Mindful L2 Teacher Education

A Sociocultural Perspective on Cultivating Teachers' Professional Development

Karen E. Johnson, Paula R. Golombek

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317280026
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: English Language
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Taking a Vygotskian sociocultural stance, this book demonstrates the meaningful role that L2 teacher educators and L2 teacher education play in the professional development of L2 teachers through systematic, intentional, goal-directed, theorized L2 teacher education pedagogy. The message is resoundingly clear: Teacher education matters! It empirically documents the ways in which engagement in the practices of L2 teacher education shape how teachers come to think about and enact their teaching within the sociocultural contexts of their learning-to-teach experiences. Providing an insider's look at L2 teacher education pedagogy, it offers a close up look at teacher educators who are skilled at moving L2 teachers toward more theoretically and pedagogically sound instructional practices and greater levels of professional expertise.

First, the theoretical foundation and educational rationale for exploring what happens inside the practices of L2 teacher education are established. These theoretical concepts are then used to conduct microgenetic analyses of the moment-to-moment, asynchronous, and at-a-distance dialogic interactions that take place in five distinct but sometimes overlapping practices that the authors have designed, repeatedly implemented, and subsequently collected data on in their own L2 teacher education programs. Responsive mediation is positioned as the nexus of mindful L2 teacher education and proposed as a psychological tool for teacher educators to both examine and inform the ways in which they design, enact, and assess the consequences of their own L2 teacher education pedagogy.

Part I Laying the foundation for Mindful L2 teacher education

1 A sociocultural perspective on L2 teacher education

DOI: 10.4324/9781315641447-1

Introduction

This book is about what happens inside the practices of L2 teacher education. By practices, we mean the activities in which teachers and teacher educators engage within L2 teacher education programs. Our interest in these practices is not so much with the practices themselves, but what we, as teacher educators, are attempting to accomplish through these practices, how we go about accomplishing our goals through the quality and character of our interactions with teachers, and most importantly, what our teachers are learning as they engage in these practices. We are deeply committed to seeing the ways in which engagement in the practices of L2 teacher education influence how teachers come to think about and interact with their students and the ways in which teachers come to understand both the scope and impact of their teaching. We believe that it is inside the practices of L2 teacher education, both the ‘moment-to-moment’ interactions (oral and written) between teacher educators and teachers as well as the assignments and activities that teacher educators ask teachers to engage in, perhaps face-to-face but many times ‘at-a-distance,’ where teacher educators can best see, support, and enhance the professional development of L2 teachers. By exploring these interactions as they unfold and within the sociocultural contexts in which they occur, we, as teacher educators, not only open ourselves up for closer scrutiny, but we also hold ourselves accountable to the teachers with whom we work and, of course, the L2 students they teach. Our goal in writing this book is to highlight the unique contributions that teacher educators and teacher education can make in cultivating L2 teachers’ professional development. We firmly believe that learning to teach should not be a process of ‘discovery learning’ or ‘learning by doing,’ but rather learning that is intentional, deliberate, and goal-directed by expert teacher educators who are skilled at moving teachers toward more theoretically and pedagogically sound instructional practices and greater levels of professional expertise. ¹

A sociocultural perspective on teacher learning

It will come as no surprise to readers of our previously published work ² that our epistemological stance on teacher learning is grounded in Vygotskian sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978, 1981, 1986). Representing a coherent theory of mind, we take seriously Vygotsky’s conceptualization of the development of human cognition as inherently social; that is, it emerges out of participation in external forms of social interaction that become internalized psychological tools for thinking (internalization). We acknowledge Vygotsky’s claim that this transformation, from external (interpsychological) to internal (intrapsychological), is not direct, but mediated. In fact, we see the dialogic interactions that unfold in the practices of L2 teacher education as the very external forms of social interaction and activities that we hope, as teacher educators, will become internalized psychological tools for teacher thinking, enabling our teachers to construct and enact theoretically and pedagogically sound instructional practices for their L2 students. Moreover, our Vygotskian sociocultural stance is a transformative model of the human mind, since Vygotsky argued that individuals transform what is appropriated for their own purposes and in/for particular contexts of use. It does not represent an apprenticeship or reproduction model of the human mind. Rather, we recognize individuals as actors in and on the social situations in which they are embedded, being both shaped by and shaping the social situations of cognitive development. Thus, psychological processes are at the same time both socially derived—embedded within the historical practices of a culture—and individually unique. For L2 teachers, this means that they are shaped in and through their experiences as learners, the cultural practices of teacher education, and the particulars of their teaching context, all embedded within larger sociocultural histories yet appropriated in individual ways.

With that said, we know from our more than two decades of working with L2 teachers that the Vygotskian notion of internalization, that is, from external (interpsychological) to internal (intrapsychological), does not happen independently or automatically. In fact, decades of public lament has chided the lack of lasting impact that teacher education programs have on moving teachers beyond teaching the way they were taught when they were students or implementing what they learn in their teacher education programs in the classrooms and schools where they eventually work (Ball & Forzani, 2010; Cochran-Smith, Feiman-Nemser, & McIntyre 2008; Edwards & D’Arcy, 2004; Kennedy, 2008). We recognize that developing L2 teacher/teaching expertise takes prolonged and sustained participation in the social practices of both becoming and being a L2 teacher. Yet, in line with our Vygotskian sociocultural stance, we see teacher education programs (school learning) as the ideal venue for the systematic learning of L2 teaching through intentional, well-organized instruction. Vygotsky proposed that learning in the everyday world emerges out of common, concrete activities and immediate social interactions resulting in everyday concepts, a kind of unconscious, empirical knowledge that may actually be incorrect or misinformed. School learning, involving what Vygotsky called academic (scientific) concepts, ³ a more systematic and generalized knowledge, enables learners to think in ways that transcend their everyday experiences. Obvious parallels can be made between Lortie’s (1975) apprenticeship of observation as learning about teaching in the everyday world of being a student and school learning as instantiated in the content and processes of L2 teacher education programs. In essence, teacher education is designed to expose teachers to relevant academic concepts that once internalized will enable them to overcome their everyday notions, possible misconceptions, of what it means to be a teacher, how to teach, and how to support student learning. Interestingly, Vygotsky did not privilege academic concepts over everyday concepts since he argued that neither is sufficient for a child to become fully self-regulated. In fact, in his critique of formal schooling he claimed that the “direct teaching of concepts is impossible and fruitless. A teacher who tries to do this usually accomplishes nothing but empty verbalism, a parrot like repetition of words by the child, simulating a knowledge of the corresponding concepts but actually covering up a vacuum” (Vygotsky, 1986, p. 150). Instead, he argued that the goal of concept development is for academic concepts and everyday concepts to become united into true concepts; an academic concept “gradually comes down to concrete phenomena” and an everyday concept “goes from the phenomenon upward toward generalizations” (p. 148). The internalization of true concepts through formal schooling has several significant outcomes for teachers. Initially, true concepts help to transform teachers’ tacit knowledge and beliefs acquired through their schooling histories, enabling them to rethink what they thought they knew about teachers, teaching, and student learning. When teachers begin to use true concepts as tools for thinking (psychological tools), they begin to see classroom life and the activities of teaching/learning through new theoretical lenses. Likewise, when teachers think in concepts (Karpov, 2003), they are able to reason about and enact their teaching effectively and appropriately in various instructional situations, for different pedagogical purposes, and are able to articulate theoretically sound reasons for doing so.

Although not drawing on Vygotskian sociocultural theory, a similar argument has been made in general educational research by Kennedy (1999) who characterizes ‘expertise’ in teaching as emerging out of the ways in which teachers make sense of ‘expert’ knowledge, or knowledge that is propositional, written down, codified in textbooks, and publicly accepted as a principled way of understanding phenomena within a particular discourse community (academic concepts), and their own ‘craft’ or ‘experiential’ knowledge that emerges through their own lived experiences as learners (everyday concepts). As teachers begin to link this ‘expert’ knowledge to their own ‘experiential’ knowledge, they tend to reframe the way they describe and interpret their lived experience. These new understandings enable them to reorganize their experiential knowledge and this reorganization creates a new lens through which they interpret their understandings of themselves and their classroom practices. Thus, ‘expertise’ has a great deal of experiential knowledge in it, but it is organized around and transformed through ‘expert’ knowledge. From this perspective, teacher learning is clearly not the straightforward internalization of ‘expert’ knowledge from the outside in. Instead, teachers populate ‘expert’ knowledge with their own intentions, in their own voices, and create instruction that is meaningful for their own objectives (A.F. Ball, 2000). This, others have argued, positions teachers not as passive recipients of theory but as active users and producers of theory in their own right, for their own means, and as appropriate for their own instructional contexts (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993).

Teacher education, whether for beginning or experienced teachers, may be the only occasion when the learning of teaching is the result of the kind of systematic, intentional, well-organized instruction that embodies the range of psychological tools that will enable teachers to enact theoretically and pedagogically sound instructional practices and thus develop greater levels of teacher/teaching expertise. We contend that the quality and character of the mediation that emerges in the practices of L2 teacher education plays a pivotal role in enabling teachers to come to understand their everyday concepts concerning teaching/learning through relevant academic concepts concerning language, language learning, and language teaching, thereby enriching the academic through the everyday, and building the capacity to think in and act through true concepts as they develop L2 teacher/teaching expertise.

We also recognize that the extent to which engagement in the practices of L2 teacher education will become internalized psychological tools for teacher thinking depends, in large part, on the agency and motives of our teachers and the affordances and constraints embedded within our and their professional worlds (Feryok, 2012). Therefore, in order to understand what happens inside the practices of L2 teacher education more fully, we need to look at the social/professional worlds from which teachers and teacher educators have come and now operate in. To do so, we draw on Freeman and Johnson’s (1998) notions of schools and schooling to tease out the social influences of both settings and processes in the learning and doing of L2 teaching. Accordingly, we recognize schools as the physical and sociocultural settings in which learning-to-teach, teaching, and learning take place. Schooling, on the other hand, represents the sociocultural and historical processes that take place in schools over time. Combined, schools and schooling create and sustain certain meanings and values, representing the sociocultural terrain in which the work of teaching is thought about, carried out, and evaluated. Similar to Freeman and Johnson’s original argument, the dialogic interactions that emerge in the practices of L2 teacher education cannot be understood apart from the sociocultural environments in which they take place and the processes of establishing and navigating the social values in which these practices are embedded (see also Edwards, 2010). It is against this backdrop that we explore what happens inside the practices in L2 teacher education.

Our view of second language teacher education

We recognize that the particular parameters of any L2 teacher education practice will no doubt reflect a particular view of what second language education is supposed to be about, including the dispositions, or habits of mind, for what constitutes good L2 teaching. Thus, by design, these parameters impart this view on learners of L2 teaching through direct social interactions (teacher–teacher educator interaction) and cultural artifacts (theory and research, i.e., academic concepts instantiated in books, articles, curricular materials, assessments), and through the internalization of ways of talking about language, teaching, learning, and students that represent this particular view. In fact, our Vygotskian sociocultural stance requires that we take stock of our own theoretical orientation to L2 education and the professional development of L2 teachers. Vygotsky was quite clear that formal education must engage with what matters in society, and that education itself implies transmitting something that is worthwhile, socially valued, and culturally significant. Indeed, we feel it is imperative to articulate what we believe to be informed habits of mind, productive instructional concepts and practices that support student language learning, and the particular view of L2 teaching that we expect our teachers to internalize and enact in the L2 classroom.

As teacher educators, our particular practices are imbued with values that position second language education as, in essence, providing language learners with a repertoire of semiotic resources for how to be and how to mean in the L2 world (Byrnes, 2012; Kramsch, 2014). Through theoretical learning in L2 teacher education, we likewise are providing a repertoire for how to be and how to mean in the L2 teaching world. Therefore, our theoretical orientation toward language, language teaching, and the learning of language teaching positions social interaction and meaning as central. We believe teachers, as well as the L2 learners they teach, develop through the mediation of others, as Vygotsky’s often quoted phrase suggests, “through others, we become ourselves” (1931/1997, p. 105). Moreover, we view L2 teacher/teaching expertise as the development of what Johnson (1999) calls reasoning teaching, defined as

the complex ways in which teachers conceptualize, construct explanations for, and respond to the social interactions and shared meanings that exist within and among teachers, students, parents, and administrators, both inside and outside the classroom. Simply put, reasoning teaching reflects the complex ways in which teachers figure out how to teach a particular topic, with a particular group of students, at a particular time, in a particular classroom, within a particular school. (p. 1)

By fostering reasoning teaching through our particular practices, we hope to address the time, experience, and interactional constraints inherent in any instructional context. Reasoning teaching, as a form of teacherly thinking (Golombek, 2011), is very much in line with Edwards’ (2010) notion of promoting “resourceful teaching for resourceful learning” (p. 72), an educational stance that involves much more than the delivery of curriculum or the acquisition of skills, including the building of teacher agency by strengthening teachers’ knowledge of and ability to manipulate a repertoire of linguistic, cultural, pedagogical, and interactional resources that enable them to support productive student learning. And we believe that the development of L2 teacher/teaching expertise is best accomplished through high quality mediational activities with expert teacher educators engaged in the practices of L2 teacher education.

Before we move on, what we mean by ‘teachers’ in this book needs some elaboration. We recognize that our own BA and MA TESOL programs typically cater to pre-service teachers since the majority who enroll are often newcomers to L2 teaching and the university settings in which our academic departments are situated. However, we note that a significant number of our teachers have extensive L2 teaching experience, draw on multilingual resources, and have had an array of international and intercultural experiences. Many of our teacher...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Frontmatter 1
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Notes on Transcriptions
• PART I LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR MINDFUL L2 TEACHER EDUCATION
• PART II VYGOTSKY AND VYGOTSKIAN-INSPIRED THEORETICAL CONCEPTS THAT INFORM RESPONSIVE MEDIATION
• PART III EXPLORING RESPONSIVE MEDIATION IN L2 TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
• PART IV MINDFUL L2 TEACHER EDUCATION
• Index