our students’ personal experiences while writing their theses and working with us through questionnaires. Our students’ answers were analysed and interpreted to interweave their voices into our conversations and make our contribution more robust. Additionally, we want to highlight that researcher trust, as a key feature of ethnography, was kept at all times as it ‘promotes duoethnographers’ sharing, disclosing, and interrogating personal aspects of their histories’ (Sawyer, 2012: 115). Researcher trust was maintained by creating safe spaces for sharing our stories and by being responsible in providing a critical stance within our narratives. To guarantee the confidentiality, privacy and anonymity of our students, we decided to use pseudonyms and also use their contributions indistinctly, meaning that their voices are not necessarily connected to the narrative of the professor who supervised their work. Since it is in the public domain as to who are the supervisors of a specific thesis, and students could still be recognised in our university community, all identifying characteristics were omitted. Our students’ information and narratives are restricted to the researchers (McMillan & Schumacher, 2001). Before describing our journeys as supervisor-researchers, we considered it imperative to provide background information about ourselves, including our education level, teaching and research experience, current activities in the university and supervision experience. We all have similar academic backgrounds, having all obtained a Bachelor’s degree in English Teaching and a Master’s in Applied Linguistics, and we all recently graduated from our PhD programmes. We all have 12 years of experience in university, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses. Our experience as researchers varies slightly. While Juanita has been a researcher for eight years, Mónica and Tammy have six years of experience. Although we share common research interests such as teachers’ professional development, each one of us also has a specific area of focus. That is, Mónica’s research

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concentrates on listening development in a second language, Juanita’s on language evaluation, and Tammy’s on teacher research in university education and communities of practice as a space for teacher professional development. The three of us have supervised several theses and served as thesis examiners. Our Journeys

In this section, we present our stories organised into four separate themes, which emerged organically from the two levels of coding of our written stories, to portray the navigation and tensions between our roles and experiences during the supervising process, and how we perceive supervision as a tool for our own professional development as supervisorresearchers. Throughout the analysis, we considered the relationship of the themes to the literature and the complete data set to guarantee an integrated analysis (Ayres, 2008). Within these themes, we have included the voices of our students, making the relevant connections. Navigating our dual role as supervisor-researchers

We decided to retrospectively analyse the dynamics involved in our activities supervising theses from a supervisor-researcher perspective with the purpose of reflecting on and informing our role as supervisors. In this reflection process we aimed to fi nd the positive aspects that have worked and to improve those that have been an obstacle or constraint. In this fi rst vignette, we present how we have navigated between these two stances: During the time I was supervising some master programme theses, I had a dual role, as a supervisor-researcher. I was teaching and helping my students to conduct their research, but also I was learning and being helped by them. I can also say that I was part of their research, as another researcher, because I helped them to fi nd material and information that could help them in their studies. (Juanita) My main role has been as a thesis supervisor. I have supervised two undergraduate theses and three master’s theses. In the process, I have looked at my students’ work and applied different strategies to help them improve. In many ways, I have used reflection to analyse the situations and make informed decisions. (Mónica) When I have to work with my students, supervising their theses, I see myself as a supervisor-researcher because I not only guide my students in the process of researching their own classrooms, but I examine my process as a supervisor looking at and examining my students’ newly gained research practices. Reflecting on and analysing our journeys (my students and mine) provides insights into the relationship dynamics, the thesis writing, and the results obtained. (Tammy)

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While being thesis supervisors, several aspects need to be acknowledged and given special attention. We consider that examining our habits, practices and responsibilities is imperative as they might have a direct influence and impact on our students’ outcomes: When I embark on working with a student in their research project, my priority is to know what their goals and expectations are. So usually, I set up a meeting with them and talk about what they want and how they want to achieve it. From there we set up a plan that includes a meeting schedule, deadlines for sending progress, individual and joint responsibilities, among other ‘in-house’ organisation. (Tammy) I consider my supervisees a priority, so a habit I have when I work with them is to give them feedback as soon as possible. We meet once a month to check all the progress they have made and answer questions about their doubts. We agree that everything they work on has to be checked by me fi rst, so they plan every class or activity in advance and email it to me for revision. We both have responsibilities, in my case, it is to give feedback as soon as possible, and in their case to work hard to have what is planned before the deadline. (Juanita) To start with, I usually check the research proposal, which the students email to me. Then, I usually arrange a meeting to clarify things and tell them what I expect from them. I also arrange meetings to talk about problems, questions, and so on and to encourage students to keep working hard. I think that as a supervisor my major responsibility is to guide students during the whole process and make them learn to do research and also to become good writers. For that reason, I also make comments about coherence, cohesion, and grammar and punctuation mistakes. (Mónica)

It is imperative to set the ground rules and the expectations for both the supervisor and the supervisee from the initial stages of the thesis if the desire is to achieve a successful pedagogical relationship (Grant & Graham, 1999) and a high-quality fi nal product. Putting into action the strategies suggested by Ashari (2012) regarding expectations and feedback has made a difference during our supervision process. Tensions between the different roles and positions we hold

There are times when holding a dual role might be conflicting, especially when trying to balance being a researcher and a thesis supervisor. Through the extracts below, we illustrate how navigating through these roles and setting the boundaries so as not to be intrusive in our students’ learning journey has sometimes been difficult: Trying to observe students (as a supervisor-researcher) as they walk through the path of becoming researchers without interfering is sometimes a little bit difficult since as a supervisor, you have to guide them through the path. So, I observe their reactions, changes in mindset, reflections, and comments about my suggestions and explanations. (Mónica)

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I usually struggle trying to balance these two positions. Most of the time remaining loyal to my teacher researcher identity has helped students develop their research projects. However, I must recognise that sometimes my preconceptions of research have prevailed, hindering my students’ freedom to make choices. It has been difficult, but I am learning from experience that boundaries between my two identities are also necessary. (Tammy) I consider it a difficult task. To have these two roles can sometimes cause a dilemma because one person is in charge of considering the supervisor identity as well as the researcher one. As researchers, we need to be very attentive to what happens around us and work in a reflective way to improve and better understand our teaching practices for better professional development. (Juanita)

It is therefore in this learning process of supervision that we need to apply not only our research knowledge but also our pedagogical experience (Vehviläinen & Löfström, 2016) to foster a collaborative environment that benefits our students and ourselves personally and professionally. The supervision process

The third theme we identified was the supervision process itself. Within this process we have included several important aspects or subthemes that emerged from the analysis: the relationship with students, their expectations, the feedback we provided and the fi nal products. Furthermore, we have included their voices, which as aforementioned were collected through questionnaires. Relationship with students

The relationship with students is pivotal as it can be decisive in terms of the collaboration, engagement and fi nal results. It has to be based on mutual trust and respect and has to go beyond the intellectual sphere as students need even emotional support. However, this relationship should not be confused with friendship due to the conflict of interest involved. In this sense, Waghid (2007) argues that supervisors and supervisees should have a critical friendship, in which supervision becomes dialogical, compassionate and critical, resulting in rigorous and compelling theses. We had, and even now we still have a good relationship. I think we became colleagues more than supervisor and supervisee. We shared material, ideas, thoughts, and sometimes personal experiences. I think we created a very good team. I also tried to motivate them when I noticed they were getting demotivated, telling them to keep working, and giving them support in any aspect they needed. One of my students, Elena, mentioned that our compatibility was an important factor in the progress of her work. She was especially grateful for the support and encouragement in the stressful times while writing the thesis. (Juanita)

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At the beginning, when my role is to pinpoint their mistakes, I can say that the students might feel a little bit uncomfortable, but later, when they realise that I’m making them work hard to get a very good fi nal product, they understand that it is in their own interests. So, at the end, they feel grateful to me (they have directly told me so). (Mónica) I have always believed that a student-teacher relationship, or in this case a supervisor-supervisee relationship, should be horizontal. The power dynamics traditionally involved should be diminished as we are learning from each other. Having a good relationship with students, who I see and consider as my colleagues, has led us to successful completion of work and later collaboration. One of my supervisees acknowledged that the continuous support inspired her to work hard on the development of her research. (Tammy)

The three of us have common practices when supervising our students’ work. We use a combination of the models of supervision suggested by Dysthe (2002), but for each of us one model predominates. Mónica follows a combination of the teaching and the apprenticeship models; interestingly, what is particular about Mónica is that she follows the teaching model with the student-teachers in the BA programme and the apprenticeship model with the MA student-teachers. Perhaps the fact that MA students are already in-service teachers makes her look at them as being less dependent and more experienced. In Juanita’s case, she favours the apprenticeship model because, like Mónica, she sees her student-teachers as colleagues. Tammy follows a combination of the apprenticeship and partnership models, identifying more with the latter, particularly due to the type of relationship with the students and the type of feedback she provides. Our expectations and our students’ expectations

We expect our supervisees to work, be responsible, fi nish their theses and graduate, but most importantly to learn. In addition, our supervisees recognised the expectations they had of us regarding time, feedback and support: One of the objectives I had with these students was that they learn, graduating was important, but I think more important than that is learning and getting experience in research, and I think all of them did, in different levels, but they learnt how to conduct research. (Juanita) What I expect from them is to become independent writers and understand it is their responsibility. Sometimes they expect me to write for them, but when I tell them to fi rst read about their common mistakes so they won’t make them again, they understand that it is their responsibility. (Mónica) My expectations for my students are always high. First I expect they fi nish their thesis successfully and on time, but most importantly I expect

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they achieve their personal and professional goals which go beyond a written document. I expect them to develop as reflective teachers who can transform their teaching practices and students’ learning experiences through their research. In this sense, a student that worked with us explained what he expected from the supervisors, which can be summarised as guidance and advice on improving their work, making it relevant for the future. (Tammy)

As we mentioned above, setting the rules from the outset has made the process more beneficial, especially for our student-teachers as they have been able to successfully fi nish their theses. Providing feedback

This aspect is particularly important because it is when students feel the most supported and guided. What we have observed is that students value the type of feedback that is constructive, supportive and timely (Ashari, 2012), and they appreciate having the opportunity to discuss and arrive at a consensus: It was not a problem because any time I provided feedback they agreed, and if not we talked, we got to a consensus and at the end we always agreed. When I told them to change something I supported my ideas, the same as they did when they did not agree on what I told them to do. (Juanita) I can say that providing feedback is hard work because it takes a lot of time, which is usually hard to set aside for me (since I work two jobs). I usually ask the students to email me their work when they have written eight pages or so (so that the work does not accumulate at the end), but they usually wait until they fi nish writing a whole section. I try not to take more than a week to send the document back. Sometimes it’s not comfortable for me to call attention to their mistakes, especially to the master’s programme students since they are already teachers, and I can say that at fi rst they feel a little annoyed by that, but then later they have thanked me for this. (Mónica) I usually try to provide feedback as quickly as possible because I am aware of the need students have to continue working on their projects. I try not to only point at syntax or punctuation errors (as an English teacher I am tempted to do so), but I focus on more in-depth aspects of the research. I usually challenge their choices to provoke their critical thinking. (Tammy)

When giving feedback, we apply the technical and interpersonal competencies (Ashari, 2012) required to revise and edit their written work, and provide the necessary intellectual and emotional support in a process in which we are co-learning with our student-teachers (Casanave, 2014). Final products (theses)

The ultimate goal in the thesis writing journey is to obtain a highquality fi nal product that can be presented to examiners and lead to

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successful graduation. For us, it is imperative to highlight that alongside having the fi nal written thesis, the learning involved in the process is important. I am happy with their fi nal products, all of them are of good quality. I would have liked them to publish their work, write an article or participate in a congress, but I think that was not their priority. However, I am happy with what my students and I did and what we learnt. Elena, one of my students, agreed when she mentioned that she felt satisfied with the fi nal product and that she learnt from the experience and from me. (Juanita) I can say that I’m quite content with the fi nal theses my students have written. I also know that they have learned a lot during the process. One of my students shared that she felt proud of the fi nal product she created with my help. She highlighted that it was top quality work. (Mónica) Every fi nished thesis has been a sign of the mutual collaboration with my students. One of them mentioned that the fi nal result of a research process is the product of a team, the supervisor and the student-teacher. I always tell my supervisees that the effort is theirs and that they have to enjoy the results. I am proud of the work they have produced and who they have become academically and professionally after fi nishing their theses. (Tammy)

Finishing a thesis completes a pedagogical relationship in which we as supervisors together with our student-teachers collaborate in a social learning activity. It is in this activity that, as mentioned by Lave and Wenger (1991) and Wenger (1998), critical negotiation and active participation, which lead to the successful construction of (researcher) identities, are involved. Supervision as a path for our own professional development

As has been mentioned throughout the chapter, supervising theses provides several opportunities for learning which translate into improvement as teachers, researchers and supervisors. In this sense, we provide our personal accounts on how these roles have supported our continuous professional development: I think supervising theses is an excellent path for our professional development because we need to prepare and read about the topics of our supervisees. We learn from and with them as they become experts in the area they are researching. Defi nitely, being a thesis supervisor demands a lot of time and effort to prepare in the area of the project we are supervising. It is a way in which we construct our supervisor-researcher identity because we develop the sense of belonging to a teacher community, where we have the same interests and necessities. We also start thinking about our knowledge and its relation with our beliefs, and of course how they affect our teaching practices. I think being the supervisor of a thesis is

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hard work, but it is necessary to mention that besides helping supervisees with their project, I learned from them, not only academically, but also personally. Some of them taught me to organise my time, because besides working on their theses they were teachers, parents, they had to take care of their homes and children, and sometimes even dealt with health problems. (Juanita) I think that with every thesis I have directed, I have grown as a supervisor-researcher. I have seen my students improve during the process and feel satisfied at the end. Seeing my students try to improve their teaching practices and come out with innovative ways to teach has been motivating as a thesis supervisor. I have been encouraged by their creative ideas to be more prepared to guide them during the process. (Mónica) When supervising a thesis, I ask my students to reflect on their daily teaching activities and to look for opportunities to understand and address the issues that affect the educational context in general and their language classrooms in particular through critical research. My main focus has been motivating students to become agents of change which is one of the main characteristics of teacher research. Writing a thesis could be the fi rst encounter with research which could lead them to developing new researcher identities. (Tammy)

For all of us, supervising theses has defi nitely provided the most practical opportunities for our professional development as teachers and supervisor-researchers. Although it is a demanding activity that requires time and effort, working with our students provides opportunities for our own personal growth in terms of learning how to be more open-minded to different ideas and approaches – patient, supportive and selfless. Conclusion

As described throughout the chapter, we consider supervising to be a learning activity in which the supervisor and supervisee mutually learn from each other. It is a collaborative learning process where the voices of supervisors and supervisees are equally valued in the co-construction of knowledge. Although it is clear, by our individual contributions, that each of us has a different approach to and follows a different model of supervision, we agree that it is a process/relationship that involves responsibility, commitment, care, generosity and personal and professional humility. Sustaining productive relationships with our students can be challenging at times as there is no guarantee that supervisors and supervisees are a suitable match in terms of interests, personalities, research stances and styles, among others. We have to acknowledge that sometimes we have felt more connected with one student than others because their research has been closer to our interests or research approaches. Our journeys as supervisor-researchers have taught us the great responsibility we have in being involved in our students’ learning and

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construction of researcher identities. Bearing in mind the decisive role we have in our students’ goals, this makes us question the need for further training to improve supervision. The knowledge we have mainly emerges from our experience as three times thesis writers (our BA, MA and PhD theses), but we have not been formally trained to be thesis supervisors. Perhaps our experiences might have resulted in using the same advising techniques we received ourselves, which could have somehow signified an obstacle for some students (Halse & Malfroy, 2010; Lee, 2007). Although experience and our trajectories as thesis writers inform our current supervision role and have an impact on our students’ work, we consider it pivotal to find training opportunities that will translate into more critical and successful supervision practices that could benefit our students’ progress and fi nal results. This chapter which, as aforementioned, takes a trioethnographic approach, compiled our conversations and the interpretations we made in relation to the relevant literature and the voices of our students. Taking an emic position in this study and in writing this piece, in which we are the researchers and also the participants, poses several limitations in regard to subjectivity, which is usually criticised by the broad academic audience. However, by presenting our stories in a naturalistic way and explaining the process in detail, we have maintained transparency of our interpretations at all times. Furthermore, we invited our students to the conversation and integrated their voices into our narratives, making them more explicit and reliable. We have embraced the role we have been given as thesis supervisors and use it as a vehicle for our professional development as supervisorresearchers. We consider that observing our work as supervisors and also our students’ progress is a powerful tool that helps us better understand our practice and promote our students’ learning and development of a new researcher identity. Writing this chapter was a thriving opportunity to share and reflect upon our experiences while researching our students’ thesis writing, supervising their research, and encouraging them to conduct teacher research as a way to improve their teaching practice, their own and their students’ experience, and as a vehicle to develop their researcher identities. Conducting the study portrayed in this chapter involved engaging in critical conversations that made us retrospectively reflect not only on our current practices as supervisors, but also on our trajectories as supervisees, as the only informal training we had. Furthermore, inviting our students, now colleagues, to the conversation was pivotal as they sometimes reaffirmed and at other times contested our assumptions. The reflection process required for conducting this study and writing the chapter was itself an opportunity for developing professionally and personally. Through this research we have been able to understand, evaluate and become critical of our practice as supervisors in order to make the

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necessary adjustments to improve it. Writing this chapter together and analysing our conversations and stories opened up opportunities for collaboration and mutual understanding that empowered us as supervisorresearchers, thus becoming an avenue for developing professionally in these two roles. References Adams, T.E., Holman Jones, S.L. and Ellis, C. (2015) Autoethnography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ashari, H. (2012) Personal realities and the apprenticeship of supervising: My tortuous journey as a supervisor. Asian Journal of University Education 12 (2), 21–40. Ayres, L. (2008) Thematic coding and analysis. In L. Given (ed.) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods (pp. 868–869). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Bailey, K.M. (2012) Language teacher supervision. In A. Burns and J.C. Richards (eds) Second Language Teacher Education (pp. 269–278). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Breault, R., Hackler, R. and Bradley, R. (2012) Seeking rigor in the search for identity: A trioethnography. In J. Norris, R.D. Sawyer and D. Lund (eds) Duoethnography: Dialogic Methods for Social, Health, and Educational Research (pp. 115–136). Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press. Casanave, C.P. (2014) Before the Dissertation. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Creswell, J. (2014) Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Method Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Denzin, N. and Lincoln, Y. (2000) The discipline and practice of qualitative research. In N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research (2nd edn) (pp. 1–28). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Dysthe, O. (2002) Professors as mediators of academic text cultures: An interview study with advisors and master’s degree students in three disciplines in a Norwegian university. Written Communication 19 (4), 493–544. Eriksson, P. and Kovalainen, A. (2008) Qualitative Methods in Business Research. Los Angeles, CA: Sage. Fajardo Dack, T. (2017) Creation and evolution of a community of practice focused on critical action research in an Ecuadorian university. PhD thesis, University of Toronto. Grant, B. and Graham, A. (1999) Naming the game: Reconstructing graduate supervision. Teaching in Higher Education 4 (1), 77–89. Halse, C. and Malfroy, J. (2010) Retheorizing doctoral supervision as professional work. Studies in Higher Education 35 (1), 79–92. Lassiter, L. (2005) Collaborative ethnography and public anthropology. Current Anthropology 46 (1), 83–106. Lave, J. (1993) Situating learning in communities of practice. In L. Resnick, J. Levine and S. Teasley (eds) Perspectives on Socially Shared Cognition (pp. 63–82). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lee, A. (2007) Developing effective supervisors: Concepts of research supervision. South African Journal of Higher Education 32 (4), 511–526. McMillan, J. and Schumacher, S. (2001) Research in Education: A Conceptual Introduction (5th edn). New York: Routledge. Richardson, L. (2000) Writing: A method of inquiry. In N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research (pp. 923–948). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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Rinehart, R. and Earl, K. (2016) Auto-, duo- and collaborative-ethnographies: ‘Caring’ in an audit culture climate. Qualitative Research Journal 16 (3), 210–224. Rowe, W.E. (2014) Positionality. In D. Coghlan and M. Brydon-Miller (eds) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Action Research (pp. 628–631). London: Sage. Sawyer, R. (2012) Prologue. In J. Norris, R.D. Sawyer and D. Lund (eds) Duoethnography: Dialogic Methods for Social, Health, and Educational Research (pp. 115–116). Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press. Van Maanen, J. (2011) Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Vehviläinen, S. and Löfström, E. (2016) ‘I wish I had a crystal ball’: Discourses and potentials for developing academic supervising. Studies in Higher Education 41 (3), 508–524. Waghid, Y. (2007) Education, responsibility and democratic justice: Cultivating friendship to alleviate some of the injustices on the African continent. Educational Philosophy and Theory 39 (2), 182–196. Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wenger, E. (2010) Communities of practice and social learning systems: The career of a concept. In C. Blackmore (ed.) Social Learning Systems and Communities of Practice. London: Springer. Wenger-Trayner, E. and Wenger-Trayner, B. (2015) Learning in landscapes of practice. In E. Wenger-Trayner, M. Fenton-O’Creevy, S. Hutchinson, C. Kubiak and B. WengerTrayner (eds) Learning in Landscapes of Practice: Boundaries, Identity, and Knowledgeability in Practice-Based Learning. London: Routledge.

11 Mapping Transformations in Teacher Education: Colombian Teachers’ Enactments through Mentoring Liliana Cuesta Medina and Jermaine S. McDougald

Introduction

Discovering and developing a teacher identity is a great challenge. There are several struggles that student-teachers engage in as they adjust to the dynamics of the diverse academic environments, endorse their multiple roles, and learn to optimise their skills and actions to be truly transformative in their teaching and learning. On the one hand, student-teachers must understand the need to push aside the orthodox instructional practices that have long ruled in Latin American educational institutions. These practices have been unidirectional by nature, emphasising the role of teachers as unique agents of power in the classroom, dismissing the value of meaning-making and knowledge construction, and are also far from building scenarios in which teachers (and learners) are gradually empowered to make decisions about their learning. On the other hand, student-teachers need to learn how to become active agents who help design new approaches to teacher education that allow for a close and critical analysis of their context, and their needs, in order to be able to devise their own alternative responses (Kumaravadivelu, 2006). Such skills involve the development of soft skills framed within lifelong learning frameworks that foster effective preparation to face the risks and challenges of a rapidly changing society. In this landscape, metacognition, critical reflection, mindful engagement, agency and ethical reasoning help build their teacher identities and, per se, their citizenship. This posture echoes Alcántara et al. (2013) as it suggests envisioning a radical transformation given the colossal challenges posed by the growing 167

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demands of society and the effects of knowledge and technology. Thus, to do so, student-teachers, as well as their teacher educators, should map out efficient routes to understand how teachers are shaped by their teaching contexts and discourses, unveiling their professional selves and depicting their beliefs and actions as classroom practitioners. As active and experienced teacher educators, we believe that two essential areas in teacher education often converge. The fi rst highlights the value of mentoring, and the second the transformation studentteachers endorse while they learn to become novice researchers. Hence, the present chapter illustrates how our mentees, and we as teacher educators, developed through this process, by fi nding a convergent point between these two components. Not only did we undertake ways to further reflect on an array of processes related to academic writing and conducting research in the master’s programmes at our university, but we also aimed to exercise formative actions that shaped lifelong learning traces as professionals. Key Concepts

On our path as teacher educators, research has been a catalyst that has enabled us to better comprehend the existing needs of our learners and trace a course of action to help bridge existing knowledge gaps. Generally, these gaps involve difficulties in understanding how efficient research can be conducted in the classroom and learning about ways to tackle barriers derived from academic writing endeavours. As part of such a journey, we have acknowledged student-teachers’ difficulties in engaging in practices proper to graduate academics, given the restrictions posed within multiple domains, namely linguistic, metacognitive, cognitive and affective (Anderson & Cuesta-Medina, 2019; Cuesta Medina et  al., 2017a; McDougald & Cuesta Medina, 2019). Contrary to what we expected, the incoming graduate learner populations had numerous gaps that needed to be bridged, either because they had not formerly received adequate training in the fostering of learner-centred environments and development of self-regulatory skills, or because they had had limited opportunities to engage in the target savoir faire of real teaching and learning scenarios. Hence, the challenge was posed. We had to create the path and make proper adaptations to the scope of our courses to fulfil a twofold purpose. Firstly, we had to ensure that we provided relevant competence and performance development environments aligned to the academic disciplines we were handling in the Masters’ programmes in ELT. Both programmes consisted predominantly of Spanish speakers from Colombia where English is the L2; all candidates had a certified B2 level, looking to further develop their teaching practices. These student-teachers often struggled with academic writing and lacked the skills to develop a thesis. Secondly, we had to help learners tackle their own needs, as they gained experience

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in learning how to control their learning, understand and carry out research, and nurture self-regulatory capacities on their academic voyage. The first stage of assembling the puzzle was, then, to revamp the structure of the research modules/courses we taught, ensuring that the tasks and expected learning objectives matched purposefully and that students were far from just doing ‘busy’ work. Hence, the design of tasks needed to be framed by the tenets of critical pedagogy, critical thinking, experiential learning and the scientific method. Then, a focused selection of tasks accompanied such alignment, taking into consideration the number of instruction hours, the independent time hours, the delivery modes, and the required credits during every academic term. During this fi rst stage, students needed to be efficiently scaffolded, with the aim of reducing their explicit teacher dependence and helping them to gain agency in their learning. We certainly believed – and still do – that agency is a catalyst for personal and professional transformation, as learners have the responsibility to manage and control their own learning, together with the opportunity to interplay with their learning design trajectories and their self-regulated skills, in order to map the desired routes to achieving their outcomes and becoming effective lifelong learners. Rooted in Bandura’s (1999) social cognitive theory, agency is an extensively studied area (e.g. Murray et  al., 2011; Toohey & Norton, 2003), as it encompasses the endorsement of various strategies to shape and build learners’ experiences and their motivational and affective reactions to them. In drawing on the concept proposed by Ahearn (2001), we conceive that agency is a socioculturally mediated capacity to act. It is precisely in such a condition that our capability as teacher educators is pivotal in the professional development practice traced, as it allows us to conceive of agency as an essential target to focus on while mentoring. We progressed through teaching about research on a continuum that facilitated the enactment of academic dialogue and knowledge construction. Teaching research from a process-oriented formative perspective (rather than from a mere summative activity) helps learners to gain confidence and gives them motivation to exercise their academic skills beyond the classroom. Through the Vygotskian principle of double stimulation, effective formative interventions are rooted in context (Engeström et al., 2014) and student-teachers engage in interventions that progress through collaborative negotiations, achieve outcomes that are conceptual and agentic rather than positivistic, and carry out processes that are led and owned by the participants themselves (Morselli et al., 2014). We strongly believe that formative interventions in teaching, conducting and generating research enable, scaffold and empower students to manage their critical conflicts in work and learning from an agentic perspective, enabling teachers and students to become ‘masters of their own lives’ (Engeström, 2007: 363). We keep arguing that teachers are not themselves self-regulated learners, making it tough for them to guide their students to develop

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self-regulatory competences (Cuesta Medina et al., 2017b). In light of the above, our study aimed at distinguishing how our candidates could effectively develop their research competences and engage in teaching and learning paradigms associated with research. For us, it was also vital to discover and examine the strengths and pitfalls of our research component in the programme, in order to be able to generate efficacious change and impact. Methodology Context

The context of this research consisted of graduate programmes at a private university in Colombia that catered to predominantly Spanish speakers for whom English was an L2. The programmes aimed to equip professionals in ELT with excellent academic and pedagogical skills that allowed them to bring creative and innovative solutions to their professional teaching practice so that they could meet the needs of their specific context. The student-teachers were mostly Colombian in-service language teachers, teaching at all levels of education from primary to higher education, and possessing varying degrees of teaching ability, writing skills and language levels. As the programme was 100% delivered in English, student-teachers’ largest challenge was academic writing as well as varying degrees of English, even though they were all certified as B2 internationally (TOEFL, IELTS or iTEP exams). Methods

The study was an exploratory qualitative research study pursued with a group of 93 candidates enrolled in two Master’s in English Language Teaching programmes with a duration of four academic semesters (16 weeks per semester, two years). The total number of 93 was derived from the number of active candidates enrolled in the programmes over the course of three years 2016-1 to 2019-2, where candidates arrived and left the programmes mentioned. Data were collected from 2016 to 2019 through questionnaires, focus groups (n = 7), interviews (n = 12), studentteacher journals (n = 93) and researcher journals (n = 2), as displayed in Table 11.1. Data analysis procedures included the use of the constant comparative method taken from a grounded theory approach (Corbin & Strauss, 2008; Perry, 2017). Data were supported by triangulation procedures through multiple sources (i.e. interviews, focus groups, semi-structured interviews). Firstly, coding techniques were employed to identify repetitive patterns that emerged from the data, with the primary intent of developing

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Table 11.1 Distribution of instruments Instrument

(When) Applied on/ Frequency

(What) Purpose

(Who)

Focus groups [FG] (n = 7)

FG1 – Semester 2016-2 FG2 – Semester 2017-1 FG3 – Semester 2017-2 FG4 – Semester 2018-1 FG5 – Semester 2018-2 FG6 – Semester 2019-1 FG7 – Semester 2019-2

Confirm information that emerged from questionnaires, journal and semi-structured interviews.

FG 1 – 5 Candidates F2F program FG 2 – 8 Candidates virtual program FG 3 – 5 FG 4 – 7 FG 5 – 4 FG 6 – 4 FG 7 – 6

Interviews (n = 12)

Semester 2017-2 (4) Semester 2018-1 (3) Semester 2018-2 (3) Semester 2019-2 (2)

The interviews were conducted randomly and voluntarily among the candidates at the end of each semester.

Candidate teacher diaries (n = 93)

Constant, used periodically during the semester in Research I, II, III & IV

The candidates’ journals were hosted in the LMS’ Research courses (I, II, III & IV), where candidates were taught to use the journal for reflective tasks on conducting action research.

All active students enrolled in the Research I, II, III & IV courses

Observation protocols (n = 45)

In Semesters II and III of the programme during 2016-1 to 2019-1

To observe candidates during in situ visits to their teaching contexts (behaviours, attitudes and overall transformation).

All students enrolled in the F2F Master’s programme during the 2016–2019 cohorts

Researcher’s journal (n = 2)

Constant

Collective notes regarding the overall process kept using shared online collaborative Excel document.

Only researchers

Note: All instruments were applied at the end of a 16-week semester, except for the journals, which were constant throughout the process.

themes from the data. Later, resultant themes for emerging categories were gathered. These themes were supported with selected excerpts reported from participant data. We also made use of inter-coder reliability procedures to improve data validity, given that there were a significant number of data sets (Table 11.2) collected longitudinally. This was done to assess the matching of conceptual defi nitions with resultant categories and emerging analyses. The questionnaires, focus groups, interviews, teacher-candidate journals, teacher-researcher journals and observation protocols were used to track the student-teachers’ behaviours, attitudes and overall

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Table 11.2 Instruments applied per semester and programme Semester

Master’s in English Language Teaching (F2F)

Master’s in English Language Teaching (virtual)

2016-1

• End of semester questionnaire • End of semester questionnaire

• End of course questionnaire • End of semester questionnaire

2016-2

• Interviews • Observation protocols • End of semester questionnaire

• Focus Group 1

2017-1

• Focus groups 1 & 2 • Observation protocols

• End of semester questionnaire • Focus groups 1 & 2

2017-2

• End of semester questionnaire • Focus group 3 • Interviews • Observation protocols

• End of semester questionnaire • Focus group 3

2018-1

• End of semester questionnaire • Focus group 4 • Observation protocols

• End of semester questionnaire • Focus group 4 • Interviews

2018-2

• End of semester questionnaire • Focus group 5 • Interviews • Observation protocols

• End of semester questionnaire • Focus group 5

2019-1

• End of semester questionnaire • Focus group 6 • Questionnaire: Reflecting on research experience

• End of semester questionnaire • Focus group 6 • Questionnaire: Reflecting on research experience

2019-2

• End of semester questionnaire • Focus group 7 • Questionnaire: Reflections on my research competences

• End of semester questionnaire • Focus group 7 • Questionnaire: Reflections on my research competences

Note: The focus groups were mixed with candidates from both Master’s in English Language Teaching programmes.

transformation into teacher-researchers. The data collected were mainly qualitative. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were used as a way to have a structured conversation with the student-teachers throughout the process. Participants were asked about specific issues (i.e. competences in academic writing, research and student-teacher development). These focus groups were very useful because they allowed for diverse perspectives to surface (Ary et al., 2014; Creswell, 2014). Questionnaires allowed the collection of data concerning attitudes, opinions and perceptions towards student-teachers’ development throughout the different cohorts of student-teachers (between 2016 and 2019). Four different questionnaires were used: (a) end of Research I, II, III and IV courses; (b) two questionnaires in the Research IV course; and (c) one questionnaire after writing an article, as per Table 11.2. All questionnaires were delivered using SurveyMonkey® Google and Microsoft Forms, where data were exported to an MS Excel sheet so that they could be

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further analysed and processed. Teacher journals were used by both student-teachers and teacher-researchers to reflect on their development as teacher-researchers and the overall progress, while serving as a written dialogue between student and teacher (Griffee, 2012). They also served as a key component in self-assessing their performance in the Master’s programme. Pedagogical and analytical framework

The Master’s programmes in ELT were aimed at helping in-service teachers become better language professionals and also better human beings. We concur with Genç (2016) and Jaspers et al. (2014) that there are numerous challenges in the process of supporting an adult, a professional who comes to the programme with diverse competences, challenges and personality issues and often limited skills to take on graduate studies. Various studies have demonstrated that well-designed mentoring programmes can effectively help student-teachers increase their confidence levels towards their teaching practices while helping them convert theory and translate that into practice more effectively, along with improved communication skills (Crafton & Kaiser, 2011; Genç, 2016; Jaspers et al., 2014; Maria-Monica & Alina, 2014; Shapira-Lishchinsky, 2009; Shwartz & Dori, 2016). Therefore, incorporating mentoring into the research courses was adopted as one of the core elements in the programme interventions, given its value in developing highly qualified teachers in a variety of teaching environments (Andreasen et al., 2019; Ellis et al., 2020). In addition to this, mentoring allows student-teachers to become more critical of the teaching practices of themselves and of others (Porras et  al., 2018; Tomlinson et al., 2010). Hence, clear strategies such as mentoring and scaffolding were employed across the programme, especially in the research courses, to ensure the successful development of student-teachers. One such mentoring strategy was politeness, where mentors – research instructors – used criticism combined with praise to provide feedback on their development throughout the research process, making feedback less threatening for the candidate (Bjørndal, 2020). The politeness strategy was used as the primary way to provide feedback. Scaffolding also played an important role in the design and development of the research process, as did the incorporation of carefully selected tasks and assignments where critical pedagogy, critical thinking and experiential learning were a priority for the research courses (McDougald & Cuesta Medina, 2019). The focus of the written production was more on successfully embracing the writing process, thereby enabling studentteachers to tackle the challenges of developing a research project more easily. The study focused on incorporating a scaffolding pedagogy, referring to teachers guiding students through stages in literacy development

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Table 11.3 Scaffolding examples from Research I course Large assignment

Small assignments to help candidates achieve a larger assignment

Research area selection

• Compass: template used to collect info population, identified problem(s), factors (evidence), proposed strategy, possible research question (use Wh + modal ‘might’), constructs (conceptual definition, reference) and instruments (rationale + delivery mode). • Journal entries: focus on identifying issues in the classroom, separating facts from opinion, and self-reflection, self-observation.

Theoretical framework (40 references) Evaluation of sources

• Annotated bibliography (6) references x 2 • Template for the theoretical framework outline • Template for theoretical framework (MS Word file with headings, automated ToC, comments, and instructions for each section, estimated number of words, etc.) • Draft theoretical framework (15) references • Draft theoretical framework (30–40) references • Final theoretical framework

Research question and objectives

• Template for research question • Template for objectives • Template to differentiate strategy versus End of semester questionnaire

(Fernando, 2018). However, scaffolding provided them with the confi dence needed to move forward and better appreciate what they were capable of doing, through what we termed small victories, understood as smaller tasks leading up to a larger final product. Table 11.3 highlights the types of scaffolds used in the Research I course, which helped candidates in their academic writing process. Findings and Discussion

The following section discusses the key fi ndings of the study. Quotes from interview data were utilised to help capture student-teachers’ voices and better understand the factors that influenced their transformation from student-teachers to co-researchers. The discussion will centre on becoming a transformative teacher, student-teachers’ development as learners and teachers, the learner paradigm, and the teacher’s role (depicted as a mentor). Participants develop as novice researchers

Using mentoring as a strategy to ensure high-quality teaching to enhance student-teachers’ achievements as well as to facilitate the integration and transformation of the new teacher proved to be effective in the

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Table 11.4 Research courses description Course

Semester

Number of hours of class time

Number of hours of independent study

Seminar in Action Research I

1

48

192

Seminar in Action Research II

2

48

192

Seminar in Action Research III

3

48

192

Seminar in Action Research IV

4

32

128

current study. As there were four research courses dedicated to providing students with an array of tools, strategies, input, guidance and mentoring (see Table 11.4), student-teachers could not only develop the competences needed to develop an action research project, but they could also successfully report on their research results. Participants reported having developed certain skills and competences as a result of the research courses, namely problem solving, analysis, enhanced competences in research, academic writing, observation, evaluating and database management. As illustrated in the extracts below, student-teachers reported becoming more self-confident and more critical of both their teaching practices and the teaching environment, while demonstrating increased agency and self-regulatory actions through time management, decision making and organisational skills: I improved my academic writing. (Participant Q, Questionnaire, 2017-2) I learned how to use Mendeley and how to write more academically. (Participant CC, Focus Group 3, 2017-2) I learned a lot in the course that helped me plan my implementation. (Participant V, Questionnaire, 2019-1) How student-teachers transformed their teaching and learning paradigms

All participants reported engaging in a teacher practice transformation, in which they had the opportunity to rethink educational practices (Filho et  al., 2018) while they increased their knowledge base in research. Many of them (70%) attested that this newfound change was due to several factors evinced through the two-year programme. These elements were directly related to three key factors: research instructors’ scaff olds, continuous feedback and tutoring/consultation sessions effectiveness. This information emerged from the data in which student-teachers expressed how they changed in their teaching practices, increased competences in research, increased self-awareness and became more critical of their teaching and learning process and that of others.

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As far as the research instructors’ scaffolds are concerned, two factors emerged from the data regarding the role of teachers. On the one hand, participants recognised the value of the scaffolds provided and, on the other, they highlighted the teachers’ attitudes as a key factor in developing the research process. Student-teachers claimed that their instructors were positive, professional, experienced and very supportive throughout the entire process, which is an encouraging indicator in the fostering of mentoring programmes: The Professor was always caring about my process; he was always concerned about the positive or aspects to improve. (Participant R, Focus Group 6, 2019-1) but what I appreciate the most is the extensive and detailed feedback he gave to all of us during the process of writing each of the chapters. (Participant R, Focus Group 6, 2019-1)

Furthermore, actions or behaviours such as being empathetic, concerned and helpful often described the research instructors. These behaviours not only helped in-service teachers become researchers but also provided them with positive examples of quality teaching and mentoring. Additionally, this made a positive impact on their motivation for research, which was also related to the enhancement of the teaching and learning dynamics, and to the effective fusion of these components while carrying out classroom action research projects: The encouragement and feedback that the tutor gave us in each class or tutorial were essential in my growth. (Participant W, Questionnaire, 2017-2) Conducting research has allowed me to practice my profession with a higher level of reflection on the factors that influence the learning of my students, such as their needs, their motivation, learning styles. I have also managed to articulate the use of technological tools with my teaching practices. (Participant U, Questionnaire, 2017-2) I feel that I am more reflective and aware of my difficulties and skills. (Participant X, Questionnaire, 2017-2) How student-teachers coped with the challenges found

The majority of the participants (93%) said that they lacked competences and skills in academic writing. Although they were all certified B2 or C1 on the CEFR, they still fell behind in writing. Such a lack of academic writing competence was a reality in the entire Master’s programme. Therefore, much effort was put in place so that writing could be included as a cross-curricular area in the programme, preventing it from being an isolated skill to be developed in the research or academic writing courses. Scaffolds were designed for this purpose from the beginning of the

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graduate programme, as well as tasks aimed to bring out the best in the candidates at every level of the development of their research project. There was an emphasis placed on transforming candidates’ teaching practices through their engagement in action research experiences. Scaffolds were also used to help them to decide on the research area and research question, and on selecting a strategy or tool to use, as well as to decide on the constructs, variables or even concepts. Student-teachers were provided with templates to build their state-of-the-art and even ready-made MS Excel matrices to aid their data analysis development. These strategies helped candidates overcome their greatest fears regarding academic writing and researching, as they were not accustomed to these two areas. According to their accounts, they either had had limitations in their training (insufficient and/or defective) or, as noted earlier by Anderson and Cuesta-Medina (2019), any prior training was embedded in some more general writing instruction, in which the focus had been primarily on mechanical aspects (i.e. orthography and grammar). As part of the programme, there was a strong emphasis on tutoring and consultation sessions, which took place both within the confi nes of the classroom and after class hours, in which candidates worked closely with their research instructor – not necessarily their thesis director – in solving specific problems regarding the development of their projects. Their thesis director took on a more technical role within the process, ensuring that all chapters met the programme and research area component guidelines. There was a pre-session format designed for candidates to self-assess their needs and challenges, so they could be turned into consultation session objectives. There was a post-session format in which candidates reflected on what had been learned in the session, established new objectives based on initial challenges identified and proposed new realistic goals/objectives. These sessions were not typical Q&A sessions between teacher and student after the class, but planning and formative spaces to work with and/or mentor candidates. The learner was always at the core of the process, and both the instructor and the advisor focused on what the candidate wanted or needed to develop. There was no limit to the number of consultations that a studentteacher could request or attend per semester, as the programme encouraged reflection, feedback and mentoring spaces. We argued that if a studentteacher was not motivated towards research, failed to make connections with their educational context and/or was frustrated, failures were more likely to arise. Therefore, through such a triad – reflection, feedback and mentoring – student-teachers were assessed in order to decrease the affective filter attached to academic writing and research per se: I really liked it when I was not totally happy with the answer I gave to one of my concerns. His consultation sessions really focused me on my research project. (Participant B, Focus Group 1, 2016-2)

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Scaffolding was key to start writing chapters. (Participant D, Focus Group 4, 2018-1) A plus is that she motivates students to research and overcome difficulties that arise during the academic writing process. (Participant Z, Questionnaire, 2019-1)

On another note, candidates possessed varying degrees of language competence, but they all faced similar challenges regarding skills in academic writing, researching and problem solving, not to mention basic ICT skills. Nevertheless, once the academic writing process started, candidates faced additional challenges such as using reference management software, citing sources using APA, or even learning to observe their teaching environment from a different perspective (i.e. identifying problems, isolating fact from opinion and proposing solutions). These challenges were different and could be tackled from different angles. However, there were underlying issues concerning the resources, methods, approaches and/or strategies that could be employed to help candidates overcome their challenges, while sustaining their motivation and developing the competences and skills required for a teacher-researcher in a graduate programme. Therefore, the approach used to introduce the use of scholarly academic language and text and genre structures was sequentially built upon scaffolding models and strategically placed throughout all the courses offered in the Master’s programmes. Such integration demanded a special alignment in each of the courses, as there needed to be a coherent fusion of research and writing, of target use of academic discourse, and effective tasks, projects and assignments, so that learners felt empowered to meet the expected outcomes, both for the programme and for the learners themselves. Results showed that student-teachers did overcome these challenges and gained additional knowledge, skills and competences. For example, most of the participants (80%) claimed that they acquired abilities in how to organise, structure and develop their ideas from a critical viewpoint. Additionally, participants claimed that they were able to narrow down the objective of the study with greater clarity, and even propose solutions to classroom problems. Hence, these skills served as a bridge to apply their knowledge in their teaching context, building not only their lifelong learning skills but also their capacity to make knowledge transferable: I have acquired tools to narrow the main objective that I pretend to study. Also, I think I’m able to design solutions and describe how the units I propose, influence changes in the population I’m working with. (Participant NN, Focus Group 7, 2019-2)

Likewise, the student-teachers became more reflective and critical of their teaching practices, thereby recognising students’ needs and situating themselves within the realities of students’ lives and experiences,

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constructing learning experiences that articulated with these. Such a concept, inspired by Freire’s pedagogy, unveils the responsibility of the teacher to select, create, adapt or determine the appropriate strategies that suit each particular context. In agreement with Watkins and Mortimore (1999), teachers should fi nd synchronies between elements such as the teacher, the classroom, the content, the view of learning and learning about learning. Such harmony should enable teachers and learners to coconstruct and build effective learning and instructional scenarios, as the following excerpt confi rmed: Totally, I am more aware of the big responsibility I have as a teacher. I have learnt to reflect on how to make better certain processes in or out the classroom. … I want to help them [fellow teachers] to become better teachers through the constant exchange of pedagogical and academic experiences. (Participant S, Focus Group 5, 2018-2)

As the challenges were diverse, candidates recognised the value of scaffolding to generate competence-building contexts. This was precisely the vision that undergirded the programme curriculum – one that, as Chiappe et al. (2020) claim, prepares learners to stay competitive in the 21st century era through the fostering of knowledge, skills, work habits and target character traits. The focus on these skills (among which we could include problem solving, reasoning, analysis, interpretation, synthesising information and interrogative questioning) paved the way for them to take control of their own learning and enhance their professional domains and attitudes towards teaching and learning.

Researching with student-teachers

In their transformational continuum (Figure 11.1), student-teachers adopted new roles and growth perspectives. Towards the end of the fourth semester, and as a product derived from their thesis development, the research instructor and the student-teachers (now addressed as coresearchers) had developed a more collegial relationship in which both had a common goal: to produce a scholarly publication derived from their thesis report. Personal and professional boundaries were maintained; however, in most cases a new relationship was born, thereby setting the pace for success in academic production: I have gained a closer understanding about what researching implies and together, we have seen a couple of products of that work (articles-research work) being shared to the world. […] I personally considered the professor was always caring about my process, he was always concerned about the positive or aspects to improve but what I appreciate the most is the extensive and detailed feedback he gave to all of us during the process of writing each of the chapters. (Participant R, Focus Group 6, 2019-1)

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Figure 11.1 Learners’ transformational continuum

In addition, the process implied establishing a timeline for writing both the thesis and the article, and monitoring, adjusting and restructuring it when necessary. Besides, it required further flexibility in the instructional lecture and writing time distributed across the semester, launching bigger modules that focused on writing development rather than on lecturing. We adopted (and fostered) in our instructors’ team a culture of trust between mentors and mentees, as such a relationship demanded both modelling students to research and write, and also instilling a sense of self-efficacy among students. It was not an easy task since the students were highly dependent on their research instructors and had difficulties in decision making. On the other hand, instructors were at times reluctant to yield power, knowing that educational research is subject to being shaped and restructured as the studies advance. In addition to this, students were exposed to numerous academic scenarios in which constructive feedback was raised, such as in the case of symposia, conferences and academic panels, events in which they participated as speakers or attendees. They were by then more empowered as language professionals and researchers, being ‘better observer[s] in problematic situations’ (Participant NN, Focus Group 7, 2019-2), more motivated to write, and enthusiastic about disseminating their produced knowledge. All in all, we can state that they engaged in a gradual transformation from being student-teachers to co-researchers and agents of change in their own learning and teaching practices (Figure 11.1). The continuum depicted below is composed of diverse factors that emerged from the data examined, which helped candidates ease the transition from student-teachers to co-researchers, while increasing their reflective and self-regulatory skills and developing and/or increasing their production of indexed articles. There were five factors unveiled as crucial in this transformation: (a) the teacher’s role; (b) the pedagogy used; (c) the assessment practices used; (d) the types of tutoring made available; and (e) the road to academic writing.

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All of the student-teachers who published articles claimed that the research experience guided by their advisor was productive and helpful to their teaching practice: I have gained a closer understanding about what researching implies and together, we [student-teacher and research advisor] have seen a couple of products of that work (articles-research work) being shared to the world. (Participant TT, Interview, 2018-2)

To date, several articles have been produced either as a co-author or sole author by student-teachers writing with researchers such as AlvarezAyure et al. (2018), Anderson et al. (2018), Cadena-Aguilar et al. (2019), Durán Bautista and Rendón Marulanda (2018), Duque Micán and Cuesta Medina (2017), Gómez and McDougald (2014), Leal (2016), McDougald and Pissarrello (2020) and Torres-Rincón and Cuesta-Medina (2019). As teacher educators, this sets a milestone, as we see how our candidates evolve and have their voices placed as a contribution to the Colombian ELT field and the worldwide scientific community. Conclusion

For us, conducting the study and writing this chapter allowed us to further reflect on the instructional and operational processes of the Master’s programmes including, but not restricted to, the value of communicating with faculty across semesters, the careful inclusion of tasks and assignments in the programme, the alignment of tasks with clear assessment guidelines, and the optimisation of student-teachers’ and teachers’ practices in research and academic writing to achieve success. Our experience has led other members of staff to understand that co-researching with novice student-teachers can be rewarding, especially if there is mutual respect, understanding and motivational factors (i.e. increased visibility, increased academic production) between both parties. As mentors/advisors, we have also excelled at time management skills, at becoming creative in fi nding diverse opportunities to work with our students in other academic environments outside the programme (voluntary participation as speakers in academic events, school-wide research endeavours, and keeping them eager to write with us, even when they had graduated). These factors set the foundation for transforming studentteachers into more agentic and self-regulated co-researchers with enhanced writing skills. This has set the pace for an array of quality academic production, represented by scholarly articles, conference participation in academic events and projects. Indeed, training student-teachers to achieve the desired transformation is not an easy task. It requires a considerable amount of effort, planning, monitoring and time invested along the teacher development cycle. This cycle entails applying more detail to issues that are not visible, such as

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building confidence and security as a language professional in a L2. This alone is challenging yet rewarding as the student-teachers evolve. Such a cycle also poses challenges for teacher educators concerning their disposition, willingness to advise and openness to tolerating ambiguity. For student-teachers, it represents moving aside traditional teacher-dependency pedagogies and replacing them with more autonomous and self-regulatory ones that foster effective decision making and better control of their learning and teaching actions. Mentoring and scaffolding schemes prove effective, considering that student-teachers generally possess little or no experience of fi nding connections between their metacognitive and cognitive knowledge and their teaching domains, as well as of exercising agency in their learning. As far as pedagogy is concerned, student-teachers were directly immersed in new, creative teaching approaches that they brought back to their teaching contexts, having fi rst-hand knowledge and experience of innovative teaching models. These models included involving the learner in the process, open, two-way communication between teacher and learner, as well as diverse mentoring and scaffolding strategies. Nevertheless, research was emphasised as well, and actually oriented most of the changes that led to their transformation into co-researchers, enabling them to advance in academic writing, all the while becoming more critical of their teaching practices, through research practices, exercise and endeavours. References Ahearn, L.M. (2001) Language and agency. Annual Review of Anthropology 30, 109–137. Alcántara, A., Llomovatte, S. and Romão, J.E. (2013) Resisting neoliberal common sense in higher education: Experiences from Latin America. International Studies in Sociology of Education 23 (2), 127–151. Alvarez-Ayure, C.P., Barón-Peña, C. and Martínez-Orjuela, M.L. (2018) Promoting the use of metacognitive and vocabulary learning strategies in eighth-graders. Íkala 23 (3), 407–430. Anderson, C.E. and Cuesta-Medina, L. (2019) Beliefs and practices concerning academic writing among postgraduate language-teacher trainees. Íkala 24 (1), 29–49. Anderson, C.E., Mora González, C.A. and Cuesta Medina, L.M. (2018) Graphic organizers support young L2 writers’ argumentative skills. GiST Education and Learning Research Journal 17, 6–33. Andreasen, J.K., Bjørndal, C.R.P. and Kovać, V.B. (2019) Being a teacher and teacher educator: The antecedents of teacher educator identity among mentor teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education 85, 281–291. Ary, D., Jacobs, L.C., Sorensen, C.K. and Walker, D.A. (2014) Introduction to Research in Education (8th edn). Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning. Bandura, A. (1999) Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective. Asian Journal of Social Psychology 2 (1), 21–41. Bjørndal, C.R.P. (2020) Student teachers’ responses to critical mentor feedback: A study of face-saving strategies in teaching placements. Teaching and Teacher Education 91, Art. 103047.

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Cadena-Aguilar, R.F., Ortega-Cuellar, J.H. and Cadena-Aguilar, A. (2019) Daily 6: An approach to foster oral fluency of English as a foreign language in adolescents. Profile: Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development 21 (2), 29–44. Chiappe, A., de Samper, A.M.T., Wills, A.E. and Restrepo, I. (2020) Rethinking 21st century schools: The quest for lifelong learning ecosystems. Ensaio: Avaliação e Políticas Públicas Em Educação 28 (107), 521–544. Corbin, J. and Strauss, A. (2008) Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory (3rd edn). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Crafton, L. and Kaiser, E. (2011) The language of collaboration: Dialogue and identity in teacher professional development. Improving Schools 14 (2), 104–116. Creswell, J.W. (2014) Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (4th edn). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Cuesta Medina, L., Anderson, C.E. and McDougald, J.S. (2017a) Self-regulated learning: A response to language-teacher education in Colombia. In M.L. Cárdenas and N.M. Basurto (eds) Investigación – Research – Recherche … en Lenguas Extranjeras y Lingüística Aplicada (pp. 87–116). Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Cuesta Medina, L., Anderson, C.E. and McDougald, J.S. (2017b) Self-regulation and language teacher training in Colombia. In D.L. Banegas (ed.) Initial English Language Teacher Education: International Perspectives on Research, Curriculum and Practice (pp. 121–133). London: Bloomsbury Academic. Durán Bautista, D. and Rendón Marulanda, M. (2018) Free voluntary reading: Promoting vocabulary learning and self-directedness. English Language Teaching 11 (8), 51–64. Duque Micán, A. and Cuesta Medina, L. (2017) Boosting vocabulary learning through self-assessment in an English language teaching context. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 42 (3), 398–414. Ellis, N.J., Alonzo, D. and Nguyen, H.T.M. (2020) Elements of a quality pre-service teacher mentor: A literature review. Teaching and Teacher Education 92, 1–13. Engeström, Y. (2007) Putting Vygotsky to work: The Change Laboratory as an application of double stimulation. In H. Daniels, M. Cole and J.V. Wertsch (eds) The Cambridge Companion to Vygotsky (pp. 363–383). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Engeström, Y., Sannino, A. and Virkkunen, J. (2014) On the methodological demands of formative interventions. Mind, Culture, and Activity 21 (2), 118–128. Fernando, W. (2018) Show me your true colours: Scaffolding formative academic literacy assessment through an online learning platform. Assessing Writing 36, 63–76. Filho, L., Raath, S. and Lazzarini, B. (2018) The role of transformation in learning and education for sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production 99, 286–295. Genç, Z.S. (2016) More practice for pre-service teachers and more theory for in-service teachers of English language. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 232, 677–683. Gómez, O. and McDougald, J.S. (2014) Developing writing through blogs and peer feedback. Íkala 18 (3), 45–61. Griffee, D.T. (2012) An Introduction to Second Language Research Methods: Design and Data. Berkeley, CA: TESL-EJ Publications. Jaspers, W.M., Meijer, P.C., Prins, F. and Wubbels, T. (2014) Mentor teachers: Their perceived possibilities and challenges as mentor and teacher. Teaching and Teacher Education 44, 106–116. Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006) Understanding Language Teaching: From Method to Postmethod. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Leal, J. (2016) Assessment in CLIL: Test development at content and language for teaching natural science in English as a foreign language. Latin American Journal of Content & Language Integrated Learning 9 (2), 293–317. Maria-Monica, P.-M. and Alina, M.C. (2014) Students-teacher perspectives on the qualities of mentor-teachers. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 116, 3559–3563.

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McDougald, J.S. and Cuesta Medina, L.M. (2019) Scaffolding research with EFL inservice teachers online. IATEFL, ELT Research SIG 34, 12–15. McDougald, J.S. and Pissarrello, D. (2020) Content and language integrated learning: Teachers’ knowledge and perceptions of the program before and after its implementation. Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura 25 (2), 353–372. Morselli, D., Costa, M. and Margiotta, U. (2014) Entrepreneurship education based on the change laboratory. International Journal of Management Education 12 (3), 333–348. Murray, G., Gao, X. and Lamb, T. (2011) Identity, Motivation and Autonomy in Language Learning. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Perry, F.L. (2017) Research in Applied Linguistics: Becoming a Discerning Consumer (3rd edn). New York: Routledge. Porras, N.I., Díaz, L.S. and Nieves, M.M. (2018) Reverse mentoring and peer coaching as professional development strategies. Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal 20 (2), 162–169. Shapira-Lishchinsky, O. (2009) Israeli teachers’ perceptions of mentoring effectiveness. International Journal of Educational Management 23 (5), 390–403. Shwartz, G. and Dori, Y.J. (2016) Looking through the eyes of mentors and novice teachers: Perceptions regarding mentoring experiences. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 228, 149–153. Tomlinson, P.D., Hobson, A.J. and Malderez, A. (2010) Mentoring in teacher education. In B. McGaw, P.L. Peterson and E. Baker (eds) International Encyclopedia of Education (pp. 749–756). London: Elsevier. Toohey, K. and Norton, B. (2003) Learner autonomy as agency in sociocultural settings. In D. Palfreyman and R. Smith (eds) Learner Autonomy across Cultures (pp. 58–72). London: Palgrave Macmillan. Torres-Rincón, J.C. and Cuesta-Medina, L.M. (2019) Situated practice in CLIL: Voices from Colombian teachers. GiST Education and Learning Research Journal 18, 109–141. Watkins, C. and Mortimore, P. (1999) Pedagogy: What do we know? In P. Mortimer (ed.) Understanding Pedagogy and its Impact on Learning (pp. 1–19). London: Chapman.

12 Teaching Oral Skills to Student-Teachers: A Visually Impaired Teacher Educator’s Experiences Nancy N. Kamweru and Alice Kiai

Introduction

Nancy, the fi rst author, is a visually impaired language educator in a Primary Teacher Education (PTE) college in Kenya. She initially undertook a diploma in education between 1995 and 1997, which qualified her to teach French and English in high school. In 2012, she sought to upgrade her diploma to a Bachelor of Education degree in English, and enrolled as a student-teacher in the Department of English at a university in Kenya where Alice, the second author, was teaching. The university holiday programme was flexible enough to allow Nancy to study while remaining in service at a high school where she was teaching French. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in 2015 and immediately enrolled on a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics. Nancy graduated in 2017 and was redeployed to her current teaching position as an English language educator in a PTE college. The relationship between Nancy and Alice evolved from that of teacher-student during her undergraduate studies, to that of supervisorsupervisee, and then mentor-mentee during her postgraduate studies and beyond. As mentor and mentee, Nancy and Alice worked collaboratively to generate data and write this chapter. English Speech is a topic in the PTE English curriculum that is infused with content on English phonetics and phonology. During her time as a student-teacher, Nancy found the visual representations that accompany phonetics and phonology inaccessible, causing her to view the subject as a ‘nuisance’. Indeed, her learning experience was marred by exemptions and exclusion. Interestingly, in her current role as a teacher educator, Nancy has embraced the teaching of English Speech; in fact, she identifies it as her favourite teaching area in the PTE English curriculum. The 185

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purpose of the study, therefore, is to examine the professional practice of a visually impaired English language educator in the teaching of English Speech. The fi ndings are presented narratively, under five sub-sections, guided by Farrell’s (2015) framework for reflecting on practice. This chapter includes the following major sections: Introduction, Theoretical Background, Context, Methods, Findings and Discussion, Implications, Motivation for the Study and Professional Development, and Conclusion. The section on motivation and professional development explains the authors’ motivation for writing this chapter, examines how the research process has shaped their professional development, and highlights how the study has benefited them both as teacher educators. Theoretical Background

Reflective practice, which has been applied to various professions, integrates theory and practice so that lessons learnt from experience are incorporated in practice. Mann and Walsh (2017) trace the origins and development of reflective practice, including the influential work of Dewey (1933), Schön (1983) and Kolb (1984), and some of the more recent reflective practice models such as Johns (2000), Rolfe et al. (2001), ZwozdiakMyers (2012) and Farrell (2015, 2016). Mann and Walsh (2017) also note that spoken language data have been under-represented in reflective practice research and, drawing from sociocultural theory, observe that ‘for professional development to occur, three elements are usually involved: a focus, dialogue with another professional and reflection’ (Mann & Walsh, 2017: 13). As such, they advocate a data-driven and collaborative approach to reflective practice rather than ‘lone reflection’ (Mann & Walsh, 2017: 18). Further, citing Allwright (2003), Mann and Walsh (2017) recommend a holistic approach, moving away from problem-based reflection towards reflection on puzzles or points of interest. They advocate caution in using models that may reduce the process of reflection to simply working through a series of stages. Farrell’s (2015) framework for reflecting on practice applies reflective practice to the teaching of English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). It seeks to provide a holistic approach to reflection that moves away from routinisation of reflection towards reflection that captures the technical aspects of practice, as well as the internal and external influences that shape such practice (Farrell & Kennedy, 2019: 2). The framework has five levels/stages, although, as Sumartini (2018) suggests, the term dimension is perhaps more appropriate to these non-linear, sometimes overlapping levels. •

Philosophy – examines the teacher-as-person, and is essentially the teacher’s own story in which the individual talks or writes about their own lives and past experiences that have constructed their philosophy of practice.

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•

•

• •

Principles – identifies the teacher’s assumptions (unconsciously held principles), beliefs (value statements) and conceptions (overall approaches and decision making in the classroom). These may be accessed through metaphors of teaching and learning. Theory – examines the teacher’s planning, with description of classroom methods and activities that have been chosen, or that the teacher may want to choose in future, and how theory is put into practice. It also involves examination of clearly remembered critical incidents that can guide theory building. Practice – examines observable actions which can be done during, after or before teaching (reflection-in-action, reflection-on-action and reflection-for-action). Beyond Practice – explores moral, political and social issues that affect the teacher’s practice inside and outside the classroom (Farrell, 2019: 4–5).

The framework has been operationalised in various different contexts, and has led to certain benefits among participant teachers. Farrell (2016) reports that collaborative reflection among three novice teachers on an English as a second language (ESL) programme in Canada led to a reduced sense of isolation, a sense of control over their professional worlds and proactive decision making. Playsted (2019) narrates how his self-reflection, supported by two mentors via correspondence, provided input into his own learning journey as a novice in the teaching of English to adult migrant refugee learners in Australia. Following Farrell and Kennedy’s (2019) study, the participant teacher, an African-American English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher in rural South Korea, observed that the analysis provided a summation of what he felt had moulded him into who he was as a teacher. As such, the framework, as adopted, has so far been useful in promoting self-understanding, collaborativeness, confidence and proactiveness in professional life. This TESOL framework is well suited to the context of the present study: Nancy is an English language teacher educator in a multilingual country, where English is a second and official language. The framework provides a structure to examine Nancy’s unique journey as a visually impaired child, then a student-teacher and, fi nally, an English language teacher educator. Her lived experiences are woven together to explain the shaping of her worldview and, subsequently, her professional practice in teaching English Speech, a topic that is of interest due to her challenging learning experiences.

Context

The education sector in Kenya is currently undergoing curricular reform. In 2017, the process of gradually phasing in a new basic education

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curriculum known as the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) began. Subsequently, in 2019, the Ministry of Education suspended PTE student intake for one year as part of teacher education reform and in preparation for implementation of the new curriculum. Teacher education reform has emphasised the need to develop and support ‘highly knowledgeable, reflective, professional teachers that have additional enhanced skills and confidence in a range of modern pedagogical tools such as coaching, facilitating, and mentoring’ (KICD, 2017: 10). Although Nancy has 16 years’ experience as a language teacher at high school level, in the context of this study she is a novice English language teacher educator at PTE level. During the suspended student-teacher intake, Nancy sought to reflect on her practice in teaching English Speech during her first year (2017–2018) in her PTE institution. English Speech is one of the introductory topics in the current PTE English curriculum. Methods

Nancy kept a journal in order to critically reflect on her practice as an English language educator, which she shared with Alice. This was made possible through the use of assistive technology which allows her to use a PC and send content that is directly readable as a word-processed document to a sighted person. Data analysis involved repeatedly reading through the content in order to identify and organise themes and quotes within Farrell’s (2015) framework. Nancy’s initial written reflections were somewhat general in nature, and required detailed specificity about her classroom practice in the teaching of English Speech. Following discussion on the need for such specificity, her subsequent writing was more focused. In addition, using a semi-structured interview guide with open-ended questions, Alice interviewed Nancy using two face-to-face interviews and one phone interview. The interviews sought to elicit insights about Nancy’s philosophy, principles, theory and practice. Audio-recordings were transcribed and analysed. From the initial interview, emerging ideas were organised thematically within Farrell’s (2015) framework. Areas that required clarity and detail for follow-up, such as Nancy’s own life story and experiences (which have shaped her philosophy), were flagged and probed in subsequent interviews. By analysing Nancy’s journal entries and the interview data it was possible to draw inferences about her principles, which explain her assumptions, beliefs and conceptions. In order to corroborate these insights, the interview guide included a section in which Nancy expressed her metaphorical view of herself in response to the statement, ‘As a teacher of English Speech to student teachers, I am a …’. Metaphor analysis explores elicited or spontaneous metaphors to uncover underlying conceptualisations. Metaphors have been elicited in influential stand-alone studies such as de Guerrero and Villamil (2000) to shed light on the thought

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patterns that inform ESL teachers’ beliefs and actions. Metaphors have also emerged spontaneously in interviews and have similarly provided insights upon probing and discussion as demonstrated by Farrell and Kennedy (2019). Following Nancy’s generation of her own metaphor, Nancy and Alice discussed whether the nine metaphoric conceptualisations by 22 in-service ESL teachers in Puerto Rico, drawn from de Guerrero and Villamil’s (2000) analysis, resonated with Nancy’s own self-perception. Interpretations about theory involved analysis of planning documents, specifically the English Module for PTE In-service Programme (Ngumi & Wachira, 2017) and Nancy’s 2017–2018 schemes of work. This involved identification of statements from the PTE module that explicitly stated, or implicitly suggested, approaches of methods to be adopted, and then juxtaposed these against Nancy’s planned content and activities from her schemes of work. In arriving at conclusions about theory, Nancy and Alice discussed extracted data from these planning documents in view of Nancy’s stated perceptions about theory and her on-practice reflections drawn from interviews. As a participant, Nancy provided written informed consent for use of the data in this study. Findings and Discussion

Data are presented narratively, drawing extracts from Nancy’s reflective journal, interviews and planning documents. Insights are grouped thematically into the five dimensions in Farrell’s (2015) framework: philosophy, principles, theory, practice and beyond practice. Philosophy

In this section Nancy’s philosophy of practice is inferred by examining her life and past experiences, with a particular focus on childhood and student-teacher experiences that have shaped her professional practice. Data are drawn from Nancy’s journal and from interview extracts. Childhood experiences

Nancy grew up as a middle child, and the only child with visual impairment, in a family of 10 children. As a consequence of her impairment, she was exempted from many chores that were required of her siblings. She recalls, ‘My parents overprotected me … they never wanted me to do anything that was so strenuous’. When Nancy’s parents enrolled her in a boarding primary school for the blind, her interaction with peers and teachers profoundly influenced her attitude and professional ambitions. From her peers, Nancy learnt that although she was exempt from household chores, her blind schoolmates were not. This challenged her selfconcept, causing her to begin a journey towards greater assertiveness and

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independence. Thus, during school holidays, Nancy started insisting on taking up household chores. As a result, she learnt to fetch water from the river, fetch fi rewood, carry fodder for the cows and wash dishes. Nancy’s attempts at achieving greater personal autonomy were not always welcomed by her parents, but her efforts were supported by her teachers. One such teacher counselled Nancy’s mother and helped her understand that her daughter required both education and life skills in order to achieve a relatively independent future. From observing her teachers, Nancy developed a sense of admiration for her visually impaired, yet assertive female teachers. When playing imaginary games, therefore, Nancy would always play the role of a teacher. She observes: ‘That is what made me what I am – that I am able to manage my life in my house; I am able to do other things, like teaching’. Apart from shaping her attitude, boarding school also bequeathed skills upon Nancy that she used to participate actively in community activities. For instance, using a home-made stylus which her father fashioned using a sharpened nail, Nancy Brailled the church readings and, despite opposition from detractors, participated actively as a reader during the school holidays. Her ability to express herself verbally and to clearly articulate issues eventually earned her parental trust, as well as approbation from family and community. Nancy observes, ‘I became so confident … I think my career was nurtured … even at this moment, when things have to be sorted out, they rely on me for solutions’. Later, in secondary school, Nancy excelled at making class presentations and at composition writing. Here, she developed a strong bond with a young, sighted teacher of English and French with whom she forged not only a mentor-mentee relationship but a lifelong friendship. In one class exercise on official letter writing, Nancy was required to write a job application letter. In her letter, Nancy prophetically applied for a job at a PTE college. Indeed, she later went to that same college for her diploma course in education. She observes, ‘I would tell my parents I will become a teacher … after school I found myself in Kagumo Teachers’ Training College … teaching was passionately in me’. Language classroom experiences as a student-teacher

As she trained for her diploma in education with French and English as teaching subjects, Nancy was among four visually impaired learners, in an integrated learning setting. One major challenge that Nancy faced was that of exclusion in phonetics and phonology lessons where explanations were often supported by visual representations. Nancy recalls classroom experiences with topics requiring phonetic transcription: ‘We listened, bewildered, to the incomprehensible noise of the friction of chalk on the board’. Course instructors essentially ignored visually challenged learners, while sighted classmates avoided requests for explanations of concepts from their visually challenged counterparts who, in any case, were exempt

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from such questions in examinations. Thus, Nancy states, ‘we did not take phonology seriously’. Subsequently, as a practising teacher in high school, she experienced low-level challenges to her skills: I was required to handle only simple pronunciation skills such as minimal pairs, stress and intonation … This confi ned me to a comfort zone for over a decade of my teaching career; I was not obliged to contend with the nuisance of phonology!

Much later, at university, where she enrolled for a School-Focused (holiday) Bachelor’s degree in Education with English and literature as teaching subjects, Nancy was the sole learner with a visual impairment. She relied on her personal Braille note-taker, which is a computerised Braille machine with Job Access with Speech (JAWS) software. In the Department of English where Alice was teaching, no faculty member had any experience in teaching a visually impaired learner. Nancy recalls that an arbitrary decision was made to exempt her from phonetics and phonology: A letter was just written. Somebody just wrote [that] I can’t do it. So, they just wrote a letter to exempt me from that particular unit … phonetics and phonology. … She just told me ‘don’t be attending those lectures. I’ll do a letter.’ And I was given a letter to exempt me.

Content on phonetics and phonology was not, however, restricted to a single (exempted) course, and Nancy found herself taking a number of other English language courses that demanded some knowledge of phonetics and phonology. In these circumstances, course instructors, faced with a novel situation and untainted by the ‘exempt or exclude’ mentality, simply sought to teach. Nancy recalls her classroom experiences: In a unit titled Introduction to the study of language which entailed among other things an overview of phonetics and phonology – as before, I ‘switched off ’ during the lesson. My lecturer quickly noticed my disengagement, and innovated an approach to include me. She suddenly woke me up with a grasp of my hands and took me through the imaginary shape and appearances of the articulatory organs that she was illustrating on the board, demonstrating how they produce different sounds.

From this course, Nancy developed a conceptualisation of the speech organs, airstream mechanisms and the process of speech production. In addition, her classmates readily engaged with her on matters of phonetics and phonology. Upon graduation, Nancy immediately embarked on a Master of Arts degree in Applied Linguistics, where she again encountered content requiring phonetics and phonology. Among her course instructors was a visiting professor who painstakingly took her through the concepts, provided elaborate notes, and also used her hands for demonstration purposes. Apart from the challenge of transcribing phonetic symbols in Braille, Nancy made positive strides in a subject area from

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which she had previously been shut out. She observes, ‘My eyes had literally been opened to the fact that visual disability need not be a hindrance to the study of phonology’. In conclusion, Nancy’s childhood, pre-service and in-service teacher experiences were often characterised by well-meaning exemptions, which were a form of exclusion. As a child, she rejected these attempts and gained in terms of confidence, independence, new skills and social approbation. As a diploma student-teacher, integrated learning unfortunately included exclusionary experiences; however, at university she could not entirely escape the ‘nuisance’ of phonetics and phonology. Nancy discovered that with some scaffolding and peer interaction she could in fact understand phonetics and phonology. Today, in her practice as a language teacher educator, Nancy is expected to meet the demands of the subject matter. Her capacity to successfully deliver the required content at PTE level is rooted in her self-confidence, her drive to innovatively overcome barriers, and her appreciation of the value of mentorship and collegiality in professional life. Principles

This section examines Nancy’s principles, which include assumptions (unconsciously held principles), beliefs (value statements) and conceptions (overall approaches and decision making in the classroom), drawing from interview data. Nancy has come to value the importance of conceptualising ideas, being adaptable, modelling expected language behaviour for her learners, and forging supportive networks, as summarised in Table 12.1.

Table 12.1 Nancy’s principles as a teacher educator Principles

Assumptions

Beliefs

Conceptualisation

Teachers should conceptualise language content thoroughly in order to teach it effectively.

Subject content mastery forms the basis of effective language teaching.

Adaptability

Learners are different.

Innovative adjustment to methodology can help meet learner needs.

Collegiality is beneficial to both teachers and learners.

Teachers should seek assistance where necessary.

Spoken language requires good role models.

Teachers should provide good spoken language models for learners.

Learning spoken language is practical.

Learners need to practise spoken language.

Modelling

Conceptions Effective teaching is guided by further reading and thorough lesson preparation. The unique needs and culture of each class require flexible adaptation in methodology. Fellow teachers and learners are participants towards meeting expected learning outcomes.

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Conceptualisation

As a student-teacher, Nancy accessed knowledge from which she had previously been excluded when her course instructors used her hands to help her visualise concepts, and provided elaborate explanations and notes. As a teacher educator, Nancy elaborates ideas so that her learners can conceptualise ideas and gain cognitive knowledge. Adaptability

The capacity to visualise and understand phonological concepts from which she had been previously excluded laid the foundations for Nancy’s dedication to innovative practices to encourage learning in her language classroom. Nancy appreciates that leaners are different and that what has worked for her in one class may not work in another. In addition, she and her colleagues have benefited from fostering collegiality and collaborativeness. Modelling

As a student-teacher, Nancy did not experience the use of audio-tapes in English lessons – probably on the assumption that as a second language, English is accessible naturally. As a practising teacher, Nancy believes it is important for all language teachers to have a solid grasp of the sounds and sound patterns of language, and to strive to be good role models or to provide model examples. Nancy acknowledges that pronunciation is one of her strengths, and it enables her address fi rst language influence in her learners’ spoken English. Metaphor analysis

In response to the metaphorical prompt, ‘As a teacher of English speech to student-teachers, I am a …’, Nancy unequivocally identified herself as a role model, both as a user of spoken language and as a teacher: Because I really emphasise on a few things that others don’t … most of them [learners] tell me that hadn’t I elaborated they would not have learnt how to handle oral skills … I think I am a role model.

This self-identification is perhaps not surprising, considering that Nancy has herself benefited from role models. In her early life, interaction with blind pupils challenged her to rise above her own visual impairment. Later in life, she found role models among teachers with whom she was able to bond. As a language educator, she is confident in her ability to serve as a model of spoken English to her learners. Nancy also identified with four of the nine conceptual categories found in de Guerrero and Villamil’s (2000) study of in-service ESL teacher metaphors in Puerto Rico. The nine categories are: cooperative leader, provider of knowledge, challenger/agent of change, nurturer, innovator, provider of tools, artist, repairer and gym instructor. Of these, Nancy

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identified herself as a knowledge provider, nurturer, innovator and repairer. A knowledge provider ‘is the source and/or conduit of language, and dispenses language knowledge to students’. A nurturer ‘fosters the potential capabilities of students, facilitates growth and development, mediates the language learning process by giving feedback and constant support’. An innovator ‘keeps abreast of new methods and developments in the field and tries to implement them in the classroom’. A repairer ‘corrects students’ language, strategies, and attitudes’ (de Guerrero & Villamil, 2000: 344). As a knowledge provider, Nancy gains satisfaction from teaching learners new things about language and life. As a nurturer, she encourages the use of English, which learners often avoid since they prefer communicating in Kiswahili, even during English lessons. As an innovator, she seeks examples beyond those in the PTE module, and thinks of different ways to convey meaning. She constantly thinks of ways to ensure that her visual impairment does not limit her capacity to reach her learners. As a repairer, she corrects misconceptions or wrong ideas that her students may have. Additionally, her self-identification as a role model resonates with some of the qualities of a cooperative leader: ‘one who guides and directs students, helping them achieve goals; places herself or himself next to students, not above as an authoritarian figure; establishes an atmosphere of trust in the classroom’ (de Guerrero & Villamil, 2000: 344). Theory

In this section, Nancy’s theories about teaching and learning English speech are both stated from her interview data and inferred from the activities recorded in her schemes of work. Nancy’s lesson content is largely guided by Ngumi and Wachira’s (2017) English Module for PTE In-service Programme and the Ministry of Education (MoE) approved primary school course books. The following is a description of the PTE module content. The module is divided into six ‘sessions’. The fi rst three sessions cover introductory content on language and professional documents for teachers, as follows: language and its uses, schemes of work, lesson plans and English Speech. The next three sessions cover content on methods of teaching English at lower and upper primary, respectively, evaluation and assessment, and functional and out of school writing. The English Speech sub-section (Ngumi & Wachira, 2017: 40) seeks to meet the following specific objectives: (1) identification of speech organs and their role in the production of speech; (2) recognition and accurate production of consonants and vowels used in English speech;

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(3) interpretation of the phonemic transcription of words and sentences; (4) detection and remediation of pronunciation problems in pupils’ speech; (5) identification of stressed syllables in words and sentences, interpretation of the stress markers in written texts and dictionaries and correct use of stress in learners’ own speech; (6) production of basic intonation patterns in English; (7) identification and addressing of special needs in speech. The English Speech sub-section prepares student-teachers in subject area knowledge that facilitates understanding of the methods sessions that follow, particularly those aspects that deal with the teaching of oral skills. Significantly, the module emphasises that lower primary listening and speaking classroom methodologies should promote learners’ ability ‘to communicate verbally using correct choice of words, sentence patterns, and acceptable pronunciation, stress and intonation’ (Ngumi & Wachira, 2017: 61). It cautions teachers against inhibiting talk by insisting on silence in the classroom, and encourages promotion of classroom talk for confident and fluent use of English. Errors are to be corrected using one’s judgement, and not at all times. To the extent that the PTE English programme recognises the centrality of communication, promotes both accuracy and fluency, recognises that errors are a part of learning and encourages interaction, it is aligned to communicative language teaching (CLT). Richards (2006: 22–23) highlights some assumptions about CLT: interaction; meaningful negotiation; purposeful, interesting and engaging content; discovery learning; analysis and reflection; tolerance of errors; recognition of learner differences; teacher as facilitator and classroom as community, with collaboration and sharing. Nancy’s schemes of work indicate the planned classroom activities for English Speech as shown in Table 12.2. Table 12.2 Nancy’s planned teaching-learning activities for English Speech Sub-topic

Classroom activities

Resources

Speech organs and their functions

Lecture Whole-class discussion

Display chart of articulatory organs PTE Module (2017)

Sounds of English

Lecture Listening and repetition Whole-class discussion

Display chart of articulatory organs PTE Module (2017) Audio-recording

Pronunciation problems

Whole-class discussion

PTE Module (2017)

Stress

Listening and repetition Whole-class discussion

PTE Module (2017) Audio-recording

Intonation

Whole-class discussion Listening and repetition Recitations of rhymes and poems

PTE Module (2017)

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Although Nancy states that her practice is aligned to CLT, the documentary and interview data that explain her practice (on-action reflection) suggest that there is greater emphasis on behaviourism and structuralism, with the presentation-practice-production (PPP) format – which is premised on the view that a focus on form will lead to automatisation of learning – and less on meaningful and communicative activities. Practice

In this section, Nancy’s practice is examined in terms of on-action (after lesson) reflections drawn from her reflective journal, and from interview data. Reflection on action

Nancy’s professional practice in the teaching of English Speech has shifted from a point of avoidance to a point of collaboration and innovation. Initial lack of confidence in her new role led her to swop topics with colleagues: ‘I just let a colleague get into my class, and I went to her class to teach something different’. Later, she invited colleagues to teach in her class and she sat in on the lesson. This taught her that her fears were unfounded; she only required assistance to ‘draw … the [phonetic] symbols – just to be confident’. Nancy also revisited her Brailled notes from university – which she describes as her ‘meta-tool’ – in order to deliver adequate explanations in response to learners’ questions. The capacity to explain concepts adequately to her learners further boosted her confi dence: ‘The more I explained, and the more I referred to my notes, the more confidence I gained’. Nancy later began incorporating visual and non-visual aids in her teaching. She now uses a diagram of the articulatory organs, pre-recorded speech sounds and practical production of sounds, using small-group, paired and individual practice. She encourages her learners to use various senses in the learning process: In a similar manner to my [university] lecturers, I could also innovate in order to deliver the content much more effectively and independently … for example, if we are looking at the voiced and the voiceless … I will tell them [learners] to touch their throat. And I tell them, ‘do you hear [feel] it vibrating?’

Nancy’s methods have also evolved from teacher-centeredness towards greater learner engagement. Some of her learners have stepped up autonomously and taken greater control over their own learning by transcribing phonetic symbols for themselves on the chalkboard, rather than having Nancy invite another teacher to do so. Where necessary, Nancy still requests assistance from fellow teachers. For instance, I tell them [learners] I want you to write these words, and I want you to transcribe them. You write them phonetically. And then I take the work

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and ask a colleague to help me identify whether they have written the words correctly.

As an important aspect of her practice, Nancy spends time doing further research in order to synchronise her cognitive knowledge to visual representations – in her case, Braille – phonetic symbols: I had to go the Internet, and I got, what do we call them? Is it a primer? … I got something on American IPA. IPA version in Braille. And I downloaded and embossed it now … onto Braille – so that now I can read and say, when you say /a/, then it appears like this in Braille. And this is what helps me a lot when I’m teaching my students. Situational challenges

Despite positive personal strides such as increased confidence, buildup of personal resource materials and development of helpful collegial relations, exam-oriented teaching and learning and stereotyping are contextual constraints for Nancy. Nancy teaches English Speech in an examination-oriented context in which speech work carries only five marks and is not examined orally. As such, speech work is not taken seriously by many teachers and learners alike: So, a student would rather forego five marks and belabour over other areas that will give them marks … It’s a lot of work with little reward … In fact, there is a colleague who rarely teaches speech work … she tells me, ‘I don’t teach that – it is only five marks’.

Stereotyping is another challenge for Nancy. ‘The most challenging part of it is when students have a preconceived notion about me and think they will not get to be taught English Speech’. She vividly recalls one class that she taught where learner attitudes negatively influenced learning: They said, ‘Teacher we cannot understand. Bring another lecturer to teach.’ When they tell you on your face, you just have to get strong, or you either react or break down.

In this instance, Nancy chose not to bring in a colleague to handle the topic; however, as earlier noted, collegiality has generally helped her achieve the expected learning outcomes. Beyond practice

In Farrell’s (2015) framework, beyond practice presents the wider moral, social and political aspects arising from this study. Here, these are addressed under Implications. Implications

Legislation provides a broad framework to promote a more just society. The Constitution of Kenya (2010) supports diversity and inclusivity;

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hence the number of professionals with various impairments is on the rise. The Persons with Disabilities (Amendment) Bill (Republic of Kenya, 2019) not only promotes integration of Persons with Disabilities in schools, but also advocates their inclusion in public service, recommending measures to ensure that 5% of available employment positions are fi lled by such persons. This helps concretise provisions in The Bill of Rights (Kenya Law, 2010, C.4, Art. 54, 56) for special opportunities in education and access to employment. Although legislation is an important step, it must be matched by systematic institutional support, such as adequate resource allocation, as well as collaborative and individual eff ort. As Nancy’s narrative demonstrates, inasmuch as equality and integration are upheld in the constitution, individuals must work hard to overcome stereotypes, and they often have to make personal investment in resources to achieve professional success. However, even with effective legislation and individual effort, there are implementation gaps that inhibit inclusivity, especially in terms of resource awareness and resource allocation. Few institutions are sufficiently resourced for the integration of learners and professionals with special needs. Resource gaps need to be addressed at the level of policy implementation. Research such as that of Englebretson (2008) and Lillehaugen et al. (2014) shows that innovations like Braille IPA and tactile IPA magnetic boards can supplement teacher and learner innovations in integrated phonetics and phonology classrooms. Inclusivity requires that all language educators not only become innovative in their classrooms but also gain awareness of existing tools that can facilitate learning and teaching for visually impaired language learners and teachers. Literature on visually impaired teachers in education is much less common than that on visually impaired learners. Nancy’s reflections and studies among visually impaired teachers demonstrate that they bring unique qualities to the profession, and offer new perspectives for fellow educators and the wider society. Lamichhane (2016), for instance, studied visually impaired teachers in Thai mainstream schools and observed that visually impaired teachers tend not to teach subjects that require illustrations, pictures and maps. Their students, however, appreciate their ability to teach communication skills, their rich explanations, their provision of extra information, their capacity to motivate learners and deliver moral and social lessons. Administrators value their punctuality, dutifulness, sense of responsibility and cooperativeness. Visually impaired teachers sometimes face challenges with discipline, demonstration skills and resources; however, they put in a great deal of individual effort and forge supportive networks. With such networks of supportive family, friends and colleagues, and scaffolding, they are able to excel in the profession and overcome many of these challenges.

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Motivation for the Study and Professional Development Motivation

The focus on English Speech in this chapter was motivated by the challenges faced by Nancy and her course instructors in the teaching and learning of phonetics and phonology, and the solutions that they found. Alice was motivated to write this chapter because teaching Nancy was a unique experience, with fascinating aspects worth documenting and sharing. Classroom engagement with Nancy helped her appreciate the importance of working with learners as individuals with individual learner differences. Nancy was motivated to reflect upon and record her experiences in the hope that, institutionally, the potential of language teachers with visual impairment will be holistically nurtured, and that such teachers will confidently realise their potential in teaching topics requiring knowledge of phonetics and phonology. Professional development

Nancy and Alice have both enhanced their research and writing skills in working towards operationalising Farrell’s (2015) framework for reflecting on practice within the context of the present study. Through journal keeping, interview participation and document analysis, Nancy has practised methods of data generation that she had not used previously. This study has demonstrated that teachers can use their teaching-learning contexts as sources of data for research and continuous improvement. Nancy has become a teacher-researcher within her teaching context, and this study has raised the research dimension of the mentor-mentee relationship between Nancy and Alice to a higher level than before. By generating data, sharing writing extracts with one another and subsequently receiving feedback on the draft chapter from the editor(s), both have both gained insights that have helped improve their research writing abilities. From engaging in this study, Alice has learnt that seemingly minor adjustments made during teaching to accommodate individual learner needs can have a profound impact on individuals and their future practice as professionals. In the absence of resources, elaborate explanations of visual representations and use of her hands for visualisation purposes helped Nancy become an active participant in her own learning. Today (November 2021), Nancy is armed with a better understanding of subject content. Her reflections have painted a picture of what she does and what she can do better as a teacher of English Speech. Nancy’s lesson activities mainly involve lectures, whole-class discussions, and speech practice involving listening and repetition of teacher or audio-recorded material and recitation. Despite the situational challenges, she needs to incorporate and model collaboration and meaningful communication in future speech

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work lessons so that her own student-teachers apply the same in their own practice. Nancy intends to adopt the use of technology in her speech work lessons by guiding learners on how to use relevant applications on their smartphones for listening and pronunciation practice. She also intends to do less lecturing and to encourage peer-teaching. Wider professional practice

Nancy’s reflections are likely to improve her future practice as an English language teacher- educator in the CBC, and to influence other visually impaired teachers. The ongoing reforms in teacher education have already emphasised the need to develop and support professional development. Indeed, the emphasis on ICT competence, interactive and visual materials in the CBC (KICD, 2016) will require Nancy to continue being innovative and collaborative in her language classroom. Nancy affirms, ‘I feel I can confidently offer professional advice on how best a visually impaired educator can deliver language-related content … My self-esteem has greatly improved and I feel re-energised for tackling more challenging tasks’. By way of example, Nancy notes that the study, coupled with the Covid-19 pandemic, has inspired her to seek ways of adapting in order to teach and assess learners virtually. Nancy’s reflections have foregrounded her potential as a role model, nurturer, knowledge provider, innovator and repairer. She is therefore well placed to take ownership of the curriculum change process and work towards pioneering changes that will be beneficial to teachers, learners and the wider society. Conclusion

Nancy’s responses to childhood and student-teacher experiences portray her, on the one hand, as a person who has developed the determination to achieve self-efficacy and a high degree of autonomy and, on the other, as one who is willing to accept a helping hand. Professionally, Nancy portrays willingness to give assistance based on her strengths, and to receive assistance in challenging aspects of her work. In teaching, she spends a great deal of time on preparation in order to conceptualise ideas for delivery. She is keen to model expected language behaviour and adapt her teaching style to the class at hand. Although Nancy believes that her teaching is aligned to CLT, she acknowledges that meaningful interaction is not adequately demonstrated, especially due to situational constraints such as examination orientation and stereotyping. Nancy has already experienced the rewards of adopting a more interactive approach in teaching her learners, particularly in classes where learners are proactive and embrace learner autonomy. Going forward, Nancy intends to continue paying keen attention to the teaching of English Speech, whether or not

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the exam system offers a ‘reward’ in the form of greater marks allocation. Although it is often taken for granted that visually impaired studentteachers can handle only non-technical subjects, subject-area exemptions need not be offered automatically to visually impaired learners. It is important to explore viable options with both teachers and visually impaired learners, as individuals. Nancy’s experiences demonstrate that, to some extent, subject matter challenges can be bridged through a blend of careful and detailed instruction leading to clear conceptualisation of ideas, use of assistive technology, and collaboration with mentors, peers and other learners. In addition, Nancy has contributed to the discourse on visually impaired language educators and demonstrated that the teacher– researcher nexus is not limited to sighted teachers. References Allwright, R. (2003) Exploratory practice: Rethinking practitioner research in language teaching. Language Teaching Research 7 (2), 113-141. de Guerrero, M.C.M. and Villamil, O.S. (2000) Exploring ESL teachers’ roles through metaphor analysis. TESOL Quarterly 34 (2), 341–351. Dewey, J. (1933) How We Think: A Restatement of the Relation of Refl ective Thinking to the Education Process (Revised edn). Boston, MA: D.C. Heath & Co. Publishers. Englebretson, R. (ed.) (2008) IPA Braille: An Updated Tactile Representation of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Toronto: CNIB for the International Council of English Braille. Farrell, T.S.C. (2015) Promoting Teacher Refl ection in Second Language Education: A Framework for TESOL Professionals. New York: Routledge. Farrell, T.S.C. (2016) TESOL, a profession that eats its young! The importance of reflective practice in language teacher education. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research 4 (3), 97–107. Farrell, T.S.C. (2019) Standing on the shoulders of giants: Interpreting reflective practice in TESOL. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research 7 (3), 1–14. Farrell, T.S.C. and Kennedy, B. (2019) Reflective practice framework for TESOL teachers: One teacher’s reflective journey. Refl ective Practice 20 (1), 1–12. Johns, C. (2000) Becoming A Refl ective Practitioner: A Refl ective and Holistic Approach to Clinical Nursing, Practice Development and Clinical Supervision. Oxford: Blackwell Science. Kenya Law (2010) The Constitution of Kenya, 2010. Nairobi: National Council for Law Reporting with the Authority of the Attorney-General. See http://kenyalaw.org/kl/ index.php?id=398. KICD (2016) Research Report and Draft Framework for Teacher Education in Kenya. Nairobi: KICD. KICD (2017) Basic Education Curriculum Framework. Nairobi: KICD. Kolb, D.A. (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as The Source of Learning and Development. Englewood Cliff s, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Lamichhane, K. (2016) Individuals with visual impairments teaching in Nepal’s mainstream schools: A model for inclusion. International Journal for Inclusive Education 20 (1), 16–31. Lillehaugen, B.D., Moats, G.E., Gillen, D., Peters, E. and Schwartz, R. (2014) A tactile IPA magnet-board system: A tool for blind and visually impaired student in phonetics and phonology classrooms. Language 90 (4), e274–e283.

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Mann, S. and Walsh, S. (2017) Refl ective Practice in English Language Teaching: Research-Based Principles and Practices. New York and Abingdon: Routledge Taylor & Francis. Ngumi, B.N. and Wachira, J.N. (2017) English module for PTE in-service programme. Unpublished manuscript. Playsted, S. (2019) Reflective practice to guide teacher learning: A practitioner’s journey with beginner adult English language learners. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research 7 (3), 37–52. Republic of Kenya (2019) The Persons with Disabilities (Amendment) Bill, 2019. Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 5 (Senate Bills No. 1). See http://www.parliament.go.ke/sites/ default/fi les/2019-02/The%20Persons%20with%20Disabilities%20%28Amendment %29%20Bill%2C%202019.pdf. Richards, J.C. (2006) Communicative Language Teaching Today. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D. and Jasper, M. (2001) Critical Refl ection in Nursing and the Helping Professions: A User’s Guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Schön, D.A. (1983) The Refl ective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. London: Temple Smith. Sumartini, P.M. (2018) Review of the book Research on Reflective Practice in TESOL by T.S.C. Farrell. TESOL in Context 27 (2), 75–77. Zwozdiak-Myers, P. (2012) The Teacher’s Refl ective Practice Handbook: Becoming an Extended Professional Through Capturing Evidence-Informed Practice. London & New York: Routledge.

13 Conclusion Darío Luis Banegas, Emily Edwards and Luis S. Villacañas de Castro

Introduction

How have teacher educators used research in these chapters? Which educational aims and goals did their research initiatives set out to fulfi l? What forms of teacher educator and student-teacher growth and professional development did they end up bringing forth, and how did these dynamics translate in terms of identity, autonomy, agency and pedagogical orientations? These are some of the questions that we wish to address at this point. Back in the Introduction, we followed John Dewey’s notion of growth to picture teacher professional development, generally speaking, as an ever-expanding spiral of internal and external transformation, one whereby teachers became more and more capable of creating situations that fostered growth for all those taking part in the educational endeavour (themselves included). Educators had to look inside themselves and into their environments in search of whatever internal or external, subjective or objective, material, immaterial or human resources might prove helpful when designing and enacting rich and meaningful situations. In teacher education contexts, this general goal implies studentteachers having to grow as students and teachers at the same time, a demand that is best met when teacher educators increasingly share with them responsibility for the materials, activities and forms of assessment that they include in their courses. From their freshman to their senior years and well into postgraduate or Master’s programmes, student-teachers have the right to experience their education shifting focus from the fi rst to the second of the terms that defi ne them (from students to teachers), as they are addressed more and more as professionals capable of setting aims and designing means for themselves, and assessing through research their own professional development. Teacher Educators and Growth

The chapters in this volume have shown that in pursuing the exemplary vision discussed above, teacher educators and student-teachers are bound to come up against decisive obstacles. The paradoxical coupling of 203

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traditional, over-theoretical approaches to teacher education with neoliberal, economically oriented understandings, added to the growing importance of online learning technologies, often coalesce into a narrow vision of (teacher) education that seems to be radically at odds with Dewey’s (1903) original view of teacher and student growth as the power to act intelligently in schools and other educational environments. Instead, teacher educators often have to face what Johnson and Hepworth (Chapter 3, this volume) aptly characterise in their contribution as ghostly human presences that barely make themselves noticeable on the screens of their computers. It is impossible to foresee any form of student growth or teacher professional development amid that horizon. Not surprisingly, Johnson and Hepworth, and Khurram in Chapter 7, try to realise aims that, from a strictly theoretical perspective, involve not so much achieving robust levels of teacher professional development as a minimum degree of student-teacher participation and engagement, which is actually its prerequisite. In accordance with the defi nition of teacher professional development sketched in the Introduction, all of the experiences shared in this volume tap into a wide range of material, immaterial and human resources that facilitate students’ and teacher educators’ agency. In some cases, new educational spaces (virtual or otherwise) were literally and directly constructed to give rise to novel formative experiences that depended, in turn, on teacher educators and student-teachers communicating with each other and socialising in unprecedented ways. Such was the case of the microteaching sessions that Tran introduced to his pre-service teachers in Chapter 2, or San Martín’s pre-practicum workshop as described in Chapter 5, or fi nally Huang’s decision to include two introductory sessions for his student-teachers to develop the small-scale practitioner inquiry projects (Chapter 6). All of these contexts enabled forms of socialisation that prefigure those found in veritable research networks and communities. On the other hand, at other times it was by making use of existing material resources that the authors succeeded in creating opportunities for teacher educator and student-teacher growth. Johnson and Hepworth were able to make the most of VoiceThread as a tool for online learning, while Sarasa (Chapter 8) brought intense changes to the teaching and learning environment by placing a wordless picture book at the heart of an experimental workshop around student-teacher identity and diversity. By contrast, other chapters show teacher educators drawing on conceptual resources from the educational literature, or even from the legal frameworks and documents of their institutions, using both to spark dynamics of professional development. In Chapter 4, for example, Vygotsky’s notions of double simulation and epistemic agency inspired Yang’s intervention encompassing theoretical and practical phases, while Huang in Chapter 6 devised ways to respond to Scotland’s re-conceptualisation of

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teachers as reflective practitioners and agents for change. In addition, other chapters show teacher educators reflecting and acting directly on their personal resources, on their attitudes and emotions, as a pre-eminent factor in initiating development spirals in educational contexts. Kiai’s narrative account of Kamweru, a visually impaired teacher educator working in Kenya (Chapter 12), is especially powerful in this regard. Yet so are Chapters 10 and 11 by Fajardo-Dack, Abad Célleri and Argudo Serrano, and Cuesta Medina and McDougald, on the importance of being able to express and receive empathy in order to sustain fruitful supervisor-supervisee relationships. Finally, Chapter 9 approaches teacher professional development through the lens of criticality. It shows that the processes discussed in this volume do not necessarily unfold through smooth, regular arches but often involve turning points and crises, and that educators must learn to manage those as well. More than this, Echeverri Sucerquia’s chapter conveys the idea that, on certain occasions at least, student-teacher growth and teacher professional development may not involve a smooth and efficient adaptation to the teaching and learning environment. The opposite might be true: teacher professional development may be dependent on abhorring those resources that one is bound to fi nd in the nearby surroundings, and hence on fi nding alternative concepts, materials or even people as sources of inspiration and empowerment. Educators might be able to develop only at the expense of transforming or creating a new world around them. As important as the varying degrees of teacher professional development that ensued from the experiences described in these chapters was that reflection on change itself became an intrinsic part of their subject matter. All of these contributions enact reflexivity as the awareness of the factors that impact teacher professional development by either expanding or contracting its upward spiral. As long as the contributors to this volume gained a deeper insight into these conditions or factors, their experiences hold promise for further growth and professional development. The following section analyses how this reflexive dimension dovetailed with different traditions of research, ranging from Farrell’s reflective practice to trio-ethnography, classroom-based research or visual narrative inquiry. Operationalisation of Teacher Research and Motivation for Contributing to this Volume

The chapters in this collection showcase teacher research in many forms, with the authors drawing on different models and frameworks to conceptualise their research and guide their research processes and (in many cases) also their pedagogical interventions or actions. The teacher educators are also agentive and adaptive in modifying research processes to suit their own situations, in particular a need perceived by many of

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them for greater collaboration and criticality, as well as deeper reflection. Not surprisingly, most of the studies have adopted an interventionist and reflective-evaluative model of research in order to help the teacher educators restructure, redesign or otherwise improve the language teacher education courses on which they teach. As such, the teacher educators appear to take a pragmatic and/or transformative approach to research – the former being a worldview that focuses on fi nding solutions to problems, adapting methods to suit their practical purpose, and the latter a perspective that prioritises action for social or political reform, hoping to effect change in the lives of the participants and more broadly (Creswell, 2014). Indeed, the chapter authors respond to a range of pragmatic stimuli that motivated their research studies, such as policy changes or frameworks at the national level (e.g. Yang, Chapter 4; Huang, Chapter 6), systematic course reviews (e.g. Tran, Chapter 2), previous student feedback (e.g. Johnson & Hepworth, Chapter 3), or their specific concerns about a course or student cohort (e.g. San Martín, Chapter 5; Khurram, Chapter 7). One example of the intervention-reflection/evaluation model is action research, as adopted by San Martín (Chapter 5) and Khurram (Chapter 7). Both authors reflect on the value of action research, with San Martín appreciating how it facilitates ‘collaborative systematic exploration’ (p. 84), while Khurram muses that it allowed her to bridge theory and practice by implementing and evaluating strategies from the literature in her own teaching. Another example of the intervention-evaluation model is exploratory practice, used by Johnson and Hepworth (Chapter 3). Exploratory practice is similar to action research in that an intervention can be trialled, but there is more focus on the notion of ‘puzzling’ (Allwright, 2005), that is, questioning and critically reflecting on, in their case, the continued disengagement of some students in online learning. Reflective practice can similarly be utilised as a tool for guiding an intervention, as evidenced in Tran’s chapter (Chapter 2) and use of Farrell’s (2015) reflective practice framework for this purpose. Adopting an approach more in line with transformation than pragmatism, Echeverri Sucerquia’s (Chapter 9) choice of critical inquiry as her teacher research methodology allows her to follow an ongoing and cyclical process of reflection that ‘strives for justice, freedom and equity’ (p. 139) in evaluating the strategies she has used in advising her research students over the years. Some of the other chapters operationalise teacher research in a less interventionist and more critical-reflexive form, seeking to understand and explore conceptualisations of teacher and teacher educator identity. For example, Kamweru and Kiai (Chapter 12) also draw on Farrell’s (2015) reflective practice framework, but use it as a tool for understanding how Kamweru’s philosophy of teaching has developed to shape her practice as a visually impaired teacher educator. Likewise, Fajardo Dark et al. (Chapter 10) use (tri)ethnography to reflect on the tensions and

Conclusion 207

negotiations involved in their journeys as supervisor-researchers. And while Sarasa’s narrative reflective practice study (Chapter 8) reports on a narrative activity (intervention) she introduced for her student-teachers, the focus in her chapter is very much on unpacking the conceptualisations of identity that arose from their practice. In each case, the model or framework of teacher research chosen by the teacher educators helps them to develop their identities as teacher educator-researchers in ways that align with their worldviews, pragmatic needs and, most likely (although not explicitly discussed), the institutional systems in which they work, to some extent. Interestingly though, despite their positions as university academics, all of the authors were clearly able to conduct pragmatic or transformative pedagogical research, drawing on classroom-based research methodologies that have perhaps (previously, or in certain contexts) been considered less favourably by neoliberal universities (see, for example, Barkhuizen, 2020). The chapters provide hope, therefore, that teacher educators, at least in some contexts, can be agentive in carving out space and value for self-inquiry and classroom-based research. On Teacher Educator Development

When we envisioned this volume, one of our aims was to understand the professional gains teacher educators see in conducting research, as discussed above, with their own students/future teachers. To calibrate our understanding of the contributors’ gains, we have organised them into interconnected areas: agency, identity, autonomy and language teacher education pedagogy. Teacher agency has attracted a great deal of attention in the field of language education. (e.g. Kayi-Aydar et al., 2019; Vitanova, 2018). In this volume, teacher educator agency is recognised as teacher educators’ ability ‘to engage purposefully in acts which they know, or believe, will have a particular quality or outcome, and use the knowledge of the act to achieve this quality or outcome’ (Pantić & Florian, 2015). Hence, teacher educator agency conflates teacher educators’ dialogic and relational sense of direction to set and achieve professional goals. These goals are planned according to teacher educators’ self-perceived capacity to plan and bring about change through regulated actions. The delineation of goals, plans and interventionist actions to achieve an intended outcome is influenced by teacher educators’ sense of self, i.e. their identity as professionals and individuals. Teacher educators who recognise themselves and are recognised as empowered and capable of exercising change may be more likely to understand their role and identity as agentive educators. As discussed elsewhere (Banegas & Gerlach, 2021), agency and identity operate on a synergistic plane as they influence each other and drive teacher educators forward to carry out new actions, drawing on what

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they have achieved and developed. As has been noted (Pantić, 2015; Pantić & Florian, 2015), there are four influential aspects of teacher agency: purpose, competence, autonomy and reflexivity. These aspects can foster or suspend teacher educators’ agency within the structures and systems in which they exercise their practice and deploy their professional identity. Judging by the nature and pedagogical dynamics underpinning the contributors’ chapters in this volume, the following assertions can be made: • • •

• •

The teacher educators positioned themselves as agentive educators, and they deployed their agency to mobilise changes in their own modules or programmes. The teacher educators had a clear sense of purpose for change, drawing on their acute awareness of their teaching context and student-teachers. The teacher educators recognised themselves as competent professionals by exhibiting disciplinary and pedagogical knowledge, contextual understanding and awareness of the complex forces that operate in future language teacher preparation. The teacher educators enjoyed different degrees of autonomy that allowed them to introduce changes in their practice and examine them. The teacher educators demonstrated a strong reflexive capacity to articulate practical professional knowledge and justify actions based on the research they conducted in their own practice.

The assertions made above reveal that the teacher educators as agents of change deployed a wide range of pedagogical and research skills that led to exploring informed decisions. Their reflexive and open attitude to change led them to introduce changes that would have a positive effect on the student-teachers’ experience. Furthermore, they carried out research autonomously to examine the extent to which their interventions became not only meaningful but also semiotic resources that would shape their professional development. For example, in Australia, Yang (Chapter 4) introduced digital technology to enhance student-teachers’ agency and discussion skills. Similarly, Tran (Chapter 2) engaged student-teachers in different collaborative tasks to support reflective practice. Or in Pakistan, Khurram (Chapter 7) carried out needs analysis to calibrate her practices to make her activities student-teacher centred. Their pedagogical and research decisions also reveal that they were able to carry them out because their programmes, student-teachers, and colleagues in some cases (e.g. San Martín in Chapter 5), acted as conduits that favoured the act of examining practice guided by different forms of teacher research as discussed above. A review of the contributor chapters shows that teacher educators’ professional development was enhanced, harnessed to two powerful and

Conclusion 209

interrelated areas: language teacher education pedagogy and researchsupported reflection. These two areas, as discussed in Fajardo-Dack et al. (Chapter 10) and San Martín (Chapter 5), have contributed to intensifying teacher educators’ identity as autonomous and empowered professionals. In relation to language teacher education pedagogy, the studies carried out allowed teacher educators to place student-teachers at the centre of their practice. Through exploration and intervention, teacher educator practice became inclusive and receptive of student-teacher diversity, needs and identity (e.g. Khurram, Chapter 7; Sarasa, Chapter 8; Fajardo-Dack et al., Chapter 10; Kamweru & Kiai, Chapter 12). The teacher educators’ decisions led to the enactment of a pedagogy of listening, i.e. a pedagogy that favours listening to others and ourselves to gather evidence of and make sense of teaching and learning experiences and insights (Low & Sonntag, 2013; Manyozo, 2016). In this volume, listening entailed becoming aware of student-teachers’ perceptions and experience with feedback, input, engagement and use of the literature (e.g. Huang, Chapter 6). Listening also entailed creating spaces and strategies, sometimes digitally mediated (e.g. Yang, Chapter 4; Johnson & Hepworth, Chapter 3) to enhance collaboration, i.e. listening among student-teachers, criticality and reflexivity. Hence, listening became a multi-directional act that made language teacher education pedagogy participatory and dynamic, and led to, as illustrated by Cuesta Medina and McDougald (Chapter 11), a stronger alignment between activities, assessment and feedback. Research-supported reflection constituted a central component of teacher educators’ professional development and a vital feature of language teacher education pedagogy. All the contributors converged on a plane where engagement in reflection led to research, or research led to reflection. Regardless of the direction taken, the chapters show how the teacher educators became self-aware and self-critical of their own practice (e.g. Huang, Chapter 6), and how their interest in systematising their reflections drove them to write the chapters included in this volume. Their reflections were shaped by their experience with research. As noted above, the teacher educators expanded their professional development by expanding their knowledge and practice of different forms of teacher research, such as reflective practice (Tran, Chapter 2), action research (San Martín, Chapter 5) or narrative inquiry (Sarasa, Chapter 8). In so doing, reflection was systematised through the examination of their own beliefs, practice, and their student-teachers’ experience. It is at this intersection that reflection, pedagogy and research operate in synergistic movements. The teacher educators’ interest in improving their practice due to their reflection developing in parallel led them to conduct research. Their research helped them make sense of their reflexivity and develop a praxis that enabled them to create inclusive and relevant learning experiences for future teachers.

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The Way Forward

This volume illustrates that teacher educators embrace teacher research as an ecological endeavour that will allow them to grow with others while examining their praxis. The undergirding motivational drive is a quest for professional development and the delivery of quality language teacher education provision, a delivery that is sensitive to the specific characteristics of student-teachers’ contexts and trajectories. In varying degrees, teacher educators’ quest for professional development through teacher research became a collegial and collective activity which involved their student-teachers and, to a lesser extent, colleagues and graduates. The chapters show that teacher research cannot be an activity that is carried out individually or without the inherent support of those who do language teacher education. By necessity, it is a social activity and, therefore, growth transects the world of language teacher education in multiple directions. Based on the lessons learnt and implications found across the chapters, we believe that the future of language teacher education lies in the creation of opportunities that allow teachers to talk more about their situated practices. Hence, more descriptive, reflective and empirical accounts are needed to understand what happens as part of everyday practice. We may need to have a fuller picture of what teacher educators do and how their decisions may shape their student-teachers’ identity and practices with their own learners. To respond to that aim, we can confidently assert that teacher research as a performative act of enacting self-directed professional development can support teachers. We need more teacher educators’ stories through their own voices. References Allwright, D. (2005) Developing principles for practitioner research: The case of exploratory practice. The Modern Language Journal 89 (3), 353–366. Banegas, D.L. and Gerlach, D. (2021) Critical language teacher education: A duoethnography of teacher educators’ identities and agency. System 98 (1), Art. 102474. Barkhuizen, G. (2020) Identity dilemmas of a teacher (educator) researcher: Teacher research versus academic institutional research. Educational Action Research 29 (3), 358–377. Creswell, J.W. (2014) Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches. London: Sage. Dewey, J. (1903) Democracy in education. The Elementary School Teacher 4 (4), 193–204. Farrell, T.S. (2015) Promoting Teacher Refl ection in Second Language Education: A Framework for TESOL Professionals. London: Routledge. Kayi-Aydar, H., Gao, X., Miller, E.R., Varghese, M. and Vitanova, G. (eds) (2019) Theorizing and Analyzing Language Teacher Agency. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Low, B.E. and Sonntag, E. (2013) Towards a pedagogy of listening: Teaching and learning from life stories of human rights violations. Journal of Curriculum Studies 45 (6), 768–789.

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Manyozo, L. (2016) The pedagogy of listening. Development in Practice 26 (7), 954–959. Pantić, N. (2015) A model for study of teacher agency for social justice. Teachers and Teaching 21 (6), 759–778. Pantić, N. and Florian, L. (2015) Developing teachers as agents of inclusion and social justice. Education Inquiry 6 (3), Art. 27311. Vitanova, G. (2018) ‘Just treat me as a teacher!’: Mapping language teacher agency through gender, race, and professional discourses. System 79, 28–37.

Index

academic writing 10, 32, 168, 170, 172, 174–178, 181–182 action research 3, 5–6, 8, 75, 90–93, 106, 136, 171, 175–177, 206, 209 assessment 18–20, 28–29, 45, 93, 96, 99, 115, 181, 194, 203, 209 autonomy 9, 87, 92, 99, 105–109, 114, 190, 200, 203, 207–208

diversity 9, 119–124, 126, 128–132, 147, 197, 204, 209 double stimulation 8, 51–55, 57, 64–67, 169 emotions 4, 8, 41, 46, 72–75, 77–81, 83–86, 137, 148, 205 English language teaching 119, 121, 131, 152, 170, 172 English language teachers 5, 9 English language teacher education (TESOL) 10, 36, 121, 130–131, 152, 168, 170–173, 185, 186–188, 191, 200 English language teacher educator 6, 10, 119, 131, 187–188, 200 engagement 5–6, 9, 21, 44, 57, 64, 66, 74, 93, 96, 99, 104–108, 110–114, 137, 142, 159, 167, 177, 196, 199, 204, 209 student-teacher engagement 9, 74, 104–106, 108, 113–114 student engagement 104–108, 111, 113–115 epistemic agency 8, 52–54, 57, 59–60, 63–67, 204 ethnography 10, 151, 155–156 trioethnography 10, 155–156, 205–206 exploratory practice 6–7, 31–32, 37, 39, 45, 206

beliefs 6, 8, 13, 16, 21–22, 26, 46, 72–79, 82–86, 90, 101, 135, 143–144, 148, 155, 162, 168, 187–189, 192, 209 changes in belief 6, 83, 85 emotions and beliefs 8, 72–75, 78–79, 84–86 beliefs about teaching 8, 21–22, 73–77, 90, 144 assumptions and beliefs 16, 21–22, 26, 143, 188 beliefs on/about the practicum 73, 77–78, 83, 85–86 inhibitive beliefs 74, 78, 82, 85 competence 9, 67, 80, 90, 105, 107–108, 110–112, 114, 141, 143, 168, 170, 172–173, 175–176, 178–179, 200, 208 research competence(s) 170, 172, 175 co-researchers 10, 174, 180–182 criticality 16, 205, 209 critical awareness 141, 147 critical consciousness 9, 135–139, 141–143, 146–149 critical pedagogy 135–136, 138, 141–142, 169, 173 curriculum 3, 52, 54, 60, 77, 91–92, 94, 101, 106, 119, 122, 131, 141, 147, 179, 185, 188, 200 curriculum development 92

identity 1, 5–6, 9, 15, 17, 21, 25, 28, 47, 75, 92, 119–124, 128–132, 141, 144, 149, 152–153, 159, 162, 167, 203–204, 206–210 student-teacher identity 204, 210 teacher educator identity 5, 206–209

212

Index

teacher identity 15, 21, 25, 75, 92, 119, 167 researcher identity 152, 159, 162, 164 supervisor identity 159, 162 mentor 1, 6, 73, 94, 154, 173–174, 177, 180–181, 185, 187, 190, 199, 201 mentoring 77, 123, 130, 167–169, 173–177, 182, 188 mentorship 192 micro-teaching 7, 14–15, 18–21, 23–24 modern languages student-teachers 8, 89, 93–94, 97 narrative pedagogy 119–120, 122, 131 online learning 32, 43, 62, 204, 206 distance learning 7, 31, 33–35, 40, 44–45 oral skills (teaching) 10, 193, 195 participation 7, 9–10, 31, 33–35, 38, 40–45, 107, 109, 111, 152, 162, 181, 199, 204 philosophy of teaching 7, 10, 15, 21, 26–27, 186, 188–189, 206 philosophy of education 2, 15 praxis 9–10, 15, 131, 133, 135–139, 141–142, 147, 209–210 practicum 1, 8, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 72–86, pre-practicum workshop 8, 75, 78, 204 practitioner enquiry 8–9, 89–93 professional development 2–7, 11, 19, 33, 77, 87, 106, 121, 131, 136, 140, 151–152, 155–159, 162–164, 169, 186, 199–200, 203–205, 208–210

213

professional learning 1, 8, 53, 89–95, 97, 99–101 professional dialogue 94–95, 100–101 reflective practice 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13–15, 17–18, 19, 53, 72, 75, 84–85, 92–93, 121, 186, 205–209, relatedness 90, 105, 107, 109–110, 113–114 scaffolding 1, 7, 9, 27, 92, 101, 136–139, 141, 146, 148, 173–174, 178–179, 182, 192, 198 student-teachers 1, 3–4 supervision process 3, 10, 112, 152–154, 156–160, 162–164 teacher education (initial) 67, 90–91, 93, 96, 98–100 teaching practice 28, 72, 75, 78, 80, 84, 119, 131, 133, 139, 143, 148, 159, 161–164, 168, 170, 173–178, 180–182 teaching research 10, 169 technology for language teaching 51, 54, 56, 60, 62, 64, 67, 200–201, 208 technology in teacher education 34, 36, 42, 43, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 59, 65, 66, 67, 78, 168, 188 tutoring 75, 140, 175, 177, 181 peer-tutoring 8, 75, 78 visual impairment 11, 191, 193, 194, 199 visual narrative inquiry 9, 119, 120, 122, 131–133, 205