Oxford Brookes University

1. What are the sources of educational beliefs and values as a teacher?
2. How do these beliefs manifest themselves in classroom practice?
3. Are these beliefs amenable to change and development?

1. A group of in-service teachers of English, currently practising worldwide in a range of institutions and settings: and studying an MA by distance in English Language Teaching at Oxford Brookes University
2. Myself, as a teacher and educator

As a teacher educator, part of my role is to develop a methodology for training teachers, and for guiding and monitoring their development through MA study. I am aware in doing this, that I am guided by my own experience and beliefs as a teacher: that in defining a process for their study and development, I am in fact echoing the processes I followed (or would like to have followed) myself. Whilst these processes have been profoundly effective for me as a teacher, I have cause to question whether they are equally suited to all the teachers I work with. Their contexts are wide-ranging and varied in every sense: they work in private and state institutions, with children, teenagers or adults: some are mother tongue English speakers, others are not: they are working in Latin America, South East Asia, Europe including former Communist block Europe; many work to strict National Curriculum constraints, others have complete autonomy in their choice of study. My constant question as I devise materials and assessments for these teachers is: how do I know that what I believe to be appropriate for their development, is in fact so? In attempting to answer this question, I have stretched and adapted the parameters of my MA course, to allow the teachers to offer answers themselves to this question. The data I am collecting is already of remarkable richness, and will continue to be even more so as the MA evolves. This data includes: recordings of lessons from the teachers in their home contexts, with accompanying evaluations and lesson plans, my feedback and dialogues with the teachers through e-mail, learning diaries, the development of a virtual campus in which the teachers share their experiences through WebCT.

Parallel to this, is what I perceive to be my own development as a trainer. My role as course manager of the MA ELT by distance began in September 2001. My change in role, from a face-to-face MA course leader to a distance course leader, was precipitated by redundancy, and was not a choice I might freely have made. In making this distance teacher development programme a success, I have cause to revise my own notion of what I value in my role as an educator.

For these reasons, my intention is to give the research a double focus: how teachers develop and perceive their own development: and what I as a trainer and educator, learn in the process.

My methodology will be essentially qualitative.

I intend to answer the 3 research questions in the following sequence and format:

I will trace these through a wide number of personal records such as:

• Journals, including a redundancy diary recording the period March — September 2000
• Poetry related to family ancestry (published and recorded)
• Family archive: an oral history in 20 hours of tapes + a written transcript
• Novel: generated partly from family history
• 6 television programmes: researched, written and presented for Carlton TV on cross-cultural themes
• 2 plays: written and performed to coincide with museum exhibition
• A literature survey of reading which formed beliefs, including: Martin Buber, Thomas Merton, Ralph Emerson, Rudolph Steiner, Krishnamurti, Carl Rogers, Fritjof Capra. Jerome Bruner, Frits Schumacher, Paolo Freire

Research question 2) How do these beliefs manifest themselves in classroom practice?

Again, my aim will be to trace the answer to this, through examples of my professional practice such as:

• materials for creative writing in the classroom
• the MA materials currently in the process of change and development
• feedback from students and colleagues

Again, this will generate a framework for analysis:

• learning goals
• teaching approaches
• resources
• choice of language and register
• methodology
• relationship with students and colleagues
• creation of a learning environment
• modes of assessment

In considering this question, I will arrive at answers by recording, and tracing my own responses to teacher developments (see Research question 3) below): ie.

• my feedback to the teachers
• my dialogue with the teachers
• any resulting changes I decide to make in the MA materials, assessment strategies, or marking criteria
• creative responses to these changes, such as poetry, journals, stories

Currently there are 19 teachers enrolled in the MA course, and working with the materials in 15 different countries worldwide. I will ask the 3 research questions in reverse, starting with what is most easily ‘manifest’ in their practice — their capacity for change.

In the new MA programme the teachers are asked to:

• record a typical lesson
• view this lesson with a colleague, and draw up two or three ‘action points’ for change or development
• explore one of these action points in more detail, through a series of strategies, including engagement with other teachers in the virtual campus
• arrive at a second lesson plan which demonstrates what has been learnt, or developed
• teach the lesson
• view the lesson with a colleague
• write an evaluation of what development has or has not taken place

The data collected as a result of this process will reveal:

• teachers’ own perceptions of what changes and developments are important
• teachers’ own perceptions of whether this development has occurred, and if it was successful
• teachers’ own perceptions of why it was successful or not

Research question 2) How do these beliefs manifest themselves in classroom practice?

The framework generated in the first case study, will be applied here, to analyse the teachers’practice: lesson recordings, learning diaries, teaching materials and evaluations.

• learning goals
• teaching approaches
• resources
• choice of language and register
• methodology
• relationship with students and colleagues
• creation of a learning environment
• modes of assessment

Here, I will aim to identify patterns in the data, using the framework generated earlier:

and supported by teachers’ learning journals, where they choose to share this.

The research may contribute to the debate about teacher belief and the evolution of educational values:

How far are our educational beliefs culturally determined?

Are there areas of belief which are universally shared?

How far do these beliefs determine what teachers choose to change, learn or develop in their practice?