From imagining to belonging: Research into teachers-in-training

and Communities of Practice

Melinda Dooly & Victoria Antoniadou

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Content

• Principle paradigms underlying the study

• Context and Data Corpus

• Analysis approach

• Examples of analysis

• Preliminary results

Paradigm of Communities

(& its origins)

Membership & Belonging

Imagined Community (beginning with Anderson, 1991)

Means of describing the processes by which a sense of nationality exists amongs members who have no contact or apparent links.

CoPs & ICsCommunities of Practice (beginning with Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger 1998)

Learning is not merely a cognitive practice. Situated learning: most learning takes place as the individual engages in accessible communities of practice (e.g. tailors; AA meetings). Move from peripheral members towards centre.

Imagined Community (Norton 2000; 2001)

Means for the learner to reach out beyond one’s immediate environment and experience, thus providing possibility of alignment and commitment to that community.

Future teachers participate in situated

learning due to imagined (validated) role in

imagined community of teaching practitioners.

Situated learning

Investment

Imagined identities & communities

Modes of belonging to CoPs (Wenger 1998)

• Engagement: active involvement in mutual processes of negotiation of meaning

• Imagination: how people create images of the world and see connections through time and space by extrapolating from their own experience

• Alignment: how energies and activities are organised to develop a sense of belonging to the community

Conditions for existence of ICs (Kanno & Norton, 2003)

• Membership• Community influence on

members and viceversa• Reinforcement of individual’s

identity as community member by other members

• Shared affective connections

School placement/tutorials/f2f

& online discussions

EPOSTL

Sequences of teaching activities during tutorials

Participation in an imaginary community is not mere flight of fancy or daydreaming; it has real consequences for the individual (…) constant creation and recreation of an individual identity, but also a continual re-evaluation of the nature of the imagined community itself and the requirements of membership. (Ryan 2006: 41)

Sharing

Members share:

• a sense of joint enterprise and identity around a specific area of knowledge and activity.

• a repertoire of ideas, commitments and memories.

• ways of doing and approaching things.

Learning is mutual development process betweencommunities and individuals that helps form new identities. Must provide scaffolding of 3 infrastructures: engagement,

imagination and alignment (Wenger 1998).

En

gag

emen

t

Imag

inat

ion

Alg

inm

ent

Tutorial sessions, school placement, online sites such as moodle & SL.

Models of teaching sequences & activities, their own designs, other designs, input from peers & experts, lectures & reading, etc.

Try out new practices, take part in peer-teaching; peer-evaluating, self-reflection (place themselves in teacher role with own students AND peers)

Juan: your final goal is to make students understand how to summarize in a sentence the whole paragraph, isn't it?Nancy:Yeah, my final goal is that students will be able to write an effective paragraph[…]Juan: so, have you thought about working on very very bad examples of topic sentences before asking students to create their own topic sentences???Nancy: I like that idea---bad examples often work better than good examples!

Learning involves a deepening process of participation in a CoP

Moving from legitimate peripheral participation

To full participation!

Relevance to Teacher Education

• Simon (1992): imagination plays a crucial role in determining what kind of future is worth struggling for.

• Norton (2001): feeling of belonging to an imagined community (e.g. language speakers) will play role in willingness to ‘invest’ time and energy.

• Ryan (2006): it is possible for the motivation of learners to be shaped by their membership and participation in imagined communities.

• Moore & Dooly (2010): imagined community of teachers provides a useful model for describing & enacting tangible, mutual social activities guided by certain rules and practices recognized by that particular community and therefore come to align themselves with ‘being teachers’ (in which language has a central role).

Relevance to CMC in Teacher Education

• Kahn (1999): Virtual communities address [rapid change of knowledge] by providing an environment for people to connect with and learn from others through collaboratively participating in the construction of new knowledge.

• Murphy & Laferriere (2003): Teachers can collaboratively reflect on specific classroom problems arising from the shift to Internet use.

• Keown (2009): Recent technological developments have created sophisticated means of bringing widely distributed learners together, within flexible timeframe, online (virtual) discussion communities, thus providing a workable approach to teacher professional development and learning (TPDL).

Approach to Analysis

“Bricolage” (Tobin):Hermeneutic, phenomenological & ethnomethdological

• *Talk-in-interaction is an examination of how discourse is precisely developed to explicate how people bring off social actions through their talk (Hutchby & Wooffitt, 1998; ten Have, 1999; Sacks, 1992; Psathas 1995). *Area of study that draws from discursive psychology,

ethnography and sociology• Examine dialogue to determine the social and

pragmatic principles of speakers (and hearers) in order to negotiate, structure, and interpret conversation.

‘Doing being-a-_____’

Doing being-a-?

Participant 1: ok_ you have to raise your hand\ (1.5) what is this/| (holds up a letter block)

• Participant 2: a block/

• Participant 1 : no_ you have to raise your hand\

• Participant 2 : ok

• Participant 1 : now\_ what’s this/|

MCA & Content Analysis

• The applicability of MCA theory to textual-analytic approaches has been demonstrated (Dilevko & Gottlieb, 2009).

• Can examine the way categorizations are produced in the interactional context of texts by considering the normative accountability associated with the production of orderliness in ‘text-in-interaction’.

• With a Bakhtinian understanding of the research participants’ meanings being drawn from a multi-voiced background, the convergences in categories is significant since these confluences can provide insight into ‘nodal’ (Fairclough 2005) or wide-spread, hegemonic discourse in teaching. (Dooly 2009: 23)

Data Corpus, Participants & Context

7 Education students (TEFL)

-Video and audio recordings of the face to face interaction in classroom. (40 recorded hours)

-Instances of asynchronous (forum) interaction between the students exchanging feedback on:

-the teaching sequence* (5 sessions: draft revised minimally 3 times following f2f/online interactions-the podcast* (1 session: designed with online partner)individual Action Research (data yet to be compiled).-Micro-teaching sessions (Methodology course)

-Online synchronous interactions for

*the design of the teaching sequence (MSN transcripts)*the design of the podcast (SL recordings)

Data Selection

• LARGE qualitative data corpus; how to avoid ‘selective’ selection?

• Selection of data based on emic approach:– on constancy of participation of subject– Saliency of events for the participants

(recurrency of events)

• Present only one subject here

Peripheral participation(Stated expectations 09/2009)

Resolve problems together (tutor and students).

Have the tutor as a model of support and guide.

Grow as a person, learn to be a teacher.

Expand my ‘toolbox’ of experiences that I can use as a future teacher.

Become more sure of myself when teaching.

Peripheral Participant (10/2009) transcript f2f

A: [who's] taking the minutes today\Tchr: who feels CHATTY today you feel chatty/Ad: why me\ come onA: AndrewTchr: YOU feel chatty today feel chatty/ who else/<1>Ad: =no i'm notA: (laughs)Tchr: these are questions I want you to try to build into the

conversation you don't have to ask them i mean take notes to SHA:RE later

Ad: a:h we've got the same questions\A: = i like to take notes [yeah yeah]

Reluctance to try new technological resources in student (own) practice

Tchr: so up to you guys shall we have a discussion XX ALL of it it's gonna be hard work no matter what

[…]A: i mean it's quite different to do it in moo:dlel[…]Tchr: it does the link to zoho automatically =yeahAd: uh-hmTchr: you're gonna have to do a link no matter what there's

just no platformsJ: °zohoº X ºzohoº yesA: but we haven't used zoho before for these things

Anita Feedback (1/2 year)Becoming more active participant

Disposition to align to CoP/learn from others (St 1: 10/2009) transcript f2f

Ad: _ he's been teaching_ i think for four years/ he's got a lot of experienceA =sorry/MS but with small children/ or_ with small children/Ad no in my opinion/MS XXXX is he teachingAd in my opinion they some of them are teaching in some secondary:

secondary_MS so in that case we a:re we have more experience than thEm:A =that's what what's:Ad but you have some you don't have any experience YOU you have someexperience/MS bu:t teaching_ with kids/ they are teaching secondary schools that's not the

sameAd no that's that's the problem the problem because i thinkA melinda said something really interesting last time tha:t <1> that they

are stronger in some areas/ than we are we aren´t but we are stronger in other ones so we complement each o/ther_by exchanging opinions we can learn they can learn from us i think and we can learn from them

Aligns herself with IC of Tchr (St 1, 10/2009) Transcript f2f

Ad: the course they are taking it's a MASTERS degree so i mean_A: yeahAd: they are well ABOVE usA: but they they i mean they know u:m_ more stuff related to

languages/ more theory to XX theory/A: =they know and we are more

prepared to_V: that they know more th-A: to teach we are HE:RE_ learning studying a_ degree ALSO_

ehm_ in order to be a good teacher <.5>in order to know how to teach the students

Ad: [yeah] but at the moment you don't have any practice becauseA: [we have]A :[have little] practice [last years] we did practicum also

Engagement; negotiating meaning thru ‘teacher dialogue’ (i) transcript chat

• [12:02] Anita Vordun: fisrt of all• [12:02] Janet Peretz: its okey• [12:02] Anita Vordun: do you know how to save this conversation?• [12:02] Disconnected from in-world Voice Chat• [12:02] Janet Peretz: I just was trying to let you guys know that I was here.• [12:03] Anita Vordun: ok ok• [12:04] Anita Vordun: Ok• [12:04] Anita Vordun: let's decide objectives, etc...• [12:05] Anita Vordun: hey• [12:05] Janet Peretz: Well we can just do copy and paste to a word document• [12:05] Anita Vordun: ?? copy & paste what?• [12:06] Anita Vordun: let's say what we know okay?• [12:06] Janet Peretz: the conversation• [12:06] Janet Peretz: Where do you want to start?• [12:07] Anita Vordun: do you really want to do a bilingual podcast?• [12:07] Janet Peretz: We can do something more simple• [12:07] Anita Vordun: cause if we do it for College students then I don't mind if it's all

in Spanish

Engagement; negotiating meaning thru ‘teacher dialogue’ (ii) transcript chat

• [12:08] Anita Vordun: what you prefer• [12:08] Anita Vordun: Let's start again• [12:08] Anita Vordun: ...• [12:09] Anita Vordun: Spanish podcast for 14 year old students? does

this fit in your classes?• [12:09] Janet Peretz: Well I don't really mind the language. If you want to

use it. We can choose english.• [12:09] Anita Vordun: ok• [12:10] Anita Vordun: So english podcast for College students?• [12:10] Anita Vordun: TOPIC?• [12:10] Janet Peretz: We can use the posd cast as a pre activity• [12:10] Anita Vordun: yes yes• [12:10] Janet Peretz: I mean we can do it for children. If we are going to

use English• [12:11] Anita Vordun: I think the podcast should be like an intro and

then we can do activities related to it

Alignment & engagement with IC: Integration of tchr knowledge

Anita aligns herself with new learning opportunities associated with ICT (transcript f2f) (i)

M: january the fifteenth and then you could give us extra time to prepare the voicethread <1> that's a possibility: ok/ what do you have to say

J: :one week <1> yes how have you planned your voicethread voicethread or:M: ok so that's that's an option/ what do you thinkA: i just wanted to say that if we finally do the wiki as a wi:ki: then doing the

voicethread it's also GOO:D butJ: XX repeatA: it's not just because we want to do it it's just because we have toM: um-hmJ: ok/A: at the end of the semester it's for usJ: what do you thinkMS: i think it would be a nice XX to avoid stress bu:tJ: ok ok/MS: with extra timeA: or maybe we can do a voicethreadJ: at the end of the courseA: [at the end of the] course

Anita aligns herself with new learning opportunities associated with ICT (SL finale) (ii)

Our micro-teaching session was based on the CLT approach and was done using, firstly a VoiceThread presentation and then group work - cooperative learning. To do this, we started the session contextualizing the project and presenting the final product students were expected to do further on: a VoiceThread presentation introducing themselves to Australian students.

I would like to point out that we spent quite a lot of time planning this session and rehearsed twice before put it into practice. We built it up from the basis that we wanted to create a micro-teaching plan which has some purposeful and contextualized communicative events. I believe that was the reason why we finally imagined we would get in touch with an Australian school and then we came up with the idea of doing a VoiceThread as a tool to meet new people.

Summary of preliminary findings

• Naïve expectations/goals• Unable to specify

concrete knowledge/traits of the community

• Peripheral participation• Reluctance to integrate

ICT into placement outcomes

• Specific goals through comparison of ‘community norms’ (EPOSTL)

• Alignment with community; open to community influence (input)

• Engagement with new knowledge (e.g. Integration of ICT into placement outcomes & own teaching practices)

• Identity through discursive traits (Appropriation of linguistic repetoire)

• Engaged in joint activities belonging to ‘way of doing’ of CoP Shared repertoire (from CoP) of knowledge, tools, resources, experiences, ways of addressing problems, etc.

• Ready for full membership in community

Works Cited (i)Anderson, B. (1991) Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and

spread of nationalism. London/New York: Verso.Appadurai, A. (1990) Disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy.

Theory, Culture and Society, 7, 295-301.Dilevko, J. & Gottlieb, L. (2009) The relevance of classification theory to textual

analysis. Library & Information Science Research, 31 (2), 92-100.Dooly, M. Doing diversity. Teachers’ construction of their classroom reality.

Bern: Peter Lang. Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late

modern age. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.Kahn, T. (1999) A New Model of Education: Designing Virtual Communities for

Creativity and Learning. Edutopia. Downloaded 08/05/2010 from http://www.edutopia.org/designing-virtual-communities-creativity-and-learning

Kanno, Y. & Norton, B. (2003) Imagined communities and educational possibilities: Introduction. Journal of Language, Identity and Education, 2(4), 241-249.

Keown, P.A. (2009) A virtual community of practice approach to teacher professional development and learning, PhD Dissertation, University of Waikato.

Works Cited (ii)Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991) Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.Moore, E. & Dooly, M. (2010) ‘How do the apples reproduce (themselves)?’ How teacher trainees

negotiate language, content, and membership in a CLIL science education classroom at a multilingual university. Journal of Language, Identity and Education, 9, 58-79.

Murphy, E. & Laferriere, T. (2003) Virtual Communities for Professional Development: Helping Teachers Map the Territory in Landscapes without Bearings. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 49(1), 70-82.

Norton, B. & Kamal, F. (2003) The imagined communities of English language learners in a Pakistani school. Journal of Language, Identity and Education, 2(4), 301-317.

Pennycook, A. (2003) Global Englishes, Rip Slyme and performativity. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 7(4), 513-533.

Ryan, S. (2006) Language learning motivation within the context of globalisation: An L2 self within an imagined global community. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies: An International Journal, 3(1), 23-45.

Simon, R. (1992) Teaching against the grain: Texts for a pedagogy of possibility. New York: Bergin & Garvey.

Syed, Z. (2001) Notions of self in foreign language learning: A qualitative analysis. In Z. Dörnyei & R. Schmidt (Eds.) Motivation and second language acquisition (pp. 127-148). Honolulu: Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center, University of Hawai’i at Moanoa.

Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Thank you for your attention!