Patching the ‘leaky pipeline’: improving FSL teacher retention by re-conceptualizing teacher professional learning (original) (raw)
Related papers
2017
This study examined Ukrainian language teacher notions, attitudes, feelings, and experiences related to participation in informal online Communities of Practice (CoPs) as an alternative means of professional learning. Findings from samples in Canada and Ukraine indicate opportunities for, and some challenges to, professional learning within virtual (online, Web-based) communities. In addition to traditional data collection methods, the study involved a novel case study analysis of two focus groups (4-6 teachers each), one in Lviv, Ukraine, which was physically co-located, and another in Edmonton, Alberta, conducted using the Adobe Connect online meeting platform. Group members in each city participated in a Repertory Grid activity, the aim of which was for participants to move towards consensus on elements and constructs they felt characterize informal online CoP experiences for professional learning-itself an exercise in communitybuilding (Gaines & Shaw, 2012b). A theoretical framework was developed to guide the investigation, called the "Autonomous Learning Framework for Informal Online CoPs (ALFIO-CoPs)," which helps to elucidate knowledge creation in informal online inquiry communities. The framework was used to address some of the factors which influence the broader informal online CoP experience for personally meaningful professional learning. The Ukrainian language teachers involved in this investigation strongly approved of the informal online CoP for professional learning, some even suggesting that it is the only distinct form of alternative online professional learning, while viewing other online networks and groups as more casual or personal in nature. As professionals, they recognized that emotional self-efficacy, technological self-efficacy, and technological pedagogy are uniquely supported in these communities, owing to such factors as community self-determination, mentorship, apprenticeship, and the ubiquity of the learning experience. Nonetheless, other factors, such as awareness of this form of professional learning, Internet access, time commitment, praxis issues, and professional recognition of the community experience were among the challenges to participation identified by the teachers involved in the study, and which warrant further research.
Language teacher professional education: The role of peer-to-peer learning in online environments
International Journal for Innovation Education and Research, 2021
This article provides a theoretical discussion regarding the implications of peer-to-peer learning in online environments for language teacher professional learning and second language academic literacy. It approaches the use of technology as means to enhance prospective teachers' cognition and metacognition skills and to foster their language learning, as Language Teacher Education programs usually fulfill a twofold purpose: to learn the language itself and to learn how to teach it as a foreign language. In order to arrive at these implications, it presents a grounded discussion on sociocultural perspective within L2 teacher education, teachers' beliefs, and mediation in the sociocultural perspective. The discussion reinforces the significance of peer-activities (peer-observation and peer-feedback) to foster a teacher development process. Moreover, it suggests that a guided peer-activity, such as employing the use of carefully elaborated rubrics, could enhance this process.
2015
An online community of practice (OCoP) is a group of people, who are brought together by a shared interest and with the aim of deepening their understanding of an area of knowledge through regular interactions facilitated by computer mediated communication (CMC) tools. In response to critiques of current professional development (PD) approaches such as workshops and cascade training which are conducted in short periods of time allowing for only limited follow up and feedback opportunities, OCoPs can be beneficial and a viable alternative for teacher PD. This is because an OCoP potentially provides teachers with those elements of effective PD, cited in the literature, such as; collaboration, opportunities for mentoring, and sustainability over time. However, research on adopting an OCoP approach for teacher PD has been limited. Therefore, conducted within the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching, the present study aimed to 1) investigate EFL teachers’ PD in learnin...
Reframing FSL Teacher Learning: Small Stories of (Re)Professionalization and Identity Formation
Journal of Belonging, Identity, Language, and Diversity (J-BILD)/ Revue de langage, d'identité, de diversité et d'appartenance (R-LIDA) , 2018
French as a second language (FSL) teacher flight in Canada has become a serious issue, endangering the health of existing FSL programs (Masson, Larson, Desgroseilliers, Carr, & Lapkin, in press). One way to address FSL teacher retention and well-being is to develop a model for professional learning rooted in a sociocultural approach to (re)position teachers as active learners as a means to reclaim their agency. This case study describes the formation of two core French teachers' professional identities over four years in a teacher-led Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) network. Positioning analysis of the teachers' small story narratives reveals the strategies they used to (re)negotiate their professional selves in the CSCL network. The teachers' success developing a strong professional identity was linked to the validation they received for their learning experiences in the network, developing deep ties to their communities and to other teacher-professionals in the CSCL network. This paper discusses how (re)imagining FSL teacher professional learning through a sociocultural lens can have a significant impact on addressing issues of retention and well-being in the profession. RÉSUMÉ. Le taux de renoncement des enseignants de français langue seconde (FLS) met en péril la santé des programmes de FLS actuels (Masson et al., in press). Un moyen d'améliorer la rétention et le bien-être des enseignants de FLS consiste à développer un modèle de développement professionnel basé sur des théories socioculturelles qui (re)positionnent les enseignants en tant qu'apprenants actifs dotés d'agentivité. Cette étude de cas suit le développement identitaire de deux enseignantes de français cadre, qui ont participé dans un réseau d'apprentissage collaboratif en ligne (ACEL) où elles ont géré elles-mêmes leur apprentissage professionnel pendant quatre ans. L'analyse de positionnement des « petites histoires » des enseignantes montre qu'elles ont pu (re)négocier leur statut professionnel dans le réseau d'ACEL. La construction identitaire professionnelle réussie des enseignantes s'attribue à la validation et le soutien qu'elles ont reçu dans le réseau pendant leurs expériences d'apprentissage, ainsi que les liens profonds qu'elles ont su développer dans leurs communautés professionnelles scolaires et avec d'autres enseignantes dans le réseau d'ACEL. Cette recherche suggère que la (ré)invention de l'apprentissage professionnel des enseignants de FLS sous un angle socioculturel peut avoir un impact important pour remédier à leur rétention et à leur bien-être dans cette profession.
2017
This study examined Ukrainian language teacher notions, attitudes, feelings, and experiences related to participation in informal online Communities of Practice (CoPs) as an alternative means of professional learning. Findings from samples in Canada and Ukraine indicate opportunities for, and some challenges to, professional learning within virtual (online, Web-based) communities. In addition to traditional data collection methods, the study involved a novel case study analysis of two focus groups (4-6 teachers each), one in Lviv, Ukraine, which was physically co-located, and another in Edmonton, Alberta, conducted using the Adobe Connect online meeting platform. Group members in each city participated in a Repertory Grid activity, the aim of which was for participants to move towards consensus on elements and constructs they felt characterize informal online CoP experiences for professional learning-itself an exercise in communitybuilding (Gaines & Shaw, 2012b). A theoretical framework was developed to guide the investigation, called the "Autonomous Learning Framework for Informal Online CoPs (ALFIO-CoPs)," which helps to elucidate knowledge creation in informal online inquiry communities. The framework was used to address some of the factors which influence the broader informal online CoP experience for personally meaningful professional learning. The Ukrainian language teachers involved in this investigation strongly approved of the informal online CoP for professional learning, some even suggesting that it is the only distinct form of alternative online professional learning, while viewing other online networks and groups as more casual or personal in nature. As professionals, they recognized that emotional self-efficacy, technological self-efficacy, and technological pedagogy are uniquely supported in these communities, owing to such factors as community self-determination, mentorship, apprenticeship, and the ubiquity of the learning experience. Nonetheless, other factors, such as awareness of this form of professional learning, Internet access, time commitment, praxis issues, and professional recognition of the community experience were among the challenges to participation identified by the teachers involved in the study, and which warrant further research.
Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 15 (2) 143-157, 2006
Educational authorities in many developed countries are funding the development of online environments that aim to facilitate teacher professional learning through collegial, reflective sharing of practice. But is this a case of ‘if we build it they will come’? Are teachers ready to share ideas and experiences in online communities of practice to enhance their professional learning? This article examines the experiences of teachers and school leaders who participated in a pilot online environ- ment created to support teacher professional learning and it identifies factors that facilitated use of the online environment and factors that acted as a deterrent to use. The article identifies three key sets of conditions that deter teachers’ use of online communities as a model for professional learn- ing. These include a lack of perceived commonality of purpose; an underdeveloped culture of shared, critical reflection about practice; and lack of familiarity and experience amongst teachers in using computer-mediated communications tools as part of their regular practice.
YELL/TELL: online community platform for teacher professional development
CALL communities and culture – short papers from EUROCALL 2016, 2016
The community platform Young/Teen English Language Learners (YELL/ TELL), as mentioned by Bortoluzzi and Marenzi (2014) was "developed to respond to the needs of collaboration and sharing among trainee teachers, school teachers, teacher trainers and researchers in the field of language learning for English [as a Foreign or Second Language (FL/SL)]" (p.182). The current study focuses on ethnographic observation and data gathered during a workshop for professional development organised for experienced teachers. We compare the evidence of the teachers' actions, with the analysis of their perception about their professional use of the online environment and their critical reflection about the experience.
Language teacher professional education
International Journal for Innovation Education and Research, 2021
This article provides a theoretical discussion regarding the implications of peer-to-peer learning in online environments for language teacher professional learning and second language academic literacy. It approaches the use of technology as means to enhance prospective teachers’ cognition and metacognition skills and to foster their language learning, as Language Teacher Education programs usually fulfil a twofold purpose: to learn the language itself and to learn how to teach it as a foreign language. In order to arrive at these implications, it presents a grounded discussion on sociocultural perspective within L2 teacher education, teachers’ beliefs, and mediation in the sociocultural perspective. The discussion reinforces the significance of peer-activities (peer-observation and peer-feedback) to foster a teacher development process. Moreover, it suggests that a guided peer-activity, such as employing the use of carefully elaborated rubrics, could enhance this process.
The Use of Digital Tools in French as a Second Language Teacher Education in Ontario
TESL CANADA JOURNAL/REVUE TESL DU CANADA, 2023
This article discusses a 2021 survey of French as a second language (FSL) teacher candidates (TCs) in faculties of education in Ontario whose practice teaching experiences were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, pivoting them into remote FSL teaching and learning. The survey, which formed a component of a larger mixed method SSHRC-funded research project, was designed to capture the varied practice-teaching experiences of FSL teacher candidates in order to ascertain symmetries and asymmetries in their preferred digital practices, devices, and tools for both social communication and French language teaching and learning. Survey respondents from different teacher education programs in universities across Ontario provided a picture of scattered and fragmented approaches to FSL digital pedagogies and hinted at a persistent reliance on traditional FSL pedagogies in the classroom. Digital preferences for teaching and learning tended to be anchored in common educational tools and platforms that reaffirmed teacher-centred approaches to FSL rather than more innovative, learner-centred, and agentive language teaching and learning. The survey results raise an important question: Has FSL teacher education adequately moved with the communicative changes wrought by wider socio-technical transformations and related pedagogical innovations? Cet article discute d'un sondage réalisé en 2021 des candidats à l'enseignement du français comme langue seconde (FLS) dans les facultés d'éducation en Ontario dont leurs stages ont été affectés par la pandémie de COVID-19, en faisant pivoter l'apprentissage et l'enseignement FLS en ligne. Le sondage, qui fait partie d'un projet de recherche financé d'une méthodologie mixte, a récolté les expériences diverses des candidats du FLS afin de déterminer les symétries et les asymétries au sujet de leurs pratiques numériques préférées, les appareils et les outils utilisés pour la communication et pour l'enseignement et l'apprentissage de la langue. Les participants (N=17) des différents programmes de formation à travers l'Ontario ont indiqué les approches éparpillées et fragmentées aux pédagogies numériques FLS dans tous les programmes de formation et ont suggéré une dépendance persistante sur les pédagogies du FLS traditionnelles dans la salle de classe. Les préférences numériques pour l'enseignement et pour l'apprentissage ont divergé. Ces choix étaient ancrés dans les outils pédagogiques communs et les plateformes qui réaffirment les approches centrées sur l'enseignant plutôt que l'apprentissage innovant