34.2057, Review: Mediating Innovation through Language Teacher Education

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LINGUIST List: Vol-34-2057. Wed Jun 28 2023. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 34.2057, Review: Mediating Innovation through Language Teacher Education

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Date: 24-Apr-2023
From: Chih-Hsin Hsu [chsu5 at atu.edu]
Subject: Applied Linguistics, Language Acquisition: East (2022) 


Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/33.3835

AUTHOR: Martin East
TITLE: Mediating Innovation through Language Teacher Education
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2022

REVIEWER: Chih-Hsin Hsu

SUMMARY

This book suggests that teacher educators and teachers apply a
critically reflective lens to examine their own beliefs, pedagogical
innovation, and realistic accommodations in language classrooms in
terms of mediating innovation to language teaching. Stakeholders long
for effective language teaching that guides language learners to use
the language and communicate in real-world contexts. Yet, the best
method has not been determined. Teacher-centered, explicit format
instruction remained the mainstream approach despite an innovative
approach such as Task-Based Learning (TBL) recommended by researchers,
which are teacher educators in this case. The author, Martin East,
examines data sources indicating students’ positive confirmation of
TBL, who even had been in-service teachers for years after completing
the TBL programme, continued the mainstream method based on realistic
reasons.
In response, East provides professional development intervention to
offer more concrete guidance for implementing TBL. However, it appears
to have little impact on implementing TBL in their real classrooms.
Through a critical autoethnography approach, East continuously
explores and questions his thinking, belief shifts, students’
reflections, stories, and anonymous student feedback from the past and
the present to the next step, the future, across multiple and
different time points. Through critical reflection, he eventually
learns that if one believes in constructivism, one’s pedagogy should
align with it, allowing teacher autonomy. While classroom language
teachers have made their decisions given the circumstance, East
recommends they do critical reflection continuously as he does.
Adjustments should be followed. And this should be a cycling process
for continuous development. Teachers are change agencies and should
take ongoing and retrospective reflections in-and-on actions. Further,
each tier of constructive agency, language learners, in-service
teachers, pre-service teachers, and teacher educators should all do
critical reflection to enhance innovation effectively.

This book is one volume of a series on language teaching published by
Cambridge University Press to facilitate theory-practice connections.
It is organized into four chapters, led by the author’s thorough
documentation of his studies and critically self-reflective lens, to
examine how the innovation programs of his studies have impacted
novice teachers. Chapter 1 consists of four sections: Section 1
introduces the aim and organization of the book, Section 2 outlines
innovating the classroom from teacher-led to learner-centered, Section
3 continues to introduce the perspective shifts on communicative
approaches over the years, and Section 4 discusses contexts where
Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) has been introduced to greater or
lesser effect.

Chapter 2 explores teacher education as a vehicle for pedagogical
innovation. It includes Section 1—teacher cognition, Section
2—reflective practice, and Section 3—a framework to examine
self-practice and gain a deeper pedagogical understanding of teacher
educators and teachers’ teaching/practice. Chapter 3 further
illustrates a TBLT innovation case implemented in a teacher education
program in New Zealand, detailing the programme from background,
curriculum changes to scaffold shifting, from the teacher-dominated to
a student-centered learning perspective to supporting reflection
cycles for-in-on action. Chapter 4 introduces a longitudinal research
project involving pedagogical innovation. The author examines his four
studies from 2012 to 2017, followed by scrutinizing the impacts on
each of his practices, his growth in research-and-practice
relationships, and his shifts in belief and adjusted practices.

Finally, Chapter 5, titled discussion, recognizes the tensions between
the belief in innovation impacts and making choices out of realistic
situations and implications for the author/teacher educator’s critical
reflections. The author demonstrates his autoethnographic process and
thinking shifts and development with language teacher education in a
detailed, logical, well-organized, and honest way. It is crucial for
teachers and teacher educators to examine their existing beliefs and
pedagogy critically, checking to see if they align with curriculum and
instruction, and reflecting on what worked and what didn't and why. If
teachers believe in constructivism, why are language learners not
taking ownership of learning? If teacher educators believe in autonomy
and constructivism, how come they do not respect teachers’ decisions
(and are even open to the possibility that the teacher’s approach
might be the best approach)? Innovation doesn't need to abandon
traditional instruction if evidence indicates effectiveness. Changes
and confrontations may happen constantly, which is an acceptable part
of the development process. Action researchers should always reflect
on their teaching and make adjustments based on learning outcomes. A
theory should include practitioners’/teachers' voices from the field
and be refined when confronted with new evidence.

EVALUATION
East has demonstrated detailed reflections and critical thinking to
examine his beliefs, experiences, research findings, and changes in
curriculum design, research focus, and student teachers’ practices
over the years. He has conducted an autoethnographic study and
recorded all details and examination processes to give readers a
concrete example of the study. Such autoethnographic analysis allows
readers to see how critical reflection and professional development
can be done and the profound impacts that encourage collaboration and
constructivism between researchers and classroom teachers and between
classroom teachers and language learners. Papp and Cottrell’s (2021)
statement echoes the author’s endeavor to serve our language learners
better: “The best teacher professional learning is directly connected
to teachers' working contexts and problems of practice; so, actions
are practical, relevant to teachers' needs, and contribute to
achieving valued student outcomes” (p.121).
In response to critiques of the TESOL teacher education program seen
as a one-stop approach which cannot prepare students for teaching in
real classrooms, in the same vein, Farrell (2021) suggests a similar
reflective approach that is based on the following three assumptions
for TESOL teachers: Assumption 1--use the reflective approach to
reflect on, evaluate, and adapt teaching practices; Assumption 2--it
is just the beginning of the teaching/learning journey after
graduation with learned theory. The teacher’s learning is ongoing,
reflective, and constructive to revisit the theory and update;
Assumption 3: learning through social process/collaboration. In
essence, human beings subjectively interpret and experience what they
have encountered based on their core beliefs. Each cultural group has
been taught and immersed in cultural values that apply to their
settings. Effective innovation methods will only be successfully
implemented if researchers and teachers communicate with each other
and collaborate. An ideological reflection method is often the key to
getting to know a completely different mindset and eventually to
mediating innovation through teacher education.
The author might consider enriching the book with a few more chapters,
such as a definition of innovation, outcomes of innovation in
practice, curriculum design in professional development in innovation
and practice, and practical collaborations and model examples between
researchers and teachers in language teaching. As the book generally
presents a thorough examination of the autoethnographic study, it
builds up a framework for eliminating the danger of authority like the
one mentioned in  Schwartz and Sharpe’s “Practical Wisdom” (2010),
namely, that an academic professor confidently based on theory and
strongly advocated for attacking Iraq but in overlooking reality, the
action resulted in profound damage to the area and people there.
Likewise, Ushioda (2023) warned researchers who were seen in “god-like
authorial positions” that conducting ongoing self-critical reflection
and facilitating collaboration between researchers and language
classroom teachers is urgent and necessary.
The book can also shed new light on social justice. Researchers are
deemed authorities, but the findings and suggestions are grounded
within limited information. If teachers who have learned and agreed
with a research-based approach are not implementing it in their
classrooms, it signals that there are more factors from the field to
consider, and the researcher and the classroom teacher must reflect on
the factors and communicate with one other to find the best and most
practical innovation approach in research and practice.
Finally, it would help if the book thoroughly addressed the
research-practice relationships and collaboration by adding
recommendations such as the critical reflection blueprint, including
ready-to-implement systematic reflection and practices, classroom
teachers’ action research, and existing resources that introduce
up-to-date research based findings and practical ways to incorporate
them into classroom teachers’ lesson planning, and research-practice
(or teacher educator-teacher) collaboration.
Overall, the book successfully details the autoethnographic process,
by scrutinizing the author’s practices as a teacher educator over the
years. It demonstrates critical but necessary self-reflection on
beliefs, curriculum design, and researcher and student-teacher
partnerships.

REFERENCES

Consoli, S., & Ganassin, S. (2023). Reflexivity in Applied
Linguistics: Opportunities, challenges, and suggestions (Ed.).
Routledge.
Farrell, T. S. C. (2021). TESOL teacher education: A reflective
approach. Edinburgh University Press.
Papp, T. A., & Cottrell, M. (2021). Teacher professional learning,
culturally responsive/ sustaining practices, and indigenous students’
success: A comparative case-study of New Zealand and Saskatchewan,
Canada. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 67(2), 105–128.
Schwartz, B., & Sharpe, K. (2010). Practical wisdom: The right way to
do the right thing. New York, New York: Riverhead Books.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Dr. Chih-Hsin Hsu is an assistant professor of English/TESOL and the
M.A. TESOL program director at Arkansas Tech University. Dr. Hsu’s
research interests include intercultural communication,
sociolinguistics, applied linguistics for ESL/Bilingual Education
teachers, and ESL/bilingual curriculum design.



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