From transmission to transformation: Teacher learning in English for speakers of other languages

Abstract

This article explores teacher learning in the UK English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) context. We draw on data from a continuing professional development (CPD) initiative to understand how learning is shaped by collaborative discussion with others and by reading from the language classroom research literature. The CPD programme — designed to reflect the principles of transformative rather than transmissive teacher education — incorporates reflective, collaborative and research induction components. We describe how teachers analyse critical learning episodes (CLE) from their own classrooms, and draw on interviews and written reflections to explore two central features of the CPD programme: collaborative learning and the use of readings from the literature. The first of these factors was successful due to teachers’ understanding the context of collaboration as supportive, reassuring, and based on shared values. However, the use of readings to illuminate analyses was less successful. There were time and identity factors that contributed to this outcome: teachers found little space in their working lives for reading, did not always see the relevance to their daily practice of the models provided and at first found it difficult to incorporate perspectives other than their own experience, principles and values into their analyses.