Magdalena Kubanyiova

Theories of Learning and Change in Psychology

We have seen in the previous chapter that teacher change has been the subject of substantial research activity within both the general teacher education and applied linguistics disciplines. That review has, however, also highlighted the fragmentation of the field and the absence of theory-building research activity, particularly in the field of applied linguistics. Psychology, on the other hand, abounds with theories of learning and change and although it can never be the aim of this book to offer a comprehensive survey of even a fragment of these, I would like to focus on three theoretical frameworks in this chapter: attitude change, conceptual change and possible selves theory. As we will see later, these theories have contributed significantly to the development of the theoretical model of language teacher conceptual change presented in this book and I outline the key links of each theory to language teacher cognition research at the end of each section.

Conclusion: New Metaphors for Researching and Educating for Teacher Change

We have now arrived at the end of our exploration of language teachers’ conceptual change and yet one of the key findings emerging from this journey is that we can hardly talk of end points in development. The research described in this book has allowed us glimpses into the complex dynamics of teacher change characterised by intricate, evolving and often entangled relationships among teachers’ multiple visions, passions, dissonances, beliefs, knowledge and motivations as they engage in everyday practices of educating diverse students of a second language in specific educational, sociocultural and historical contexts. Although focusing on isolated constructs in language teacher cognition research, such as teachers’ beliefs, has been critical to our increased appreciation of the role teachers’ inner lives play in the educational process, this book has shown that even deeper insights can be gained by embracing a more holistic picture of teachers’ activity and opening up the conceptual boundaries of the discipline. Drawing on a newly developed model of Language Teacher Conceptual Change (LTCC), each empirically based chapter in this book has highlighted a particular facet of change which played a critical role in the eight teachers’ coming to terms with the teacher development course which was at the heart of this study. Instead of reiterating the conclusions reached in those chapters, therefore, let me conclude this book with a few reflections on what these findings may mean for researching and promoting teacher change.

The Study of Language Teachers’ Conceptual Change: Grounded Theory Ethnography

The study that forms the basis of the empirical part of this book adopted a methodology which is best described as grounded theory ethnography (Charmaz, 2006). Although I have previously framed this project as a mixed methods study (Hobbs and Kubanyiova, 2008; Kubanyiova, 2006, 2008, 2009c), this book concerns its substantial qualitative component and grounded theory ethnography is a methodological approach which best describes what I did when I collected, analysed and interpreted the qualitative data.

When Change Threatens the Teachers’ Sense of Self: Emotional Battles in Balancing Ideal, Ought-to and Feared Selves

The previous chapter has demonstrated that emotional dissonance is indispensable on the teachers’ route to conceptual change, for without their realisation of the discrepancy between their current and desired future states, there is no motivation to engage in a deep reflection on the new teacher education input. This chapter considers a different kind of emotional encounter arising from the teachers’ awareness that not only does their engagement with the new ideas not lead to what they would consider as effective teaching, but it also makes them feel disorientated, demoralised or even angry and can in fact alienate them from their deeply cherished vision s of who they would like to become. This threat to one’s sense of self can be profoundly traumatising and in order to avert it, the teachers tend to respond by withdrawing any intellectual involvement with the new material. In this chapter we will endeavour to understand the nature and origin of these highly threatening emotional experiences and the consequences for conceptual change. To facilitate our enquiry, the constructs of Ought-to and Feared Language Teacher Selves will also be introduced.

Pulling it Together: an Integrated Model of Language Teacher Conceptual Change

The brief theoretical excursion into the research literature on learning and change has revealed two important things: first, there have been very scarce efforts in the teacher cognition domain to build empirically supported theoretical frameworks of processes involved in teacher change. At the same time, a review of just a small segment of the psychological literature has shown a richness of such activity, revealing a striking overlap with some of the findings generated thus far in the teacher cognition domain. The purpose of this chapter is, therefore, to paraphrase Albert Einstein (1938), not to pull down an old barn and erect a skyscraper in its place, but rather to pull together the various theoretical threads in an integrated theoretical model which can create new spaces and possibilities for exploring language teacher change.

Teacher Change Research: a Critical Overview

Teacher change has been researched from various theoretical perspectives and with distinct purposes, which is reflected in the diverse terminology used in this field of study to refer to teacher change, including ‘teacher learning’, ‘teacher development’, ‘teacher socialisation’, ‘teacher growth’, ‘teacher improvement’, ‘implementation of innovation or reform’, ‘cognitive and affective change’ or ‘self-study’ (Richardson and Placier, 2001). Within this complex domain, we can discern at least two distinct approaches to the study of teacher change, each being informed by a different theoretical tradition. The first of these traditions has examined teacher change within the broader social, cultural and political contexts of school organisation, and this approach has primarily been informed by sociological, anthropological and organisational perspectives.

Emotional Dissonance: Essential but Insufficient Catalyst for Conceptual Change

So far we have analysed in detail what happens when the teachers’ ideal selves are incompatible with the teacher education input. In this and the remaining empirically based chapters, we will take a closer look at instances when the teacher development content is part of the teachers’ future images. We will see that even though the teachers’ vision s are central cognitions in conceptual change, their existence is in itself not a guarantee that meaningful change will occur. In the next two chapters we will examine the role of two types of emotions, emotional dissonance and threat, which have both significant, albeit very different, consequences for conceptual change: the former is an essential, though not sufficient, condition, whereas the teachers’ experience of the latter can be a major hurdle on their route to conceptual change. This chapter will apply the LTCC framework to examine Silvia, a research participant in this study, whose data have shown promising signs of an Ideal Language Teacher Self compatible with the TD course philosophy, but who has not experienced a moment of disequilibrium that is so clearly evident in the teacher from Horn et al.’s (2008) study in the following quote.

It’s Not What They Know, It’s Who They See: Ideal Selves as Central Cognitions in Conceptual Change

One of the key findings that has emerged from language teacher cognition research and that has been repeatedly underscored is the notion that teachers’ prior knowledge and beliefs must be brought to a conscious level in order for any meaningful change to occur. This has now been widely acknowledged and translated into many teacher education programmes which declare an aspiration to encourage teacher reflection. The findings presented here challenge this view. They do so not by denying the importance of teachers’ prior cognitions in conceptual change, but by unearthing those that play a central role in this process. As has been discussed earlier, systematic reflection is paramount for intentional conceptual change. What the findings presented in this chapter make clear, however, is that such reflection is prompted by the teachers’ vision of who they would like to become. It seems, therefore, that it is not so much what the teachers know or believe but who they see when they imagine themselves in the future that has a real impact on the depth with which they approach new ideas and educational innovations. Of course, not all visions lead to meaningful development and the purpose of this chapter is to unpack this distinction. I begin by examining the research participants’ more general motivational orientations as the analysis of these was the starting point which led to uncovering a broader future-related self-construct, language teachers’ ideal selves.

It’s not as Simple as It Sounds: Teacher Change as a Multifaceted, Situated, Emerging and Dynamic Process

Having come this far in our quest to understand language teachers’ conceptual change, let us take a moment to reflect on what we have learned so far. We have seen compelling evidence that teachers’ cognitive representations of themselves in future states, that is, their possible selves, are central cognitions in shaping not only what teachers do in the classroom, but, crucially for this anatomy, how they approach their professional development.