Non-judgemental Discourse in the Development of Critical Capacity for Language Teachers

Abstract

A major structural problem in the teaching of English worldwide is to be found in the arthritic power relationships that continue to limit the continuing professional development of its practitioners. The acceptance of the superior status of ‘theory’ and ‘theorists’, and the consequent subordination of teachers as the ‘appliers’ of such theory, in alliance with the continuing acceptance of the primacy of monolingually-derived approaches to the exploration of language learning and teaching, express the constraints of hegemony rather than the needs of the profession. Against this background, the disciplined use of non-judgemental discourse, here formalized in an approach called cooperative development, offers one way forward in the attempt to encourage the bottom-up theorization of experience that can reflexively encourage and be nourished by the growth of critical capacity.