Material use for EFL teacher learning in classroom ecology: a perturbation or affordance?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Curriculum material use is an agentive, reciprocal and innovative practice, involving multiple stakeholders such as teacher, students and assessments that mutually shape one another. While it is generally acknowledged that teachers’ knowledge and skills deeply shape the way they use materials, little is known about how material use can possibly perturb or afford teacher learning. This, however, is deemed important considering the close relationships among material use, teacher learning and instruction. This study adopts a qualitative case study method to examine three EFL teachers’ experiences with new curriculum materials under a new round of national curriculum reform. Findings reveal that (1) new curriculum materials can perturb classroom ecology, prompting teachers to re-examine, reflect and innovate their beliefs and practices; (2) despite teachers’ general consensus on features of curriculum materials, the way they enact them in practice along with emerging learning opportunities are rather different; (3) opportunities for teacher learning through material use can be subjected to teachers’ existing knowledge, beliefs and experiences; (4) sometimes, lack of clear instructional guidance in the textbook renders teachers more agency and freedom to explore their ideas, which can be ultimately developmental.