Collaborative Discussion Circles: A Path towards Critical Language Teacher Development

Subject Areas : آموزش زبان انگلیسی

مهرشاد  احمدیان ¹ (گروه زبان انگلیسی، دانشکده زبان و ادبیات، واحد علوم و تحقیقات، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، تهران، ایران)
پرویز  مفتون ² (گروه زبان انگلیسی، دانشکده زبان و ادبیات، واحد علوم و تحقیقات، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، تهران، ایران)
پرویز  بیرجندی ³ (گروه زبان انگلیسی، دانشکده زبان و ادبیات، واحد علوم و تحقیقات، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، تهران، ایران)

Received: 2021-07-31 Accepted : 2021-07-31 Published : 2020-08-01

Keywords: Teacher Education, ELT, Postmethod pedagogy, Freirean pedagogy, reflective action,

Abstract :

The advent of postmethod pedagogy has completely changed today's conceptualization of language teachers, and the importance of powerful teaching has increasingly gained momentum in the field of TESOL. However, contemporary English language teaching contexts suffer a dearth of a workable package to educate the much-needed autonomous postmethod language teachers who are able to have their own contextualized praxis. As such, the present research aims to nurture the required self-growth and self-development in language teachers through forming collaborative professional and critical discussion circles. Enjoying a mixed method research design whose quantitative section included a quasi-experimental design consisting of three phases--a pretest, an educational 12-week long treatment phase, and a posttest--the results of the study gained by two instruments, namely, the reflective teaching questionnaire developed by Akbari et al. (2010) and two similar language teaching episodes, bore witness to the significant changes in the level of reflectiveness of all 13 language teachers who partook in these discussion circles. Developmentally speaking, participating language teachers were found to initiate the whole process, direct it, and finally evaluate the new experiences further along the road. Hence the ideals of teacher development, self-growth and personal development, were accomplished through the study.

References:

Akbari, R. (2008a). Postmethod discourse and practice. TESOL Quarterly, 42(4), 641-652. doi: 10.1002/j.1545-7249.2008.tb00152.x

Akbari, R. (2008b). Transforming lives: Introducing critical pedagogy into ELT classrooms. ELT Journal, 62(3), 276-283. doi:10.1093/elt/ccn025

Akbari, R., Behzadpoor, F., & Dadvand B. (2010). Development of English language teaching reflection inventory. System, 38, 211-227. doi:10.1016/j.system.2010.03.003

Atay, D. (2004). Collaborative dialogue with student teachers as a follow-up to teacher in-service education and training. Language Teaching Research, 8(2), 143-162. doi: 10.1191/1362168804lr138oa

Benade, L. (2009). Linking Freire’s pedagogy of freedom, the notion of an ethical teacher professionality, and the New Zealand curriculum. Retrieved from http:// www2.hawaii.edu/~pesaconf/zpdfs/18benade.pdf

Bercaw, L. A., & Stooksberry, L. M. (2004). Teacher education, critical pedagogy, and standards: An exploration of theory and practice. Essays in Education, 12. Retrieved from http://www.usca.edu/Essays/.../Bercaw.pdf‎

Blair, A. M. (2012). Who do you think you are? Investigating the multiple identities of speakers of other languages teaching English (Unpublished PhD thesis). University of Sussex, Sussex, United Kingdom.

Can, N. (2012). Post-method pedagogy: Teacher growth behind walls. Proceedings of the 10th METU ELT Convention. Retreived from http://dbe.metu.edu.tr/convention/proceedingsweb/Pedagogy.pdf‎

Daniels, H. (2001). Vygotsky and pedagogy. London: Routledge Falmer.

Farrell, T. (1998). Reflective teaching: The principles and practices. Retrieved from http://eca.state.gov/forum/vols/vol36/no4/p10.htm

Farrell, T. (2001). Critical friendships: Colleagues helping each other develop. ELT Journal, 55(4), 368–374. doi:10.1093/elt/55.4.368

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.

Freire, P. (1998). Pedagogy of freedom: Ethics, democracy, and civic courage. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.

Grant, C. A., & Zeichner, K. M. (1989). On becoming a reflective teacher. Retrieved from http://www.wou.edu/~girodm/foundations/Grant_and_Zeichner.pdf

Hawkins, M., & Norton, B. (2009). Critical language teacher education. In A. Burns & J. Richards (Eds.), Cambridge guide to second language teacher education (pp. 30-39). Cambridge: CUP.

Johnston, B. (2003). Values in English language teaching. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers.

Kumaravadivelu, B. (1994). The postmethod condition: (E)merging strategies for second/foreign language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 28(1), 27–48. doi:10.2307%2F3587197

Kumaravadivelu, B. (2001). Toward a postmethod pedagogy. TESOL Quarterly, 35(4), 537-60. doi:10.2307%2F3588427

Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003a). Beyond methods: Macrostrategies for language teaching. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003b). A postmethod perspective on English language teaching. World Englishes, 22, 539-550. doi:10.1111%2Fj.1467-971X.2003.00317.x

Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006a). Understanding language teaching: From method to post-method. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers.

Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006b). TESOL methods: Changing tracks, challenging trends. TESOL Quarterly, 40(1), 59-81.doi:10.2307%2F40264511

Mann, S. (2005). The language teacher's development. Language Teaching, 38, 103–118. doi:10.1017/S0261444805002867

Ohata, K. (2007). Teacher development or training? Recent developments in second/foreign language teacher education. Language Research Bulletin, 22. Retrieved from http://web.icu.ac.jp/lrb/vol_22/Kota%20LRB%20V22.pdf

Pollard, A. (2008). Reflective teaching: Effective and evidence informed practice (2^nd ed.). London: Continuum.

Richards, J. C. (1990). The language teaching matrix. Cambridge: CUP. 

Richards, J. C. (1991). Towards reflective teaching. The Teacher Trainer, 5(3), 4-8.

Richards, J. C. (1998). Beyond training. Cambridge: CUP.

Richards, J., & Farrell, T. (2005). Professional development for language teachers: strategies for teacher learning. Cambridge: CUP.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language (A. Kozulin, Ed.). Cambridge: MIT Press.

Zeichner, K. M., (1983). Alternative paradigms on teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 34(3), 3-9.

Zeichner, K. M., & Liston, D. P. (1987). Teaching student teachers to reflect. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1), 23-48.