Conceptualizing Activism in English Language Arts Teacher Education

Assessing Critical Digital Literacies (CDL) requires teachers to consider both characteristics of critical digital literacies and assessment principles. To this end, I begin by justifying the need to intersect CDL with assessment. Then, I provide some historical context for traditional assessment in English Language Arts education, and I share my own definition of Critical Digital Literacies. Next, I propose a sociocultural theorization of assessment that is compatible with CDL. I also offer examples of practice in secondary English Language Arts teaching and teacher education settings that reflect attempts to assess CDL. In sharing these examples, I explain how I understand their adherence to characteristics of CDL as well as their viability as assessments. My discussion of the examples underscores the fluidity between sociocultural assessment and teacher reflection processes. English teacher educators and staff developers can use (and critique) these examples to support teachers in designing and reflecting on the complexity of assessing CDL.

This paper will NOT address the catastrophic effects of the government-imposed structural changes to Hungarian teacher education since 1990, nor will it concern itself with the low quality of life our teachers face, or how English linguistic and cultural imperialism is resisted or enhanced by our teacher training programs. Instead, I will demonstrate how our Humboldtian/neohumanist tradition of teacher education dating back to 1872 has dominated English language teacher training even in the last fifty years, and will give a criticism of the snobbery in our academic life which deems educational linguists’ and language educators’ work “unacademic” and looked down upon. The traditional teacher education model was significantly challenged when, in addition to the double major[1] 5-year teacher education programs, 3-year single major programs were started in 1990, with considerable help from the World Bank, the British Council, USIS and Peace Corps. These new programs focused on language pedagogy and practical teacher education, and provided considerably increased teaching practice. Similarly to the Netherlands in the 1970s, this was “an uphill fight against tradition, vested interests and mental inertia” (van Essen, 1996, p. 21). The quality of the programs was internationally recognized and the Centers for English Teacher Training (CETTs) became a model for restructuring English teacher education in Central Europe. The 1990s saw the all-time peak of English teacher education in Hungary. After 1997 the CETTs were forcibly (re)merged with the traditional philology departments (aka Departments of English Studies), and a lot of their achievements were wasted. The quality of teacher education seems to be under serious threat again and the academic prestige of teacher educators continues to be minimal, despite the international fame of some Hungarian applied linguists and teacher educators, and the high-quality MA and PhD programs they direct. In conclusion, I will offer my ideas on what could be done in this situation, which is aggravated by chaotic educational language policy decisions from our governments and the curse of the age-old SCHOLARLY teacher vs. PRACTICE ORIENTED teacher controversy in our (English) teacher education.

This chapter shares two English teacher educators’ use of self-study to examine the integration of technology and literacy in two English Language Arts methods courses. The purpose of this self-study was twofold: (1) to examine how technology was specifically used in two methods courses and (2) to consider how that usage informed preservice teachers’ teaching and learning of literacy. Through self-study, the teacher educators were able to develop their own – and, by extension, their preservice teachers’ – understandings of the connections between literacy and technology. Specifically, they were encouraged to revise curriculum in order to integrate technology more authentically into the methods courses and revisit their own understandings of technology in order to reconcile previously unrecognized discrepancies in their pedagogy. By engaging in self-study, the teacher educators confronted tensions in their own practice, better understood their own beliefs about literacy and technology, and better articulated their reasoning for integrating technology into literacy teaching and learning.

China in the past decades has attached greater importance to English language teaching (ELT) and teacher education. Introduction in curriculum policy and English language teacher education of teaching approaches from Anglophone settings that advocate English-only in the English classroom is arguably out of step both with more traditional approaches and with current practices teachers adopt in English language classrooms. In this chapter I use the example of students with Cantonese language backgrounds to argue for reorientation of approaches to language teaching in English teacher education to embrace contemporary multilingual approaches to language teaching and learning, and to validate the educational value of language alternation practices already in use in many classrooms. Cantonese speaking English learners in Guangdong province are a significant but officially unacknowledged minority language group whose language learning could arguably be advantageously progressed if multilingual approaches that embraced all the linguistic resources learners have at their disposal were adopted. The chapter outlines the place of Cantonese in the linguistic landscape, includes an examination of current English policies and teaching approaches, provides a brief consideration of monolingual and multilingual approaches to language teaching, and surveys the research literature on practices of alternation of the language of instruction in English classrooms. The chapter concludes with a call for reorientation of English teacher education policies to acknowledge a multilingual approach to language teaching and learning that prepares teachers as multilingual educators capable of planned and judicious use of both their and learners’ language resources to optimize achievement of national language education policy objectives.

Many situations that affect the teaching of English have been unevenly examined in the scholarship. Asking the question, “What research in English teacher education will address the demands of preparing English language arts teachers for 21st century contexts?,” the authors provide recommendations to the field that will make our work more relevant and propose areas for further study based on current situations in English education in the United States that will move the field forward. The chapter suggests topics for further research centered on the English language arts-specific methods (pedagogy) course that includes exploring the tensions between literacy and English studies, integrating technology, moving theory into practice, the effects of high-stakes testing and assessments, and supporting more diverse student populations.

Grounded in Critical Youth Studies and English education scholarship that examines the consequences of conceptions of adolescence on English teachers’ thinking about pedagogy, this chapter highlights two ways English teacher educators can facilitate pre-service English teachers’ interrogation of dominant discourses of adolescence/ts so they might be better positioned to create pedagogical practices aligned with more comprehensive understandings of secondary students. The first focuses on teaching a Youth Lens in the context of a Young Adult Literature course, an approach that helps future teachers learn about adolescence as a construct and the linkages between this idea and English pedagogy. The second focuses on integrating youth into English teacher education coursework as guest speakers on a range of English and schooling practices whereby they are “re-positioned” as experts and contributors to English teacher education. Together, these points of intervention provide ways to re-position youth systemically throughout English teacher education programs.

<p>The main aim of this study is to analyze and discuss the similarities and the differences between English language teacher educationial programs at universities in Turkey, and to identify the undergraduate students’ ideas about their current curriculum. In addition to this, the study aims to compare the education of English language teacher education in some countries in which English language proficiency scores are at the highest level in EF EPI (EF English Language Proficiency Index), and to suggest some important points to improve the language teacher educationial programs in Turkey.</p><p>In the study, a document analysis and a semi-directed interviews with the 30 students in English language education departments in Turkey are implemented to provide valid and reliable results. The interview questions are based on students’ thoughts and ideas describing the sufficiency of their programs, and their goals and objectives. In the study, also, the course curricula of 15 English language teacher education programs are examined and compared. In this research, qualitative and quantitative methods are used. The study includes an international comparison of English language teacher education. With the comparison of the programs, some weak points of English language education programs in Turkey are determined. Besides, in the study, with the analysis of the English teacher education in 5 countries, the ways in which how they reached these targets are defined. At the end of the study, some suggestions are submitted to design and develop English language teacher education programs to produce more successful future teachers and English language education.</p>

In this globalized world, the growing importance of English learning has attracted more and more attention from researchers and educators, as the implementation of the new “English Lively Curriculum” in Taiwan demonstrates. The quality of English teachers is crucial in determining the quality of our English education, especially in an EFL environment like Taiwan. This study aims to examine the ACTFL Standards for the Preparation of Foreign Language Teachers in the US and their implications to English teacher education in Taiwan. Beginning with a review of foreign language teaching in the US, the ACTFL six new standards are introduced in detail. After this, the qualification processes and problems of the evaluation of English teacher education in Taiwan are discussed. Finally, by interviewing Taiwanese in-service English teachers, the possible implications of ACTFL standards to teacher education policy and institutions for Teacher Education in Taiwan are explored. Some of the implications include emphasizing the exposure to the ACTFL standards in Taiwanese teacher education programs and the need for a certificate from a well-organized English proficiency exam. In addition, the insufficient qualified English teacher and teaching resources in some rural districts should be improved by national policy.

This chapter examines how English language teachers and educators can learn from the research of reflective practice and TPACK, and work toward effective integration of using updated technologies for professional development. English teachers' CALL examples from telecollaboration, corpus, mobile devices and other technologies are discussed to link teachers' learning experiences and their professional development. To illustrate, one type of technology-specific knowledge is developed for CALL teachers such as corpus-based language pedagogy (CBLT). We conclude with suggestions for reflective CALL practice enhanced with TPACK and important questions to address when setting up English language teacher education programs that foster confident CALL teachers.

<p style="text-align:justify">This study aims to evaluate the English language teacher training program which was put into practice in 2006, according to the views of lecturers and English teachers. This study aims to contribute to the studies on foreign language teaching by presenting an evaluation of teacher education, which is an important dimension of English as a foreign language teaching. The qualitative method was used in the study, which was designed in a descriptive survey model. The population of the research consists of 35 lecturers working at the English Language Teaching Department of different Education Faculties in the 2016-2017 academic year and 11 English teachers working in public schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education and who have not completed 5 years in the profession. NVIVO-11 program was used in the analysis of the data. The results of the study were compared with the 2018 English teacher education program renewed by the Council of Higher Education. English teachers and lecturers think that the content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and general culture courses in the teacher training program are insufficient. According to English teachers and lecturers the content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and general culture courses in the English language teacher education program are insufficient. Furthermore, English teachers stated that they could not apply what they learned during their training to real-life conditions. Therefore, they propose that the English language teacher training program should be revised considering the current conditions.</p>

Previous studies on Global Englishes (GE) awareness tend to focus on pre- and in-service English teachers, with little attention paid to English teacher educators. Given the potential transfer of English teacher educators’ perceptions on diverse Englishes and associated teaching practices to English teacher trainees, this study adopted a mixed-methods approach to investigate the GE awareness and pedagogical practice of Chinese English teacher educators who are engaged in preparing English teachers for junior middle schools in rural China. The analysis of the data collected via a questionnaire survey with 49 English teacher educators and interviews with seven of them indicates that most participants had a pseudo GE awareness, holding a positive attitude toward non-native English but deeming it as less standard than its native counterpart, and almost all participants followed the native-speakerist paradigm in classroom teaching, and did not actively introduce GE to their students. Revealed simultaneously is that even the participants with long stays overseas also bought into native speakerism. In reference to China’s socio-cultural and historical-political contexts, this study proposes that China adjust its national English syllabi and reconstruct the professional development programs for English teacher educators to facilitate the implementation of Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT).

There has been an increasing demand for effective on-line English teacher education programs due to the advantages including cost efficiency and easy access. Despite the provision of a variety of on-line English teacher education programs, only a small number of studies on on-line in-service education program for English teachers have been carried out. This study aims to provide a basic model of on-line in-service English language teacher education based on the critical awareness. To do this, previous studies on on-line in-service English language teacher education in Korea and abroad were critically reviewed and key issues were derived. They are top-down approach to on-line teacher education curriculum development, unsustainability of teacher education, disconnection of teacher education to practice, insufficient establishment of community of practice, and deficiency of reflection on teaching practice. Three on-line English teacher education programs were selected and evaluated by using these key issues. It is suggested that bottom-up approach to curriculum development, establishment of community of practice for the sustainability of teacher education, and reflective learning for connecting teacher education to real classroom practice be included as key components for effective on-line teacher education.

The Brazilian Ministry of Education has launched in the past five years a variety of continuing teacher education programmes. The huge government investment and support has brought opportunities for teacher educators to put a lot of effort into professional development research. In this context, a Centre for Continuing Teacher Education (NAP-UFPR) at the Federal University of Parana in Brazil has been designing and implementing extension courses and events in the area of English teacher education. Moreover, the teacher educators from this Centre take part into an academic research group and have done pedagogical consultancy to private and public educational institutions. Therefore, a number of researches on English teacher education have already been done at this Centre, including a book published in 2011 (Formacao Desformatada: Praticas com Professores de Lingua Inglesa — Teacher Education and Miseducation: Practices with English Language Teachers). The aim of this presentation is to share one of the experiences the group of English teacher educators at this Centre faced under the construction of their own continuing teacher education. Based on a post-structural educational perspective, the group of teacher educators designed their own collaborative learning process by negotiating a common curriculum for a teacher educators' course. This initiative required the construction of an open space for negotiation and redefinition of the understandings of knowledge, language, and teacher training. The main purpose of this course was the implementation of new pedagogical practices that were collaboratively designed previously among the teacher educators and later through the innovative initiatives of teacher educational programmes for English language teachers, teacher educators, graduate and post-graduate students, and other researchers. Throughout the course, the readings and the discussions were based on the theoretical perspective of critical literacy studies and conceptual questioning. The research analysis has been informed by post-structural theories, relying mainly on the concept of language as discourse and social power (Bakhtin; Foucault), pedagogical practices and the act of listening (Freire), educational change (Usher & Edwards; Sterling), post-method pedagogy (Kumaravadivelu), and educational emancipation (Ranciere). It is worth mentioning that implications and conflicts that emerge from educational movements are highly productive and deserve close attention, especially considering teacher education demands in the twenty-first century.

Structured Abstract Purpose – To examine the potential social media has for increasing pre-service English language arts (ELA) teachers’ language interest, awareness, and content knowledge by engaging them in an ongoing collaborative effort to seek out, make observation about, and highlight contemporary examples of language, literacy, and culture in action in global media using Twitter as a platform. Design – The research design was qualitative and included a thematic analysis of Twitter posts from the pre-service teacher participants during the semester, informal feedback about the experience during the semester, and written reflections at the end of the semester. Students worked independently on the assignment throughout the semester, outside of a few brief, and informal check-ins during class by the instructor. At the end of the semester, students completed an open-ended survey to reflect on their experiences with and takeaways from participating in this Twitter-based language exploration activity. The theoretical frameworks that were foundational to the study included the technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) framework (Koehler & Mishra, 2008) and Andrews’ (2006) criteria for language exploration and awareness. Findings – The findings of this qualitative study indicate that engaging pre-service teachers in an ongoing collaborative effort to promote language, literacy, and culture via social media has great potential in terms of students increasing not only their knowledge of language and language awareness, but also their TPACK overall. Specific examples of how participants responded to the experience are provided. Practical Implications – This study contributes to the literature on the potential impact of social media on content area learning and teacher preparation by providing concrete, research-based suggestions for how both English teacher educators and middle and secondary ELA teachers can engage in collaborative efforts to learn more about, expand definitions of, and promote aspects related to ELA content, like language awareness, variety, and dialect. It includes recommendations for both teacher educators and middle and secondary ELA teachers to expand their notions for defining and teaching aspects of language that go beyond a narrow focus on grammar and to consider ways that social media and digital literacies can enhance these efforts.

Identifying key areas of teacher education that cross countries and disciplines, this book provides the first extensive research-based insight into how secondary English teachers are prepared at institutions of higher education in the United States of America (US) since the last major study in 1995. In the two decades since then, English teacher education programs have developed in contextually dependent ways that often have been driven by institutional, economic, social, and political considerations The authors provide an overview of their nationwide study of English teacher educators, which was conducted over a four-year period. They analyze the context under which teacher educators currently prepare pre-service English teachers in the US and support teacher educators in other countries to make comparisons to their own unique historical and cultural settings The authors also offer a comprehensive evaluation of the content, practices, and skills being taught to future teachers of English in university-based teacher preparation programs in the US. The book draws on evidence from a nationwide questionnaire, case studies of teacher educators in their respective programs, course syllabi, and focus group interviews to focus on areas of instruction that resonate with teacher educators in countries where English is the dominant language of communication. These areas include: - field experiences - standards and assessment - teaching literacy to integrate reading and writing - working with English language learners to address cultural and linguistic diversity - new technologies in English education