· Web viewMentoring can be defined in general as maximizing individuals’ learning...

Turkish Online Journal of Qualitative Inquiry, October 2011, 2(4)

Copyright © 2010 - THE TURKISH ONLINE JOURNAL OF QUALITATIVE INQUIRY

All rights reserved. No part of TOJQI's articles may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrival system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in TURKEY

Contact Address:Assoc.Prof.Dr. Abdullah KUZUTOJQI, Editor in ChiefEskişehir-Turkey


ISSN 1309-6591

Editor-in-Chief

Abdullah Kuzu, Anadolu University, Turkey

Associate Editors

Cindy G. JardineUniversity of Alberta, Canada

Işıl KabakçıAnadolu University, Turkey

Franz BreuerWestfälische Wilhems-Universität Münster, Germany

Jean McNiffYork St John University, United Kingdom

Ken ZeichnerUniversity of Washington, USA

Lynne SchrumGeorge Mason University, USA

Wolff-Michael RothUniversity of Victoria, Canada

Yavuz AkbulutAnadolu University, Turkey


Advisory Board

Abdullah Kuzu, Anadolu University, TurkeyAdile Aşkım Kurt, Anadolu University, TurkeyAhmet Saban, Selçuk University, TurkeyAli Rıza Akdeniz, Rize University, TurkeyAli Yıldırım, Middle East Technical University, TurkeyAngela Creese, University of Birmingham, United KingdomAngela K. Salmon, Florida International University, USAAntoinette McCallin, Auckland University of Technology, New ZealandArif Altun, Hacettepe University, TurkeyAsker Kartarı, Hacettepe University, TurkeyAytekin İşman, Sakarya University, TurkeyBenedicte Brøgger, The Norwegian School of Management BI, NorwayBronwyn Davies, University of Melbourne, AustraliaBuket Akkoyunlu, Hacettepe University, TurkeyCem Çuhadar, Trakya University, TurkeyCemalettin İpek, Rize University, TurkeyCesar Antonio Cisneros Puebla, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana Iztapalapa, MexicoCindy G. Jardine, University of Alberta, CanadaClaudia Figueiredo, Institute for Learning Innovation, USADurmuş Ekiz, Karadeniz Technical University, TurkeyElif Kuş Saillard, Ankara University, TurkeyFahriye Altınay Aksal, Near East University, TRNCFawn Winterwood, The Ohio State University, USAFerhan Odabaşı, Anadolu University, TurkeyFranz Breuer, Westfälische Wilhems-Universität Münster, GermanyGina Higginbottom, University of Alberta, CanadaGönül Kırcaali İftar, Professor Emerita, TurkeyHafize Keser, Ankara University, TurkeyHalil İbrahim Yalın, Gazi University, TurkeyHasan Şimşek, Middle East Technical University, TurkeyIşıl Kabakçı, Anadolu University, Turkeyİlknur Kelçeoğlu, Indiana University & Purdue University, USAJacinta Agbarachi Opara, Federal College of Education, NigeriaJean McNiff, York St John University, United KingdomJosé Fernando Galindo, Universidad Mayor de San Simón, BoliviaKen Zeichner, University of Washington, USALynne Schrum, George Mason University, USAMustafa Caner, Akdeniz University, TurkeyMustafa Yunus Eryaman, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, TurkeyNedim Alev, Karadeniz Technical University, TurkeyNigel Fielding, University of Surrey, United KingdomNihat Gürel Kahveci, Istanbul University, TurkeyPetek Aşkar, Hacettepe University, TurkeyPranee Liamputtong, La Trobe University, AustraliaRichard Kretschmer, University of Cincinnati, USARoberta Truax, Professor Emerita, USASelma Vonderwell, Cleveland State University, USAServet Bayram, Marmara University, Turkey


Sevgi Küçüker, Pamukkale University, TurkeyShalva Weil, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, IsraelSoner Yıldırım, Middle East Technical University, TurkeyUdo Kelle, Philipps-Universität Marburg, GermanyÜmit Girgin, Anadolu University, TurkeyWolff-Michael Roth, University of Victoria, CanadaYang Changyong, Sauthwest China Normal University, ChinaYavuz Akbulut, Anadolu University, TurkeyYavuz Akpınar, Boğaziçi University, TurkeyZehra Altınay Gazi, Near East University, TRNC

Review Board

Abdullah Adıgüzel, Harran University, Turkey Abdullah Kuzu, Anadolu University, TurkeyAdeviye Tuba Tuncer, Gazi University, Turkey Adile Aşkım Kurt, Anadolu University, TurkeyAhmet Naci Çoklar, Selçuk University, Turkey Ahmet Saban, Selçuk University, TurkeyAli Rıza Akdeniz, Rize University, TurkeyAli Yıldırım, Middle East Technical University, TurkeyAngela Creese, University of Birmingham, United KingdomAngela K. Salmon, Florida International University, USAAntoinette McCallin, Auckland University of Technology, New ZealandArif Altun, Hacettepe University, TurkeyAsker Kartarı, Hacettepe University, TurkeyAytekin İşman, Sakarya University, TurkeyAytaç Kurtuluş, Osmangazi University, TurkeyBahadır Erişti, Anadolu University, TurkeyBelgin Aydın, Anadolu University, TurkeyBenedicte Brøgger, The Norwegian School of Management BI, NorwayBronwyn Davies, University of Melbourne, AustraliaBuket Akkoyunlu, Hacettepe University, TurkeyCem Çuhadar, Trakya University, TurkeyCemalettin İpek, Rize University, TurkeyCesar Antonio Cisneros Puebla, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana Iztapalapa, MexicoCindy G. Jardine, University of Alberta, CanadaClaudia Figueiredo, Institute for Learning Innovation, USADilek Tanışlı, Anadolu University, TurkeyDurmuş Ekiz, Karadeniz Technical University, TurkeyElif Kuş Saillard, Ankara University, TurkeyEren Kesim, Anadolu University, TurkeyEsra Şişman, Osmangazi University, TurkeyFahriye Altınay Aksal, Near East University, TRNCFawn Winterwood, The Ohio State University, USAFerhan Odabaşı, Anadolu University, TurkeyFigen Ünal, Anadolu University, TurkeyFigen Uysal, Bilecik University, Turkey


Franz Breuer, Westfälische Wilhems-Universität Münster, GermanyGina Higginbottom, University of Alberta, CanadaGönül Kırcaali İftar, Professor Emerita, TurkeyGülsün Kurubacak, Anadolu University, TurkeyHafize Keser, Ankara University, TurkeyHalil İbrahim Yalın, Gazi University, TurkeyHandan Deveci, Anadolu University, Turkey Hasan Şimşek, Middle East Technical University, TurkeyIşıl Kabakçı, Anadolu University, Turkeyİlknur Kelçeoğlu, Indiana University & Purdue University, USAJacinta Agbarachi Opara, Federal College of Education, NigeriaJale Balaban, Anadolu University, TurkeyJean McNiff, York St John University, United KingdomJosé Fernando Galindo, Universidad Mayor de San Simón, BoliviaKen Zeichner, University of Washington, USAKerem Kılıçer, Gaziosmanpaşa University, Turkey Lynne Schrum, George Mason University, USAMehmet Can Şahin, Çukurova University, TurkeyMeltem Huri Baturay, Gazi University, Turkey Meral Ören Çevikalp, Anadolu University, Turkey Mine Dikdere, Anadolu University, TurkeyMustafa Caner, Akdeniz University, TurkeyMustafa Nuri Ural, Mevlana University, TurkeyMustafa Yunus Eryaman, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, TurkeyMüyesser Ceylan, Anadolu University, TurkeyNedim Alev, Karadeniz Technical University, TurkeyNigel Fielding, University of Surrey, United KingdomNihat Gürel Kahveci, Istanbul University, TurkeyNilüfer Köse, Anadolu University, TurkeyOsman Dülger, Bingöl University, Turkey Özcan Özgür Dursun, Anadolu University, TurkeyPelin Yalçınoğlu, Anadolu University, TurkeyPetek Aşkar, Hacettepe University, TurkeyPranee Liamputtong, La Trobe University, AustraliaRichard Kretschmer, University of Cincinnati, USARoberta Truax, Professor Emerita, USASelma Vonderwell, Cleveland State University, USASema Ünlüer, Anadolu University, Turkey Semahat Işıl Açıkalın, Anadolu University, TurkeySerap Cavkaytar, Anadolu University, TurkeyServet Bayram, Marmara University, TurkeyServet Çelik, Karadeniz Technical University, TurkeySevgi Küçüker, Pamukkale University, TurkeySezgin Vuran, Anadolu University, TurkeyShalva Weil, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, IsraelSoner Yıldırım, Middle East Technical University, TurkeySuzan Duygu Erişti, Anadolu University, TurkeyŞemseddin Gündüz, Selçuk University, TurkeyTuba Yüzügüllü Ada, Anadolu University, TurkeyUdo Kelle, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany


Ümit Girgin, Anadolu University, TurkeyWolff-Michael Roth, University of Victoria, CanadaYang Changyong, Sauthwest China Normal University, ChinaYavuz Akbulut, Anadolu University, TurkeyYavuz Akpınar, Boğaziçi University, TurkeyYusuf Levent Şahin, Anadolu University, TurkeyZehra Altınay Gazi, Near East University, TRNC Zülal Balpınar, Anadolu University, Turkey

Language Reviewers

Mehmet Duranlıoğlu, Anadolu University, TurkeyMustafa Caner, Akdeniz University, Turkey

Administrative & Technical Staff

Elif Buğra Kuzu, Anadolu University, TurkeySerkan Çankaya, Anadolu University, Turkey

The Turkish Online Journal of Qualitative Inquiry (TOJQI) (ISSN 1309-6591) is published quarterly (January, April, July and October) a year at the www.tojqi.net.

For all enquiries regarding the TOJQI, please contact Assoc.Prof. Abdullah KUZU, Editor-In-Chief, TOJQI, Anadolu University, Faculty of Education, Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology, Yunus Emre Campus, 26470, Eskisehir, TURKEY, Phone #:+90-222-3350580/3519, Fax # :+90-222-3350573, E-mail : [email protected]; [email protected].

mailto:[email protected]



Table of Contents

Comparison of the Impacts of Telementoring Services on Protégés' Academic Achievements and OpinionsNecmi Eşgi

1

Effectiveness of Artistic Interaction through Video ConferencingSuzan Duygu Erişti

11

Effects of Learning Beliefs of Pre-Service Teachers at an English as a Foreign Language Certificate Program on their Practice TeachingGörsev İnceçay

29

Hui Students’ Identity Construction in Eastern China: A Postcolonial CritiqueYuxiang Wang JoAnn Phillion

39

Internet Use with Learning Aim: Views of German Language Pre-Service TeachersMukadder Seyhan Yücel

52

Socio-economic Affects of Floods on Female Teachers in Jampur (Pakistan)Muhammad Ayub Buzdar Akhtar Ali

71

Sources of Foreign Language Student Teacher Anxiety: A Qualitative InquiryAli Merç

80

The Twenty Statement Test in Teacher DevelopmentAhmet Aypay Ayşe Aypay

95


Comparison of the Impacts of Telementoring Services on Protégés' Academic Achievements and Opinions

Necmi EşgiGaziosmanpaşa University, Turkey

[email protected]

Abstract

The aim of the research is to compare the impacts of telementoring services, delivered using chat with video, chat with instant message, mobile phone, discussion board and video conference on protégés’ academic achievements and opinions. Telementoring services, made up with five different instruments, were administered to a group of protégés, composed of 38 university students. In the research, the multiple-choice achievement test, which consisted of twenty-four 4-point Likert items, was utilized in order to determine protégés’ academic achievements. On the other hand, protégés’ opinions were determined through open-ended questions. The research findings demonstrated that telementoring services formed through using different instruments do not significantly differentiate student achievements between groups. Moreover, positive and negative characteristics regarding the communication instruments used were defined based on protégés’ opinions.

Keywords: Telementoring; chat with video; chat with instant message; mobile phone; discussion board; video conference; protégés

Introduction

Mentoring can be defined in general as maximizing individuals’ learning potentials, improving their skills, increasing their performances, and supporting and encouraging them to become the person they want to be. Adams and Crews (2004) indicate that telementoring is the electronic version of mentoring. Single and Muller (1999) define telementoring as a relationship between a more senior individual (mentor) and a lesser skilled or experienced individual (protégé) primarily using electronic communications, and that is intended to grow the skills, knowledge, confidence and cultural understanding of the protégé to help him or her to succeed. O’Neill (2000), on the other hand, defines telementoring as the use of telecommunication technologies to support a mentoring relationship when a face-to-face relationship would be impractical. Telementoring is conducted in three categories (Dorman, 2001; American School Health Association, 2001; Hansman, 2002, Perez and Dorman, 2001): i) Ask an expert: In this format, generally a match between a student and an expert occurs. The protégé asks questions to a more experienced expert in the field to acquire knowledge or to increase his/her knowledge. ii) Pair mentoring: It is a form of mentoring performed by a student and a voluntary expert. Pair mentoring involves practices aimed at educational and social development spread

1



over long time periods. The mentor creates learning possibilities and improves comprehension on the selected field using e-mail, audio or video materials by assuming the role of a model. iii) Group mentoring: In this form of mentoring, an expert or a group of experts is matched with a group of students through technological instruments. It may be performed for short as well as long time periods.

When considered the definitions and types of telementoring, it is observed that the forms of communication constituted by the instruments used in telementoring are performed in the form of transmission of audio and video, audio and electronic message. The instruments that enable the creation of these three forms of communication can be juxtaposed as: audio-video synchronous videoconference, one-to-one chat with video; audio-only synchronous internet phones, land phones, cellular phones; synchronous instant messaging, asynchronous discussion board, asynchronous e-mail and asynchronous sms. Figure 1 presents types of telementoring, and the forms of communication and instruments regarding these types.

Figure1. Types of telementoring, forms of communication that can be used in these types,

and instruments that can perform these forms of communication

As is seen in Figure 1, it could be stated that the type of telementoring “ask an expert” can be used in all instruments. In pair mentoring, on the other hand, internet phone, land phone, cellular phone, chat with video, instant messaging, e-mail and sms can be used. In group mentoring, video-conference and discussion board can be used. All instruments except discussion board and e-mail are synchronous.

The literature review, no study was found that compares five different telementoring practices (Chat with Video, Chat with Instant Message, Mobile Phone, Discussion Board and Videoconference) in terms of protégé achievement and opinions and within the scope of the telementoring types (Voice , Electronic message, Voice and Image). The aim of the research is the comparison of the impacts of five different telementoring practices on protégé achievement and opinions, which are formed on the basis of transmission of

2


synchronous audio and video, synchronous audio, synchronous electronic message and asynchronous electronic message between the mentor and the protégé, and within the scope of two types of telementoring “ask an expert” and "group mentoring". To this aim, cellular phone was used for synchronous audio transmission between the mentor and the protégé, chat with video and video conference was used for synchronous audio and video transmission, instant messaging was used for synchronous electronic message, and discussion board was used for asynchronous message transmission. The telementoring practices in the research were performed within the framework of “ask an expert” in groups where cellular phone, chat with video and instant messaging were used, and of “group mentoring” in groups where video conference and discussion board were used.

Method and Data Collection Tools

The protégé group of the research consists of 38 sophomore (2nd grade) students who take the course “Programming Languages II” (ASP) at the Department of Computer and Instructional Technologies Education (GaziOsmanPasa University/Tokat/Turkey). The first group, where one-to-one chat with video instrument was used between the protégé and the mentor, is composed of 8 students; the second group where video conference was used is composed of 8 students; the third group where cellular phone was used is composed of 8 students; the fourth group where instant messaging was used is composed of 7 students; and the fifth group where discussion board was used is composed of 7 students. Students in these groups received mentoring service in addition to their ordinary education. Synchronous groups attended “ask an expert” or “group mentoring” telementoring services at least one hour per week depending on their types of mentoring. In the asynchronous group, on the other hand, there was not any time limitation. A total of 25 mentors worked in the research; 8 in the first group where chat with video was used, 1 in the second group where video conference was used, 8 in the third group where cellular phone was used, 7 in the fourth group where instant messaging was used, and 1 in the fifth group where discussion board was used. Mentors were 3rd and 4th grade volunteered students, who had received and successfully passed this course. Necessary information was given to the mentors prior to the research about the content and the subject of the research, and the things that need to be done throughout the research. Telementoring services were performed for six weeks. The reason that experienced students were defined as mentors in the study was to ensure the most efficient formation of the mentoring services. Harris and Jones (1999); Harris, O’Bryan and Rotenberg (1996); Lenert and Harris (1994 ) suggest that matching experienced students with lesser experienced ones as mentors is more influential than matching students with an expert (Lewis at all 2002). In the research, Windows Live Messenger was used for chat with video, Polycom PVX 8.0.4 was used for video conference, and ICQ was used for instant messaging. Asynchronous discussion board was formed under .NET using ASP.NET. The validity and reliability studies of the achievement test of the research were conducted in line with the evidence obtained from Trochim (2001) and Miles and Huberman (1994). Experts were asked to examine the measurement tool to achieve credibility. Five experts in computer and education technologies evaluated the measurement tool and they concluded that it is efficient to fulfill the aims of the study. For what regards transferability, experts’ opinion was asked and it was confirmed that the results are generalizable for similar future studies to be conducted in other contexts. The achievement test was prepared 4 licert items and consists of 24 items. Cronbach’s alpha is .86. A pre-test was applied to the groups, and after controlling the pre-test results, the groups participate in mentoring services for 12 weeks. Upon completion of the training and participation, the achievement test was

3


applied to the groups as the final test. The students were asked to state the positive and/or negative aspects of the telementoring services they participated in.

Findings and Comments

Findings Related to the Groups’ Scores in Achievement Tests:

Comparison of the Achievement Scores Taken from Pretest

Table 1 demonstrates the Kruskal-Wallis H. test results of the scores taken from Pretest be the groups, in which different telementoring instruments are used.

Table 1. Kruskal-Wallis H. test results of the scores taken from Pretest be the groups

Groups n Mean Rank

df x2 p

Group1st 8 23.38 4 6.83 .14Group2nd 8 24.19Group3rd 8 11.14Group4th 7 19.36Group5th 7 19.07

Kruskal Wallis H. test analysis results demonstrated in Table 1 indicate that there is not any significant difference between the achievement scores taken in the Pretest; by the 1st group where chat with video, by the 2nd group where video conference, by the 3rd

group where cellular phone, by the 4th group where instant messaging, and by the 5th

group where discussion board was used [(x2(4) =.14, p>.05].

Comparison of the Achievement Scores Taken from Posttest

Table 2 demonstrates the Kruskal-Wallis H. test results of the scores taken from Posttest be the groups, in which different telementoring instruments are used.

Table 2. Kruskal-Wallis H. test results of the scores taken from Posttest be the groups

Groups n Mean Rank df x2 p

Group1st 8 20.81 4 3.57 .46Group2nd 8 13.44Group3rd 8 19.31Group4th 7 23.29

4


Group5th 7 21.36

Kruskal Wallis H. test analysis results demonstrated in Table 2 indicate that there is not any significant difference between the achievement scores taken in the Posttest; by the 1st group where chat with video, by the 2nd group where video conference, by the 3rd

group where cellular phone, by the 4th group where instant messaging, and by the 5th

group where discussion board was used [(x2(4) =.46, p>.05].

Despite several limitations such as low number of students in study groups, the subject worked on, and limited telementoring durations, research findings demonstrate that protégé achievement does not differ significantly according to whether the telementoring services are provided through video and audio, audio-only or electronic message. Besides, the findings also suggest that student achievement does not differ with respect to several other factors, such as using different types of telementoring as “ask an expert” and “group mentoring”, using synchronous or asynchronous electronic message, using synchronous audio and video in the forms of “ask an expert” or “group mentoring”. The reason no significant difference was found between groups in terms of protégé achievement might be that all instruments have the same impact on achievement in terms of communication. This idea is supported by the facts that the subject field taught in the research requires expertise, that the information about the subject cannot be accessed easily by means of internet and other resources, and that the learning person is likely to need the knowledge of an expert or an experienced person. Therefore, this interpretation is reached by assuming that the best resource for the protégé to access the relevant knowledge (leaving aside the general limitations of the research) could only be his/her mentor.

Opinions of the Protégés in the Groups on the Instruments and Practices

The protégés were asked to express their opinions on the positive and negative aspects of the process they experienced regarding the practices. The decision tree, which is presented in Figure 3, demonstrates the positive and negative opinions of the protégés on the telementoring practices they participated and on the instruments used in the practices, and the distribution of the opinions among groups.

As Figure 3 shows, 8 protégés in the 1st group where chat with video was used concentrated on 5 opinions; 3 positive and 2 negative. Five of the protégés reported that performing “ask an expert” type mentoring services with chat with video “enables students to get to know the expert individually”, seven of them reported that “questions were answered clearly and answers were also received clearly” if chat with video is used, and six of them stated that this method “offers the opportunity of instant feedback and correction”. On the other hand, while six of the protégés in the same group reported that “they experienced connection problems in video”, three of them stated that “they felt uneasy about video communication”. This shows that a great majority of the protégés in this group think that the telementoring service provided by using this instrument makes it possible to know experts individually, in other words it enables establishing informal relationships with experts, that they can receive clear answers to their questions and they can clearly express themselves, and that they find the opportunity of instant feedback and correction. On the other hand, it is observed that most of the protégés in

5


this group experienced connection problems. It is also a notable finding that there exist proteges in this group who are not happy with chatting with video.

In the 2nd group where telementoring was performed using video conference, the protégés gave 2 positive and 4 negative opinions. Five of the protégés in this group reported that the telementoring performed using video conference “offers the opportunity of instant feedback and correction” and six of them reported that “questions were answered clearly and answers were also received clearly”. On the other hand, two of them stated that “desired issues could not be expressed adequately”, two of them stated that “the mentor could not allocate enough time for the group members”, three of them reported that “they do not want to be in the same group with those to whom they do not feel intimate”, and the entire group reported that “they experienced technical connection problems”.

In the 3rd group which was designed in the form of “ask an expert” by using cellular phone based on synchronous audio transmission, protégé opinions centered around 3 positive and 2 negative opinions. While six of them reported that “they felt comfortable in communication”, all of them stated that “they could establish connection everywhere and every time” and that “they did not experience any problem in connection”. However, six of the protégés reported that “they experienced problems in orally expressing an issue, a content or a problem”, and five of them stated that “they experienced problems in receiving clear and understandable responses”. In general, it could be stated that the use of voice as synchronous mobile between the mentor and the protégé is considered by most of the protégés to be an instrument which is; easy-to-communicate, easy-to-connect and free from technical connection problems; however, due to the technological characteristic of the device, they experienced problems in receiving clear and understandable responses to questions and in orally expressing themselves.

In the 4th group where synchronous instant message was used, protégés concentrated around 2 positive and 3 negative responses. Six of the protégés reported that “they felt comfortable” in this type of communication, and all of them stated that this instrument “offered the opportunity of instant feedback and correction”. However, six of them stated that “they sometimes had problems in expressing themselves in writing”, six of them stated that “constantly writing is boring” and five of them reported that “they experienced connection problems”.

In the 5th group where the communication between the mentor and the protégés was established through discussion board, opinions concentrated around 1 positive and 4 negative options. Six of the protégés in this group stated that “they had to express themselves by writing”, two of them stated that “they do not want to share their knowledge with others”, five reported that “they did not have enough time to read the messages”, and six of them stated that “they could not receive accurate and timely answers to their questions”. Besides, five of the protégés reported that “other protégés also experienced similar problems and these problems were shared”, which was a positive feature according to them. These findings are in parallel with the findings of the study carried out by Oliver and Shaw (2003), in which they investigated the impact of asynchronous forum practices on student opinions.

Findings of the groups, in which video conference and chat with video were used, are similar to each other. The point that makes the difference in terms of protégés’ opinions is the fact that one of them was conducted in the framework of “ask an expert” and the

6


other was carried out in the framework of “group mentoring”. There are similar problems and advantages. Whereas technological problems were experienced in both groups, protégés in both groups received clear responses to their questions. Some protégés in the group in which chat with video was performed in the form of “ask an expert” reported that they felt uneasy about chatting with video. No such opinion was received from the group in which video conference was used. Departing from this , it is an interesting point, which needs to be stressed on, that protégés are more comfortable in synchronous applications where audio and video are used than they are in individual or matched situations in group practices. Another point is that group dynamics might be influential in the communication process in the group in which video conference is used. Protégés interact here not only with the mentor but also with other protégés, thus the intimacy and attitudes among protégés within the group might also influence the telementoring process and practices. Some protégés in the video conference group expressed their discomfort in sharing the same group with some other protégés. Atack and Lefebre (2003) suggest that such problems are the disadvantages that need to be overcome in the telementoring process.

7


Figure 3. Decision tree related to the protégés’ opinions

8


It could be stated that the types of telementoring that show similarities with face-to-face mentoring are those conducted through video conference and chat with video instruments. What is common in all three of them is synchronous audio and video transmission. In this case, it could be stated that the communication between the protégé and the mentor goes mostly along the lines of daily communication principles. As Nellen (1998, 1999) suggests, the relationship between the mentor and the protégé is a relationship in which mostly emotions and individual characteristics are set to work and the conditions are similar to those in the face-to-face mentoring. This has positive and negative aspects; establishment of mutual trust and sincerity is highly difficult, but once it is established, it is likely to be highly successful and strong (Dorman, 2001). Besides, most of the protégés in the group in which chat with video was used reported that they had the chance to know their mentors individually, in other words, to establish informal relationships. Li, Finley and Pitts (2008) suggested that informal interactions between the mentor and the protégé have positive impacts.

It is observed that the protégés felt comfortable in the communication processes in which only audio and only message transmission (cellular phone, instant message groups) was conducted, however and they felt uncomfortable in audio and video communication (chat with video). Surprisingly, a great majority of those protégés who reported that they felt comfortable in the communication processes where these instruments were used also reported that they had problems in expressing themselves using the same instruments. Moreover, it was observed that the technical connection problems, similarly underlined by Furr and Ragsdale (2002), were seen in those groups in which video conference, chat with video and instant message were used, while such problems were not experienced in groups that used cellular phone and discussion board. It is seen that one of the main problems of electronic message groups is that protégés have problems in expressing themselves depending on the technology utilized. Kochan and Pascarelli (2005) underlined the same situation and described it as the inferiority of written communication to visual communication.

Conclusion and Suggestions

Researchers like Harris, (1999); Rao, (1999); Brotherton, (2001); Single & Muller, (1999), Dorman (2001) suggested that telementoring improves academic achievement. Therefore, the idea that telementoring improves protégés’ achievements is one of the reference points derived from previous studies. Findings of the current study, despite its limitations, demonstrate that telementoring services created by using chat with video, cellular phone, instant messaging, discussion board and video conference do not significantly differentiate protégés’ academic achievement. In addition, it was also concluded that protégés’ academic achievement does not differ according to whether telementoring services are provided in the forms of “ask an expert” or “group mentoring”, whether electronic message is used synchronous or asynchronous, and whether synchronous audio and video is used in different forms like “ask an expert” or “group mentoring”. The reason no significant difference was found between research groups in terms of academic achievement might be the fact that all instruments have the same communicational impact on achievement; no matter they are used individually or on a group basis, synchronous or asynchronous.

Instruments used in telementoring practices offer advantages and disadvantages that stem from their natures and ways of use. Paying attention to these characteristics while

9


designing telementoring practices may help using these instruments efficiently. First of them is chat with video, which is used in pair mentoring and ask an expert. In chat with video, protégés and mentors may have the chance to know each other better and to develop informal relationships, however, this can only be possible if mutual trust and sincerity is established. Considering the fact that individuals may feel uneasy about video talks in the use of this instrument, it might be used according to the sensitivities of the users, or a different type might be employed. Video conference, which is another audio and video instrument, is used in telementoring. In this method, not only the mentor and the protégés, but also protégés among themselves interact. Therefore, group dynamics might be taken into consideration while forming groups and individuals who are thought to interact with each other well might be brought together. In addition, since video conference is a group practice, integrative approaches like equal amount of time and equal right to speak to group members might be beneficial. Besides, it could be argued that the instruments with which most problems are experienced depending on the technology utilized are those that are used in audio and video transmission (video conference and chat with video). Yet another instrument is cellular phone. It could be stated that the most negative significant feature observed in the use of cellular phone between the protégé and the mentor is the possible problems that can be experienced in expressing oneself with voice. On the other hand, it could also be stated that cellular phone has certain advantages that outscore the problems, such as the facts that it is easy-to-use, that its technical infrastructure is stronger than other instruments that transmit audio and video, and that it can be accessed easily. The biggest disadvantage of mentoring activities performed by using cellular phone is the possible problems in expressing oneself with voice, and this disadvantage might be overcome by using the technique “reflective listening” as much as possible. It could be stated that technical connection problems are experienced in instant messaging instrument, although not as much as in video conference or chat with video. In addition, it should also be taken into consideration that this instrument might create other problems such as problems in expressing oneself only in the written form and problems of clarity observed when questions and responses are exchanged in the written form. However, this instrument has advantages that could bring into the forefront such that it enables the protégé to feel comfortable in the communication process and it makes instant feedback and correction possible. On the other hand, since discussion board is an instrument that functions on the basis of asynchronous message transmission, the problems in expressing oneself in the written form are also pertinent to this instrument. In addition, this instrument has other negative characteristics such as inability to receive timely and accurate responses, and time-consuming due to the fact that responses should be checked at certain intervals since it is an asynchronous instrument. In group discussions, treating equally to each student while conducting the discussion board and providing timely and accurate answers to questions sent to the discussion board might increase the effectiveness of this instrument for mentors. Horowitz (2004) suggests the use of a precise language, and compliance with grammar and punctuation principles in synchronous and asynchronous instruments in which written communication technology is used (instant messaging, discussion board).

In conclusion, which instrument and type should be preferred if each telementoring instrument has its own advantages and disadvantages and if telementoring types and instruments make no difference in academic achievement? At the point the research brought us, it is believed that using telementoring in courses might be beneficial. The factors that influence the selection of the type and instrument of telementoring can be

10


juxtaposed as follows: the objective and content of telementoring, characteristics of protégés and mentors, instruments that can be used, general positive and negative features of telementoring instruments, availability of telementoring instruments and their costs (if any), respectively. The instrument and type to be used in the application can be determined, by evaluating the desired telementoring practice according to the above-mentioned factors.

References

Adams, G., & Crews, T. B. (2004) Telementoring: A viable tool. Journal of Applied Research for Business Instruction, 2(3),1-6.

American School Health Association. (2001). Enhancing youth achievement through telementoring. Journal of School Health, 71(3). 122-123.

Atack, L., & Lefebre, N. (2003). Telementoring in a community healthcare organization: A case study. Healthcare Management Forum, 51-53.

Brotherton, P. (2001). Students connect with mentors through e-mail. Techniques, 76(8), 38-40.

Dorman, S. M, (2001). Are teachers using technology for instruction?, Journal of School Health, 71(2).83-84.

Furr,P. F., & Ragsdale, R. G. (2002). How to avoid teacher and student frustration. Education and Information Technologies, 7(4),Kluwer Academic Publishers. Holland.

Hansman, C. A. (2002). Critical perspectives on mentoring: Trend and issues. Retrieved October 18, 2010 from www.calproonline.org/eric/docs/mott/mentoring5.pdf

Harris, J. (1999). A descriptive study of telementoring among students, subject matter experts, and teachers: Message flow and function patterns. Journal of Researchon Computing in Education, 32(1), 36-53.

Horowitz, A. (2004) Are you annoying. Computerworld, 38(30),34-35.Kochan, F., & Pascarelli, J. (2005) Creating succesfull telementoring programs. USA:

Information Age PublishingLewis, C. W. (2002) Telementoring: A Teacher’s perspective of the effectiveness of the

international telementor program. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 1(1), Summer 2002. Retrieved October 15, 2010 from http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/1.1.6.pdf

Li, L., Finley, J., & Pitts, J. (2008). Which is a better choice for student-faculty interaction: Synchronous or asynchronous communication?. Retrieved October 18, 2010 from http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/10682.pdf

Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook (2nd Ed.), London & Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.

Nellen,T.(1998).Telementoring Web: Adult experts in the classroom. Retrieved October 12, 2010 from http://mbhs.bergtraum.k12.ny.us/mentor/Retrieved.

Nellen, T. (1999). Morphing from teacher to cybrian. Multimedia Schools, 6(1), 27–29.Oliver M.; & Shaw, G. P. (2003) Asynchronous discussion in support of medıcal educatıon.

JALN, 7(1). February 2003.

11

http://mbhs.bergtraum.k12.ny.us/mentor/Retrieved

http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/10682.pdf

http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/1.1.6.pdf

http://www.calproonline.org/eric/docs/mott/mentoring5.pdf


O’Neill, D. K., & Scardamalia, M. (2000) Mentoring in the open: A strategy for supporting human development in the knowledge society IKIT. Retrieved October 15, 2010 from http://ikit.org/fulltext/2000_Mentoring.pdf

Perez, S, & Dorman, S. M, (2001). Enhancing youth achievement through telementoring, Journal of School Health, 71(3): 122-123.

Rao, S. (1999). Cyber pals. Forbes, 164(8), 106-107.Single, P. B., & Muller, C. B. (1999). Electronic mentoring: Issues to advance research and

practice. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the International Mentoring Association. Atlanta, GA.

Trochim, W. M. K. (2001) The research methods knowledge base. Cincinnati. OH: Atomic Dog publishing.

Effectiveness of Artistic Interaction through Video Conferencing

Suzan Duygu EriştiAnadolu University, Turkey

[email protected]

Abstract

This study investigated Turkish and Canadian primary school students’ ways of expressing their perception of interactive art education through video conferencing and that of cultural interaction through pictorial representations. The qualitative research data were collected in the form of pictures and interviews on interactive art education along with cultural components depicted in pictures. The results obtained were analyzed and interpreted based on the quantitative content analysis method. The research results revealed that the majority of the students explained their viewpoints through the effectiveness of the process. The students highlighted the importance of learning a different culture, learning about a different art technique and recognizing new friends in the process. The synchronization regarding interactive art education through videoconferencing was another important experience reflected by the students. Most of the students indicated that interactive art education through videoconferencing encouraged them to learn and understand about different cultures, helped them develop cultural awareness, attracted their attention and increased their motivation.

Keywords: Art education; technology; video-conferencing; intercultural interaction; intercultural art education

12


http://ikit.org/fulltext/2000_Mentoring.pdf


Introduction

Today, one of the results caused by the rapid globalization process is that the efforts to establish intercultural interactions are growing and gaining importance (Rural Advanced Community of Learners, 2004). It is quite important for an information-age human to know about various cultures and to become knowledgeable about the differences and similarities between cultures (Guiherme, 2002). One way of understanding the cultural differences and the relationship between cultures is to establish intercultural interaction. Intercultural interaction could be established in different ways through different methods and tools.

One of the important tools for establishing cultural interaction is the art itself and artistic activities as well. Art, in many cultural systems, is used as an effective tool for establishing cultural identities and for relating different cultures with one another (Stupples, 2003; Hudson & Hudson, 2001; Mc Fee, 1995). An individual from a certain cultural group can learn to give meaning to and understand the social structures of different cultures, their faith systems, their values and their life habits via artistic activities (Miller, 2004). Artistic activities include products reflecting the feelings and thoughts, observations, the features of the cultural environment and the meanings made within this framework (Hague, 2001; Malchiodi, 2003; Malchiodi, 2005).

Today, video-conferencing systems, which are found in interactive environments supported by technology and widely used in universal educational activities, are among educational technologies that allow using certain opportunities and environments in the instructional process, which cannot be provided in face-to-face education. In addition, video-conferencing systems allow transmitting interaction and different experiences between different educational settings with the help of rich communication tools (Motamedi, 2001; Renkl & Atkinson, 2002;Greenberg & Nilssen, 2005). These systems are also used widely in studies on intercultural interaction and in international projects (Rural Advanced Community of Learners, 2004; Cole at. ull. 2004). In contemporary educational institutions, considering the fact that it is necessary to prepare students for a universal society, students should develop and improve educational environments and curriculums within the context of interaction and communication (Leeman & Ledoux, 2003; Jackson, 2005). A number of interactions such as universal educational applications, international cooperation, cultural change, cultural interaction and cultural transfer can be carried out effectively within the context of video-conferencing technologies (Motamedi, 2001).

In a number of cultural systems, art is used as an effective environment for structuring cultural identities and for relating different cultures (McFee, 1991; Mendoza, at. all., 2002; Miller, 2004). With the help of art, an individual belonging to a cultural group can learn to understand the social structures of different cultures, their belief systems, values and lives (Miller, 2004). The most effective way of establishing multi-cultural communication today is art and technology. Artistic activities provide children with an environment in which they synthesize their perceptions to communicate their observations, feelings and thoughts (Malchiodi, 2005). In their drawings, children reflect the features of their environment and the meanings they create in this environment (Hague, 2001). It is possible to raise cultural awareness and to learn different cultures to with the help of art, which is the best way for children to express their own thoughts and feelings.

13


Everything in art is quite close to culture, and doing cultural sharing via art provides students with a different learning environment. In the process of sharing culture through art, students actually find themselves in a learning environment by overcoming various obstacles. Art facilitates carrying out cultural transfer and provides students with an environment allowing them to cope with language-related interaction and communication problems in intercultural interactions (Boughton & Mason, 1999). This study investigated students’ perceptions about technology-supported art education and intercultural interactions with a reference to art applications and art education. More specifically, the purpose was to investigate perceptions of students at two different primary schools –one in Canada and the other in Turkey– regarding the technology and art in the process of raising cultural awareness and cultural interaction while they are sharing cultural art applications through video-conferencing. Based on this basic purpose, the following questions were directed in the study:

1. What are primary school students’ perceptions regarding artistic interaction via video-conferencing?

2. What are primary school students’ views about intercultural artistic awareness?3. How do primary school students express their perceptions of artistic awareness of

their own culture and other cultures?

Methods and Procedures

Research Design

Qualitative research methods were followed to investigate primary school students’ perceptions regarding intercultural interaction. To analyze and interpret the interview data content analysis was used. Coding with respect to the concepts revealed from the data was particularly helpful (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2006). Qualitative interviews were conducted and they were asked questions to reveal the degree of their awareness related to artistic and cultural values through using technology (The interview questions were focused on sharing culture, sharing artistic representations, learning about other cultures, learning from a teacher who is from a different culture, learning about new art style, teaching their own culture, telling their pictorial representation and the effect of technology-video conferencing on the process). All data were analyzed through determining the themes and relating the data with those themes. Several researchers examine approaches in educational environments not only with the help of scientific data but also via artistic data (Barone & Eisner, 1997; Cole & Knowles, 2001; Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). This allows researchers to investigate a different conceptualization – at a postmodern level - regarding how education functions, what it means, and for what purpose activities are carried out in the learning and teaching process (Finley, 2005). In this regard, with the help of primary school students’ views and of pictorial representations, the present study could better reveal primary school students’ perceptions of interactive art education, of different art techniques, of cultural awareness and of sharing through interaction. While analyzing the pictures art-based inquiry was applied, this is a design that relates art with research (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). Based on their own impressions, this design tries to reveal perceptions and perspectives regarding various situations through students’ artistic expressions (Eisner, 2002).

14


Participants

The study was conducted with one of the two fifth-grade classes in Cagdas Primary School at a town of Eskisehir, Turkey and with the W.H. Day Public School (Simcoe County District School Board) in Ontario, Canada. Criterion sampling was used to determine the schools for application. In the criterion sampling, the Turkish students’ proficiency in English Language and the technological facilities of the schools both in Canada and in Turkey (the technology and facilities to allow effective use of video-conferencing) were determined as criteria. The reason for conducting the study with primary school fifth-grade students was that the students in both schools were old enough to reflect what they understood and learnt through their pictorial representations (Artut, 2001). The study was carried out with 44 students: 22 were from Canada and 22 were from Turkey.

Application Process

In the application process firstly the elementary school fifth-grade students in Turkey were interviewed regarding the possible differences between the two cultures, regarding their interest in the other culture and regarding their desire to communicate with that culture. Thus, the children gained a certain level of readiness regarding that culture. In the second phase the researcher of the present study and the art teachers of the students both in Canada and in Turkey participated in the process of knowledge development. In this phase, sample applications and examples from Canadian and Turkish art of drawings as well as the way of informing were determined. In this process, a criterion was set for choosing the artists and the types of art applications similar in both cultures. Within the scope of this criterion, Nusret Çolpan (an artist) and the Turkish Miniatures (a Turkish painting art)were chosen. The Ted Harrison Style as a Canadian painting art and Ted Harrison as an artist were chosen. The artistic applications of both artists had clear outlines, bright colours and authenticity. These features were in accordance with the artistic development periods of students and allowed relating one application to another. After the researcher and the teachers from both cultures decided the information to be shared, they created a pool of information tools. The pool of information tools included videos, websites, pictures, photos and application samples regarding the subjects determined. Next, this information was shared between the two teachers through Internet website designed for the research application process and file-sharing software (http://artconnection.wetpaint.com/page/artconnection+Home/links) (Picture 1). The information in the pool of information tools was used by the teachers to help students become knowledgeable about each other’s cultures and understanding of art and about the two artists. This process was carried out in four course-hours (4x40 minutes) in two weeks. Following the information process, the students from both cultures were asked to draw pictures by using the method of artistic narration in their own cultures. The Turkish children drew pictures based on Nusret Çolpan’s style, and the Canadian children drew pictures in line with Ted Harrison’s style. Then, these drawings were uploaded on a website designed by the researcher and the teachers to share with the students. Sample applications of the students as well as those of the artists were found on this website. The website designed (Picture 1) was also used to give information to the students about the understanding of art for the other culture.

15


Picture 1. Activity web page

In the next phase, the students themselves discussed the artistic style chosen from the other culture in line with the information they had obtained up to that time, and they examined the drawings belonging to the other culture and explored the perspectives and techniques of that culture.

In the following phase the video-conferencing application was included in the process. Before the application, the art teachers both in Canada and in Turkey were asked to prepare a 30-minute lesson regarding the determined subjects. To carry out the video-conferencing effectively, the connection was tested in addition to time adjustments for synchronization. That is, the students in Canada came to the school at eight o’clock in the morning whereas Turkish students came to the school at three o’clock in the afternoon. During the activity process, the video-conference room of the primary school in Canada - where the application was carried out – and the Video-Conference Room at Open Education Faculty of Anadolu University in Turkey were used by the researcher and the participants in the application. This activity was carried out in a period of two course-hours. In the first thirty minutes of this period, the art teacher in Canada taught the drawing features of Ted Harrison style practically with the help of the video-conferencing system. All the students participating in the application in Canada in the process showed their drawings to their peers in Turkey and talked about what they wanted to depict and about the things they considered while drawing. Turkish students asked questions to the art teacher in Canada about the application. In the second part of the activity, the art teacher and the students in Turkey carried out the same application. The students showed the students in Canada their drawings they made in line with Nusret Çolpan’s style and told the Canadian students about the cultural elements in their drawings. The Canadian students asked questions to the art teacher in Turkey about the art of miniature and to the students about the subjects of the Turkish students’ drawings. The medium of communication was English in all interactions. For Turkish students simultaneous translations were available when necessary. In the remaining part of the activity, the students were asked to direct questions to each other and to say what they wanted to say. The Turkish students asked questions to the Canadian students about the weather conditions in Canada, about the clothes they wore at school in Canada and about their likes and dislikes. Similarly, the students in Canada asked similar context and culture

16


related questions to the Turkish students. At the end of the application, the Turkish and Canadian students were asked to state their views about the application and to apply the art style they learnt. The Canadian students drew pictures under the influence of miniature and Nusret Çolpan’s style. The Turkish students drew pictures according to Ted Harrison’s style. These drawings were uploaded on website previously designed for sharing. During the forum activities carried out via the website, the art teachers both in Canada and in Turkey shared their experiences and reported that the students enjoyed the activity and that it was quite interesting for the students to learn about a different culture. Picture 2 shows the video conferencing process.

Picture 2. Video Conferencing

Data Collection, Analysis and Interpretation

In line with the findings obtained based on the interviews held with the students in the process of the collection of the research data, six main themes were determined. The primary school students were also asked to reflect their acquisitions regarding intercultural interaction carried out via art and to reflect artistic perceptions of different cultures via their pictorial representations, and the data were collected via ‘documents’ (pictures) and written representations through pictures. In addition, the researcher took part in the process as a ‘participatory observer’. Some of the data regarding the evaluation of the process were obtained through this observation. The students’ views about the application process were revealed through semi-structured interviews. As a result of the application, the data collected through the pictures were obtained via document analysis. In order to collect data from the interviews, video records were used.

17


The semi-structured interviews were first transcribed. The data obtained from the interview transcriptions and from the analysis of the pictures drawn were interpreted. The findings obtained via the examination of the interviews and the documents were presented as frequency distributions. Then, the students’ views and pictures were interpreted. To maintain the reliability of the study, following the application, the interview-coding keys and the interview transcriptions were read by three independent researchers, who discussed the subjects they “agreed” and “disagreed” on. Necessary adjustments were made accordingly. For the purpose of calculating the reliability of the study, the reliability formula suggested by Miles and Huberman (1994, p. 64) was used, which revealed a reliability value of 98 percent.

Findings and Interpretations

The findings obtained in the study were gathered under six main themes, these are; ‘Learning a different art technique’, ‘Learning to draw a picture in the manner of miniature art’, ‘Teaching how to draw a picture in the manner of miniature art’, ‘Learning to draw a picture in the manner of Ted Harrison’, ‘Sharing the art and pictures with other cultures’ and ‘Learning the differences between picture techniques of other cultures’ , were presented as frequency distributions.

Table 1. Turkish Students' Perceptions of Interactive Art Course

Students’ Views (N=22) fLearning a different picture technique 19Learning to draw a picture in the manner of miniature

art12

Teaching how to draw a picture in the manner of miniature art

8

Learning to draw a picture in the manner of Ted Harrison

19

Sharing the art and pictures with others 16Learning the differences between picture techniques 15

The main themes which the students focused on most were determined as ‘Learning a different picture technique’ and ‘Learning the differences between picture techniques’. Pınar, one of the students who mentioned the details of and the difference between the two techniques, stated ‘In miniature art, what we drew looked as if it were distant. In the other technique, we deepened the drawing with a black pastel pencil’. Damla, another student who compared the two techniques and mentioned their technical details, stated;

“The pictures we drew were mostly realistic ones, but the pictures they drew were not necessarily realistic. Some of them were imaginary. For example, the sky was not necessarily blue in their pictures, and in some of the pictures, the sky was in different colours. In our own pictures, as we draw realistic images, the sky is always blue. Generally, we prefer the colour blue for the sky because in our culture, this is always the case. I used to paint the sky blue before this video-conference. Now, I learnt that I can paint it with different colours”.

18


It was seen that in her pictures drawn in the manner of miniature art and as well as those in the manner of ‘Ted Harrison’, Damla used the technique in detail and that her pictorial depiction reflected her views (Picture 3 and Picture 4).

Picture 3. Damla (11 years/ Miniature) Picture 4. Damla (11 Years/Ted Harrison)

In her picture that she drew in the manner of miniature art, Damla depicted the ‘Porsuk River’, a well-known part of the city where Damla lived. In her other picture that she drew in the manner of Ted Harrison, she was able to use this technique by feeling free to choose the colours and by using clearly-seen out-lines. It could be stated that all the students found these two techniques effective with respect to comparison and application of these techniques.

Ege stated ‘I learnt that a different picture style is used in different countries’. Melis emphasized the comparison they made between the two art styles stating ‘ I learnt other students’ understanding of art. We compared each other’s pictures’.

Ege, who reported his views in line with awareness of different techniques, drew two pictures: one in the manner of miniature art and the other in the manner of Ted Harrison. Ege reported that he found Ted Harrison’s style easier and more entertaining for application. Ege successfully applied the details of the two techniques. The student chose the ‘Maiden’s Tower’ as the subject for the miniature style, while in one of the two pictures he drew in Ted Harrison’s style, Ege painted a landscape, and in the other picture, he chose the ‘Trojan Horse’ - a historical landmark in Çanakkale in Turkey – as the subject of his drawing. In his picture drawn in the manner of miniature art, Ege also drew the boats commonly used in the past to pass the Bosporus. The subjects Ege depicted in both techniques were about the places historically important in Turkish culture (Picture 5 and Picture 6).

19


Picture 5.Ege (11 Years/Miniature) Picture 6. Ege (11 Years/Ted Harrison)

Birsu, mentioned the two techniques as well as the differences between them stating;

“The miniature art was very beautiful. Everything we drew in our pictures was small and beautiful. We painted the images in different colour tones in Ted Harrison’s style. In order to make the colours more visible, we deepened them with dark colours. We used different colours like light and dark tones”.

In addition, Birsu, who applied the miniature technique effectively and used detailed depictions in her drawings, chose the ‘Anatolian Fortress’ - historically important in Turkish culture – as the subject of her drawing.

Onur Alp, pointed out the difference between the two picture techniques stating ‘I can’t believe that I drew pictures in the manner of Ted Harrison. It is easier and more beautiful’. As can be understood from his views about the picture techniques, Onur Alp enjoyed drawing pictures in the manner of Ted Harrison and applied this picture technique effectively. In his picture drawn in the manner of Miniature art, he chose a mosque as the subject of his drawing.

Zeynep, another student who reported her views about the technique she had learnt, stated;

“I learnt a lot of things; for example, painting from the starting point. In the past, I used to start painting from any part that I wanted. Also, from now on, I decided to draw my pictures in the manner of Ted Harrison”.

Picture 7. Zeynep (11 years /Miniature) Picture 8. Zeynep (Ted Harrison)

It was striking that Zeynep used detailed depictions in her drawing in the manner of miniature art and that she used horizontal perspective for detailed descriptions. In her picture drawn in the manner of Ted Harrison, such details as contour and vivid colours were striking (Picture 8). In addition, it was seen that in her miniature-style drawing, Zeynep depicted the river flowing through the city she was living in (Picture 7).

20


Melis, pointed out the details of the picture technique stating ‘I learnt that I should selectively use the colours, that we can use colours depending on our imagination and that we can use whatever colour we want’.

In one of her drawings, Melis combined the two styles by using pictorial decorations in the manner of miniature art and Ted Harrison. In her drawing in the manner of Ted Harrison, her choice of colours, preference for piece-painting and use of contour were striking.

Berke, who mentioned technical information that drew his attention during the application process, stated ‘We learn new information. Well, we learnt that when we start drawing from the upper part, our pictures get less dirty’. Batuhan, who mentioned the details of the technique he used, stated ‘We can draw our pictures by limiting the colour tones with dark colours and by starting from the central point and painting from the upper part’.

The fact the most of the students mentioned both the art style they had just learnt and its technique in detail could be regarded as an indicator of the application process and of the effectiveness of the process. It could be stated based on the findings of the present study that the students raised awareness of especially different picture styles. For the students who practically learnt that different cultures could lead to different picture styles, raising artistic awareness via artistic interaction in the application process carried out via video-conferencing constituted an important dimension of the present study.

The views of a majority of the participating students constituted the sub-dimension of ‘Learning to draw a picture in the manner of Ted Harrison’. Regarding this sub-dimension, Birsu reported;

“I learnt how to draw a picture in the manner of Ted Harrison. We painted the pictures according to their different colour tones. We deepened the painting with dark colours to make the colours more visible. We used different colours tones like dark and light colours”.

Derin Mert, who adopted this picture style, stated ‘I learnt how to draw pictures in the manner of Ted Harrison, and I liked it very much. I understood that I can draw better pictures. Sometimes, people can draw better pictures by using different art techniques’. Eda, reported;

“We learnt what Ted Garrison’s style was by looking at the pictures they showed to us. Also, it was more useful to visually see how to draw a picture in the manner of Ted Harrison via the Internet. I understood it better.”

Derin Mert clearly mentioned the details of the technique in his pictorial depiction. It was striking that Derin Mert used a horizontal perspective in his picture he drew in Miniature-style. As the subject of his picture, he chose the ‘Porsuk River’, a well-known landmark of the city he lived in (Picture 9 and Picture 10).

21


Picture 9. Derin Mert (Miniature) Picture 10. Derin Mert (11 years/Ted

Harrison)

Zeynep pointed out the details of technique she learnt stating;

“I learnt the picture style of Ted Harrison. I learnt that they divide the background scene and draw the picture by using different tones of colours. I drew a palace in the manner of Ted Harrison. I used pastel colour-tones of pink and orange for the sky.”

Melis reported her views saying;

“Ted Harrison interested me much. Their art is quite colourful. Well, it really draws the attention of children because when I showed it to my sister, she resembled it to a cartoon film. Well, it is really a colourful art that interests children.”

In addition, almost all the students emphasized that drawing a picture in the manner of Ted Harrison drew their attention most during the course. The reason was that the students were observed by the researcher during the interviews to apply the technique effectively because the technique was quite applicable, because it allowed them without any limitation to use any colours they wanted and because the resulting output was quite effective. In the application process carried out, some of the students who were not interested in the art course at all and who considered themselves as unsuccessful helped feel themselves successful and made them more interested in the activity.

In addition, the views of a majority of the students constituted the sub-themes of ‘Learning how to draw a picture in the manner of miniature art’ and ‘Teaching how to draw a picture in the manner of miniature art’. Zeynep, who reported her views in this respect, stated;

“I had never drawn a picture in the manner of miniature art. I learnt it and drew a picture in this style. I think I drew a really beautiful picture. Therefore, I am very happy. If only we had drawn the miniature-style pictures with dry-paint not with pastel, it would have been better.”

Melis pointed out the details of the miniature-style saying ‘We taught them how to draw a picture in our miniature-style. We have pictorial decorations and contours in miniature art, but I think both of them are beautiful art styles’. Moreover, Utku, pointed out the basic features of the miniature art stating ‘The miniature is a very decorative art. You

22


draw a picture by using pictorial decorations. You have to draw the main image bigger and the others smaller. This allows you to see that are not visible in the picture’. In his picture drawn in the manner of miniature art, the Maiden’s Tower and the boat trips in Bosporus, which are historically important for Istanbul, were striking images. As for its technical use, the details of the miniature art, its pictorial decorations and hierarchical emphasis are striking. Berke, who related his interest in art with the activity applied in class, stated ‘I used to like drawing pictures, but when I saw the pictures drawn in the manner of miniature art and in Ted Harrison’s style, I liked drawing more and started to draw more beautiful pictures’. Deniz, mentioned both the effects of the application process and the new technique he learnt stating ‘I heard about the miniature art before, but I didn’t know a lot about it. Therefore, I was interested in this art, and I learnt it because we drew pictures in the manner of this art…’ Deniz, in his picture in miniature style, depicted the conquest of Istanbul, which was a historical event. In addition, his way of horizontal depiction which did not include any perspectives was striking.

Views of a most students constituted the sub-theme of ‘Sharing the art and pictures with other cultures’. Adal stated ‘In this way, I enjoyed the course more. I enjoyed learning more in this way. Also, other people can see the pictures I drew’. Deniz reported his views saying;

“… while showing our drawings to the students there, they looked at our drawings curiously. I think they were interested in this art. I made a lot of effort in drawing my picture in the manner of miniature art as I would show it to the other students’.

Most of the students stated that they paid more attention to their drawings since they would share their drawings with other students in another country in the application process. Based on the observations, it could be stated that sharing pictures via the Internet increased the students’ motivation and interest in the application. At the research process the students are encouraged to learn, examine and evaluate on other culture and art by directly interacting with their peers through social learning theory (Bandura, 1977). In this collaborative instructional process, the key challenge of the researcher is trying to meaningfully integrate video conference technology to art education. This process made students to collaborate, organize and interact with peers through cultural representations. Students also observed, practiced and modelled the behaviours of them by interacting directly through synchronous videoconferencing.

It was observed in the activity process that the students drew their attention to the new techniques they learnt in the application process, that they tried to use their abilities in the best way and that they discussed the subjects they chose for their drawings. Similarly, most of the students reported their views about sharing artistic applications stating:

Lamia stated ‘We showed our drawings to students in another country’. Birsu pointed out to sharing pictures in the activity process saying;

“It was beautiful that they showed us their drawings and taught us how to them. And we showed them our drawings and our culture, too. And they showed us some things belonging to their own culture. We showed our drawings to our peers from another country.”

23


Picture 11. Lamia (11 years /Miniature) Picture 12. Lamia (Ted Harrison)

As the subject of her drawing in the miniature style, Lamia chose the ‘Blue Mosque’, found in a historical region in Istanbul (Picture 11). Both the pictorial decorations and the detailed work in the picture demonstrated the details of the picture technique of the miniature style. As for the subject of her drawing in the style of Ted Harrison, Lamia depicted a winter scene and painted her picture in pieces with vivid colours (Picture 12). She freely preferred the colours in her drawing.

Derin Mert emphasized the importance of learning via observation and stated;

“They showed us their drawings, and we showed them ours. This might have strengthened our relationship with them. I learnt the things that I wondered. I understood these things more easily. I drew more pictures. We can understand better by examining others’ drawings.”

Batuhan pointed out both cultural and artistic sharing as well as the effectiveness of the activity stating;

“It was nice to show the drawings because we learnt how a well-known painter in that country drew his pictures. And we taught some things to them, too. The lesson was entertaining and effective because we talked to them about our cultural ties, and they talked to us about theirs. We taught our major artistic values and common heritage to them with the help of our drawings. For example, the miniature art is ever old and beautiful art. We taught this art to them and we drew pictures considering this art style. It is a very effective way of teaching our common heritage. Because this way of teaching is visual, I am sure they will always remember it. And they did the same thing for us.”

Berke pointed out that the activity and the teaching method applied in the activity process guided them better. Berke reported his views saying;

“I was most interested in their drawings. They were really good drawings. We showed our drawings to them, and they showed theirs to us. They asked questions. While we were showing our drawings to them, they listened to us in wonder. When you follow the lesson, you learn better. When the teacher lets you become free, you learn nothing. If the teacher just gives the subject, you only draw the picture ….”

24


Picture 13. Berke (11 years/Miniature) Picture 14. Berke (Ted Harrison)

As the subject of his pictorial depiction in the miniature style, Berke chose the region of Porsuk in Eskişehir and depicted the region historically (Picture 13). In his drawing in Ted Harrison’s style, the details regarding the technique were striking (Picture 14). Berke, regarding the dimension of interaction during video-conferencing carried out with Canadian students, showed them the picture he drew in the manner of miniature art.

Deniz mentioned both the activity process and its effectiveness stating;

“I liked the lesson executed via video-conferencing with Canadian students. I prefer taking lessons executed in this way. When we draw pictures in class, nobody can see them except for us. But we were able to show our drawings to the Canadian students via video-conferencing, and they liked our drawings… Otherwise, it would not interest me. I became more interested in the lesson because it was visual. And because we were prepared for the lesson beforehand, we obtained information about their drawings.”

During the research it was observed that the Turkish students used cultural themes in their pictorial depictions. In Turkish students’ drawings, historical sites such as The Bosporus, the Maiden’s Tower, the Anatolian Fortress, the Rumeli Fortress, Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque and Trojan Horse; historical events such as the conquest of Istanbul and boat trip in Bosporus; and the historical depiction of Porsuk River, which is a symbol of the city students live in were striking as cultural themes.

It was observed that in a majority of the drawings of the Canadian students, there were technical features of the artistic decorations and details of the miniature art. In the drawings of the Canadian students, depictions of such images and landmarks belonging to the Canadian culture as the Canadian flag, Canada’s National Tower, The Big Nickel – A Canadian coin which is the biggest coin in the world with its size of nine-meter diameter and which was made in 1951 in Ontario in Canada and also which has found a place in the book of Guinness World-Records -, the Canadian Iglo –the Canadian winter houses which are a part of the Canadian culture -, the Ontario Lake, the Canadian Goose and Loon, Trillium – a kind of flower in Canada -, the Gibraltar Point – the oldest lighthouse in Ontario-, the Canada Wonder Land Park in Ontario, the Clock Tower in Niagara, the Ontario-Niagara Falls and the Niagara Falls Park as well as depictions of constructions, living beings and the nature are all striking as cultural themes in the drawings of the Canadian students.

The Canadian students’ works under the influence of the miniature art: 25


Picture 15. Gavin (11 years)

As the subjects of their drawings, some Canadian students chose Canada’s National Tower, which they drew with several pictorial decorations under the influence of the Turkish miniature art (Picture 15).

Picture 16. Kelsey (11 years) Picture 17. Emily (11 years)

Kelsey drew the Canadian Loon (Picture 16), and Emily depicted The Big Nickel (Picture 17) in her picture. In addition, pictorial decorations, ripple-painting and details are all indicators of depiction in miniature style.

Picture 18. Juanita (11 years)26


As the subject of her drawings, Juanita depicted the Canadian Flag, the Canada’s National Tower, the Canadian Goose and Loon, trillium – a kind of flower in Canada – as well as the Canadian Iglo and decorated their drawings in line with the miniature art (Picture 18). Sarah drew the Canadian flag as the subject of her picture (Picture 19).

Picture 19. Sarah (11 years/Miniature)

As the subject of his drawing, Mitchell D. chose Canada Wonder Land Park found in Ontario. In his depiction, the decorations and ripple-painting seem to be the mixture of the styles of miniature and Ted Harrison. As the subject of her drawing, Shianne chose a scene of the Ontario-Niagara Falls and the mountains around. Mostly the effects of Ted Harrison’s style can be seen in her drawing.

Picture 20. Gabe (11 years /Miniature) Picture 21Shelby (11 years /Ted

Harrison)

Gabe drew the Peace Tower in Ontario (Picture 20), while Shelby drew Gibraltar Point Lighthouse – the oldest lighthouse in Ontario (Picture 21). Especially in Shelby’s drawing, miniature-style decorations are striking.

27


Picture 22. Jade (11 years /Miniature)

Jade in her picture, drew the Skylon Tower found in the region of Ontario Niagara Falls (Picture 22). The miniature-style decorations in her pictorial depictions are striking.

In the pictures drawn by the Canadian students in the manner of Ted Harrison, they mostly depicted daily-life scenes and activities and the places for living. In the pictures children also drew WonderLand and Niagara, Ontario Bridge, different marrine animals living in the ocean, water-ski races in the manner of Ted Harrison style and Miniature painting.

Picture 23. Mitchell B. (11 years) Picture 24. Sydney (11 years)

In his picture, Mitchell B. drew a scene of the nature in the manner of Ted harrison (Picture 23), while Sydney depicted a school and its environment in his picture (Picture 24).

Both Turkish and Canadian students found the interaction process entertaining. In addition, they reported that it was exciting to learn about different cultures. In addition, it was interesting to learn a new art style and technique; and that learning a subject from a teacher from another culture helped understand the subject more easily. Furthermore, the teachers agreed with their students as well.

28


Conclusion and Recommendation

The role of art education is quite important for multi-cultural interactions. The reason is that such interactions enable art students to raise cultural awareness, know about their own cultural identities and understand and explain the cultural differences and similarities. In addition, multi-cultural art interactions also help students to develop their creativity and imagination and to gain an original perspective (Chalmer, 1996). Considering the themes determined based on the students’ views in the current study, it was seen that the activity-based interaction was evaluated in different dimensions. These dimensions were artistic interaction, artistic sharing, teaching and learning artistic techniques, raising awareness of different artistic styles, learning different cultures, teaching culture, sharing cultural points, raising awareness of cultural differences, establishing communication, raising awareness of new technologies and opportunities and comparing different cultures. A majority of the students reported positive views about these dimensions. It could be stated that this activity carried out via the technology of video-conferencing helped the students raise positive awareness of both the use of technology and cultural and artistic sharing.

Another striking point in the pictorial representations of the students from Canada and Turkey was that the students successfully expressed the pictorial techniques and art understandings taught to them during the interactive courses via the video-conferencing activity. The students from both cultures were quite successful not only in applying the technique of an artist from their own culture but also in applying that of an artist from another culture. The effective application of the two techniques through pictorial representations could be explained with the fact that there was a growing interest in the subject taught by a teacher from a different culture; that the students shared their pictures with students from another culture; that the students tried hard to express their own cultures at best; and that the interaction via video-conferencing influenced the students’ interest and motivation. With the role art plays in awareness of other cultures and communication between cultures increases the awareness of cultural values. Findings of the present study regarding raising students’ awareness of cultural differences during the intercultural interaction process were parallel to the findings of another study conducted by Gerstein (2000) on interaction established via video-conferencing with fourth grade students in San Francisco and Taiwan. Gerstein (2000) emphasized that the students raised their awareness of cultural sub-structures and differences in the interaction process via video-conferencing. The findings of another study conducted by Thurston (2004) on a teaching activity carried out via the video-conferencing system with students in Scotland and in the United States of America were also similar to the findings of the present study regarding multi-cultural education and awareness. Chalmer (1996) believes that multicultural art education has its advantage in cultural awareness and allowing students to showcase creativity and imagination through cultural awareness.

In the present study, the views of the students about the importance of technology in artistic interaction and sharing emphasized the contribution of technology to the teaching processes. As in other educational environments, use of technology helps the artistic teaching process gain different dimensions and qualities and makes the process open to developments. In addition, cultural sharing and interaction inevitably occurs both via art and technology. Today, existence of cultural identities as well as sharing these identities

29


is quite important and constitutes the basis of social life. At the same time, cultural awareness helps understand and perceive different cultures. In this regard cultural sharing is quite important for students during the teaching processes especially with the use art and technology.Depending on the results, conducting research on cultural sharing by using technology through European Union projects – and through other similar projects – could increase the importance of culture. Furthermore, carrying out research with disciplines and students having different individual backgrounds will contribute to the related literature.

References

Artut, K. (2001). Art education methods and theories. Ankara: Anı Publications.Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. New York: General Learning Press.Barone, T., & Eisner, E. (1997). Arts-based educational research. (R. M. Jaeger, Ed.) in

Complementary methods for research in education (73-103). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.

Bhawuk, D., & Brislin, R. (1992). The measurement of intercultural sensitivity using the concepts of individualism and collectivism. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 16, 413-436.

Boughton, D., & Mason, R. (1999). Beyond multicultural education: International perspectives, Waxman Munster New York.

Chalmers, F. G. (1996) Celebrating pluralism: Art, education and cultural diversity, Paul-Getty Publication.

Cole, A. L., & Knowles, J. G. (2001). Lives in context: The art of life history research. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

Cole, C., Ray, K., & Zanetis. J. (2004) Videoconferencing for K–12 classrooms: A program development guide. Washington: ISTE.

Denzin N.K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (eds.). (2005). The sage handbook of qualitative research, Third Edition, Sage, Thousand Oaks.

Eisner, E. W. (2002). The state of the arts and the improvement of education. Art Education Journal, 1(1), 2-6.

Finley, S. (2005). Arts-based inquiry: Performing revolutionary pedagogy. In N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (Ed.), Handbook of Qualitative Inquiry. Thousand Oaks (3. Baskı), CA: Sage.

Gerstein, R. (2000). Videoconferencing in the classroom: Special projects toward cultural understanding. Computers in the Schools, 16(3/4), 177-186.

Greenberg, A., & Nilssen, A. (2005) Merging live conferencing with collaborative workspaces: The coming breakthrough for teams in the enterprise. Retrieved September 30, 2005 from: http://www.wrplatinum.com/bestanden/3863-WR-MergeConfwWorkspaces-final.pdf

Guiherme, M. (2002). Critical citizens for an intercultural world: Foreign language education as cultural politics, LICE: Language for Intercultural Communication and Education.

Hague, E. (2001). Nationalty and childrens’ drawings – pictures ‘about Scotland’ by primary school children in Edinburg, Scotland and Syracuse, New York State. Scottish geographical journal, 117(2), 77-99.

Hammer, M. R., Bennett, M. J., & Wiseman, R. (2003). Measuring intercultural sensitivity: The intercultural development inventory. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 27(4), 421-443.

30


Hudson, P., & Hudson, S. (2001). Linking visual arts with science and technology in the primary classroom. Investigating: Australian Primary and Junior Science Journal, 17(4), 26-29.

Jafar K., & Roland L. (1992). Intercultural therapy. Themes, interpretations and practice . London , Blackwell Science.

Jackson, L. (2005) Videoconferencing deserves a second look! Education World, (12). Retrieved September 30, 2005 from http://educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech207.html

Leeman, Y., & Ledoux, G. (2003). Preparing teachers for intercultural education. Teaching Education, 14(3), 279-291.

Lustig, M. W., & Koester, J. (2006). Intercultural competence: interpersonal communication across cultures. (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Malchiodi, C.A. (2003). Art therapy and the brain. In C.A. Malchiodi (Ed.), Handbook of art therapy. New York: Guilford Press.

Malchiodi, C. A. (2005). Expressive therapies. NY: Guilford Press.Mason, R., & Gearon, L. (2005). A systematic review of the contribution of art education

to cultural learning in students aged 5-16. In Research Evidence in Education Library. London: EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education.

McFee, J. (1991). Change and the cultural dimensions of art education. Unpublished paper. Oregon: University of Oregon.

Mendoza, S. L., Halualani, R. T., & Drzewiecka, J. A. (2002). Moving the discourse on identities in intercultural communication: Structure, culture, and resignifications. Communication Quarterly, 312-328.

Miles, M. B. & Huberman, A.M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded source book. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Pub.

Miller, B. D. (2004). Cultural anthropology (2nd ed.). Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.Motamedi, V. (2001). A critical look at the use of videoconferencing in United States,

distance education. Education, 122(2), 386-395.Renkl, A., & Atkinson, R. K. (2002). Learning from examples: Fostering self-explanations in

computer-based learning environments. Interactive Learning Environments, 10, 105-119.

Rural Advanced Community of Learners (2004). RACOL: Rural Advanced Community of Learners. Retrieved Marz 03, 2009 from http://www.racol.ualberta.ca

Stupples P (2003) Visual culture, synthetic memory and the construction of national identity. Third Text, 17, 127–139.

Thurston, A. (2004). Promoting multicultural education in the primary classroom: Broadband videoconferencing facilities and digital video. Computers & Education, 43(1/2), 165-177.

Yıldırım, A., & Şimşek, H. (2005). Qualitative research methods in social sciences. (6th

Edition). Ankara: Seçkin Publication.

Effects of Learning Beliefs of Pre-Service Teachers at an English as a Foreign Language Certificate Program on

their Practice Teaching

31


Görsev İnceçayYeditepe University, [email protected]

Abstract

The purpose of the current study is to explore the effects of pre-service teachers’ language learning beliefs on their practice teaching. Two randomly chosen pre-service teachers were recruited in the study (one male, one female). This research mainly adopted a qualitative approach using a structured interview, philosophy statements, field-notes during observations and the reflective journals of the participants. To explore their language learning beliefs and to determine the categories participants’ interview transcriptions were open coded. Five main categories of language learning beliefs were identified in the end of the analysis; (1) ideal English learner, (2) ideal English teacher, (3) ideal English classroom, (4) difficulties in language learning process, (5) strategies of learners to overcome difficulties. The findings of the observation checklist and reflection papers written by the participants revealed some significant effects of the language learning beliefs of pre-service teachers on their practice teaching. Briefly, the results of the study revealed that both participants’ teachings were greatly affected by their foreign language learning beliefs. However, it was also seen that some external factors created some divergences between the beliefs and practice teaching.

Keywords: Language learning beliefs; pre-service teacher education; English language teaching; practice teaching; EFL certificate program

Introduction

A belief is described as a mental state that is believed to be true by the person holding it, although the individual may know that alternative beliefs may be held by others (Incecay & Kesli Dollar, 2011). Beliefs about language learning have been one of the research focuses of recent years, presumably based on the assumptions that beliefs govern people’s behaviors. Beliefs are explained as “generalizations about cause and effect, and they influence our inner representation of the world around us. They help us make sense of that world, and they determine how we think and how we act” (Puchta, 1999). According to the assumption that beliefs can influence thoughts and actions of individuals, research has been done to investigate relationships between teachers’ beliefs and their instructional practices.

Beliefs about language learning have become to be an interest in the field of Second Language Acquisition. The reason of this, mainly depends on the assumptions that “success depends less on materials, techniques, and linguistic analyses, and more on what goes on inside and between the people in the classroom” (Stevick, 1980, p.4). According to Stevick, what goes on inside learners, which includes learners’ beliefs, seems to have a strong impact on learners’ learning during the language learning process. In addition to Stewick’s (1980) words, Puchta states that people interpret new information and show reaction to it with their preexisting ideas about the subject being taught (Puchta, 1999).

32



Research interests in beliefs on language learning have not been limited to the beliefs of language learners. The close relationship between pre-service and in-service teachers’ beliefs about language learning and their practice have been investigated in the literature (Mattheoudakis, 2007; Tercanlıoğlu, 2005; Davis, 2003; Calderhead, 1996; Thompson, 1992). These studies were designed based on the hypothesis that teacher beliefs may influence student beliefs through instructional practices and that those beliefs may change throughout their pre-service education. Johnson (1994) concluded that: “Research on teachers’ beliefs shares three basic assumptions. First, teachers’ beliefs influence both perception and judgment which, in turn, affects what teachers say and do in classrooms. Second, teachers’ beliefs play a critical role in how teachers learn to teach that is, how they interpret new information about learning and teaching and how that information is translated into classroom practices. Third, understanding teachers’ beliefs is essential to improving teaching practices and professional teacher preparation programs” (p. 439).

The development process of pre-service teachers’ beliefs about language learning starts from the period when they were language learners themselves and goes till the time when they were in teacher education programs (Vibulphol, 2004). Considering the amount and level of the thinking that pre-service teachers have to do in their practice teaching, the experience they gained from their practice teaching may be influential to the adjustment of their beliefs, compared to the learning experience in the regular classes in teacher education program at their faculties.

Despite the number of studies conducted on this specific topic, Peacock (2001) reports that there is still need for further investigation. In the light of this report, the main focus of the present study is on the beliefs of pre-service teachers about language learning and the effects of these beliefs on their practice teaching. The selection of pre-service teachers as participants for this study is on purpose because the insights gained from a study on pre-service teachers’ beliefs can contribute to the improvement of teacher education programs that may enhance beliefs that are supportive to the teaching approaches. Another reason is; as claimed by Dole and Sinatra (1994) and Wenden (1998), beliefs are relatively stable. Beliefs of advanced learners were believed to be more stable than those of novice learners (Kern, 1995). Considering that in-service teachers are generally more advanced learners than pre-service teachers, pre-service teachers whose beliefs may still be developing while they are in teacher education programs are preferred to conduct this study with.

The purpose of the current study is to explore the effects of pre-service teachers’ language learning beliefs on their practice teaching. Specifically, the following research questions are addressed in this study:

1. What beliefs do pre-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ have about foreign language learning?

2. What are the effects of these beliefs on the pre-service teachers’ practice teaching?

Methodology

Setting

33


In 1997 the eight-year compulsory education system started and this resulted in some remarkable changes in foreign language education in Turkey. Under this law, it became obligatory for public primary school students to start studying a foreign language in the 4th grade. As a result of this law, the need for language teachers increased rapidly. In order to fulfill the need for English language teachers, English Language Teaching (ELT) certificate programs have been offered by some state and private universities (MEB, 2004).

English Language Teaching Certificate Programs in Turkey

The students who are graduates of higher education institutions with English medium of instruction were given the chance to attend English Language Teaching certificate programs. However, with the act 80 in 2009 (http://www.kamudan.com/Uploads/Egitim/80_kk.pdf) only the students who were graduates of English Language and Literature, American Culture and Literature, Interpretation, English Linguistics and Translation departments have been accepted to the program. The main focus of these programs is to provide necessary content and pedagogical knowledge to the students for one year. The students attending to these certificate programs are required to complete 31 credits in two academic terms. The courses and their credits are given in Table 1.

Table 1. Courses and the credits per semester.

Course Credit Course Credit1st Semester 2nd Semester

1. Introduction to Education

2 0 2 7. Teaching Grammar 2 0 2

2. Developmental Psychology 2 0 2 8. Educational Technology and

Materials Development 2 2 3

3. Program Development 2 0 2 9. Language Learning and

teaching approaches 2 0 2

4. Testing 2 0 2 10. Turkish Education system and school management 2 2 3

5. Linguistics 2 0 2 11. Counselling 2 0 26. Teaching

Methodology 3 2 4 12. Practice teaching 2 6 5

Total Credits 13 2 14 Total Credits 12 10 17

The students who are graduates of higher education institutions with English medium of instruction (English Literature, Interpretation, American Culture and Literature, and Linguistics) were given the chance to attend these certificate programs. The main focus of these programs is to provide necessary content and pedagogical knowledge to the students for one year. This study was conducted in one of these certificate programs of a foundation university in Istanbul.

34

http://www.kamudan.com/Uploads/Egitim/80_kk.pdf


Participants

Two randomly chosen pre-service teachers were recruited in the study (one male, one female). Both of the participants received their undergraduate degrees from the Interpretation departments of two different state universities. The participation to the study was on voluntary basis. They had started ELT certificate program in the first semester of 2009-2010 academic year and completed the requirements of the compulsory lessons offered in the first semester of the program. For the purposes of the study, data were collected during the second term when pre-service teachers started doing their practice teaching.

Data Collection

This research mainly adopted a qualitative approach using a structured interview, philosophy statements, an observation checklist and the reflective journals of the participants. In order to answer the first research question which aims to explore the language learning beliefs of pre-service teachers, the participants were required to write their philosophy statements about language learning on the sub-headings of the interview which are ideal language learner, ideal language teaching, ideal language classroom. In addition, to provide in-depth data a structured interview was made with the participants. Each interview lasted for about thirty minutes. The interview questions were adapted from the one used in the study conducted by Vibulphol (2004). The questions in the interview were grouped under three titles; (a) beliefs about language learner, (b) beliefs about language teacher, (c) beliefs about language classroom. The interviews with the participants were videotaped and transcribed. In order to have reliable results the coding of the data was done by two different researchers and 90 % agreement was reached. The codes which were agreed on were later discussed in the results section.

After the exploration of the language learning beliefs of pre-service teachers, the participants were observed during their practice teaching to see the effects of their language learning beliefs on their classroom practice. They were observed only once because of the fact that they had only one official practice teaching throughout the program. The lessons observed lasted for forty minutes. During the observations, detailed field-notes were taken. The participants were assigned subjects before their teaching by the cooperating teachers at school. They taught without any interruption of the cooperating teachers and the supervisors. In addition, the participants were asked to write a reflective journal regarding their teaching experience to get more detailed data to see the effects of their language learning beliefs on their teaching.

Data Analysis and Findings

Content and document analysis of the student-generated data helped the researcher to interpret the research findings. During the data interpretation, “open coding” strategy was applied (Strauss and Corbin, 1990, p.62). In order to answer the first research question, to explore their language learning beliefs and to determine the categories participants’ interview transcriptions were open coded. Five main categories of language learning beliefs were identified in the end of the analysis; (1) ideal English learner, (2) ideal English teacher, (3) ideal English classroom, (4) difficulties in language learning

35


process, (5) strategies of learners to overcome difficulties. Based on the categories the following initial assertions were made.

Assertion 1: Ideal language learner

When participants were asked to define an ideal language learner, they placed heavy emphasis on the social characteristics of language learner. The following quote from interview is representative of this belief.

“Technology and improving media tools provide a lot of input to language learners. That’s to say, in order to benefit from these opportunities in the language learning process, the learner should be as social as possible. Taking-risk and being outgoing are also very important to use the newly learned language without any frustration.” (Participant 1)

To support the data gathered from interviews, the participants were asked to write their philosophy statements regarding language learning. These statements of the participants also support the idea mentioned in the above quote.

“Being social, risk taking and outgoing are the most important characteristics that a language learner should have.” (Participant 2)

In addition to these ideas, some other characteristics of the ideal language learner are defined by participants such as being disciplined, and investigator. Although these characteristics are proved to be necessary by the previous research, the importance of being self-motivated and having the necessary aptitude should not be ignored. It is clear that, self-motivated learners are always one step forward in the language learning process.

Assertion 2: Ideal language teacher

When asked to identify the characteristics of an ideal language teacher, participants tended to exemplify the necessary characteristics as supporter, facilitator and moderator. Following quote taken from the interview illustrates this belief.

“We are being educated as learner centered teachers to be which means that we have to be as humanistic as possible in the classroom. I can say that, being a humanistic teacher requires being moderator and supporter in every aspect of the teaching-learning process.” (Participant 1)

The findings of the philosophy statements revealed that in addition to these ideas, one of the participants stated that a language teacher should be a role-model and authoritative in the language classroom and explained the reason with the following excerpt:

“In Turkey, language learners cannot have any input out of the classroom, that’s why, as a language teacher, I have to provide the correct way of language use and I believe this requires being authoritative and disciplined. They should be aware of the significance of learning a language.” (Participant 2)

36


As it can be seen, there is significant difference between the beliefs of participants. When the demographic data gathered from the participants were analyzed, the reason can be clearly identified. The first participant who focuses on the humanistic characteristics of an ideal language teacher is a graduate of a private high school where there are fewer students and teachers are able to follow the recent approaches by the help of facilities provided by the administration. However, the second participant is a graduate of a state school where there are a lot of students in the classrooms and the language teacher’s first concern is having a disciplined classroom. That’s to say, it is clear that the participants’ beliefs are affected by their studentship period. This finding is consistent with the study of Johnson (1994) which reveals results on the effect of language learning process on language learning beliefs of pre-service teachers.

Assertion 3: Ideal English classroom

The participants were required to describe the ideal language classroom which is believed to be an inseparable part of language learning. Both of the participants focused on the importance of real life materials in the classroom. The following quotation from the interview reveals this.

“Classroom has a great role to motivate the students, that’s why the materials should take the attention of the language learners, when they are in the class, they should have chance to read or notice some real life situations.” (Participant 1)

In addition to the above mentioned description, in their pre-philosophy reports both of the participants mentioned the importance of technological equipments in the language classroom.

“An ideal English classroom needs to be designed with technological language learning equipments such as; internet access, sound system and projector which I believe are beneficial to motivate students during the learning of all communicative skills” (Participant 1)

It is clear that the participants tended to describe the language classroom physically instead of the activities and methods that need to be applied. When they are asked to describe the ideal language classroom regarding the content, they both talked about the importance of communicative, group and pair work activities.

Assertion 4. Difficulties during the language learning process

Participants emphasized the difficulties that a language learner can have during the process of language learning, each participant came up with different problems such as; difficulty to acquire speaking, difficulty in comprehending a native speaker and being both fluent and accurate. Even though they seem to be different problems they are all related to the use of language. One of the participants describes the situation:

“Since we do not have many native speakers around and we do not have many chances to hear and talk outside the classroom, when we come across with a native speaker we have difficulty in both comprehending him and talking to him accurately.” (Participant 2)

The pre-philosophy of this participant on the same issue also supports this idea.37


“I could not have any chance to speak in English in the classroom because I was shy and afraid of being criticized, and I could not acquire speaking well.” (Participant 2)

As it was stated by the participants, the most problematic point in the language learning process was the use of foreign language. This may be because they have experienced such difficulties during their own learning. In other words, this difficulty can be generalized to all learners of foreign language who are learning a language as a foreign language not as a second language.

Assertion 5: Strategies to overcome the difficulties

The participants were asked to define their strategies that helped them overcome the difficulties that they probably come across with during the language learning process. They mentioned the importance of using the technology for the real life use of the language and listening to songs and videos to learn correct pronunciation. The following excerpt was taken from the interview transcript of the participants.

“Technology and media instruments provide the only real life situations for the language learners. Otherwise, they cannot learn how to produce correct language.” (Participant 2)

This quotation was supported by the pre-philosophy statement of the other participant. She stated that;

“Unfortunately, we as the language learners need to talk in the natural environment to acquire the communicative abilities. Since we cannot have this chance, making online foreign friends can be a solution.” (Participant 1)

As it was stated by the participants, technology and use of media tools are believed to be the best strategies to overcome the difficulty regarding language use in the process of language learning. This may be explained by the effectiveness of technology in learners’ lives. Since they are already interested in the internet and other technological tools, the language classes should integrate technology and productive skills courses such as speaking and writing in order to improve language learners’ communicative abilities.

After having explored the pre-service teachers’ language learning beliefs, the effects of those beliefs on their practice teaching were also investigated. In order to investigate, two main instruments namely practice teaching observation field-notes and pre-service teachers’ reflection papers on their practice teaching were used to gather the necessary data to answer the second research question. The field-notes were taken by taking the interview questions into consideration. To supply adequate data the participants were also asked to write their own reflections regarding their observed practice teaching.

To clearly define the effects of beliefs on practice teaching, the language learning beliefs of participants were categorized in Table 2.

38


Table 2. Language Learning Beliefs of Participants

Beliefs on Participant 1 Participant 2Ideal English learner social, outgoing, risk

takerdisciplined,

investigatorIdeal English teacher supporter, facilitator,

moderatorrole-model and

authoritativeIdeal English

classroomtechnological

equipments, authentic materials, communicative

technological equipments, group and pair work

Difficulties in language learning process

being able to use fluent and accurate language

comprehending and speaking

Strategies of learners to overcome difficulties

making on-line friends use of technology, listening to songs and videos

The findings of the observation checklist and reflection papers written by the participants revealed some significant effects of the language learning beliefs of pre-service teachers on their practice teaching.

Participant 1. The field notes taken in the observed practice teaching demonstrated that first participant’s beliefs on ideal language learner strongly affected his teaching. The students in his lesson were generally very active and risk-taker without causing any classroom management problems. He facilitated the students who were working in pairs and supported the individual students who were not high achievers in the classroom. In addition, by providing students with authentic materials and making them listen to a song, helped them to hear and use foreign language accurately within the classroom. Despite the limited time of observation, he was observed that there was great convergence between his foreign language learning beliefs and his teaching. In other words, as a result of the observation, he was proved to be affected by his language learning beliefs.

Participant 2. During her practice teaching, she was very nervous and had difficult times in managing the classroom, although she tried to be disciplined, she could not manage the classroom well. This may be because of the fact that she was teaching 4 th graders which means that managing the class necessitates specific skills regarding teaching young learners. Unfortunately, the participant did not have any ‘teaching young learners’ course during the certificate program. On the other hand, she used some technological equipment (i.e. power point presentation and sound system) in order to take the learners’ attention and created some real-life situations to integrate them into lesson. Even though she tried to arrange some groups for an activity, due to the management problem, she quitted the activity and turned it a whole-class activity which is quite a good reflection-in-action. Consequently, it is clear that this participant was also affected from her own foreign language learning beliefs; however, due to some external factors and the atmosphere of the class she tended to apply some different teaching strategies.

Conclusion and Implications

In the end of the data analysis, above mentioned assertions namely; ideal English learner, ideal English teacher, ideal English classroom, difficulties during the language learning

39


process and strategies to overcome these difficulties were identified. The findings reveal that beliefs about language learning showed their effects on the pre-service teachers’ instructional practices in the aspects of creating language learning environment, roles of teacher and learner within the language classroom and providing learners with necessary strategies when they have difficulty. These effects are all related to the pre-service teachers’ stated beliefs which are about ideal language learner, ideal language teacher, ideal language classroom, difficulties they come across during the language learning process and how to overcome these difficulties. This finding support the arguments of Horwitz (1987), Holec (1987), and Puchta (1999) in that learners develop their beliefs about language learning from their experience as language learners. The participants’ beliefs about the ideal teacher, for instance, illustrated that they believed the teacher shuld be supporter, facilitator, role model and authoritative. Accordingly, the participants were observed that they were quite affected by their beliefs, however, it was seen that their beliefs were not the only factor affecting their teaching. The level they are teaching, the theories they received, the number of students and the competencies they need to have had also some effects on their practice as well.

In the case of teaching and learning, it is accepted that beliefs powerfully influence what prospective teachers learn during teacher preparation programs and what they do as teachers. In other words, there is no such thing as a tabula rasa regarding teaching and learning (Featherstone & Feiman-Nemser, 1992). As an implication to the field of language teacher education, analyzing the learning beliefs of pre-service teachers and making them aware of their own beliefs might be helpful to direct them current teaching techniques and methodologies. They may have some uncertainties in their teaching during their first years which result from the tension between their beliefs of their own foreign language learning – their apprenticeship of observation (Lortie, 1975) and the goals of current foreign language teaching.

For further research, it is suggested that the beliefs of pre-service teachers after their practice teaching should be analyzed again to see the effects of practice teaching on their language learning beliefs. In addition, due to some limitations, the number of participants and the data were restricted. A research can also be conducted with greater number of participants with the concern of generalization of the results.

References

Calderhead, J. (1996). Teachers: Beliefs and knowledge. In D.C. Berliner & R. C. Calfee (eds), Handbook of Educational Psychology (pp. 709-725) New York: Mac Millan.

Dole, J. A., & Sinatra, G. M. (1994). Social psychology research on beliefs and attitudes: Implications for research on learning from text. In R.Garner & P.A. Alexander (Eds.), Beliefs about Text and Instruction with Text (pp. 245-264). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Featherstone, H., & Feiman-Nemser, S. (Eds.) (1992). Exploring teaching. reinventing an introductory course. New York: Teachers College Press.

Holec, H. (1987). The learner as manager: Managing learning or managing to learn? In A. Wenden & J. Rubin (Eds.), Learner strategies in language learning (pp. 145-157). London, UK: Prentice-Hall International.

40


Horwitz, E. K. (1987). Surveying student beliefs about language learning. In A. Wenden & J. Rubin (Eds.), Learner strategies in language learning (pp. 119-129). London, UK: Prentice-Hall International.

Incecay, V.; & Kesli Dollar, Y. (2011). Foreign language learners’ beliefs about grammar instruction and error correction. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. Volume 15, 3394-3398.

Johnson, K. E. (1994). The emerging beliefs and instructional practices of preservice English as a second language teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 10(4), 439-452.

Kern, R.G. (1995). Students’ and teachers’ beliefs about language learning. Foreign Language Annals, 28(1), 71-92.

Lortie, D. C. (1975). Schoolteacher: A sociological study. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Mattheoudakis, M. (2007). Tracking changes in pre-service EFL teacher beliefs in Greece:

A longitudinal study. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23, 1272–1288.Peacock, M. (2001). Pre-service ESL teachers’ beliefs about second language learning. A

longitudinal study. System, 29, 117- 195. Puchta, H. (1999). Beyond materials, techniques and linguistic analyses: The role of

motivation, beliefs and identity. Plenary session at the LATEFL: 33rd International Annual Conference, Edinburgh, 64-72.

Stevick, E. W. (1980). Teaching languages: A way and ways. Rowley, MA: Newbury House Publishers, Inc.

Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. California: Sage Publication.

Tercanlıoğlu, L. (2005). Pre-service EFL teachers’ beliefs about foreign language learning and how they relate to gender. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology 5-3(1), 145-162. Retrieved May 10, 2010.

Thompson, A. (1992). Teachers’ beliefs and conceptions: A synthesis of the research. In D. Grouws (ed), Handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning, 127-146. New York: MacMillan

Vibulphol, J. (2004). Beliefs about language learning and teaching approaches of pre-service EFL teachers in Thailand. Unpublished Dissertation, Oklahoma State University.

Wenden, A.L. (1998). Metacognitive knowledge and language learning. Applied Linguistics, 19(4), 515-537.

41


Hui Students’ Identity Construction in Eastern China: A Postcolonial Critique

Yuxiang WangPurdue University, [email protected]

JoAnn PhillionPurdue University, [email protected]

Abstract

In this article, we explored Hui students’ lived experiences in school in eastern China and the impact of their experiences on their identity construction. We used postcolonial theory as a theoretical framework and narrative inquiry as a research methodology to guide questions that we asked, data collection, data analysis, and interpretation and discussion of the findings in the study. We found that schooling for the two Hui students in eastern China is a process of reproducing mainstream Han ideology; taking away their culture, beliefs, knowledge, and identity; and imposing the mainstream Han culture and knowledge on Hui students as truth. The participants, two Hui students in an elementary school in eastern China, accepted the identity constructed by mainstream Han teachers and were confused about their Hui identity.

42




Keywords: Hui students; lived experiences; identity construction; postcolonial critique

Introduction

Fifty-six nationalities in the People’s Republic of China form the Chinese nationality. The majority nationality is the Han, which comprises 90 percent of China’s population of about 1.3 billion; the other 55 nationalities, which represent approximately 130 million ethnic people (National Minority Policies and its Practice in China, 2000), are minorities. Most of the Han reside in eastern or central China (Veeck, Pannell, Smith, & Huang, 2007). Most of the minority nationalities, on the other hand, inhabit the inner border regions where there are deserts, grasslands, or mountains (Veeck et al., 2007). Fifty-three nationalities have their own spoken languages; Manchu and Hui speak Mandarin Chinese (Zhou, 1999). About 120 mother tongues are spoken in the minority regions, among which only 30 minority languages have written scripts and 20 languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers (Sun, 2004).

Among the 55 minority groups in China are ten ethnic minority groups who believe in Islam. Most populations of Muslims live in north-western China: Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, and Shaanxi. The Hui, who comprise half of China’s Muslim population, are scattered among 90 percent of cities and townships in China (Israel, 2002; Lynn, 2004).

Although the Chinese government officially protects minority language, culture, and knowledge through the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China (CPRC) (1982) and the National Minorities Policy and its Practice in China (NMPPC) (2000), large gaps between laws and practices were reported (B. He, 2005; Wang & Phillion, 2009). Mainstream language, culture, knowledge, and identity are imposed on minority groups through school education, media propaganda, and manipulation (Shih, 2002). Minority culture and knowledge are under-represented or misrepresented in school textbooks in China (Nima, 2001; Qian, 2007; Upton, 1996; Wang & Phillion, 2010). Minority culture, language, and knowledge are regarded as uncivilized, backward, and unscientific (Gladney, 2004; Nima, 2001; Schein, 2000), and minority identity is less important than state identity (Qian 2007; Shih 2002). Some Hui minority people, on the other hand, hope to construct an ethnic identity through sending their children to mosques to receive literacy education (Postiglione, 1999), praying in mosques (Gladney, 2004; Shih, 2002), and embarking on pilgrimages to Mecca (Israeli, 2002). Still, some Hui people have lost their identity and their belief in the process of modernity (Gladney, 2004; Mackerras, 1998). Therefore, it is necessary to examine how the Han interpret minority culture and knowledge, how the Han construct minority people’s identity through school education, and how minority people construct their ethnic identity.

In this article, we used postcolonial theory as a theoretical framework and narrative inquiry as a research methodology to study the school experiences of two Hui minority students for the purpose of exploring how the mainstream Han group in China manipulates minority culture and knowledge and constructs minority identity in China.

Literature Review: Representation of Minority Groups in China

43


Orientalism in China

The Han have constructed, and are still constructing, the identities of non-Han groups in China, from barbarians to “other” minorities. According to these constructed identities, the Han group is central, and minority groups are peripheral and remote. The Han group is civilized, and minority groups are uncivilized (Gladney, 2004). That is why the Han group dominates and “saves” minority groups with mainstream language (Mandarin Chinese), culture, knowledge, and ideology. The Han group constructs itself and others in a process that Said (1978) called Orientalism, which describes how European colonizers constructed themselves as the centre while the colonized east became the periphery. Even though Orientalism does not literally match the ways in which the Han group treats minority groups in China, the Han group’s treatment of minority groups in China resembles the ways in which European colonizers colonized the east as the periphery. We found Orientalism useful to explain how the dominant Han group reproduces the actions of the European colonizers and constructs themselves as the centre and minority groups in China as the periphery.

Other researchers have developed the notion of Orientalism and applied it to different situations. For example, in examining the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s in the US, Allen (2005) claimed that “the black community was politically, economically, and militarily subjugated to white America, much as colonies in Africa or Asia were colonially subjugated and under the direct control of European powers” (p. 4). Similar to the situation for the Hui in China, Allen argued that colonies could be internal and “[w]hat was critical was the colonial relationship and its structures of domination and subordination” (p. 4). Gladney (1998/9) and Goodman (1983) asserted that minority regions in China such as Tibet, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia were the internal colonies of dominant Han group.

Schein (2000) used “internal Orientalism” (p. 101), borrowed from Said’s (1978) Orientalism, to examine how the Han people consolidate modern Europeans’ self-image based on the Han people’s interpretation of internal others—minority groups in China. Schein (2000) argued that whoever has power determines what kind of images would be produced and presented on TV, in magazines, in newspapers, and even on the Internet. The images of minority groups produced by the Han would be consumed by both minority groups and the Han themselves to reproduce self and other, dominant and dominated, or colonizer and colonized. The misrepresentation and hegemony in constructing these “others” silenced minority groups.

Subaltern in Minority Groups in China

In the remote rural minority regions of China, people farmed the limited land and gained little beyond basic survival. Men left their villages to work in the coastal provinces. Girls left villages by marrying men in the wealthier regions (Liu, 2007). Those who stayed in villages were summoned by tourism agencies to wear their colourful clothes, to demonstrate their traditional dances and songs, and to exhibit their exotic or erotic customs such as young people’s courtship (Schein, 2000). Furthermore, minority female nudes frequently appeared in Han Chinese paintings and films because minority women’s “primitivity” and beauty were exploited for profit (Gladney, 2004). Zhang Yimou, a well-known filmmaker in China and internationally, used minority women’s nudity in his films to depict “primitivity,” wildness, and inspiration (see also Gladney, 2004). Chinese artists

44


and filmmakers reproduced the Han misrepresentation of minority women as erotic, exotic, “primitive,” and beautiful and constructed them as minority “others.”

Han Chauvinism

Han chauvinism dates back to thousands of years ago. China, which literally means “central kingdom,” considered itself the centre of the world, while people from other cultures were considered “barbarians” (Pelissier, 1963). The dominant Han Chinese, therefore, believed that they had the right to save the “barbarians” and help them to live and speak as those in the “central kingdom” did; the end effect was conquering them. The conquered nations were forced to pay tribute to China to show their devotion to the emperor of the “central kingdom” and their willingness to be subordinate to the “central kingdom.” These historical cultural beliefs and practices inform current Han chauvinism.

Consider Muslims in China as an example. The Han group refused to see cultural differences between Confucian ideology and Islam. In the Ming Dynasty, the acculturation and assimilation of Muslims occurred constantly. Intermarriage between Han and Muslims was encouraged, and newborn Muslims were forced to take Han Chinese names, wear Han clothes, use the Chinese language, and learn Chinese culture and Confucian ideology as well as the Islamic faith (Lynn, 2004). During the Ming Dynasty, the Han used the terms “Hui” or “Huihui”; these terms indicate that Muslims in China had become “Chinese Muslims” (Israeli, 2002, p. 119). Until 1949, before the Communist Party came to power, most of the Hui people resided in the north-western board region―a poor and underdeveloped area― and some of the Hui people were scattered among 90 percent of cities and townships all over China (Israel, 2002; Lynn, 2004). After 1949, most Hui people continued to lose their home language, become confused about their identity, and speak Mandarin Chinese (Bradley, 2004).

Although minority groups’ rights are stipulated by China’s Constitution (CPRC, 1982) and minority autonomy is guaranteed by minority law (NMPPC, 2000), gaps have been reported (B. He, 2005; Wang & Phillion, 2009), and real self-government and autonomy are in doubt because unity is the top national priority and any secession is prohibited (B. He, 2005; Israeli, 2002; Mackerras, 1998). The case of the Tibetan minority, for example, has been well-researched and scholars have found that while rights are theoretically guaranteed, in practice, they are often violated. Tibetan history has been rewritten from the perspectives of the Han group in school textbooks. Upton (1996) argued that Tibetan history in the school curriculum was far different from the “real history” that the Tibetans experienced or that they learned at home, although the textbooks did contain some contents drawn from Tibetan culture and history. Nima (2001) suggested that Tibetan culture should be integrated into school curriculum so that Tibetan students could construct a Tibetan identity. In addition, some Han officials in minority regions interpreted minority language and culture as backward and unscientific while Han culture and Mandarin Chinese were considered civilized and scientific (Nima, 2001).

Mandarin Chinese was promoted as the official language in 1956 and today is the official language of Mainland China (Zhou, 1999). Children are required to learn Mandarin Chinese beginning in grade three in minority regions. Bilingual education in minority regions actually provides a transition from minority languages to Mandarin Chinese; finally, Mandarin Chinese ultimately replaces minority students’ language in minority students’ education (Dwyer, 1998). Mandarin Chinese serves as an important tool in

45


instilling Han ideology in and forming national identity in minority students (Nelson, 2005).

Theoretical Framework

Geographical Reconstruction: West and East

Orientalists depicted the east from their stereotypical understanding of the east and from their perspective of the west as the centre. Because they saw the east as the representation of physical, moral, and political weakness, the west had the responsibility to save the east through invasion and colonization. On the other hand, the east exists so that the west may demonstrate their power, civilization, and culture. This discourse silenced the east and legitimized the invasion and colonization of western colonies. Said (1978), therefore, discussed the importance of examining Orientalism as a discourse, through which European culture and ideology could be critically explored, that made it possible to “manage—and even produce—the Orient politically, sociologically, militarily, ideologically, scientifically, and imaginatively during the post-Enlightenment period” (Said, 1978, p. 3). Said (1978) argued that the separation into the west and the east is not only a geographical division but also “a relationship of power, of domination, of varying degrees of a complex hegemony” (p. 5). Hybridity and Identity

Hybridity is a product of the colonization of the east. The western misrepresentation of the culture and peoples of the east and the ideology and knowledge of the west that were imposed upon the east make the peoples of the east doubt their identity and the authenticity of their culture. The intention of hybridity is not to make colonizers out of the colonized but to create a hybrid class who might appreciate, respect, and value the colonizers’ culture and knowledge for the purpose of controlling the colonized. As Bhabha (1985) argued, hybridity is “a problematic of colonial representation … that reserves the effects of the colonialist disavowal, so that other ‘denied’ knowledge enter upon the dominant discourse and estrange the basis of its authority” (p. 156).

Identity shows who a person is and which cultural group a person belongs to with shared ancestors and history. Hall (1990) used the term cultural identity to refer to shared culture, shared history and ancestry. Hall commented that “our cultural identities reflect the common historical references and shared cultural codes which provide us, as ‘one people’, with stable, unchanging and continuous frames of reference and meaning” (p. 223). Therefore, identity is acquired when one is born, develops through language learning, culture immersion and construction, and is reinforced through family and community environment.

The construction of identity is related to power. The colonizer or dominant groups construct their identity and at the same time reconstruct the identity of “others” because others’ identity is based on “the interpretation and reinterpretation of the differences from ‘us’” (Said, 1978, p. 332). The reconstruction of the identity of “others” is based on the political and economic interests of the colonizers or dominant groups with stereotyped understanding and interpretation of the culture and knowledge of the colonized or minority groups. Zhao (2007) reported that Mongol students in colleges were confused with their cultural identity because of the dominant Han culture and

46


knowledge in their K-12 public school education. Mongol students took learning Han dominant culture and knowledge as their means of social mobility. Subaltern culture and knowledge are denigrated; and subaltern identity is distorted and hybridized.

Hegemony

Cultural reproduction is one of the ways the west maintains hegemony; subaltern culture and knowledge are devalued and eradicated. Western culture is reproduced through colonization and colonizers’ literature. The Orient is depicted as Europe’s uncivilized and backward colonies (Said, 1978). Knowledge reconstruction is another way the west maintains its dominance. Western knowledge is regarded as Truth, which must be learned; at the same time, eastern knowledge is regarded as unscientific and not worth learning. Gramsci (1971) argued that material force was not the only power that allows colonizers to control effectively; the subjects created by colonizers through cultural and educational hegemony were also willing to consent to colonial subordination. Therefore, western domination of the non-western world is a conscious and purposive process developed through military force and culture and knowledge reproduction (Said, 1978).

The Han group reproduces the cultural hegemony of European colonists through downgrading minority culture and knowledge as backward and promoting dominant culture, knowledge, and language as scientific and true (Bradney, 2004; Wang & Phillion, 2010 ). Zhu (2007) found that mainstream culture dominated school curriculum and infiltrated Tibetan students through classroom teaching. Similarly, Postiglione (1999) found that Han culture and knowledge dominated the public school curriculum while minority culture and knowledge had been excluded from the public school curriculum.

We responded to the call of postcolonial theorists to re-theorize the experiences and identities of “others” through the specific examination of Hui students’ experience in eastern China. We focused on the manipulation by the dominant Han group and its reconstruction of Hui culture, knowledge, and minority identity from a mainstream Han perspective. We also examined how the mainstream Han group dominated and controlled Hui students through hegemony in school curriculum.

Methodology

Participants and Data Collection

We conducted a case study of two Hui girls, Lingling (participants’ names and school names are pseudonyms) and Bai Lan, at Dongsheng Elementary School in eastern China to examine their lived experience (van Manen, 1996) in school. In order to better understand the two Hui girls’ school experience, Yuxiang, a Han Chinese who was a school teacher both in China and in the US and received his Ph. D. in the US concentrating on multicultural education, interviewed the two Hui girls, their parents, and their teachers; he also observed their classes.

Mr. Ma, Lingling’s teacher, who graduated from a two-year college, teaches Moral Education and Social Science to students in six classes of Grade 4. He is a Han Chinese. Each class has a one-hour lesson of Moral Education and a one-hour lesson of Social Studies per week. He has been a teacher in the school for 5 years. Mr. Wan, Bai Lan’s teacher, graduated from a normal school and earned the equivalent of a two-year

47


Associate’s degree through independent study and examinations. He is a Han Chinese. He teaches Mandarin Chinese to students in Class 1, Grade 6, two hours a day, five days a week. He has been a teacher at Dongsheng Elementary School for more than 8 years.

Yuxiang transcribed interviews and translated interviews and field notes into English. JoAnn Phillion, a Canadian white, has had a long history of involvement with research in minority education issues and in multicultural education. We coded and recoded interview transcripts and field notes and generated themes under the guidance of the theoretical framework.

The following research questions guided our study: 1. What are Hui students’ experiences in school in eastern P.R. China?2. What are mainstream teachers’ views about Hui students’ culture and belief in

eastern P.R. China?3. How do mainstream teachers construct Hui students’ identity and what impact

does that have on Hui students’ identity construction in eastern P.R. China?

Narrative inquiry

In order to answer our research questions, we used narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Phillion, 2002) to explore Hui students’ experiences. We particularly focused on cross cultural, multicultural narraitiev inquiry (Phillion & M. He, 2008) which provided a critical lens to examine students’ experiences. Dewey’s (1938) philosophy about experience and education provided a solid foundation for us to study Hui students’ experience and answer our research questions. As Dewey (1938) stated, “I assume that amid all uncertainties there is one permanent frame of reference: namely the organic connection between education and personal experience” (p. 24).

Narrative inquiry focuses on participants’ stories and experiences, makes meaning out of their stories and experiences, and understands the participants through their stories and experiences. Often, these stories function as “counter stories” in the literature in that they present perspectives not often dealt with in the research literature (Phillion, 2002). Phillion (2002) summarized three qualities of narrative inquiry: context of participants’ experience, immersion in participants’ experience, and developing a good relationship for better understanding participants’ experience. Phillion’s three qualities of narrative inquiry guided us in our exploration of the two Hui students’ experiences within a socio-political and historical context; helped us “live” their experiences through class observations and interviews with the Hui students, their teachers, and their parents; and enabled us to understand their experiences through developing relationships with the Hui students and their parents.

Description of the School and Community

The setting for the study was Dongsheng Elementary School in Dongsheng Township. Dongsheng Township is located in eastern China, about a 20-minute drive from the municipal city of Hefei, the capital city of Anhui province. Two old factories in the township—Dongfeng Cast Factory and Chunguang Textiles Factory—were bankrupted in the early 2000s because of both domestic and international competition that increased in the late 1990s. Many workers lost their jobs. Some changed their careers to service work

48


in the town, and some went to the southeast coastal areas to find employment. Lingling’s and Bai Lan’s mothers had worked in the Chunguang Textiles Factory. After the bankruptcy, Bai Lan’s mother found an hourly job in a department store, selling clothes. Lingling’s father went to Shanghai and worked hourly in a factory. Lingling’s mother started working hourly as a maid for a local wealthy family; meanwhile, she took care of her daughters’ daily lives. Bai Lan’s father was a school teacher in a different school district. Bai Lan’s parents are Hui; Lingling’s father is Hui, and her mother is Han Chinese.

The annual average income per person was 4,800 Chinese yuan (equal to $738) in Dongsheng Township. An annual family income below 7,200 Chinese yuan (equal to $1,107) was regarded as poverty level. At Dongsheng Elementary School, 50 of the 2,554 students were from families who lived below the poverty line. These students from low-income families were not required to pay for their textbooks and other educational resources such as field trip fees and extracurricular program fees. Lingling and Bai Lan were not from the low-income families. There were 2,554 students in grades K-6, among which ten students are Hui and five students are Manchu, which are two of the 55 minority groups in China. There were 51 teachers in the school, all Han.

Findings and Discussion

Cultural Hegemony

Lingling’s and Bai Lan’s culture, knowledge, and belief were ignored by the teacher and the school. Mr. Wan stated during the interview,

“I have been her [Bai Lan] teacher since she was a first grader. I haven’t seen any differences between her and Han girls. I don’t teach culture in my class. Because she is a good student, I haven’t provided any culturally related approaches to help her.” (interview, 2008)

Mr. Wan claimed, “I saw no difference between Han girls and Lingling in my class and I knew little about Hui culture except that Hui people do not eat pork” (interview, 2008). Mr. Ma and Mr. Wan expected their students to follow mainstream rules and regulations in their classes, to respect the teacher, to work hard at their class assignments, and to earn high scores on standardized tests (field notes, 2008). Mr. Wan told me his expectations of his students:

“My students know my expectations of them. They set their goals of going to Dongsheng No.1 High School and finally go to a better college. They have to work hard and complete all assignments before entering the class. Otherwise, they will be in trouble”. (interview, 2008)

In a social studies class, Mr. Ma was teaching the lesson “Zheng Chenggong recovered Taiwan from Holland’s colony” in a chapter entitled “Unified multi-ethnic country.” Yuxiang found that neither Mr. Ma nor the textbook mentioned the ethnic identity of Zheng Chenggong, who was the only Huihui that appeared in the textbook. After class, Yuxiang talked to Mr. Ma about Zheng Chenggong and asked him which nationality Zheng Chenggong was. He said, “It seemed that Zheng Chenggong was Huihui. However, I didn’t tell the students that he was Huihui because the text didn’t state that he was Huihui” (field notes, 2008). The textbook and Mr. Ma hid the fact that Zheng Chenggong

49


was Huihui, but emphasized that Zheng Chenggong was a hero who protected the sovereignty of China from the invasion of Holland.

In Mr. Ma’s moral education class, students and the teacher were discussing ancestor worship as a superstition. Students were asked to share their views about it and give an example of ancestor worship as a superstition. Lingling also stated her views about it. When Mr. Ma and his students were discussing this topic, Mr. Ma supposed that the Hui people also worship their ancestors. On the contrary, the Hui people do not worship their ancestors, but they are mostly filial to their ancestors. The Hui people believe in Allah, a belief that differs radically from the Confucian ideology of worshiping ancestors (Israeli, 2002; Lynn, 2004). This classroom practice demonstrates that Mr. Ma knew little about Hui culture and that Han culture infiltrated the thoughts of Hui and other minority students in the class through class teaching.

Lingling and Bai Lan also knew little about Hui culture and knowledge. Bai Lan said, “My grandpa told me that we Huihui do not eat pork, but we eat beef and chicken” (interview, 2008). When I asked whether her grandpa talked about the Quran, Bai Lan answered, “Yes. My grandpa mentioned it, but he said that he never read it” (interview, 2008). Lingling said, “My parents did not tell me anything related to Islam. Although I’m Huihui, I know nothing about it” (interview, 2008). Lingling and Bai Lan believed that it was ideal that Hui and Han were a family. Bai Lan said, “I like what I learned in the textbook that states 56 nationalities are a family. I feel that Han girls and Hui girls are equal in the class and in the school” (interview, 2008). When Lingling was asked to give her impression of the teacher and students in the school, she commented, “The students and teachers are friendly and they helped me when I transferred to the school” (interview, 2008). Lingling’s mother preferred to teach her two daughters Confucian ideology so that they could adapt to the mainstream society because they lived in the Han region. Her elder daughter successfully moved to Dongsheng No.1 High School (the top high school in the district); she adapted smoothly to the school, and her above average academic performance assured her mother that her way of teaching her daughters was appropriate. Lingling’s mother told me, “People don’t care who you are but care about your children’s academic performance in school. If your children could go to college, people would not look down upon you” (interview, 2008). Nieto (2002) found that the indoctrination in school curriculum has changed minority students’ views of their culture and knowledge. The consent or willingness of Lingling, and her mother to accept the dominant group’s culture and knowledge makes cultural hegemony possible.

Internal Orientalism and Hui Students’ Identity Construction

Bai Lan’s identity was assigned and constructed by her Han classmates and her Han teacher—Mr. Wan. Bai Lan, elected as the class monitor (top students are qualified for this position) in Grades 5 and 6, repectively, “is an excellent student and she demonstrates her leadership skills” (Mr. Wan, interview, 2008). Mr. Wan continued to comment on Bai Lan:

“She works hard at her course work and is willing to help those who asked for help. She is easy to talk to and make friends with. She is a coordinator between the teacher and peers and she is an organizer and leader in leading the class to complete tasks and events assigned by the school”. (interview, 2008)

50


As mainstream Han ideology dictates, Bai Lan must listen to and respect her teacher, love the school and the country, follow class rules, finish assignments on time, and succeed academically. Bai Lan accomplished all these goals and demonstrated her strong leadership (interview, 2008). Mr. Wan and Bai Lan’s classmates constructed Bai Lan’s identity—Chinese— through their election of her as the class monitor and her success as the class monitor. This finding is consistent with Schein’s (2000) “internal Orientalism” (p. 101), which was used to describe how the mainstream Han group constructed the identity of internal others based on the ideology of the mainstream Han group rather than that of minority groups. As Bai Lan said, “I’m the same as Han girls and I’m a member of the big family” (interview, 2008). Bai Lan’s leadership in her class and social experiences in class and in the school required that she had to make herself understood, which meant that she had to follow the set rules and regulations accepted by the mainstream society and that she had to behave like a Han girl so that she might be accepted by others and she might shorten the distance between her and her Han classmates. As Bai Lan said, “As a class monitor, I have to discipline myself and follow rules in class and in school so that students will trust me and listen to me” (interview, 2008).

With Bai Lan’s help and encouragement, many students in the class took part in singing contests, composition contests, and school level sports games. When Yuxiang asked what they sang in the singing contests, Bai Lan said, “some were popular songs and some were revolutionary songs that praised the Chinese Communist Party and China, our motherland” (interview, 2008). Yuxiang asked whether there were Hui songs or Manchu songs. She answered, “No.” Bai Lan won first place in the composition contest last semester. When Yuxiang inquired what she wrote in that composition contest, she answered,

“The title of the composition was provided for me by the school: ‘How shall I make a contribution to the Beijing Olympic Games?’ I wrote about how I participated in sports and games in school, helped clean the campus and community, and studied harder”. (interview, 2008).

As Qian (2007) argued, whether a minority student can succeed in the modern educational system in China depended on whether he or she could successfully adapt to the mainstream culture. Otherwise, they could not pass different levels of standardized examinations.

Mr. Ma and Mr. Wan both stated that Lingling and Bai Lan had no problems in their academic studies (interview, 2008). They depicted Lingling and Bai Lan as hard- working and smart students. They did not, however, see how hard Lingling’s mother pushed her to reach her potential by doing extra homework; and how Bai Lan’s parents provided a supportive environment for Bai Lan’s studies: through Internet access at home, trust between Bai Lan’s parents, and Bai Lan’s hard work at home (interview and field notes, 2008). Furthermore, Hui knowledge and culture were under-represented in elementary school textbooks (Wang & Phillion, 2010), class instruction and other school activities, which sent a message to Hui students that Hui culture, beliefs, and knowledge were not worth learning. Mr Wan emphasized recitation in his Chinese class. He tried to convince me that his practice was appropriate:

“You know there is a saying “After you recite 300 poems written in the Tang Dynasty, you can use them even though you cannot write a poem.” If they

51


didn’t learn Chinese well, it would be impossible for them to keep learning higher level courses, let alone going to college”. (interview, 2008)

His emphasis on recitation in learning Chinese demonstrates that he positioned himself as a knowledge transmitter. Mr. Wan expected students to remember knowledge in the textbooks and try to earn high scores on tests (interview, 2008). Students did not need to reflect on knowledge, and critical thinking was not encouraged. This is what Freire (1970) called the “banking concept of education,” which is the easiest way of imposing mainstream ideology and values.

Subaltern and Identity

The purpose of schooling is to reproduce mainstream Han knowledge and culture through knowledge selection and transmission. At school, teachers had absolute power over students. Teachers were the authority in transmitting knowledge, and students could not challenge their teachers (B. He, 2005). Knowledge and culture in the textbooks were regarded as Truth in China (Wang & Phillion, 2010), which Lingling and Bai Lan had to learn and were not allowed to criticize. Lingling and Bai Lan had little choice of what the teachers assigned and what the teachers imposed on them. Lingling stated, “I have to complete my homework not only assigned by my teacher but also given by my mother, then I have to review what I learned in school and preview what I am going to learn the next day” (interview, 2008). What Lingling and Bai Lan were expected to do, especially in Chinese class, was to read the stories until they could recite them. Lingling complained,

“I don’t like reciting stories everyday because I have to read them many times. My mother checked whether I could recite them at home. The teacher sometimes asked me to recite in class. Often I was nervous. Sometimes I was too nervous to finish reciting the whole story”. (interview, 2008)

Therefore, Lingling and Bai Lan were dominated by their school teachers in school. The domination from school teachers and the hegemonic control of mainstream Han culture and knowledge made Lingling and Bai Lan believe that they had to learn Chinese, mainstream culture, knowledge, and belief if they want to go to a better high school and a better college for social mobility and that they did not need to learn Hui knowledge.

Hybridity and Hui Students’ Construction of their Identity

Lingling and Bai Lan were registered as Huihui, but they claimed there were no differences between them and the Han students (interview, 2008), which is what Bhabha (1985) called in-betweenness. Lingling and Bai Lan demonstrated their appreciation of and respect for mainstream Han culture and knowledge (interview, 2008). Based on Lingling’s and Bai Lan’s satisfaction with the mainstream Han ideology of “56 nationalities are a family” and their appreciation of the harmony and stability of the state practices (interview, 2008), Lingling and Bai Lan had been hybridized. Hybridity reinforces the domination of the mainstream Han group and guarantees the single voice of dominant authority. The dominant Han culture and knowledge in the elementary textbooks (Wang & Phillion, 2010) and the “banking concept” (Freire, 1970) used in class instruction imposed the mainstream Han ideology without cultivating students’ critical thinking skills and convinced Lingling and Bai Lan that Han knowledge and culture were

52


the truth that they had to learn (interview, 2008). Mr. Ma expressed his belief in learning mainstream knowledge and beliefs:

“Since Lingling lives among Han people and they have to compete with Han peers in the National College Entrance Examination, Lingling has to learn mainstream culture, knowledge, and beliefs. Otherwise, how can she survive in various standardized tests and go to college”. (interview, 2008)

Mr. Wan stated a similar concern for Bai Lan about the importance of learning mainstream culture and knowledge in her public school education: “It proves that the school practice is right because she [Bai Lan] did quite well in the class and in the school. I’m confident that she will successfully go to Dongsheng No. 1 High School next year” (interview, 2008).

The mainstream Han group constructed the Chinese national identity through imposing Han culture, knowledge, and ideology on minority students, and at the same time, the mainstream Han group constructed the identity of “others” through taking away and/or downgrading minority culture and knowledge, the purpose of which was to convince minority students to accept the identity constructed by the mainstream Han group.

Conclusion

The mainstream Han group in China reproduced western colonizers’ manipulation of east and west and the identity construction of the people in the east by denigrating minority culture and knowledge and constructing minority identity from the mainstream Han group’s perspectives. Hui culture, belief, and knowledge were regarded by the mainstream Han group as unscientific, backward, and not worth learning. Lingling’s and Bai Lan’s identities were constructed by teachers who believed that they were the same as the Han students. Lingling and Bai Lan, who had no power, accepted the identity their teachers constructed for them. Bai Lan and Lingling claimed that they were the same as Han girls. Furthermore, the mainstream Han group constructed their identity and at the same time constructed Lingling’s and Bai Lan’s identity. Thus the mainstream Han group demonstrates that mainstream culture, knowledge, and identity are superior to those of the minority and that minority groups should be subordinate to the mainstream Han group. Internal Orientalism must be critically examined and hegemonic cultural, political, and economic policies have to be criticized so that minority students’ voices might be heard, minority culture and knowledge might be respected, and minority identity might be constructed based on their culture, knowledge, and historical tradition.

Through the comparison and contrast of the experience of Hui students and minority students in the U.S., we want to demonstrate that minority groups have been constructed by dominant groups as others and that their culture and knowledge are downgraded worldwide. Minority groups are struggling for their identities and the representation of their cultures and knowledge in school curriculum. Minority students in the U.S. are fighting for their language rights and quality education (Soto, 1997; Valenzuela,1999; Wang & Phillion, 2007) because minority students’ identities are taken away by public school education, and minority students’ language, culture, knowledge, and identities are under-represented or denigrated by the dominant groups (Spring, 2007). Minority students in South Korea, who received little help from teachers, live in fear of being deported if they are found to be illegal immigrants (Lee, 2008). Maori students, who are required to learn the dominant Pakeha culture and knowledge, suffer from the hegemonic

53


cultural control of the dominant Pakeha society in New Zealand, where school curricula reflect the cultural interests of the Pakeha (Smith, 1990). Martinez (2006), who examined Native American youth opposition to cultural domination in an urban high school, found that Native American youth is still oppressed by “two forms of colonization—one undertaken by Spain and the other by the United States” (p. 138) and called for the integration of Native American culture and knowledge into school curricula. In Brazil, public school curricula are not diverse, and minority culture and knowledge are not respected or valued (Hypolito, 2001). Silva, Barros, Halpern, and Silva also found that “racial prejudice and discrimination, although shrouded, are very strong in public school” (as cited in Hypolito, 2001, p. 171). The above research about the under-representation and denigration of minority students’ language, culture, and knowledge in different regions of the world demonstrates the need for more attention and research about global multicultural issues. Therefore, this inquiry of Hui students’ experiences in eastern China will contribute to the research and education of ethnic minority students not only in China and Asia but also in the world.

References

Allen, R.L. (2005). Reassessing the internal (Neo) colonialism theory. The Black Scholar, 35, 2-11.

Bhabha, H. K. (1985). Signs taken for wonders: Questions of ambivalence and authority under a tree outside Delhi. In H.L. Gates, Jr. (Ed.), “Race,” writing and difference (pp. 163-184). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Constitution of the People’s Republic of China (1982). Retrieved January 13, 2007 from http://english.people.com.cn/constitution/constitution.html

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: Touchstone.Dwyer, A.M. (1998). The texture of tongues: Languages and power in China. In W. Safran

(Ed.), Nationalism and ethnoregional identities in China (pp. 68-85). Portland, OR: Frank Cass.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: The Continuum Publishing Company.

Gladney, D.C. (1998/9). Whither the Uighur: China’s indigenous peoples and the politics of internal colonialism. Harvard Asia Pacific review, 3(1), 11-15.

Gladney, D. C. (2004). Dislocating China: Reflections on muslims, minorities, and other subaltern subjects. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Hall, S. (1990). Cultural identity and diaspora. In J. Rutherford (Ed.), Identity:Community, culture, difference (pp. 222-237). London: Lawrence and Wishart.

He, B. (2005). Minority rights with Chinese characteristics. In W. Kymlicka and B. He (Eds.). Multiculturalism in Asia (pp. 56-79). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hypolito, A. M. (2001). Multicultural reality, white data: The hidden relations of the racial democracy and education in Brazil. In C.A. Grant & J.L. Lei (Eds.), Global constructions of multicultural education (pp. 159-173). Mahwah, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Israeli, R. (2002). Islam in China: Religion, ethnicity, culture, and politics. Lanham, ML: Lexington Books.

54

http://english.people.com.cn/constitution/constitution.html


Lee, J. (2008). Multicultural education in South Korean public elementary schools: An analysis of teachers’ experiences and perspectives and school curriculum. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University.

Liu, Y. (2007). Life, culture, and education in a border region. Chinese Education and Society, 40(1), 60-77.

Lynn, A. M. (2004). Muslims in China. Indianapolis: University of Indianapolis Press.Mackerras, C. (1998). Han-Muslim and Intra-Muslim social relations in Northwestern

China. In W. Safran (Ed.), Nationalism and ethnoregional identities in China (pp. 28-46). Portland, OR: Frank Cass.

Martinez, G. (2006). “In my history classes they always turn things around, the opposite way”: Indigenous youth opposition to cultural domination in an urban high school. In M.W. Apple & K.L. Buras (Eds.), Subaltern speak: Curriculum, power, and educational struggles (pp. 121-140). New York: Routledge.

National Minorities Policy and Its Practice in China. (2000). Retrieved January. 2, 2007 from http://news.xinhuanet.com/employment/2002-11/18/content_633175.htm

Nelson, K. (2005). Language policies and minority resistance in China. Retrieved November 7, 2007 from: http://www.tc.edu/students/sie/LCEjr05/pdfs/Nelson.pdf

Nieto, S. (2002). Language, culture, and teaching: Critical perspectives for a new century. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Nima, B. (2001). Problems related to bilingual education in Tibet. Chinese Education & Society, 34, 91-102.

Pelissier, R. (1963). The awakening of China, 1793-1949. London: Secker & Warburg.Phillion, J. (2002). Becoming a narrative inquirer in a multicultural landscape. Journal of

Curriculum Studies, 34(5), 535-556.Phillion, J. & He, M. F. (2008). Multicultural and cross-cultural narrative inquiry in

educational research. Thresholds in Education, 34(1), 2-12.Postiglione, G.A. (1999). Introduction: State schooling and ethnicity in China. In G. A.

Postiglione (Ed.), China’s national minority education: Culture, schooling, and Development (pp. 3-19). New York: Falmer Press.

Qian, M. (2007). Discontinuity and reconstruction: The hidden curriculum in schoolroom instruction in minority-nationality areas. Chinese Education and Society, 40(2), 60-76.

Said, E.W. (1978). Orientalism. New York: Random House.Schein, L. (2000). Minority rules: The Miao and the feminine in China’s cultural politics.

Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Shih, C. (2002). Negotiating ethnicity in China. New York: Routledge.Smith, G. H. (1990). The politics of reforming Maori education: The transforming potential

of Kura Kaupapa Maori. In H, Lauder & C. Wylie (Eds.), Towards successful schooling (pp. 73-87). London, UK: Falmer Press.

Soto, L. D. (1997). Language, culture, and power: Bilingual families and thestruggle for quality education. New York: State University of New York Press.

Spring, J. (2007). Deculturalization and the struggle for equality: A brief history of the education of dominated cultures in the United States (5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Sun, H. (2004). Theorizing over 40 years personal experiences with the creation and development of minority writing systems of China. In M. Zhou & H. Sun (Eds.), Language policy in the People’s Republic of China: Theory and practice since 1949 (pp. 179–199). Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Upton, J. L. (1996). “Home on the grasslands? Tradition, modernity, and the negotiation of identity by Tibetan intellectuals in the PRC. In M.J. Brown (Ed.), Negotiating

55

http://www.tc.edu/students/sie/LCEjr05/pdfs/Nelson.pdf

http://news.xinhuanet.com/employment/2002-11/18/content_633175.htm


ethnicities in China and Taiwan (pp. 98-124). Berkeley: Institute of East Asian studies, University of California.

Valenzuela, A. (1999). Subtracting schooling: U. S. Mexican youth and the politics of caring. New York: State University of New York Press.

van Manen, M. (1996). Phenomenological pedagogy and the question of meaning. In D. Vandenberg (Ed.), Phenomenology and educational discourse (pp. 41-68). Durban: Heinemann Higher and Further Education.

Veeck, G., Pannell, C.W., Smith, C.J., & Huang, Y. (2007). China’s geography: Globalization and the dynamics of political, economic, and social change. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Wang, Y., & Phillion, J. (2007). Chinese American students fight for their rights. The Journal of Educational Foundations, 21(1/2), 91-105.

Wang, Y, & Phillion, J. (2009). Minority language policy and practice in China: The need for multicultural education. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 11(1), 1-14.

Wang, Y, & Phillion, J. (2010). Whose knowledge is valued? A critical study of knowledge in elementary school textbooks in China. Intercultural Education, 21(6), 567-580.

Zhao, Z. Z. (2007). Ethnic Mongol students and cultural recognition. Chinese Education and Society, 40(2), 2637.

Zhou, M. (1999). The official national language and language attitudes of threeethnic minority groups in China. Language Problems and Language Planning,

23(2), 157-174.Zhu, Z. (2007). Ethnic identity construction in the schooling context: A case study of a

Tibetan Neidi boarding school in China, Chinese Education and Society, 40(2), 38-59.

Internet Use with Learning Aim: Views of German Language Pre-Service Teachers

Mukadder Seyhan YücelTrakya University, Turkey

mukadderyucel@ hotmail.com

Abstract

The aim of this study is to indicate the views of teacher candidates of German Language Department at Education Faculty, Trakya University about the use of internet with the aim of learning. This study has designed as phenomenology which is one of the qualitative research methods. The study data were obtained via semi-constructed interview technique and the content analysis technique was used in the data analysis.

56

mailto:mukadderyucel@


In the research, the findings gathered from the interviews with the teacher candidates are presented in themes, and then interpreted. Considering findings of the study, it has been seen that Internet should be used for learning-teaching purpose. Teacher candidates of German Language support the fact that Internet has a crucial role in education, and particularly it is useful and essential as Internet provides lots of opportunities for German Language Teaching such as authentic study samples, rich materials and exercises on skills, contemporary videos reflecting German culture or film sections. Internet is also a good material which provides accessing various information and also realizing and sharing many goals. If the information is gathered via audio and visual ways, it will be retentive. Thus, German Language teacher candidates can have opportunity to study on the foreign language and its culture through Internet. Furthermore, they have met the contemporary approaches like realizing self-directed learning individually. That’s why, the views of German Language pre-service teacher about the use of Internet with the aim of learning are very important.

Keywords: German language teacher training; education process; ICT; Internet

Introduction

It has been a significant need to use the information technology in different files in recent years. Developments in technology and educational sciences have indicated that information and communication technologies should be associated with the education. Use of technology in education is generally defined as putting it into practice in the extensive areas of education such as data of different sciences, special objectives, method, materials, measurement, assessment and also an integration of systems which provides the important of quality, solving the educational problems, making use of the energy of people best in the appropriate physical and psychological environments (Rıza, 2000). In Turkey, Education Faculties which aim to train pre-service teachers are one of the main academic institutions where these developments felt well. In this context, teaching has become a profession which requires further qualifications and abilities.

Over the last few years, there has been increased interest in the potential of the Internet by university students. Internet use by university students have been the subject of numerous studies (Perry, Perry & Hosack-Curlin 1998; Saeed, Asghar, Anwar & Ramzan 2000; Niemz, Griffiths & Banyard 2005; Bourdeau, Chebat & Couturie 2002). At many countries in the world, it has been seen that especially the students have utilized the Internet for the use of ICT in university education (İşman & Dabaj, 2004). Schrofer (2007) states that university students take responsibility more for determining educational learning strategies and thinks that the reason for this is the quality of the information obtained from Internet is getting higher. Accessing to the information easily, sharing the information and information sources are important factors during this process.

Concerning education and Internet, the findings of Jones and Peachey (2005) have indicated that learning and teaching have been transformed as a result of the Internet which has speedily growing popularity and widespread use. Use of information and communication technology (ICT) in teacher training has gained the learning process as a new viewpoint. ICT use in student-centered interactive learning settings has introduced significant materials for the teachers and the students. UNESCO (2002) has listed some fundamental principles regarding the use of ICT in teacher training as follows:

Extending the ICT over the whole educational program Introducing the technology in context

57


Getting the students gain experience in learning/education process with the support of ICT.

Teacher Training In Turkey and ICT

In Turkey, Education Faculties are the higher education institutions where can be received teaching diplomas. Education Faculties have had a multifaceted change from past to present. The most important revision for Education Faculties was made in 1998. Education Faculties were reconstructed with the reason of deficiencies at teacher training programmes in the past. With this reconstruction, Departments of Education Faculties has started to implement a standard programme in a nation-wide (Yücel, 2000).

Council of Higher Education (YÖK) in Turkey realized the reconstruction of education faculties in 1998-1999 academic years. Curriculums have been rearranged and updated with this reconstruction by the academic year 2006-2007. One of the important reasons of this update is that a pre-service teacher who has knowledge and skills about information technologies and general culture to some extent and can do scientific research and make use of the researches done will be more successful in realizing the requirements of contemporary education. It has also been stated that this qualification of teachers will provide positive results/reflections for their students to be prepared for the future.

When it is concerned the developments in ICT for the teacher training throughout Turkey, it is seen that the innovations in ICT have been taken into consideration. A number of studies considering the increasing the professional standards of the teachers have been realized involving the support for the basic education program which has been conducted by the Ministry of National Education to increase the quality of education. The Ministry of National Education has prepared ‘The General Requirements for Teaching Profession’ consisting of knowledge, ability and attitudes that a teacher should have according to the fields and also the Ministry has put it into the practice. The following statements have been used basically for the teachers’ competencies considering the use of ICT (MEB,2011).

A teacher should; follow the developments in the ICT make use of ICT with the aim of sharing become a model using the technological sources effectively and teach how to use

it

The use of ICT has been handled in graduation, Master of Arts and PhD Degrees. In a workshop named ‘Scrutiny of graduation and master degree in Education Faculties with the viewpoint of educational sciences’ and held in the Faculty of Educational Sciences of Ankara University (Turkey), the determined issues have been scrutinized. It has been accepted that a graduate teacher should have a level as ‘European Computer Driving License, Advanced Level’ regarding the use of ICT in the context of Education Faculty teaching profession competencies (Akçamete 2009). Teachers must be able to use computer software with the ICT for both knowledge, abilities and personal and professional competencies in their branches. This issue has been regarded as a

58


competence that the higher educational institutions in Turkey target including Bologna processes.

The applications based on Internet technologies have been used in different ways in teacher training. The efforts of integrating ICT in learning-teaching process can be seen in computer-based/assisted education, Internet supported applications and distance education. In literature, we can see that the importance of ICT, and some studies regarding Internet applications have been carried out and it has been seen that this process is dynamic. Integrating Internet and ICT into teacher training and forming a curriculum based on this (Kartal, Yıldız & Inelmen, 2005), using the web-assisted learning environments with the aim of learning and social interaction (Çuhadar & Kuzu, 2006) and the obstacles in using Internet by the teacher candidates studying in Education Faculties (Isman, Işbulan,Demir & Canan, 2008) are only some of these literature samples.

ICT in Training German Language Pre-Service Teachers

German Language Teaching Program of Education Faculty has developed considering some aspects such as the content of the courses, new orientations and target groups. There are currently 15 German Language Teaching Programs of Education Faculties throughout Turkey. In 11 out of these 15 faculties students start to study not with their German Language background but with their English Language background except in the other three faculties. In other words, these students have been placed at the universities according to their English Language success points in the university entrance exam but not according to their German Language success points (Yücel, 2008).

Speaking a foreign language means knowing and understanding the culture as well beside knowing its grammar and writing in that language. Because, language and culture cannot be considered separate (Polat, 2003). As it is known, the best way of learning a foreign language is to live in the country where the target language is spoken. However, this communication has been supplied with information and technology besides educators (teachers/lecturers) and textbooks. While designing foreign language courses, it is an essential prerequisite for student-centered courses to make use of ICT materials considering the characteristics and the needs of the students. ICT are all kinds of audiovisual and published materials which supply students with obtaining and producing information. Changing technological developments have eased the accessing to the information. Developments in science and technology have affected the goals and needs, as a result of this, some new inclinations and approaches have begun to exist. Individuals in the society realize some social actions with the aim of communication as Common European Framework has determined and linguistic actions being action-oriented, social behaviorism and communicative skills are the essential factors of this communication process (Europarat, 2001). In this context, some concepts which have been available in education and social life such as life-long learning and self-directed learning have been dealt with fundamentally. Internet is a significant tool in ‘self-directed learning’ and ‘life-long learning’ processes today.

Students majoring as target group in German Language Teaching Program have learnt German Language and culture. Additionally they have improved their knowledge and skills in new topics, areas via language. In other words, with German Language

59


Education, the processes of knowing German culture and comparison of two cultures have continued as well (Tapan, 2004). There have been a lot of materials to utilize in foreign language teaching in education. German Language Teacher Candidates have mainly used computer and Internet as information technology materials which they read to obtain information about German speaking countries and their cultures in their education period besides the lecturers and textbooks. In the studies considering foreign languages, ICT, it can be seen that the objectives and goals have been realized more easily when the education is student-centered (Kaptı, 2008), the integration of modern communication materials and technologies in the course have been significant (Kartal, 2005), and the effect of technology in foreign language teaching is positive and incentive (Cangil, 2004).

Internet is undoubtedly an inexpensive, independent of time and place, technological tool which provides access to the information when it is needed. It is a perfect tool for the students to enrich their learning habits and experiences as Bolts proposed (Boldt, 1995). Thus, constructivism, in other words, constructivist learning approach has got importance (Şimşek, 2004). According to constructivist approach, students form their own knowledge and interpret what they have read taking their previous learning and habits into consideration. The concepts of searching for information, interpretation and analysis, improvement of information and considering process and combining the past and present experiences have placed in the base of constructivist theory.

Constructivism claims that the learners forms the knowledge as individually and socially themselves. It defends that the learner himself should form the knowledge. The constructivist approach reflects how much the knowledge is learnt not how much it is taught. It also claims that the individual who interacts with phenomena and events, the ones which he himself has conceptualized and the solutions of the problems. Students learn the new information adapting to their subjective situation with the information they have already had (Topkaya, 2007). Internet is one of the sources for accessing the information for the students in constructivist learning environments. It is also a good material which provides accessing various information and also realizing and sharing many goals. If the information is gathered via audio and visual ways it will be retentive. Thus, German Language teacher candidates can have opportunity to study on the foreign language and its culture through Internet. Furthermore, they have met the contemporary approaches like realizing self-directed learning individually. That’s why, the views of German Language pre-service teacher about the use of Internet with the aim of learning are very important.

Objectives

The aim of this study is to indicate the views of pre-service teacher in German Language Teaching program of Faculty of Education, Trakya University about the use of Internet with the aim of learning. The following questions have been answered in this study in the framework of this aim. What do German Language pre-service teacher think about;

the use of Internet with the aim of learning? valuable features of Internet in training German Language teachers? the limitations of Internet considering German Language Education? the use of Internet in German Language Education?

60


Method

Method

This study has been designed as phenomenological research which is one of the qualitative research methods. The phenomenology has focused on phenomena that can be realized by but do not have a deep and detailed understanding. Even though these facts have been met very often in daily life, this meeting does not mean that they are understood. The phenomenology has formed a significant background for the studies which aim to search phenomena that people are familiar with but at the same time phenomena whose meanings are not known (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2006).

Participants

While determining the participants, purposive sampling was used. purposive sampling is the study of the situations which meet the criteria determined beforehand in the study (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2006). Participants of the study were 12 teacher candidates who studied in the 4th grade (senior students) of German Language Teaching Program in Faculty of Education, Trakya University in 2008/2009 academic year. The reason of choosing the participants as senior students was that they had better point of view both on German Language and language teaching methods and strategies about their profession when compared to the lower grades. Six of the participants were female and the other six were male. Their ages were between 21 and 24. Each participant had a personal computer which had Internet access so that they could use it continuously.

Tools of Data Collection

In this study, the views of German Language teacher candidates about the use of Internet with the aim of learning were handled. In accordance with this aim, semi-structured interview technique which was one of the data collection tools used in qualitative methods was applied. Related to this, first, an interview form was prepared. The questions in the form were examined by experts and necessary corrections, arrangements and changes were carried out and then the final shape of the form was prepared. The questions in the interview form were as follows:

1. What is your aim to use Internet in your courses?2. What is your opinion about the benefits of using Internet in German Language

Education program?3. What do you think about the factors which restrict the use of Internet in German

Language Education program?4. What are your recommendations about the use of Internet in German Language

Education effectively and productively?5. As a teacher candidate, which aims do you want to use Internet with for your

professional life?

The Process of Data Collection

61


12 teacher candidate participants were informed about the aim and the data collection tool of the study in a pre-interview session. It was also stated that participation to the study would depend on volunteering, and the teacher candidates who would participate in the study confirmed their participation by giving written permission. In order to conduct the study properly, the venue, the time and the date of the interview with the each teacher candidate were determined by the lecturer.

The data of the study were collected via face-to-face interviews with the participants on 12-16 January, 2009. At the beginning, participants were informed about overall information related to the interview and also the use of tape recorder. The participation consent taken as in a written form previously was taken again from the participants orally during the interview. Afterwards, each teacher candidate was interviewed to answer the interview questions and these answers were recorded via the tape-recorder. Recording the interview on the tape took ten minute-long most and seven minute-long least. After completing the interviews, obtained voice-records were transmitted to the computer and transcripted its inventory.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

Data obtained during the study were transmitted completely to the computer setting as they were available in the records. The inventory of the data and voice records were given to an expert in order to verify whether data were transmitted to the computer setting correctly or not. Then, answers to each question were listed in the related indexes and data which were obtained by a classification system considering the questions were prepared for concept analysis. Content analysis technique was used for the analysis of data. Content analysis defined as the main aim in the content analysis is to reach the concepts and relations which can explain the obtained data. These data were analyzed at four stages.

1. Coding the data 2. finding the themes3. Arrangement of codes and themes 4. Definition and interpretation of the findings.” (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2006:175).

Findings and Result

In the research, the findings gathered from the interviews with the teacher candidates were presented in themes, and then interpreted. Moreover, themes were supported by the direct quotations from teacher candidates’ responses.

Findings towards the Aims of Internet Use in Courses

Within the framework of findings from the responses of teacher candidates of German Language towards the aims of Internet use in courses, themes in Table 1 were gathered.

62


Table 1. The aims of Internet use

Themes fAssignment and Material DesignAccess to information sourcesSupport for Learning

1098

As it is displayed in Table 1, 12 teacher candidates participated in the research use mostly Internet when designing assignment and materials. One of the main reasons for this situation is that they can access to original information about German Language and culture via Internet since available course books are insufficient. The teacher candidates indicate that they benefit from the Internet when designing assignment and materials in accordance with the aim of Internet usage in courses since Internet presents information content in terms of aims and requirements. The samples of the students’ statements related to this topic are given below.

“The most important thing is that we use Internet especially when doing homework. Our materials can sometimes be inadequate, or perhaps Internet enables us to find the things that are not available in the school library.”(Livan)

“There may be some topics that we should focus, especially on the terms that should be searched more widely on the Internet. I can say that generally we benefit from Internet for our assignments, presentations-both written and orally.”(Sinem)

“To search something about Germany, we have to use the Internet; we use it for our courses.”(Çile)

The teacher candidates especially express the importance and prosperity of listening comprehension in German, video or film sections, and various exercises in the theme ‘Assignment and Material Design.’

“I think it will be useful for listening comprehension courses, as speech is made by the Germans when we watch a video. Apart from that, it will be useful for vocabulary comprehension at the same time. I think Internet is important especially for listening comprehension.”(Recep)

“We use Internet for various exercises, we can find different materials; it is useful”(Çile)

“I think watching a video helps you remember the things more easily as it is visual.”(Elçin)

As it is determined in accordance with the views of prospective teachers, Internet is a widely used tool in education process. Apart from accessing to a wide range of information, it provides to access to authentic examples especially about listening comprehension in German.

With regard to ‘access to information sources’ theme (second theme), the prospective teachers stated nine views for the question; ‘Why do you use Internet in your courses?’ It is obvious from the views that Internet has a great importance in accessing to information resources. For the prospective teachers, Internet is a tool which they can easily access

63


when they need information in this sense. The views of the teacher candidates on this issue are given below:

“ ..First of all, the purpose of using Internet in the courses is that it provides easiest access information. I use the Internet, apart from this, it provides my students with information I can access as a teacher candidate.” (Enver)

“As it is the technology era, it is great significant to access to information. Because, today information is indeed very important in every sense in terms of economy, culture or society. Information is indeed very important in terms of our career in the social environment or our status, and it is not as difficult to access to information as it was in the past. By means of a very simple way as we call it as Internet, we can access to anything in any way. We do not go to book stores, libraries and public libraries anymore since it is both a waste of time and difficult..” (Recep)

“…today Internet is the greatest library…” (Ahmet)

“I generally use Internet very much for gaining different things, information, by not being restricted with the books.”(Murat)

As it is understood from the statements of the teacher candidates, by the help of ‘access to information resources’, accessing to learning resources and the use of hypermedia opportunities have come into prominence. Access to information resources via Internet is the indication of information communication process. The 3rd theme towards the aim of Internet usage in courses stated by the teacher candidates is ‘support for learning’. Within the Internet usage in education, traditional terms used for students and teachers have been changed. The role of the student is not only to receive or memorize the information that is presented, but also to find, search the information and use it in daily life. Thus, it is aimed to make the term ‘lifelong learning’ more meaningful and materialized. As for foreign language teaching, Internet is a significant tool and information-education resource especially in terms of authentic listening, authentic visuality and pronunciation. Eight views of the teacher candidates have been gathered on this issue. Some of the views are given as below:

“I think it will be useful for listening comprehension courses, as speech is made by the Germans when we watch a video. Apart from that, it will also be useful for vocabulary comprehension at the same time. (Recep)

“I think the Internet is important especially for listening comprehension. In my opinion, it is more useful and efficient way of learning.” (Murat)

“I think the Internet is especially very useful for our courses….” (Elçin)

“In my opinion, the reason for using the Internet in courses is that it helps me avoid being monotonous or diverts me to students, to do research…” (Livan)

“The students are in great need of the Internet during university education, that is scientific researches, assignments and presentations, etc. I think it is particularly the first time for the students to use Internet here.” (Ahmet)

64


By the help of the theme with regard to the question ‘Why do you use Internet in your courses?’ and students’ views, it was determined that the prospective teachers of German Language support the fact that Internet has a crucial role in education, and particularly it is useful and essential as Internet provides lots of opportunities for German Language Teaching such as authentic study samples, rich materials and exercises on skills, contemporary videos reflecting German culture or film sections. All these factors demonstrate that Internet is advantageous and essential in terms of its usage on learning purposes in German Language Teaching. Thus, Internet is a reference guide in this sense.

Findings towards the Advantages of Internet Use in German Language Education

Within the framework of findings from the responses of teacher candidates of German Language towards the advantages of Internet usage in German Language Education, themes in Table 2 were gathered.

Table 2. The advantages of Internet use in German Language Teaching

Themes fSupport for German Language Education ProcessAccess to Authentic Resources about German Language and Culture

117

Analyzing the themes in Table 2, the teacher candidates of German Language concentrated upon two themes about the advantages of Internet usage in German Language Education; the first one as ‘Support for German Language Education Process’ (11 views) and the second one is ‘Access to Authentic Resources about German Language and Culture’ (seven views). Before mentioning about the findings and interpretation upon the theme ‘Support for German Language Teaching Process’, the following sample statements of teacher candidates on this issue can be seen as below:

“…what has been written upon this issue, by reading those themes on the Internet, I gain a different point of view, make comments about them, and namely I gain information about them. For instance; surfing on the German web-sites, I can access daily news, the most current news, for instance news such as any course or library may not be current. On the other hand, I think you will get daily information if news on the Internet is current and especially you are interested in the subject...” ( Recep)

“As an advantage, the student motivates him/herself much better for learning...” ( Rabia)

“…Students like using Internet and computers very much. They can access information and study more easily by combining using the computers, which they like very much, and studying together.” (Murat)

”..We get information; understand a subject that is we have a wider perspective, learn new things.” (Elçin)

The responses of prospective teachers make it obvious that the advantage of Internet usage is that it is the support for education in German Language Teaching. It is the support for education since the most current information and topics are available on the Internet; it is the support for learning as the students get more motivated due to the visual presentation of the topics via the Internet. The reasons why the prospective teachers determined the advantage of Internet usage in German Language Teaching is

65


that it makes the learning process more efficient in general. Visual attractiveness, motivation, variety and information content are the main points of the advantages.

The second theme ‘Access to authentic resources about German Language and Culture’ was specified as one of the advantages of Internet usage in German Language Teaching by the teacher candidates. The discourse of teacher candidates reveals the fact that the Internet has a positive and an encouraging effect on German Language Teaching since audio-visual educational attainment and a new perspective have been gained via the Internet. The following statements are samples of teacher candidates’ views towards the second theme ‘Access to authentic resources about German Language and Culture’:

“For instance; we can download a video of a German speaking on the Internet when doing listening comprehension exercises. Thus, the students listen to the authentic language in courses, they hear the daily language.” (Havise)

“..By the help of phonetic exercises, the students get familiar with phonetics.” (Çile)

“..Internet is a great source for German courses, about all kinds of skills, particularly about exercises in order to improve oneself.”(Sinem)

“…Everything consisting of pronunciation of sounds, explanations for tenses, or more detailed subjects is available on the Internet...” (Murat)

“When teaching a foreign language, the cultural features and manners of life should be integrated with foreign language teaching… It can be used for searching literal texts, German literal texts. To give an example, the major source for the last play I have performed was the Internet.” (Ahmet)

In accordance with these views, the teacher candidates emphasize particularly certain skills such as listening comprehension, speaking, and pronunciation as the advantages of Internet usage in German Language Teaching. Internet is an important source for teacher candidates in order to improve skills and access to cultural knowledge since authentic resources about German Language and Culture can be assessed via the Internet.

In this sense, the advantages of Internet, as one of the ICT, can be emphasized as follows: Internet usage in German Language Teaching is a great support for German Language Education process.

Findings towards the Factors Restricting the Internet Use in German Language Teaching

Within the participants’ responses given for the third question of the interview form ‘What are the factors restricting the Internet usage in German Language Teaching?’ the themes in Table 3 were gathered

Table 3. Factors restricting the Internet use in German Language Teaching

Themes fRestricted Internet access (cost and equipment)Lack of technical support and backgroundTeacher and equipment factors

1052

66


There is an important point that should be taken into consideration about this question before the descriptive analysis of the themes. When the third question ‘What are the factors restricting the Internet usage in German Language Teaching’ were asked to the teacher candidates during the interview, out of 12 teacher candidates, four of them started their conversation with such statements: “I have never come across a factor like this, however….” "I think Internet is unlimited. You connect to the world from your room, that is there are no limitations, but…” They could mention about the factors restricting the Internet usage in German Language Teaching only after uttering such kind of statements. The teacher candidates focus on the first theme as a restricting factor of Internet usage in German Language Teaching (with 10 agreements): “Restricted Internet access in terms of cost or equipment”:

“…sometimes when we enter the web sites, we can not access to every kind of information; it’s neither hindered nor something different happens, that is we can not enter, access...” (Sinem)

“Some web sites on the Internet require passwords or they are not for free; these may happen...”(Rabia)

”the only factor may be economical reasons, so I do not think any factor restricting Internet usage.(Murat)

”..Personally, it depends upon the economy of students; how much time does s/he spend in the Internet cafe searching on the Internet, or to what extent does the student manage to do his/ her own research?”(Murat)

“Limitations all of the students can not access to Internet, this may be because of economical reasons. There may not be Internet connection available in every house...” (Havise)

As it is understood from these statements, the teacher candidates indicated restricted Internet access as a restricting factor due to passwords or membership. Having no Internet connection and teacher candidates’ using Internet cafes on account of the same reasons, yet not spending much time there because of the economical problems was determined as a restricted Internet access. However, restricted Internet access in the Internet cafes is not only considered in terms of economical reasons, equipment is also taken into consideration in this respect. “In our country, if you want to study in an Internet café, there are programs restricting access to foreign websites.”(Murat).

One of the teacher candidate’s views about Internet cafes with regard to restricted Internet access was as follows:

“When I started university, I did not have a computer at my house. It becomes necessary to have a computer during university education process, however not. All of the students can not afford it. For instance, the place where I live is not convenient for going to an Internet cafe, or girls can not go to Internet cafes. So I have to come here in order to search beforehand, these are the restricting factors. We utilize the Internet either for surfing, preparing presentations, or using computer, for this reason we, as German Language Teaching students, have to use Internet since we can not find anything in German anywhere, in the libraries, so we have to use Internet to access Germany in a way.” (Çile).

67


The discourse of the teacher candidate stresses upon the importance of the Internet in German Language Teaching on the one hand, and social dimensions restricting Internet access on the other hand. In accordance with these views, the disadvantage of Internet can be defined as follows: it restricts access to information due to the restricted Internet access. All the impossibilities in information and education technology are the greatest barrier for educational system. It is significant to utilize all kinds of education technology efficiently by knowing when to use it. Using technology effectively in education process is going to be a factor increasing the added value of education related with its usage. In this sense, teacher candidates stated that factors restricting Internet usage in German Language Education depend upon lack of technical background and support. A teacher candidate emphasized that having no language laboratory, besides the Internet is due to the technical impossibilities. The views in this sense are as follows:

“Computers are insufficient, or there is no computer, so there is no Internet..” (Elçin)

“For example, in the eastern part of the country, there are computers at many schools, but there is no Internet connection.”(Enver)

“…technical opportunities. Schools offer no technical opportunities such as language laboratories, so students can not utilize the Internet, and all of these restrict German Language Teaching via the Internet..” (Ahmet)

The third view, teacher factor has been determined as factors restricting the Internet in German Language Teaching. Within the framework of ‘Teacher and equipment factor’, teacher candidates indicated that educator, namely teacher should use the Internet and utilize in the class environment.

All learning activities are a part of communication process, and effective learning can be provided with teacher’s knowledge, skill and attitude. Sample views of teacher candidates related to this theme are presented below:

“If such kind of technical opportunities are available and its greatest restriction is Internet’s not being used, I think the reason is teachers. Since there are a lot of websites about German Language Education, the greatest restriction of this is the teacher him/herself. If s/he does not know how to use the knowledge that the students gain...” (Ahmet)

“The teacher should investigate by him/herself. I think this is a bit obstacle.” (Recep)

One of the aims of information and education technologies is to make the education process more efficiently. In spite of technological developments, there are still teachers who follow the traditional process and do not want to utilize information and education technologies. As a consequence of this, teacher candidates of German Language regard ‘Teacher and equipment factor’ as a restriction for Internet usage.

Findings towards the Use of Internet Effectively and Efficiently in German Language Teaching

It is important to use the Internet effectively and efficiently for educational purposes. In accordance with this aim, themes in Table 4 have been specified according to the findings gathered during the interviews towards the use of Internet.

68


Table 4. Suggestions on the use of Internet effectively and efficiently in German Language Teaching.

Themes fBeing conscious about searching on the InternetBeing a guide for the students about information accessProviding technical background and support

993

Most of the teacher candidates (nine) indicated their views about the themes ‘being conscious about searching on the Internet’ and ‘being a guide for the students about information access’ in order to use the Internet effectively and efficiently. The teacher candidates make suggestions about the first theme “being conscious about searching on the Internet” as follows:

to search in accordance with the purpose to enter the correct website being conscious about research

In this sense, the views of the teacher candidates about the first theme ‘being conscious about searching on the Internet’ are as follows:

“In order to use the Internet effectively, we should enter the correct websites, this is the most important suggestion, I have experienced this with most of my friends, all of them, all of us search for something, I can access, and they can not. The reason for this is that for instance they access through google.com, but they can not search through google.tr.” (Çile)

“You know what you search for or how much information you should find and if you know which website is beneficial for you in this sense, I think it can be used effectively and efficiently.” (Livan)

“…Purpose is important, website address is important.”(Murat)

“You have to write the necessary words, not the general ones; to give an example you have to choose other words instead of writing “and”. (Havise)

Considering the theme ‘being a guide for the students about information access’, teacher candidates indicate that the teacher or instructor supports students upon Internet usage in general, guide them and should give support. These include the suggestions towards the use of Internet efficiently and effectively in German Language Teaching. Sample statements related to this theme are as follows:

“…Last year one of our lecturers suggested us something, some Internet websites,…She suggested some links. And when we entered those websites, we easily accessed them. It was really a good study in that sense; we were able to find both certain methods and exercises, for instance if we want to prepare an assignment, we know some links or websites in limited number, but we manage to do it easily if our lecturers guide us in this way.” (Sinem)

“Of course, it is related with the teachers’ ability to use the Internet…the teacher should know how to use the Internet for education. There may be students who do not have computers. These are the things that the teacher should prepare by himself/herself at his/her house or with the available opportunities.”(Ahmet)

69


“Students may be expected to do research on the Internet about the subjects after the courses.” (Rabia)

Three teacher candidates stated “providing technical background and support” as a suggestion for this theme towards the use of Internet efficiently and effectively in German Language Teaching:

“Internet or computer should be available in the places where German Language is taught. That is, students should access Internet anytime and anywhere they want, or need, and search for the information.” (Enver)

“Education on the use of computer should be offered.”(Recep)

”…For example, if it is possible, the number of computers available at our faculty can be enhanced…”(Elçin)

As it is stated in accordance with the suggestions specified according to themes and findings towards the teacher candidates’ use of Internet effectively and efficiently in German Language Teaching, the significant factors can be regarded as being conscious about researches, using the Internet in parallel with the purpose and necessity, utilizing and students’ being conscious about the subject (make the Internet be used in courses, encourage students to use the Internet). It is crucial to supply technology efficiently and effectively.

As a result of this, using information and education technology devices efficiently and effectively and utilizing them are crucial factors in terms of its contribution to success of both the student and education. In the light of this fact, the educators undertake a lot of responsibilities on the use of information technology devices efficiently and effectively.

Findings towards the Views of Teacher Candidates for What Purposes They Will Use the Internet in Their Teaching Experiences

The last question of the interview was ‘As a teacher candidate, for what purposes do you consider using the Internet in your teaching life?’ Themes in Table 5 are gathered within the framework of findings from the responses.

Table 5. Themes related to the views of teacher candidates towards their purposes for using the Internet in their teaching experiences

Themes fSupport for education in accordance with the purposeProfessional Development

127

As it is stated in Table 5, from the responses of all 12 participant teacher candidates for the question ‘As a teacher candidate, for what purposes do you consider using the Internet in your teaching experience?’ they expressed their views about the theme ‘Support for education in accordance with the purpose’. In other words, all of the teacher candidates participated in the interview thinks that Internet provides support for education in accordance with the purpose besides considering integration of the Internet in education. The views of the students about the theme ‘Support for education in accordance with the purpose’ are as follows:

70


“Well, I think I will use the Internet for both following certain exercises and utilizing them in the lessons, I intend to use the Internet for diversifying the lessons in a different way, and enlivening my lessons.” (Enver)

“… I will use the Internet in order to motivate my students, and for visuality, of course visuality makes everything more attractive…”(Havise)

”…apart from this, different texts can be obtained through Internet, namely texts for all levels can be found.”(Murat)

”…I can copy exercises from the Internet, they are easily accessible. I myself can enhance them.”(Sinem)

“…it may be for assignment themes… Materials for target group or educational methods….”(Elçin)

”When I prepare an exam, I certainly want to assess students with exercises about listening comprehension. For this reason, I can download a video from the Internet about listening comprehension. I can find exercises about phonetics, pronunciation exercises for speaking skills. I can make students repeat them; for this reason, I will absolutely utilize the Internet, there are many websites available for test preparation, they help to prepare tests, they consist of different exercises, I want to use them.” (Çile)

“In my opinion, Internet can be used efficiently in order to teach students German culture, apart from the language.”(Murat)

One of the main points concluded from the views of teacher candidates is the teacher candidates’ will to integrate the Internet in their teaching experiences in accordance with his/her purpose and necessity. Some of them want to follow the current events, make use of the exercises and enhance them, or they want to rearrange the present materials, etc. Another point that should be emphasized is that teacher candidates of German Language combine the knowledge they get from the Internet with their knowledge and education strategies. In other words, they enhance the present one and try to make adaptations. It can be interpreted that this view and targets with education and technology (Internet) influence each other in a positive and an encouraging way.

Another interesting situation is that the findings and the responses of the second question ‘the advantages of Internet usage in German language Teaching’ share similar conclusions. In the responses of both questions, the importance of listening comprehension and pronunciation are stressed. In accordance with this discourse, the significance of visuality, authentic language, resources and exercises related to these factors can be inferred.

The theme ‘Professional development’ takes place in the second theme ‘the views of teacher candidates towards their purposes for using the Internet in their teaching experiences’ with seven views. The views of teacher candidates about ‘professional development’ show variation. The common finding of the views is that both Internet and teaching profession develop consistently or should be developed and the necessity of following current events. Internet plays an important role in teaching profession as it is

71


stated by the teacher candidates of German Language. The views about this theme are as follows:

“…in my opinion, the teacher should always keep up with the innovations about his/her field and profession. For this reason, Internet is an inevitable term.”(Livan)

“I will certainly use the Internet. I don’t think that a teacher can keep up with the innovations without the Internet; how can one know that there is a conference organized by teachers of German Language in Ankara, that is s/he can learn this from the Internet easily. S/he can follow the forums or meet many teachers, Internet enables the teachers to find everything more easily.. …”(Çile)

“It will be useful for the teacher not only in terms of performing his/her profession, but also carrying out professional responsibilities. For example; finding a sample lesson plan or yearly unit plan, etc. Or, I think learning about remerging features of developments about German Language and teaching profession will be very useful.”(Ahmet)

Teaching profession is a development process at the same time. ‘Professional Development’ plays an important role within the scope of ICT as indicated by the teacher candidates of German Language. The importance of the Internet is emphasized in terms of not only being an access to information content or resource in teaching experience, but also keeping up with the current events of the profession, being informed about the innovations and providing the continuation of interaction among teachers.

Conclusions and Recommendations

In this study, the views of German Language teacher candidates about the use of Internet with the aim of learning were examined. It has been seen that ICT are significant in German Language Teaching Education. In accordance with the findings obtained from the German Language teacher candidates, it has been seen that especially Internet should be used and it is a benefit in the education. This need and benefit regarding the use of Internet has been summarized by the teacher candidates as:” source variety, access to information, education support, professional development, visual variety, access to authentic auditory and visual materials relating to German Language and culture”. These aware-views of teacher candidates are related to their being senior students as well. Because these students have a certain knowledge and experience via theoretical and practical courses they had throughout their education. The presentations carried out by the teacher candidates have also improved their experiences about information and education technology and also their knowledge in this process. Stated results of the study are such as Gündüz & Odabaşı’s view on teacher candidates’ and teachers’ use of information and communication technology (Gündüz & Odabaşı 2002). Ekiz et.al. presents his ideas about the internet and its role in education: “It is a truth that; in terms of presenting variety, presenting speed, presenting capacity of information and similar facilities, Internet is better than other equipments” (Ekiz, Bayam & Ünal, 2003, p.665). Data collection, sharing ideas through dynamic windows,

72


literature review from web based data and electronic journals are some of the use of Internet areas with the aim of learning.

All teacher candidates participating in interview in this study think that they will integrate the Internet into their teaching profession and also they believe that Internet will be a support for goal-directed education. This conclusion is similar to the proposal in the study carried out by Ünal (2004) “education should be supported with computer and Internet.” At his study; use of Internet by teacher candidates, Oral states that; use of Internet with the aim of research and doing homework shows teacher candidates’ comprehension of Internet as a need. This result of the study can be accepted as a significant development in terms of widening use of Internet with the aim of learning and providing lifelong learning(Oral 2004).

It has also been seen in the interviews that German Language teacher candidates are aware that education period has a dynamic process. As a conclusion, it is seen that German Language teacher candidates attach importance to student-centered education according to the aims and needs when we evaluate the answers they have given in the interview. ICT plays an important role especially in German Language Education and also in the professional improvement. In this context, the role of the ICT in teacher training and its importance and its contribution to professional development has been also stated at the study of Kangro&Kangro (2004), Jung (2000) and Murphy & Greenwood (1998).

Foreign Language Education is a process that is relative to many factors. “The Foreign Language which reflects the reality we have experience different from out mother tongue opens the doors of a new way of thinking for us…” (Sayın, 2002:18-19). A conclusion we have with this study is that Internet is an important tool and source for the skills of listening and speaking in German Language, improving pronunciation and finding authentic cultural items. As Koszumi (2003) stated, there are no longer boundaries between countries, classroom settings ant the real world with the use of Internet in Foreign Language education.

As a visual-auditory technological tool, Internet has improved listening and speaking skills. It is another result of this study that Internet supports individual learning greatly. By this process, ‘self-directed learning’ and ‘permanence of information’ have been achieved. “In developing cultural awareness in the classroom it is important that we help our students distinguish between the cultural norms, beliefs, or habits of the majority within the speech community and the individual or group deviations from some of these norms. Students should be enabled to discuss their native culture with their native speaker friends at the same time that they are provided with a real experiential content” (Çakır, 2006:157). Students have experienced personally these authentic activities and also they are able to compare the cultures through Internet which supplies them with authentic listening, visual access to German Language and Culture.

With the help of the mentioned conclusions the following continuing attempts can be continued as alternatives to this subject area:

How can students use the Internet more deliberately for the teaching process and learning process in the German teacher training? For an actual foreign linguistic learning process with the support by the Internet or www or other information technology and communication technology it is elementary that also the teachers

73


with this area are familiar. Hence, does the question also position itself in this connection, how can teachers develop for these information technologies?

How can the Internet or www actually be used for students of the German teacher training as an education and advanced training for German, culture and cross-cultural communication? Not many students of the German teacher training in the world have the possibility to study further in a German-speaking country, to make a period of practical training or to practice their profession there.

Which alternatives are to use informative and communicative technologies in the curriculum of the German teacher training which not only on the acquisition of foreign-language skills, language or culture are aimed. With all up to now hired considerations the abilities acquired in the education and knowledge must be developed in the professional life continuously.

References

Akçamete, G. (2009). Eğitim bilimleri bakış açısıyla eğitim fakültelerinde lisans ve lisansüstü eğitimin irdelenmesi. Açılış Konuşması, Ankara Üniversitesi Eğitim Bilimleri Fakültesi Yayınları, 207, 3-10.

Boldt, D. J., Gustafson, L. V., & Johnson, J. E. (1995). The Internet: A curriculum warehouse for social studies teachers, Social Studies, 86, 105-116.

Bourdeau, L., Chebat,J. & Couturie,C. (2002). Internet consumer value of university students: E-mail-vs. Web users. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 9( 2), 61-69.

Cangil, B. E. (2004). Küreselleşme ve Avrupa Birliği yabancı dil eğitim politikaları ışığında 2000’li yıllarda Türkiye’de yabancı dil öğretmeni yetiştirme politikalarına bir bakış [An investigation into foreign language teacher training policies in Turkey, in 2000 years in respect to globalization and European Union foreign language teaching policies]. Journal of Hasan Ali Yücel Faculty of Education, 1, 123-132.

Çakır, İ. (2006). Developing cultural awareness in foreign language teaching. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE, 7(3), 154-161.

Çuhadar C., & Kuzu A. (2006). Öğretim ve sosyal etkileşim amaçli blog kullanimina yönelik öğrenci görüşleri [Views of pre-service teachers on blog use for instruction and social interaction]. Proceedings of the 6th. International Educational Technoloy Conference, KKTC, 481-492.

Ekiz, H., Yavuz B.,& Ünal,H.(2003). Mantık devreleri dersine yönelik internet destekli uzaktan eğitim uygulaması [Logic circuits toward Internet based distance education applications]. Third International Education Technologies Symposium, KKTC, 665-672.

Europarat (2001). Gemeinsamer europäischer refernzrahmen für Sprachen: Lernen, lehren,beurteilen [Common European Framework]. Übersetzt von Quetz, J. u. a. München, Wien, Zürich, New York: Langenscheidt.

Gündüz, Ş., & Odabaşı, F. (2004): The Importance of instructional technologies and material development course at pre-service teacher education in information age. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology-TOJET, 3(1), 43-48.

İşman, A, İşbulan, O., Demir, Z., & Canan, O., (2008). Eğitim fakültesinde öğrenim gören öğretmen adaylarının internet kullanma bariyerleri [Barriers to using Internet for

74


teacher candidates in faculty of education]. Proceedings of the 8th. International Educational Technology Conference, Turkey, 152-157.

İşman, A., & Dabaj, F. (2004). Attitudes of students towards Internet. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE, 5(4).

Jung, I. (2000). Singapore: Pre-service teacher training in technology use. TechKnowLogia, November/December, 37-38. Retrieved December 12, 2008 from http://www.TechKnowLogia.org

Jones, N., & Peachey, P. (2005). The development of socialization in an on-line learning environment. The Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 3(3).

Kangro, A., & Kangro,I. (2004): Integration of ICT in teacher education and different school subjects in Latvia, Educational Media International, 41(1),31-37

Kaptı, Ü. (2008). Alman Dili Eğitiminde sözcük öğretimi amaciyla web sayfalarinin kullanimi [The usage of websites in german language education for vocabulary teaching]. Proceedings of the 8th. International Educational Technology Conference, Turkey, 1226-1228.

Kartal, E. (2005). Bilişim-iletişim teknolojileri ve dil öğretim endüstrisi [Information-communication technologies and language teaching industry]. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology-TOJET, 4(4), 82-87.

Kartal, G, Yıldız, S., & İnelmen, E. (2005). Bilişim teknolojilerinin yüksek öğretimde kullanimi: BT destekli bir öğretim modeli [The Use Of Information Technologies In Higher Education: A IT supported teaching model]. Proceedings of the 5th. Akademik Bilişim Konferansı,Turkey. Retrieved February 20, 2009 from http://ab.org.tr/ab05/tammetin/114.doc

Koszumi, S. (2003). Deutschlehrerausbildung in der informations- und kommunikations technologischen Landschaft. [German teacher in the information and communication technology landscape]. Retrieved Januar, 2009 from www . web.hc.keio.ac.jp/ ~skazumi/03sendai.pdf

Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook. Second Edition. California: Sage Publications.

MEB ( 2011). www.otmg.meb.gov.tr accessed January 15, 2011Murphy, C., & Grennwood, L. (1998): effective integration of information and

communications technology in teacher education. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 7(3),413-429.

Niemz,K., Griffiths,M.& Banyard,P. (2005). prevalence of pathological ınternet use among university students and correlations with self-esteem, the general health questionnaire (GHQ), and disinhibition. Cyber Psychology & Behavior. 8(6), 562-570

Oral, B. (2004).The ınternet usage of teachers candidates. XIII. Ulusal Eğitim Bilimleri Kurultayı, 6-9 Temmuz 2004İnönü Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, Malatya. Retrieved Januar 12, 2010 from www.pegema.net/dosya/dokuman/318.pdf

Perry,T., Perry,L., & Hosack-Curlin. (1998). Internet use by university students: an interdisciplinary study on three campuses. Internet Research, 8( 2), 136-141.

Polat T. (2003). Globalisierung und mehrsprachigkeit. Zwei seiten einer medaille. [Globalization and multilingualism. Two sides of a coin]. In Gübdoğdu Mehmet & Ülkü Candan (Eds.), Germanistische Untersuchung aus türkischer Perspektive, Shaker, 169-176.

Rıza, E. T. (2000). Eğitim teknolojisi uygulamaları ve material geliştirme [Educational technologies applications and material development]. İzmir: Anadolu Matbaası.

Saeed,H., Asghar,M., Anwar,M., & Ramzan,M.(2000). Internet use in university libraries of Pakistan, Online Information Review, 24(2)154-160.

75

http://www.pegema.net/dosya/dokuman/318.pdf

http://www.otmg.meb.gov.tr/

http://www.web.hc.keio.ac.jp/%20~skazumi/03sendai.pdf

http://ab.org.tr/ab05/tammetin/114.doc

http://www.TechKnowLogia.org/


Sayın, Ş. (2002). Yabancı dille eğitim ve almancanın Önemi [The importance of German and education through foreign language], İstanbul Erkek Liseliler Eğitim Vakfı- IELEV, İstanbul.

Schrofer, M. (2007). die schule der zukunft–connecdet schools, key acount manager higher education. Cisco Switzerland, (Retrieved December 05, 2008 from http://www.infosocietydays.ch/ ResourceImage.aspx?raid=11144

Şimşek, N. (2004). Yapılandırmacı öğrenme ve öğretime eleştirel bir yaklaşım [A critical approach to constructive learning and instruction], Eğitim Bilimleri ve Uygulama, 3(5), 115-139.

Tapan N. (2004). Überlegungen zur realisierung eines mehrsprachigen ausbildungskonzepts im türkischen schulwesen [Considerations for implementing a multi-lingual training concept in the Turkish school system]. Interkulturelle Begegnungen, Festschrift für Şara Sayın, Würzburg,303-316.

Topkaya, I. (2007). Hareket beden eğitimi ve spor öğretiminde öğrenme ve öğretimin temelleri [The basics of learning and teaching in physical sciences and sports education], Nobel Yayınları, Ankara.

UNESCO (2002). Information and communication in teacher education, a planning guide. Division of Higher Education, Unesco

Ünal, D. P (2004). Öğrenme ve uygulama örnekleri [Learning and application examples]. Proceedings of the 4th. International Educational Technology Conference, Turkey, 174-178.

Yıldırım, A., & Simşek, H. (2006). Sosyal bilimlerde nitel araştırma yöntemleri [Qulitative research methods in social sciences]. Seçkin Yayıncılık, Ankara.

Yücel, M. S. (2000). Curriculare planung und curriculum revision im hinblick auf die neuesten entwicklungen der deutschlehrerausbildung in der Türkei. Woher?-Wohin? [Curriculum planning and curriculum revision in view of the latest developments in German teacher education in Turkey. From Where? - To Where? ]. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Universität Istanbul, Turkey.

Yücel, M. S. (2008). Bedarf, Fähigkeiten und Erwartung von Studierenden der erziehungswissenschaftlichen Fakultät am Beispiel der Universität Trakya [ Needs, capabilities and expectations of students of educational science faculty at the University of Trakya ] Trakya University Journal of Social Science, 10(1), 122-155.

76

http://www.infosocietydays.ch/%20ResourceImage.aspx?raid=11144


Socio-economic Affects of Floods on Female Teachers in Jampur (Pakistan)

Muhammad Ayub BuzdarThe Islamia University of

Bahawalpur , [email protected]

Akhtar AliThe Islamia University of

Bahawalpur , [email protected]

Abstract

Women are major affected segment of society in any disaster in under developed countries. Floods of 2010, in Pakistan, affected more than 17 million people. Ultimately, it created several social, psychological and financial problems for affected females. The current paper aimed to study the socio-economic affects of floods on female teachers of private schools in tehsil headquarters Jampur. There were sixty two registered and non-registered private schools in the city in which five hundreds and seventy nine female teachers were working. Eight schools were selected as cluster to collect the data. Totally sample was comprised fifty eight female teachers. Semi structure interview and focus group discussion techniques were used to gather the data. Collected data were analyzed use thematic analysis approach. Findings indicated that female school teachers working in private school of city Jampur were badly affected in floods 2010. They had to face several social and financial problems. There was much space to improve relief and aid activities in the affected areas. Separate health facilities for women were also needed. The paper recommends better planning and its transparent and fair implementations in next rainy season.

Keywords: Social behaviors; religiosity; professional issues

Introduction

Floods of 2010 have created huge problems for the people of affected areas of the country. The World Bank estimated some 17.6 million have been affected by this disaster (Independent Evaluation Group, 2010). Damage of crops, roads, housings and other infrastructure is estimated more than $6.5 billion. Health problems including the spread of water-borne diseases have made the life challenge for the people of affected areas. Defra (2004) evaluated health impacts on flood affected people of England and Wales and found the existence of stress and other psychological difficulties among them. The study of Defra also concluded that these problems are correlated with the income of affected people. The situation in Pakistan is more inferior where majority people are already experiencing low income and poor life standards (Government of Pakistan, 2009).

Devastating floods have badly disrupted the lives of affected people working in different spheres. United Nations’ Development Fund for Women (2010) in one of their need assessment studies discloses various problems of women in flood affected areas. Government of Pakistan, international and national non-government organizations

77




(NGOs), and local groups initiated relief and recovery activities in the areas. Consequently the problems of affected people decreased but it is not possible to cover all damages in such a short time. The current study is to explore the social and economic situation of low income women working as private school teachers in Jampur, a city badly affected from the 2010 floods.

Research Questions

Women are the more deprived segment of the society especially in flood affected areas they are suffered very much. A large number of educated women are working in private schools at low salaries; consequently their problems are more than women from influent families and/or working at sufficient salaries. Major objective of the current study is to explore the socio-economic affects of floods on these women. It tried to answer following research questions.

1. What is the difference between before and after floods monthly incomes of female private school teachers of Jampur city?

2. What are social and economic problems of the teachers after floods?3. How much the teachers are prepared to face next rainy season?

Research Methodology

Research objective and questions demanded for deep understanding of the issue with comprehensive investigation of the impacts of flood on female private primary school teachers. Creswell (2003) and Bernard (2000) recommend qualitative method of inquiry to achieve such type of purposes when the task is to investigate the behaviors rather than count down. So considering the study a qualitative inquiry semi-structured interview was conducted from the samples.

Sample

Jampur city have the population of four lakh, second large city of district Rajanpur. The city was badly affected by floods of 2010. Flood water entered the city destructing public and private infrastructure. The city has sixty two registered and non-registered private schools in which five hundreds and seventy nine women are working as teachers. Eight private schools were selected using cluster random sampling techniques in which one school was of high level, one of middle level and six schools were of primary level. All the female teachers working in sample schools were approached to collect data. It comprised the sample fifty eight female school teachers working in private schools of Jampur city. Qualifications of women teachers were ranged from F.Sc. to M.A. B.Ed. however majority had only B.A. degree without any professional degree. Mean age of sample teachers was 24 years which ranged from twenty to twenty seven years. Twenty five percent of respondents were married. Eighty percent of respondents was living in joint family system. Mean of their teaching duration in private schools was twenty seven months which was ranged from three months to forty eight months.

InstrumentsSemi structured interviews were conducted to collected data from each teacher. A focus group discussion was also conducting in each sample school after individual interviews. Focus of the interviews were to collect data regarding teachers’ qualifications, monthly

78


incomes, their residents, social relationships, economic issues, damages of assets and relief/assistance activities. In focus group discussions social and economic impacts of floods, relief activities, and future strategies were discussed. Data Collection

The researcher personally visited the sample schools and met the female teachers. To enhance the richness and accuracy of the findings, the respondents were described the research objectives and ensured the confidentialities of the gathered data. Boundaries of the data were defined and confined only to search the answers of the research questions. Data was collected in three stages. In first stage data regarding numbers of registered private schools in the city was gathered from the office Executive District Officer (Education) Rajanpur. Previous studies concerning impacts of floods on women population especially in Pakistani perspective were reviewed in second stage, and the third stage consisted of interviewing of participants and focus group discussions. Semi-structured interview technique was used to collect required data. Consent to use audio tape recorder was sought from the participants. It was intended that each interview did not take more than 15 minutes. After the interviews female school teachers of the school were requested to participate in focus group discussion. It was tried that focus group discussion did not take more than 40 minutes. One discussion was arranged in each school. Totally eight focus group discussions were conducted. Participation of the female teachers in the discussions was ninety one percent.

Validity & Reliability

In qualitative research trustworthiness of collection and analysis of the data is considered as traditional validity and reliability of the quantitative method of research. Richards (2005) and Silverman (2001) have demonstrated the measures to meet the issues of validity and reliability in qualitative research. In present study, different steps were adapted in this regard. Initially formal consent was sought from all participants before interviewing. Confidentiality was assured to all participants and acquired data was only used for research purpose and dealt as confidential document. Use of triangulation is best, according to Patton (2002), to meet trustworthiness, neutrality, credibility, and consistency features of a research. For this regard, two data sources (interviews and focus group discussions) were used in the study to draw a single picture and increase trustworthiness of the study. It was maintained that the data was appropriate and was appropriately handled. Richards (2005) described two rules to meet this requirement. Firstly, specific way of checking was designed, which checked consistently how the data and handling of the data were supportive to answer the research questions. Secondly, researcher’s ability was ensured to count each step of the research properly.

Delimitations of the Study

The major limitation of the study was generalizability of its conclusions. Emerging themes from the research accept the relevancy with only the contexts of Jampur city. Female school teachers are working in both public and private sectors. However, low salaries and lack of service structure for teachers working in private sector made them more vulnerable. Viewing this, boundaries of the current study were limited to the exploration of socio-economic impacts of floods only on female private school teachers. Participants,

79


selected using two-stage sample technique, were strong point for the study to get relevant and significant data. It was ensured to collect data from every member of the randomly selected cluster.

Data Analysis

Data gathered through interviews and focused group discussions were written in transcripts. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis approach. Fraenkel and Wallen (2007) suggests thematic analysis for qualitative inquiry to focus on both explicit and implicit concepts available in the data. Different themes were derived from the data and were categorized. It provided opportunity to create association among different opinions and interpret the data according to local context. Conclusions were drawn and verified looking the answers of research questions. Finally recommendations were provided to reduce the socio-economic affects of such disasters on low income women.

Findings

Data collecting through interviews and focus group discussion were written in transcripts and following themes were derived.

Joint Family System

It is found that more than eighty percent of respondents were living in joint family system. The joint family system is a preferred system of living in the affected districts of Punjab. The system has both merits and demerits. It is supportive in case of disasters. Female teachers of private schools revealed that their joint family system provided them sense of security when they were displaced. “When we were in a relief camp, a 25 years unmarried teacher described, major problem with us was insecurity. I found myself helpless and hopeless but my parents, brother, uncle and other family members realized me that I am not alone in this situation. They all are to support me and protect me.” Such things also created affection and sense of unity among the family members. Majority of respondents supported the idea of harmony and unity among family members during and after the days of floods. In contrast, few numbers of the teachers (less than eight percent) argued that floods created disputes and problems in their family relationships. Opinions regarding the behaviors of city fellows were also disappointing. A 27 years old married teacher explained that during the flood days every person was in effort to protect his own house and property even at the cost of other people’s loss. These situations created disputes and violence in many places.

Social Behaviors

Generally, female teachers working in private schools belong to middle class. According to majority opinions they faced the disaster collectively at family level whereas they revealed huge concerns about social behaviors of out of family persons i.e. neighbors, city fellows etc. People conducted, according to their opinions, negatively in many cases. Transporters increased fares when people were in emergency for leaving the city. House rents were also gigantically increased in nearly secure areas. Raise in prices hit all the

80


basic requirements. Theft, robbery, harassment and kidnapping also became common in affected areas. These all factors consolidated the opinion of respondents that floods exposed many negative social behaviors of the people. “n some cases, a 25 years married respondent disclosed, disputes over the conversion of flood water flow became worst. Affluent and influential persons tried to convert the water flow from their housings and agriculture lands.” According to majority of respondents, in such cases the role of administration was significantly weak.

But at the same time there were some voices, though not in majority, in favor of positive social behaviors. In focus group discussions female private school teachers admitted that some of their city fellows individually and in groups performed reasonably good job. Positive social behaviors like help, sacrifice, relief, and assistance was also found in society in the days of floods. In some cases people also showed positive and acceptable social behaviors but the numbers of such people remained significantly low. Twenty seven percent female private school teachers accept that they are still in depression. According to their point of view floods have affected their entire lives and created several psychological and social problems for them.

Family Economics

It is found that majority female private school teaches belonged to middle class. Mean score of their salaries was PKR 3225 per month which ranged from two thousands to four thousands and five hundreds per month. Only twelve percent of respondents described that their husbands or other family members are in government job. Majority told that their family members were involved in small private businesses whereas only few private female teachers were from peasant families. Mean score of family incomes was PKR 27745 which ranged from fifteen thousands to forty seven thousands. It showed that remuneration is an important motive of job for female private school teachers in affected areas. Thirty percent of the respondents disclosed that the affects of floods compelled them to search and join job. All the respondents whose families were involved in business and agriculture revealed severe affects on their monthly incomes. A respondent told “cloth store was a sole source of income for my family before floods but the floods destroyed our shop. Now my two brothers are also working at private jobs for earning like me”. Data revealed a reduction in family incomes of respondents from quarter to half of their total monthly income before floods. Displacement and return increased the daily expenditures of affected population. The teachers told that it was difficult for them and their families to resettle easily. Houses and other buildings needed immediate reconstruction or repairing. Money was also needed to restart the businesses. Findings revealed that the floods badly disturb the family economic of all female private school teachers working in affected areas.

Professional Issues

Displacement of population and damage of assets put impacts on professional lives of female private school teachers. There are no service rules for private teachers. All the respondents loosed their two month salary due to closure of schools in flood season. According to the teachers’ opinions, in some cases, problems emerged in rejoining after floods. As financial crises hit the affected areas, the numbers of job seeking candidates suddenly increased after floods. Many people who were, earlier, not interested now came out for the search of job which affected job market in the affected areas. Financial

81


constraints and migration of population decreased school enrollment and attendance which also affected teachers’ remunerations. A small but significant proportion of the respondents indicated toward a tension between school owners and the teachers. School owners were also financially affected from the floods. Their current conduct was different and new for the employees. It created problems in professional lives of the teachers at the time when they were expecting more coordination than past from the owner side.

More than twenty percent respondents revealed that they were part time students. Their studies were badly affected due to floods. “I could not present in university exams which caused the loss of one year for her studies” a 22 years old unmarried teacher told. Another teacher, according to her opinion, missed her CCA exams. It established the viewpoint that loss of time disturbed the social and economic lives of the female private school teachers.

Relief and Aid Activities

The opinions regarding relief and aid activities were mixed. More than ninety percent female private school teachers accepted that their families received “Watan Card” (an ATM card issued by Pakistani government. The government claimed to pay one lakh rupees to each affected family through these cards but still (August, 2011) twenty thousands have been paid as first installment through each card). Ten percent of respondents revealed that they received commonly used goods and flour of approximately three thousands Pakistani Rupees. Majority respondents complained that the delivery system of relief goods like flour, blankets, tents, food items, water was not transparent. They disclosed that, generally, local representatives of political parties used to oblige their workers and supporters. Delivery points of different national and international NGOs were also overcrowded and filled with habitual persons (the persons who used to collect relief goods on daily basis more than their requirements). A small proportion of respondents told that they and their families were not willing to get assistance and aid however according to majority of female teachers they were not in position to go relief camps for collecting aid. Social pressures and fear of losing family and personal prestige stopped majority of middle class to be part of crowd at relief camps. Married female teachers of private schools also described their problems regarding health facilities for women in the affected areas. Lack of maternity homes and separate medical camps, according to majority opinions, created problems for them.

Religiosity Factor

Floods have enhanced the religiosity affiliation of the persons. Female private school teachers were divided on the issue that, according to their opinion, whether the floods were test from God or wrath. Majority of them declared the floods a test from God however more than twenty percent described the floods wrath from God. However a consensus developed on the issue that floods caused to increase religiosity among the affected people. The teachers accepted that floods have made them and their family members more religious. When they were asked to describe the dimensions of religiosity which they felt were increased. The majority indicated toward an enhanced spiritual attachment with God. “I feel, according to an unmarried female private school teacher of 21 years age, an association with God which results in consistency in daily prayers and

82


performing other religious obligations.” Majority of the teachers also accepted that emerging religiosity factor guided them to refine their social behaviors. A teacher told that her conduct with her subordinates was softer than before floods. Similar opinion was also described by a female school head teacher when she said “now I am in position to understand the problems of my colleagues and supporting staff which makes my behavior softer and more cooperative than past.”

Precautions for Future

All female teachers of private schools showed concerns about their future. A fear is found among all the interviewees. The teachers were agreed that if it will be danger of floods again, they will pre-plan their activities. They will leave homes earlier and try to shift their families to secure places before the flood hit. They will try to enhance cooperation and coordination with their neighbors and city fellows. A significant segment of the respondents opined that next time, if it happened again, they will spend their potentials to facilitate affected and deserving persons. Another opinion was in favor of storing required things. Majority of respondents supported this opinion that in future they will maintain their savings for emergency time. All teachers were of opinion that government should take measures to protect the city from another disaster. Recommendations for better and transparent planning and implementation were also emerged in the data. The respondents claimed that till now no international or national organization working for women betterment contacted them or their institution. The interviewees also urged on the need of separate health facilities for women especially to cater pregnancy and maternity requirements of affected women.

Conclusion

It is concluded that floods have affected social and economic aspects of female teachers working in private schools of a badly affected city of Southern Punjab - Jampur. It was found that majority of the teachers belonged to middle class families. Their family finance already was not reasonable sound. Floods brought bundle of problems for them. They had to leave their homes and city. Shifting at new place might create the challenge of security especially for females but the joint family system provided a sense of security and safety to them. Jampur city is located in the Southern Punjab where people’s affiliations with their families and tribes are stronger than other urban areas of the country. Sense of family developed the idea of unity among the family members in majority cases except only few where interfamily disputes were reported by the respondents. However disputes among the families were very high. The teachers told about various negative social behaviors like selfishness, fraud, greed, theft, robbery which they observed in their out of family social relationships.

The female teachers working in private schools expressed that the floods caused to enhance their religious affiliations. The indicators of this change, described by the interviewees, were consistency of five prayers, extra time consumptions on recitation of Holy Quran and other religious activities as well as an enhanced fear of God. The teachers further explored that these new feelings of religiosity and association with God have changed their social life pattern. Consequently the conducts of the female teachers with their colleagues and subordinates were molded. Teachers’ viewpoints for future second this notion. Significant numbers of teachers admitted that if such disaster hit again they will spend their abilities to facilitate their surrounding population more effectively.

83


Relief and aid activities, according to respondents’ opinions, remained continue for long time. But the share of female teachers or their families of receiving relief goods like flour, blankets, tents, were reasonably small. Relief camps were hijacked by the professional beggars and habitual collectors of aid and relief goods. It was not possible for educated women, according to the teachers’ point of view, to wait hours on relief camps for collecting aid. The only thing that was received by families of dominate majority of the teachers were “Watan Cards”. There was no special support announced by the federal or provincial governments for low income women of the affected areas. The female private school teachers whose income was between two thousand to forty five hundreds suffered very much in this disaster. They, individually, received no aid from the government and the institutions where they were working. The role of women organizations was also pathetic. Despite it was easy to access the respondents; no organization working for women welfare approached any interviewee and their institutions. It can be assumed that the situation in far remote areas would be worse.

Another issue that is correlated with the social and economic life of the female private school teachers is their professional life. Floods’ affects disturbed the teachers’ professional lives. They leaved the city approximately for two months. Schools were closed and studies of students badly distressed. Small number of teachers missed their university exams. All the teachers could not receive their two months salaries. Displacement increased their personal and family expenditures. High prices and damage of houses and other properties made the situation challenge for the female teachers having low income. Consequently they faced problems in their economic and social lives.

Precautions described by the female private school teachers for the situation if the disaster occurred again showed their maturity and civilized behaviors. The majority urged to timely plan the things. Need to store the daily require things was also inferred from their discussions. The passion to help their fellows and needy persons showed the teachers’ commitment to fight against the emergencies. Since huge majority of the teachers could not get any relief and aid from relief camps, their demand for a fair and respectable system of giving aid and relief to affected persons was also justified. Special health and care facilities for women are also important. There are areas in Pakistan where women are bound in different religious and cultural taboos and their free mobility is prevented in the society. Disasters and displacements multiply the problems of women of such areas. Married teachers told about lack of health facilities and maternity homes. These issues directly affected personal, social and economic aspects of the lives of affected teachers.

Recommendations

The paper recommends special measures to ease the socio-economic affects of floods on female private school teachers working in the Jampur city. The important and essential step is to expand the role of organizations working for women welfare. The organizations should plan to approach all tiers of women including low income and private job holders to lessen the affects of floods on their social and economic lives. Similarly proper health facilities and maternity services are the rights of women. It should be ensured. Relief and aid activities should be arranged in view of women separate role in society. In the areas where women are prohibited to mix up in the males separate relief camps and aid delivery points are necessary for them. Financial assistance for low income women is

84


mandatory. Females working in private organizations like schools have no service rules and privileges. Government should try to provide financial help to these women. Though joint family system provided majority of respondents a sense of security however there are complaints of theft, robbery, kidnapping and harassment. Law enforcement agencies should work to scrub out these crimes. Many teachers who were part time students missed their exams. It is necessary to provide them special chance to reappear in their examinations. It is reported by the teachers that in many cases their social relationships were disturbed. Female school teachers are educated. They should provide social and psychological guidance to alleviate family and social disputes and clashes.

References

Bernard, H. R. (2000). Social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mix method approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Defra, (2004). The appraisal of human-related intangible impacts of flooding. London: Defra Flood Management Division.

Fraenkel, J. R., & Wallen, N. E. (2007). How to design and evaluate research in education. New York: McGraw Hill.

Government of Pakistan, (2009). Pakistan social and life standards measurement (PSLM) survey (2007-08). Islamabad: Federal Bureau of Statistics.

Independent Evaluation Group, (2010). Response to Pakistan’s floods: Evaluative lessons and opportunity. Washington: The World Bank.

Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative evaluation and research methods (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Richards, D. (2005). Handling qualitative data: a practical guide. London: Sage Publications.

Silverman, D. (2001). Interpreting qualitative data: methods for analyzing talk, text, and interaction (2nd Ed.). London: Sage Publications.

United Nations’ Development Fund for Women, (2010). Rapid gender need assessment of flood affected communities. Retrieved February 12, 2011 from http://www.unifem.org/attachments/products/PakistanFloods2010_RapidGenderNeedsAssessment_en.pdf

85

http://www.unifem.org/attachments/products/PakistanFloods2010_RapidGenderNeedsAssessment_en.pdf

http://www.unifem.org/attachments/products/PakistanFloods2010_RapidGenderNeedsAssessment_en.pdf


Sources of Foreign Language Student Teacher Anxiety: A Qualitative Inquiry

Ali MerçAnadolu University, Turkey

[email protected]

Abstract

This study aimed to find out the sources of foreign language student teacher anxiety experienced by Turkish EFL student teachers throughout the teaching practicum using qualitative data collection tools. 150 student teachers completing their teaching practicum as part of their graduation requirement at Anadolu University Faculty of Education English Language Teaching Program participated in the study. The

86



research tools were diaries kept by student teachers and semi-structured interviews conducted with 30 of the participant student teachers. Constant Comparison Method was used to analyze the qualitative data. The analysis of the data revealed six main categories as the sources of foreign language student teacher anxiety: students and class profiles, classroom management, teaching procedures, being observed, mentors, and miscellaneous. Each source of foreign language student teacher anxiety is described and exemplified with extracts from student teachers’ diaries or interview records. The findings are discussed along the recent literature on foreign language student teacher anxiety. Suggestions for foreign language teacher education programs are also provided.

Keywords: Foreign language teaching anxiety: foreign language teaching: student teacher: teacher education

Introduction

Language teaching anxiety is a confrontation that must be taken into account as a different but related concept to language learning anxiety as well as general teaching anxiety. According to Shrestha (2009), language teachers should be sensitive to foreign language teaching anxiety in their classrooms so as to make their teaching ecologically sound. Horwitz (1996, p. 367) stated that “even if this anxiety had no impact on the effectiveness of the language instruction, it would seem to be a substantial detriment to the mental well-being and job satisfaction of foreign language teachers”.

A number of researchers investigated the notion of language teaching anxiety. For example, Numrich (1996) investigated anxiety as a part of problems experienced by language teachers. Analyzing the diary entries by non-native ESL teachers, the researcher put forward that teachers were feeling anxious in times of feeling insufficient for effective grammar teaching, time management in class, and giving instructions for classroom activities. Kim and Kim (2004) found that most anxiety-provoking situations for student teachers were as follows: when they have to teach English through English; when they are asked unexpected questions; when they have to teach speaking; when students are not motivated or are not interested in their English classes; when they cannot control students; when they have to teach students who have lived in English-speaking countries; when someone observes their English classes; when they teach English listening; and when they teach English culture. The sources of foreign language teaching anxiety were listed as limited English proficiency, lack of confidence, lack of knowledge about linguistics and education, insufficient class preparation, being compared to native teachers, fear of negative evaluation, and lack of teaching experience.

In a Turkish context, İpek (2007) conducted a study to device a valid and reliable instrument to measure the level of foreign language teaching anxiety experienced by Turkish EFL teachers. Data were collected from 32 nonnative teachers of English with daily kept diaries and semi-structured interviews. The analyses of the data, first, revealed six categories of sources of anxiety: making mistakes, teaching a particular language area, using the native language, teaching students at particular language levels, fear of failure, and being compared to fellow teachers. Second, the qualitative data collected led to the development of a valid and reliable scale for measuring foreign language teaching anxiety. The final version of the ‘Foreign Language Teaching Anxiety Scale’ (FLTAS) appeared as a five-point Likert-type scale with 26 items.

87


The notion of foreign language student teacher anxiety has not been clearly defined in the literature so far. Nevertheless, it has been considered as a part of foreign language teaching anxiety or general student teacher anxiety regardless of disciplines. Some of the studies dealing with student teacher anxiety consisted of English preservice teachers as well as ones from other disciplines to explain the anxiety concept in student teaching (e.g. Ngidi & Sibaya, 2003); however, no distinction has been provided for the foreign language teaching component. Similarly, as reviewed above, foreign language teaching anxiety has been the research focus of language teacher training scholars. The concept, however, has not been deeply investigated in preservice teaching settings. Although Horwitz’ (1992, 1993, cited in Horwitz, 1996) investigations related to foreign language teaching anxiety included preservice teachers as target data source, the findings were not directly addressing the situation of the foreign language student teachers.

Merç’s (2004) study on problems of preservice EFL teachers identified that anxiety was one of the most frequently reported problems of preservice teachers completing their teaching practicum at Anadolu University Faculty of Education. The sources of anxiety reported by the student teachers were: anxiety because of the previous experience, anxiety caused by a big class, anxiety caused by feeling of incompetence in teaching, anxiety caused by supervisor/being observed, anxiety due to being recorded, anxiety due to using a new teaching technique, anxiety due to using the time effectively, anxiety in the pre-active stage, anxiety of being observed by the cooperating teacher, anxiety of being unfamiliar with students, anxiety of teaching a new/different level, anxiety of using a new/different device, first-day anxiety, negative attitude of student teachers toward the class, and anxiety of not achieving the objectives.

Following Horwitz et al.’s (1986) and İpek’s (2007) models, Yuksel (2008) conducted a study to investigate the Turkish pre-service language teachers’ teaching anxiety in relation with their language learning anxiety. The study also aimed to find out the strategies for coping with teaching anxiety. 63 pre-service teachers of English answered three questionnaires: the FLCAS, the FLTAS, and an open-ended questionnaire. The quantitative analysis of the data showed that preservice English teachers were experiencing anxiety on a scale between rarely to sometimes. Teaching a particular language skill such as grammar, listening or speaking skills was found to be the highest concern to preservice teachers. The analysis also revealed that female and male pre-service teachers did not differ in terms of their level of teaching anxiety. The results also showed that foreign language learning anxiety was not correlated with the foreign language teaching anxiety.

These findings suggest that foreign language student teachers feel anxious from time to time, the reasons of which are sometimes based on the language they are teaching and their teaching skills and strategies at some other times. The nature of the student teaching with all elements of teaching practicum included (e.g. supervisors, students to be taught, peers) are also effective factors in the anxiety experienced by student teachers. As for the empirical work, the only attempt to determine the foreign language student teacher anxiety was made by El-Okda and Al-Humaidi (2003). The researchers conducted a study to investigate the relationship between the level of anxiety experienced by 55 student teachers of English at an Oman university and their language teaching self-efficacy beliefs. For the aim of the study, the researchers developed a scale to measure foreign language anxiety called ‘Foreign Language Student Teaching Anxiety Scale‘. The scale has 34 items subsumed under six dimensions with a reliability value

88


of .8779. The scale consists of the following dimensions as the factors causing foreign language student teaching anxiety: interaction with students (8 items), interaction with peers (5 items), interaction with other language teachers (5 items), interaction with supervisors (5 items), planning and written work checking (5 items), and classroom management (6 items). The study also employed a ‘Student Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale’ consisting of 30 items including four dimensions. The results of the quantitative analyses showed that student teachers of English experienced a moderate level of language teaching anxiety. Moreover, it was found that there was a statistically significant negative correlation between their level of language teaching anxiety and their perceived language-teaching efficacy. The researchers conclude that some measures be taken to alleviate the student teachers’ anxiety levels; and this responsibility is loaded to the student teachers themselves and the ones who supervise practice teaching, as Horwitz (1996) also suggested.

Based on the existing literature on foreign language student teacher anxiety, the following research question was formed:

What are the sources of anxiety experienced by student EFL teachers?

Methodology

Participants

150 student teachers from Anadolu University Faculty of Education English Language Teaching Department participated in the study. They were enrolled in the “Teaching Practicum” course as part of their graduation requirement in 2007-2008. During the teaching practicum, the student teachers are observed by the cooperating teachers each time they deliver a lesson and by the university supervisors at least two times during the practicum for the evaluation of their performance.

Data collection

Diaries: All participant student teachers were asked to keep weekly diaries in their teaching practicum. The participants submitted their diaries weekly to their university supervisors. They were also informed that the diaries they kept would be used for research purposes only, and not for evaluating their performance in teaching practice course. The diary keeping procedure took place during each teaching week of the teaching practicum, 10 times in total.

Interviews: In order to triangulate the data collection, and to provide further validation to the collected data, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 participants who were chosen randomly. The interviews were held at the end of the teaching practicum. A set of questions were prepared by the researcher to lead the conversation during the interviews. All of the interviews were audio-recorded with the permission taken from the interviewees. The participants were not informed about the aim and duration of the study until the interview was done (İpek, 2007) to avoid biased utterances during the interview. Each interview lasted between 8 to 12 minutes based on the interviewee’s stories and explanations.

89


Data Analysis Procedure

The data obtained through the diaries kept by the participant student teachers were analyzed through Constant Comparative Method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). This data analysis method offers the chance of drawing categories from the relevant data of the specific study instead of using a set categorization. Data analysis procedure started with dividing the diary entries into communication units. Inter-rater reliability was also calculated by using “point by point method” with a formula of the number of agreements divided by the number of agreements plus disagreements multiplied by 100 (Tawney & Gast, 1984). 30 % of the whole data were used to calculate the inter-rater reliability. After reaching a high level of inter-rater reliability (.90), the rest of the data were analyzed by the researcher independently. Once the whole data was divided into communication units the two raters came together and conducted revision sessions in which the newly aroused communication units and their wordings were revised and decided. Later, the two raters conducted another meeting to categorize the communication units. Here, the similar units were collected under the same categories. Each communication unit was compared and contrasted with each other, and the ones that showed similar characteristics were brought under certain categories and sub-categories as Constant Comparative Method offers. After that, each category and sub-category was named given the general characteristics of each set based on the teacher education and language teaching literature. Finally, the researcher and the co-rater consulted and conducted revision and discussion sessions to reach a final agreement on the categories drawn from the diaries by comparing and contrasting each point. Here, the categories drawn were collected under main headings that represent the source of anxiety experienced by the student teachers.

As the other data source, the semi-structured interviews that were audio-taped were transcribed by the researcher. The transcribed interviews were not taken for content analysis. However, as an important research tool, the interview results were used to provide first-hand evidence and samples from student teachers’ own words. The interviews were used to shed more light onto explanations of foreign language student teacher anxiety, and the possible increases or decreases in certain aspects of the anxiety experienced. The purpose of using interview sessions with the survey in this study was to gain a better and more in-depth understanding of the investigated phenomenon by addressing the issues that might have been overlooked if the survey had been used alone.

Findings

Analysis of the qualitative data obtained through diary entries of the participants indicated six main categories as the sources of anxiety experienced by foreign language student teachers throughout teaching practicum. The main categories as the sources of foreign language student teacher anxiety are given in Table 1.

Table 1. Sources of foreign language student teacher anxiety

90


Categories N %Students and Class Profiles 142 48,1Classroom management 58 19,7Teaching procedures 50 17,0Being observed 29 9,8Mentors 11 3,7Miscellaneous 5 1,7TOTAL 295 100,0

N= Number of Communication Units

Students and Class Profiles

Anxieties related to students in the classrooms that student teachers are supposed to deliver their lessons comprise the most frequently stated type of student teacher anxiety in the diaries. This category consists of anxieties about either individual student behavior or the class profile. An important number of students indicated in their diaries that the source of their anxiety was because of their unfamiliarity with the classes they would teach. In other words, the students were anxious about not knowing what is waiting for them in those classrooms. Although most of the diary entries on this issue were reported for the first-time of teaching –the beginning of the term, some cases were also identified even in the end of the practicum process because the student teachers were sometimes supposed to teach in classrooms that they had never delivered a lesson before the end of the practicum.

Another major concern of the student teachers related to the students is the low proficiency level of the students in the classrooms. Since they are expected to deliver their lessons in English (L2), they were quite afraid that the students would not be able to understand their speech in the classroom including their instructions, explanations, even their praises. In addition, when students’ proficiency level is low, they were anxious that they would not respond to the questions asked by the student teachers. One of the student teachers explains her fear as follows:

“I was rather anxious not only as the topic was hard and as the level of the class was low. My planning of an inductive introduction was also influential in my anxiety. I thought that they could not figure out, understand and react, that they would object to or that they could not use the rule of the structure in spite of seeming that they understood at the beginning.”

As some of the student teachers indicated in their diaries, the way student teachers approach teaching and the actual classroom teachers –the cooperating teachers- were different from each other. While cooperating teachers adopted a traditional grammar-based language teaching, the student teachers employed more communicative activities in the practicum classrooms. Although this seems something positive, it is one of the most frequent types of anxiety experienced by student teachers: the students’ unfamiliarity with the classroom activities that student teachers apply. A student teacher wrote her concerns about her students’ response during an activity:

“Before the lesson I had anxiety related to the pre-reading stage because students aren’t familiar to telling their ideas without thinking whether they are true or false . For them if they are asked questions, there is always a correct answer.”

91


As for the availability of the schools most of the student teachers were placed in state primary schools in which they were supposed to teach students from 4th to 8th grades. Especially for teaching the 4th and 5th grades (10-12 year-olds), the student teachers had the anxiety of employing strategies particular to teaching young learners English. Although the student teachers took courses in their 3rd year on how to teach English to children, their concerns did not diminish.

As one of the nation-wide problems of language teaching in state schools, students’ disinterest in English classes caused anxiety on student teachers in this study. The student teachers indicated that they were highly anxious about students’ indifference in their lessons despite all those colorful handouts, and their efforts in front of the board. They were also sorry about the students because they thought that they would easily learn with their enjoyable and communicative activities by only being interested in the lesson. This concern of the student teachers is parallel to their concerns about student participation in the lessons. Possibility of lack of participation in the classroom activities would lead to the collapse of the lesson plans prepared by the student teachers. Student teachers were experiencing the sense of fear of helplessness and loneliness in front of the whole class with a failed lesson plan in hand.

The anxiety of some of the student teachers centers on the feeling of ‘What if students cannot learn?’ This is a case expressed by the student teachers stemming from students’ learning rather than their teaching. They are concerned that students would not be able to learn despite the fact that they do everything to make them learn. A different, even a contrasting feeling represents another type of anxiety that one of the student teachers indicated in her diary: teaching a subject that students know very well. If the students had been studying the subject for a long time they could easily finish the student teacher’s activities brews the fear of being useless or unable to teach something new. Another point made by a student teacher was her fear concern about the students when they couldn’t do the activity correctly.

Dealing with students outside the box was among the anxieties of the student teachers. For example, dealing with inclusion students (almost each class has one) was a great concern for a student teacher. According to this student teacher, it is very difficult to deal with that particular student even for the classroom teacher, and she was afraid that she would fail to teach this student without any experience. Disruptive students in the classroom were also shown as the source of anxiety before student teachers delivered their lessons. The student teachers were really afraid of some of the students in the classrooms who are known for their disruptive behavior during the lessons. According to student teachers it was not their job to discipline these students; rather their job was to deliver their lessons in the specified time and specified manner. However, the existence of these students in the class was making them anxious about the possibility that they would lose the control of the class or would not give the instructions properly. What is more, the highest concern was on the idea that these disruptive students would influence other students negatively and the student teachers’ lesson would turn into failure.

Students’ reluctance to perform in certain classroom events lead to anxiety in student teachers, too. Their reluctance to write, which students view as a hard task to complete,

92


their reluctance to read, their reluctance to attend the class just because it is towards the end of the year, and their reluctance to use L2 in the class are among those concerns.

Some of the anxieties experienced by the student teachers related to the students in the classes were reported by the student teachers as having appeared in the middle of the lesson. Students’ lack of background knowledge about a subject, students’ unexpected silence, their sudden panicking due to not understanding the subject well were among those anxieties. Moreover, an unexpected question or an unexpected answer from the students made the student teachers feel helpless in the middle of the lesson. Similarly, as middle-of-the-lesson cases, the following can be counted: students’ starting a fight, some of the students’ leaving the class, students’ overreaction to classroom events, their making fun of student teacher’s mimes and gestures while a student teacher was trying to teach them through mimes and gestures, and even students’ sabotage in the lesson as a whole.

The last portion of student teacher anxieties caused by students is related to the class profiles rather than one or a few students in the classroom. One of them was the bad reputation of a class. When the student teachers were supposed to deliver a lesson in one of these classes, their anxiety was high due to the feeling that they would not be able to finish their lessons as they wished. Students’ prejudices about English and their perception of student teachers as brothers and sisters rather than teachers also affected student teachers in a negative way and caused a teaching anxiety.

Classroom Management

The analysis of the diary entries revealed that student teachers were highly anxious about classroom management issues. Maintaining discipline has the second highest frequency among the anxieties of student teachers when communication units are computed. Many of the student teachers indicated that they were concerned about maintaining discipline in the class at least once throughout the practicum in their diaries. According to them, controlling the class means almost everything in a lesson. They think even long before their teaching time about the fact that their entire lesson could collapse if they cannot establish a class control. Similarly, their concerns do not end when they start teaching. Some of the student teachers indicated that anxiety appeared during the class hour when students seemed to get out of their control.

Other components of classroom management were also the sources of anxiety for the student teachers. For example, pacing the lesson and time management were two important factors contributing to high levels of foreign language student teacher anxiety. To differentiate these two concepts, in this study, pacing the lesson is used to mean “the extent to which a lesson maintains its momentum and communicates a sense of development” (Richards & Lockhart, 1996, p. 122). Time management, on the other hand, is used to mean student teachers’ timing the classroom activities and tasks in their lesson plans before delivering a lesson. A student teacher indicated her concern about time management as follows:

“Today I had reading class for the eighth grades. I was to teach seven words before reading session. Then we had pre-reading and during-reading activities. As not all of them would finish in this lesson, I was a bit worried. I made good lesson plans; also, I decently allocated time; however, in practice I

93


cannot manage the time as I noted in my lesson plan and this situation causes anxiety a little.”

Furthermore, some student teachers indicated that that they were stressful about how to deal with the noise in the classroom. They reported that noise was an effective factor in the success of their lessons since it would break the communication between them and the students. Teaching Procedures

The analysis of the diaries also reflected that teaching procedures were an important source of foreign language student teacher anxiety. Although some of the concerns of student teachers in this category are related to general teaching procedures regardless of discipline, most of the anxieties were related to the specific issues of foreign language teaching. The most frequent anxiety in this category was student teachers’ concerns of teaching a difficult subject or teaching a subject for the first time in their teaching experience. Student teachers in this study believed that some subjects (including speaking and writing) are more difficult to teach in the classroom than others such as grammar, vocabulary, and reading. According to them, this difficulty comes from their nature. For example, students need to produce the language in speaking and writing classes as they are the two productive skills. Besides, listening is a difficult subject to teach as most of the classroom activities in language classrooms are based on grammar and vocabulary. One of the student teachers explains her concern as follows:

I was a bit anxious when I was to teach this lesson. The reason of this situation was that I thought they would have difficulty learning the adverb of time, which does not exist in their mother language. Especially, I thought that it would be difficult for me to teach the difference between “just” and “already” and when to use each. I was not wrong. They easily picked up “yet” but they were confusing “just” with “already”.

As one of the sources of anxiety related to teaching procedures was student teachers’ stress about getting students’ attention. According to many student teachers, when they are able to attract students’ attention successfully, whether their activities are informative or not, their lesson achieves the success level they desire. Therefore, they give great importance to getting students’ attention.

Furthermore, making students’ speak is a noticeable concern of student teachers. Most student teachers do not like silence in the classroom; silence means failure for them, so they try hard to make students speak. Similarly, their lesson plan requires them to get certain answers from the students so that they will be able to move to the next step. Therefore, student teachers experience the anxiety of not making students speak during the lesson. In a similar point of view, one student teacher indicates her fear of making her students bored during the class hour because bored students would mean an unsuccessful lesson. Similar concerns of student teachers on this issue are not being able to teach effectively and not being able to communicate with the students effectively. In addition to the concerns stated above, student teachers’ previous experience about teaching is a factor contributing to anxiety.

Some other classroom issues were also anxiety-provoking for the student teachers: One student teacher was concerned about using her voice effectively in the class; she thought that students would not understand her and she would not control the class if she could

94


not use her voice effectively. One of the student teachers reported experiencing stress when she had to proctor the students during a classroom test. Finally, a student teacher was anxious when she had to teach a lot of vocabulary items at the same time because she thought that students would not grasp the meaning of those words at once.

The analysis of the data suggested that inadequate preparation of the student teachers caused anxiety on them. For instance, in two of the cases, student teachers talked about the difficulty level of a classroom activity. According to them, since they did not choose the level of the activity according to the level of the students, they suffered from anxiety a lot. In another case, a student teacher was anxious about choosing an activity which could cause a problem with a specific student.

Language-related anxieties were also reported by the student teachers in three types of communication units: using L2 (English) in the classroom, modifying their language according to students’ level, and giving instructions in L2. As it is the general principle in language teaching, student teachers are supposed to deliver their lessons in L2. However, as most student teachers stated, very few of the cooperating teachers use L2 in their classrooms, which result in an expectation by the students that student teachers will also teach in L1 (Turkish).

Some personal issues related to physical well-being like being sleepy and tired on the day of practice teaching and a personality trait such as perfectionism were also among the sources of anxiety experienced by the student teachers.

Being Observed

The analysis of the student teachers’ diaries put forth that they were experiencing a high level of anxiety when they were supposed to be observed by others while teaching. Interestingly, student teachers very rarely mentioned about being observed by their cooperating teachers or by their peers (two cases and one case respectively) although the cooperating teachers and their peers were always observing their teaching and commenting on their performance. Almost all students, on the other hand, indicated in their diaries that their university supervisor’s existence caused a high level of anxiety just before the class time since supervisors visited schools unexpectedly. They indicated that even the existence of the university supervisor there, although they know him/her very well, caused great anxiety and even caused in physical reactions such as sweating, shaking hands, trembling voice, etc. The following extract from a student teacher’s experience about her stress when she was about to be observed would be enough to clarify the issue:

“I saw our instructor at the moment I entered the teacher’s room. I wanted to think it was only a joke because of the date “April 1”. I saw how my hands were trembling. I drank some water but it didn’t help. When it was their turn to write the sentences on their notebooks, these naughty boys were very reluctant and they told me really childish and even silly excuses not to copy the sentences on their notebooks. I was very anxious that I wasn’t able to cope with these boys. I tried my best but I couldn’t manage to calm down them truly.”

Mentors

95


Analysis of the data also revealed that mentors including the cooperating teachers and the university supervisors were among the sources of anxiety experienced by student teachers. Within this category, cooperating teachers’ interference in the lesson delivered by the student teachers play an important role. According to student teachers, it is a very humiliating act performed by the cooperating teachers in front of the students. These cases belong to student teacher anxieties that appear at the time of teaching rather than before-the-class feelings. A student teacher explains how she felt about being interrupted by her cooperating teacher in the middle of the lesson:

“Today it was the second time I taught this class. I can state that we have got more acquainted with each other but I happened to learn that the level of this class was lower than the other classes. Today another event has occurred. It seems that our teacher started to interfere in our teaching. In fact, the teacher’s saying what to do and what not to do disturbed me while I was teaching in front of the class.”

In addition to interference by the cooperating teachers, the student teachers reported that they were anxious when their cooperating teacher saw them as students rather than teachers, when they criticized them about their teaching techniques which are different from theirs, when they ask them to change an activity in the last minute, when they had to teach without a plan because of the cooperating teacher, and when they are too demanding.

Most of these concerns, according to the student teachers, are the results of the fact that the cooperating teachers are rather old and not innovative about language teaching methodologies and classroom procedures. In contrast to cooperating teachers’ becoming old and far from new teaching methods as a source of anxiety, one student teacher reported that she was experiencing stress because her cooperating teacher is young and knowledgeable about new trends in language teaching.

In addition to cooperating teacher effect, supervisor interference was the only anxiety-provoking situation for one student teacher as stated in the diaries.

Miscellaneous

Other teachers’ negative ideas about student teachers and students in the classrooms and some technical issues fall into this category. The results of the analysis indicated that other teachers in the practicum school were the sources of anxiety experienced by student teachers. In one case, a student teacher was anxious due to the ideas of other teachers about their role in the schools. In another case, the student teacher is stressful about teaching a class, about which she was informed by a teacher in the teachers’ room just before she entered the lesson.

Certain technical issues were also among the factors contributing to anxiety in student teachers’ teaching experiences. While one student was concerned about the teaching material in the book, another student teacher was anxious about the possibility of the situation that OHP would not work on the day of teaching. Another student, similarly, stated experiencing a sudden feeling of anxiety when she saw that the class board was not magnetic, which was an absolute must for her because she needed to attach her pictures on.

96


Discussion of the Findings

Students to be taught play one of the most evident roles in student teachers’ teaching experiences and their anxiety as our data suggest. According to the findings, student teachers experience the highest level of anxiety related to their relationship with their students at all stages of their student teaching experiences. These findings are highly correlated to similar studies conducted in different research settings. For example, Kim and Kim’s (2004) student teachers were concerned about their interaction with the students they were supposed to teach. The study also showed that there were no statistically significant differences among the three stages of the teaching practice when the effect of students to be taught as the predictor of foreign language student teacher anxiety is taken into consideration. This means that at any stage of teaching, how much experience the student teachers are supposed to have gained, their concerns continue till the end of the practicum. According to Kim and Kim (2004), student teachers may feel uneasy when they teach specific types of students: unmotivated ones, uninterested ones, the ones who lived in English-speaking countries before joining their classes. As Kim and Kim (2004, p. 176) state, “a few poorly motivated students can ruin the class atmosphere”. The student teachers cannot know when those students will be poorly motivated or highly uninterested; therefore, they worry about these possible obstacles throughout their teaching practicum. In accordance with these findings, earlier studies reached similar conclusions on this specific theme such as acceptance by the pupils (Thompson, 1963); pupil disruption levels in class (Hart, 1987); hostile comments from students and providing inadequate answers to students’ questions (Gardner & Leak, 1994); interpersonal relationships with the students (Beach & Pearson, 1998); dealing successfully with misbehaving pupils (Swennen, Jörg & Korthagen, 2004); meeting the needs of the diverse needs of the learners, violence and outside hate of the students, and lack of respect (Rieg, Paquette & Chen, 2007); and maintenance of students’ attention throughout the course and motivating the students (Çakmak, 2008).

The qualitative data analysis suggested that classroom management was an important contributing factor to foreign language student teacher anxiety. Classroom management is one of the key concepts in student teaching (Preece, 1979) or in any type of teaching experience (Emmer & Stough, 2001). According to Veenman (1984), classroom management including time management was the most frequently reported and the most serious problem among beginning teachers. Later studies found classroom management as one of the major concerns of student teachers (Kwo, 1996; Capel, 1997; Mau, 1997; Valdez, Young & Hicks, 2000; Aydın & Bahçe, 2001; Chepyator-Thomson & Liu, 2003; Merç, 2004). For instance, Çakmak’s (2008) findings on student teacher concerns merely focused on the impact of classroom management on the success of student teaching. According to Çakmak (2008), the reason for the high number of concerns in this category is the courses about classroom management, which could be revised according to the needs and expectations of the prospective teachers. Besides, Chepyator-Thomson and Liu (2003) claim that student teachers in their study gained the ability to control the classroom after spending a great deal of time in an eight-week teaching practicum. Furthermore, most student teachers in this study indicated that they were experiencing anxiety related to classroom management and time management. Murray-Harvey et al. (2000) indicate that student teachers are highly concerned with their abilities in managing the time and managing the class. Therefore, it can be assumed that student teachers might be experiencing problems related to these issues since they were highly

97


stressful and concerned about them. Similarly, Merç (2004) had identified classroom management and time management as the most frequently identified problem by the student teachers themselves. Rieg et al. (2007) also documented that student teachers were asking themselves the following crucial questions: ‘What if my lessons are too long or too short?’. Thus, it is not surprising that student teachers in this study were experiencing a high level of anxiety related to these classroom issues.

The situation can also be explained through the appropriate use of decision-making skills of student teachers. As literatures suggests, student teachers are motivated to adapt their lesson plans according to timing and classroom management in comparison with more experienced teachers (Vanci Osam & Balbay, 2004). Hence, it is not surprising that time management and classroom management are the two noticeable sources of anxiety. In addition, varied teaching contexts, such as cooperative learning or inclusion settings require effective and flexible classroom management skills (Emmer & Stough, 2001). When the nature of foreign language classrooms considered, in which learners are intensely organized in pairs and groups, it is quite normal that student teachers with limited classroom management skills suffer from higher levels of anxiety.

Analysis of the data also yielded to findings related to the role of the supervisors and the cooperating teachers. Although the supervision component is not directly taking its place in actual classroom teaching atmosphere, student teachers feel anxious about being observed by their supervisor at least once throughout their teaching practicum. Of course, a high level of anxiety of being observed by their supervisors would create pressure on the student teachers that might result in an unsuccessful lesson. In earlier studies dealing with student teachers’ concerns, it was also identified that supervisors had a key role in student teacher anxiety. Considering the nature of foreign language classrooms in which student teachers are supposed to deliver their lessons in English, it is quite probable that student teachers were anxious about making mistakes in front of their teacher, the university supervisor. However, one must note that fear of being observed may not be limited with the novice teachers and student teachers. Many experienced teachers may share their sentiment. Concerns related to cooperating teachers, on the other hand, center on the relationship of the student teachers with them. These problems, according to the findings of this study, are because of the differences between how student teachers perceive practice teaching and how cooperating teachers perceive student teachers’ roles in practicum. However, according to Murray-Harvey et al. (2000), quality of the cooperating teacher is the key element for success in the practicum. However, according to Paese (1984), cooperating teachers often do not have effective observation techniques, do not know what to observe, or which student teacher behaviors to try to change and which to try to develop further, and thus, they have a limited effect on changing student teachers’ behavior in the classroom. Similarly, high expectations of the cooperating teachers related to lesson planning and classroom management as well as ineffective modeling of the cooperating teachers are the two factors contributing to stress and failure in student teaching (Rieg et al., 2007). The cooperating teacher’s anxiety and attitude toward the profession of teaching directly manipulate the preservice teacher’s anxiety and vital attitude about the teaching job (Woolley, Woolley & Hosey, 1999). On the other hand, student teachers find observing cooperating teachers enjoyable and beneficial especially when they are given the chance to make comments on their teaching and have a chance for discussion of the classroom events, specifically occurrences related to classroom management and teaching styles (Anderson, Barksdale

98


& Hite, 2005). Therefore, when cooperating teachers are more open and flexible about discussing their own classroom applications with their student teachers, it is possible that student teachers will experience lessened levels of anxiety related to their cooperating teachers. The overall understanding of the relationship between these two sides should be, then, learning from each other rather than criticism of each other. Cooperating teachers, indeed, should see the practicum as “a genuine professional development opportunity” (Hastings, 2004, p. 146). From another perspective, the student teachers can be seen as the students of the supervisors and cooperating teachers. Thus, when the findings from language learning anxiety research, which suggest that the higher the students' evaluation of their teachers as supportive, encouraging, and understanding, the lower the students' level of anxiety in foreign language learning situations (Abu-Rabia, 2004). The negative evaluation of the supervisors and the cooperating teachers by the student teachers, then, might be an explanation for the anxiety of the student teachers stemming from their relationships with their mentors.

Conlusions and Implications for Teacher Educators

The findings of the study revealed six main categories as the sources of foreign language student teacher anxiety: students and class profiles, classroom management, teaching procedures, being observed, mentors, and miscellaneous. According to MacDonald (1992), when the concerns of student teachers are taken into consideration in a teacher education program, it is quite probable to reach a more meaningful and relevant practicum experience for student teachers. Therefore, student teachers’ emotional and affective state of mind should be taken into consideration in student teacher placement in the teaching practicum. Student teachers with similar personal characteristics might be brought together as teaching partners as a way of taking emotional and affective states of teacher candidates.

Student teachers experience anxiety when what they face in real classrooms do not correspond to or deviate from what they learn in their courses or when they cannot find the solution to the problem in their repertoire of English language teaching. Therefore, it is vital for teacher education programs to make connections between theoretical and methodological issues. The best place for this type of education is the methodology courses where student teachers are introduced to language teaching methodologies, several teaching and classroom techniques. Halbach (2000) states that it is quite important to find an appropriate teaching methodology in teacher education courses since student teachers are likely to take teacher trainers’ teaching behaviors as models for their own teaching.

Finally, teacher education programs can add a reflection component to the teaching practicum providing teacher trainees with opportunities to discuss their teaching experience what they have learnt throughout their education (Merç, 2004). Similarly, the importance of reflection as a part of teaching practicum is emphasized within the idea that when student teachers are given the opportunity to reflect on their teaching behavior, they are also given the chance to evaluate their teaching and develop their decision making skills Gebhard (1990). Student teachers’ reflecting on their practicum experiences enhances their learning since it gives them the opportunity to identify what is significant to them about their classroom experiences. Bearing all these in mind,

99


reflection can be a chance for reduced levels of anxiety and a stress-free teaching practicum.

References

Abu-Rabia, S. (2004). Teachers’ role, learners’ gender differences, and foreign language anxiety among seventh-grade students studying English as a FL. Educational Psychology, 24(5), 711-721.

Anderson, N. A., Barksdale, M. A., & Hite, C. E. (2005). Preservice teachers’ observations of cooperating teachers and peers while participating in an early field experience. Teacher Education Quarterly, 32(4), 97-117.

Aydın, B., & Bahçe, A. (2001). Cases from student teachers. Paper presented at the International ELT Conference- 2001 on "Searching for Quality in ELT" May 2-4, 2001. Eastern Mediterranean University, Gazimagusa.

Capel, S. A. (1997). Changes in students’ anxieties and concerns after their first and second teaching practices. Educational Research, 39(2), 211-228.

Chepyator-Thomson, J. R., & Liu, W. (2003). Pre-service teachers’ reflections on student teaching experiences: Lessons learned and suggestions for reform in PETE programs. Physical Educator, 60(2), 2-12.

Çakmak, M. (2008). Concerns about teaching process: Student teachers’ perspective. Educational Research Quarterly, 31(3), 57-77.

El-Okda, M., & Al-Humaidi, S. (2003). Language teaching anxiety and self-efficacy beliefs of student teachers of English. Paper presented at the 3rd National Conference of ELT in SQU, Oman.

Emmer, E. T., & Stough, L. M. (2001). Classroom management: A critical part of educational psychology, with implications for teacher education. Educational Psychologist, 36(2), 103-112.

Gardner, L. E., & Leak, G. K. (1994). Characteristics and correlates of teaching anxiety among college psychology teachers. Teaching of Psychology, 21(1), 28-32.

Gebhard, J. G. (1990). Interaction in a teaching practicum. In J. C. Richards & D. Nunan (Eds.). Second language teacher education (pp. 118-131). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine.

Halbach, A. (2000). Trainee change through teacher training: A case study in training English language teachers in Spain. Journal of Education for Teaching, 26(2), 139-146.

Hart, N. I. (1987). Student teachers’ anxieties: Four measured factors and their relationship to pupil disruption in class. Educational Research, 29(1), 12-18.

Hastings, W. (2004). Emotions and the practicum: The cooperating teachers’ perspective. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 10(2), 135-148.

Horwitz, E. K. (1996). Even teachers get the blues: Recognizing and alleviating language teachers’ feelings of foreign language anxiety. Foreign Language Annals, 29(3), 365-372.

İpek, H. (2007). Foreign language teaching anxiety. Eskişehir: T.C. Anadolu Üniversitesi Yayınları, No: 1730.

Kim, S. Y., & Kim, J. H. (2004). When the learner becomes a teacher: Foreign language teaching anxiety as an occupational hazard. English Teaching, 59(1), 165-186.

Kwo, O. (1996). Learning to teach English in Hong Kong classrooms: Patterns of reflections. In D. Freeman & J. C. Richards (Eds.). Teacher learning in language teaching (pp. 295-319). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

MacDonald, C. J. (1992). The multiplicity of factors creating stress during the teaching practicum: The student teachers’ perspective. Education, 113(1), 48-58.

100


Mau, R. (1997). Concerns of student teachers: Implications for improving the practicum. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 25(1), 53-65.

Merç, A. (2004). Reflections of pre-service EFL teachers throughout their teaching practicum. What has been good? What has gone wrong? What has changed? (Unpublished master’s thesis). Anadolu University, Eskişehir.

Murray-Harvey, R., Slee, P. T., Lawson, M. J., Silins, H., Banfield, G., & Russell, A. (2000). Under stress: The concerns and coping strategies of teacher education students. European Journal of Teacher Education, 23(1), 19-35.

Ngidi, D. P., & Sibaya, P. T. (2003). Student teacher anxieties related to practice teaching. South African Journal of Education, 23(1), 18-22.

Numrich, C. (1996). On becoming a language teacher: Insights from diary studies. TESOL Quarterly, 30(1), 131-151.

Paese, P. C. (1984). The effects of cooperating teacher interventions and a self-assessment technique on the verbal instructions of an experienced physical education teacher: A single-subject analysis. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 3(3), 51-58.

Preece, P. F. W. (1979). Student teacher anxiety and class-control problems on teaching practice: A cross-lagged panel analysis. British Educational Research Journal, 5(1), 13-19.

Rieg, S. A., Paquette, K. R., & Chen, Y. (2007). Coping with stress: An investigation of novice teachers’ stressors in the elementary classroom. Education, 128(2), 211-226.

Shrestha, P. (2009). Foreign language teaching anxiety. Nelta Choutari, April 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2010 from http://neltachoutari.pbworks.com/Prithvi+ShresthaForeign+Language+Teaching+Anxiety.

Swennen, A., Jörg, T., & Korthagen, F. (2004). Studying student teachers' concerns, combining image-based and more traditional research techniques. European Journal of Teacher Education, 2(3), 265-283.

Tawney, J. W., & Gast, D. L. (1984). Single subject research in special education. Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill Co.

Thompson, M. L. (1963). Identifying anxieties experienced by student teachers. Journal of Teacher Education, 14, 435-439.

Valdez, A., Young, B., & Hicks, S. J. (2000). Preservice teachers’ stories: Content and context. Teacher Education Quarterly, 27(1), 39-58.

Vanci Osam, U., & Balbay, S. (2004). Investigating the decision-making skills of cooperating teachers and student teachers of English in a Turkish context. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20, 745-758.

Veenman, S. (1984). Perceived problems of beginning teachers. Review of Educational Research, 54(2), 143-178.

Woolley, S. L., Woolley, A. W., & Hosey, M. (1999). Impact of student teaching on student teachers’ beliefs related to behaviorist and constructivist theories of learning. Paper presented at annual meeting of the Association of Teacher Educators, Chicago, IL, February 12-16, 1999.

Yuksel, I. (2008). Pre-service teachers’ teaching anxiety: Its reasons and coping strategies. Proceedings of the IASK international conference: Teaching and learning 2008 (pp. 335-344).

101

http://neltachoutari.pbworks.com/Prithvi+ShresthaForeign+Language+Teaching+Anxiety


The Twenty Statement Test in Teacher Development

Ahmet AypayOsmangazi University, Turkey

[email protected]

Ayşe AypayOsmangazi University, Turkey

[email protected]

Abstract

102




The purpose of this study is to describe teacher characteristics using Twenty Statements Test (TST). Study group includes a total of thirty-five individuals, including teachers, guidance and counselors and research assistants. The study used a qualitative approach on teacher identity. TST is one of the qualitative methods that were used to determine individual self-conceptualization. Study group were requested to write twenty statements that describe themselves responding to the question “Who I am?” in a free format. The findings indicated that teachers were overwhelmingly in group c (reflective). No differences were found in terms of gender and profession. Only few significant differences have been found based on marital status. The utility of TST in teacher training and development was discussed.

Keywords: Twenty statement test; teacher education; professional development; training

Introduction

Recent studies on teacher training emphasized the importance of identity in teacher development (see Beauchamp & Thomas; 2009; Freese, 2006; Hoban, 2007; Korthagen, Kessels, Koster, Lagerwerf, & Wubbels, 2001; Olsen, 2008; Sachs, 2005). Student teachers develop identities as the progress in to their programs just as teachers’ go through these stages as a result of the interactions in schools and society (Beauchamp & Thomas; 2009). Any treatment of identity is obviously a complex one. However, knowing the importance of teacher identity will provide insights in teacher training

Studies in literature include arguments for attention to identity for various reasons. This can be used as an analytic lens through which to examine aspects of teaching: the ways in which teachers integrate a range of influences, the necessary confronting of tensions and contradictions in their careers (Olsen, 2008). Moreover, it can also be seen as an organizing element in teachers’ professional lives, even a ‘resource that people use to explain, justify and make sense of themselves in relation to others, and to the world at large’ (MacLure, 1993, p. 311).

Many teachers and student-teachers believe that teachers’ professional knowledge includes theoretical foundations of classroom teaching and conceptual explanations observed in the phenomenon under investigation. Gaining a more complete understanding of identity generally and teacher identity in particular could enhance the ways in which teacher education programs are conceived (Beauchamp & Thomas; 2009). The literature on teacher education points out a common notion that identity is dynamic, and that a teacher’s identity shifts over time under the influence of a range of factors both internal to the individual, such as emotion (Rodgers & Scott, 2008 ), and external to the individual, such as job and life experiences in particular contexts (Flores & Day, 2006; Rodgers & Scott,2008; Sachs, 2005). These understandings about identity are helpful, yet defining the concept has often proved difficult for authors.

In a study of research on teacher professional identity, Beijaard, Meijer and Verloop (2004) noted the absence of a definition. The result of their investigation of literature about teacher professional identity from 1998–2000 is the articulation of four features of professional identity stemming from the works studied. They determine that identity is an ongoing process, and therefore that identity is dynamic, a constantly evolving rather than stable phenomenon (Beauchamp & Thomas; 2009).

103


Although constructs of self, self-concept, self-evaluation, self-confidence, and identity have widely been used in educational research, empirical research with using these concepts has been limited. Qualitative studies might be able to tap some of the identity related constructs better. However, this type of studies are especially quite limited. The reason for that is measuring self is difficult (Burke & Tully, 1977). Self has multiple facets and rich in terms of content. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the utility of TST in dealing with the issues of self and role identities of teachers so that we may develop more interesting and important training programs for teachers, students, principals, or adults.

The following quote demonstrates the importance of teacher identity in terms of teaching. This provides a basis for teacher how to approach, “how to behave,” ” how to understand,” and “how to react.”

Teacher professional identity then stands at the core of the teaching profession. It provides a framework for teachers to construct their own ideas of ‘how to be’, ‘how to act’ and ‘how to understand’ their work and their place in society. Importantly, teacher identity is not something that is fixed nor is it imposed; rather it is negotiated through experience and the sense that is made of that experience. (Sachs, 2005, p. 15)

An individual’s self-concept is usually viewed as crucial on influencing career decisions and other behaviors as well as a key outcome of professional and organizational socialization. Teaching is not a merely a rational activity because the degree of uncertainty is high (Schön, 1987). When professionals receive coaching and encouragement to think carefully at work when he/she is actually doing the work, their learning becomes more profound. Schön believes that the only learning that significantly influence behavior is achieved when it involves self-discovery and self-appropriation. One can provide the environment and encouragement. However, learning ultimately belongs to the student learner. Self-concept refers to the beliefs, attitudes, and feelings a person has about himself/herself. TST may be useful in establishing the relationship between self-concept and teacher development as well as serving as a valuable tool to involve self in training activities.

Borich (1999) discusses the aspects of the teacher self that have an influence on the effectiveness of a teacher’s actions while Hamachek (1999) emphasizes self-knowledge as key to a teacher’s successful practice. This notion of an inner teacher self obviously has links to teacher identity, placing a focus on the more personal aspects of the individual self (Beauchamp & Thomas; 2009).

Self-esteem is one of the strong predictors of organizational behaviors and attitudes (Thorenau 1979 cited in Arnold & Nicholson, 1991). It is usually agreed that socialization results influences newcomers’ behaviors, attitudes, and self-concept so that they can be more adaptive to their organizational environment (Nicholson, 1984). Teacher socialization has been an important problem in teacher training literature.

Recent literature in teacher education emphasizes the importance of identity development (see Britzman, 2003; Hoban, 2007), yet it is not clear how recognition of this importance translates into concrete action in teacher education program design and activities. Hammerness, Darling-Hammond and Bransford (2005) make the following statement about teacher development:

104


Developing an identity as a teacher is an important part of securing teachers’ commitment to their work and adherence to professional norms… the identities teachers develop shape their dispositions, where they place their effort, whether and how they seek out professional development opportunities, and what obligations they see as intrinsic to their role (Hammerness, Darling-Hammond, & Bransford, 2005: 383–384).

Teacher professionalization has been treated as a multi-dimensional construct in the literature. Teacher professionalization should be taken into account in terms of transitional stages. The dimensions were professional identity, professional socialization, professional expertise, professional security and professional development (Agarao-Fernandez & Guzman, 2006).

Teaching is one of the professions which use reflective practice and teacher training should use refection (Schön, 1987). Reflection has been defined in different ways. According to Dewey (1933, p. 9), reflection is an “active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in light of the grounds that support it and the further consequences to which it leads”. Reflection enables teachers to analyze, discuss, evaluate and possibly change their own practice and encourages them to evaluate the moral and ethical issues implicit in their work in classrooms, including the critical examination of their own beliefs about good teaching. Moreover, it helps them to take greater responsibility for their own professional development and to search ways of acquiring some level of professional autonomy. Finally, it helps them develop their own theories-in-use. Various forms of reflection have been used in teacher training such as journals, diaries, group discussions, verbal questions, reflection worksheets and values (Hussein, 2007). Reflection is a part of experiential learning and it has a potential to expand learning. “Without reflection experiential learning will be a superficial activity that will not necessarily sustained learning results” (Rooth, 2000, p. 21). The use of TST in teacher training might make teachers more conscious in terms of their values since the values closely related to teaching practice and ethics.

Twenty Statement Test and Teacher Development

The Twenty Statements Test (TST) was developed to operationalize key concepts of symbolic-interactionist perspective by Kuhn and McPharland (1954). Since then, the test has widely been used to describe the content of self. The concept is easy to use and provide rich data and therefore many studies utilized the concept (Carpenter & Meade-Pruit, 2008).

TST locates individual (self) as a crucial element in social behavior. In this conceptualization identity is dependent on symbolic mediation for internal meanings and external control of action. Respondents are seen as locating their actions in internalized social definitions and self reflections (Rees & Nigelson, 1994). Individuals make conscious choices about what really matters to him/her. The TST is a qualitative research tool that provides responses quantifiable data. Moreover, each response gains meaning from other responses (Rees & Nigelson, 1994).

Individuals define themselves what they do and how they do. Whether individual is a “teacher”, “an athlete”, “a sister”, “a jogger.” Individuals also define themselves as moral attitudes and values and this frames them in a shared cultural normative frame and

105


constructs. One of the underlying assumptions is that “self” is dependent upon “others.” This is because self-evaluations have to be culturally shared so that it can be a part of interacting with others. One of the main perspectives of symbolic interactionism is that individual constantly negotiates his/her identity in all the interactions that they engage. As a result, an individual is not passively responding to external world but helps to determine self-identifications, where the attention is paid, and what interpretations are made and what behaviors are revealed (Rees & Nigelson, 1994).

Self-identifications such as TST make how individuals mediate their social environment in different and adaptive ways. It can also allow the statements for meaningful comparisons with others not only cross-sectionally but also longitudinally. The importance of the role of engagement in teaching and learning process cannot be overemphasized. As Bryson and Hand (2007) noted, there are three levels of engagement. (1) between teachers and students (discourse); (2) between teacher and the subject (enthusiasm); (3) and between teacher and teaching process (professionalism). All these levels of engagement require the involvement of the self and TST could help in engaging students. Therefore, these characteristics make TST a valuable and economical data collection instrument.

TST is an open-ended data collection instrument; it has greater structure than it is usually considered. “I am” implies that self is a state of being. In questionnaires, respondents do not respond to situations or states of “being.” Indeed, they use statements such as “like”, “dislike”, “agree”, “disagree”, “do” and/or “do not.” Sometimes respondents either may misread the instructions or they may forget them while filling out. However, in TST respondents choose the verb to describe themselves. “Being “ verbs such as am, is, are imply greater certainty and commitment than have, do, enjoy and their variations. Thus, TST allows one to be able to establish links with statuses. If an individual likes the statuses and satisfied with them, he/she tends to retain them. Otherwise, individual withdraws from the status (Couch, 1977).

TST is used in cross-cultural comparisons (Carpenter & Meade-Pruit, 2008), to elicit self-concept the categories of self-concept such as traits and roles (Peng, Nisbet & Wong, 1997), gender differences (Smith, 1993), entrants to organizations (Arnold & Nicholson, 1990), TST may also be used determining the following questions: (1) How the individual sees himself/herself? (2) How individuals think others see him/her? and (3) How others actually see him? (Falk & Sonenfeld, 1974). As a result, many comparisons among individuals, occupations, and organizations using TST.

Burden (1982) noted that there are three career development stages for teachers: (1) the struggle for existence, (2) adaptation and balancing, and (3) maturity. Teachers do not trust themselves in the first stage. This is the most difficult stage for teachers. A considerable number of teachers leave the profession. Schools need to provide support structures for teachers in this period (Darling-Hammond, 2003). TST may facilitate this process for schools in providing support structures for both new and incoming teachers.

Beginning to teaching has always been difficult. Teacher needs to learn skills and use them at the same time. Teacher performance is full of anxieties stemming from control, authority, and identity. A study pointed out a teacher’s experience based on as a result of a case study (Hargreaves & Jacka, 1995, p50.):

106


Palua’s images of teaching appear to derive from three main sources: her individual personality and disposition; her biography, in particular the influences of her parent and her experiences at the faulty of education within her course program and her practicum experience. Teachers’ images are often seen to be largely rooted in their personal biographies more than their formal preparation (Clandini, 1986).

Methodology

The study used a qualitative approach on teacher identity. TST is one of the qualitative methods that were used to determine individual self-conceptualization. The use of ethnographic methods in teacher training has been demonstrated (Frank & Uy, 2004; Rooth, 2000). Kuhn (1960) argued that TST has validity on two grounds: The first one is the “chain of logic” used in the test and the second is that the result of the test correlated with individual behaviors. These assumptions can be considered as valid in the current study as well.

35 teachers who have been graduate students in the various departments were asked to write twenty statements as if they have been describing themselves. The questions begin with “Who I am?” They were asked twenty statements that describe themselves responding to the question “Who I am?” in 15 minutes in a free format. A blank A4 paper is provided. They were only asked to provide their gender, age, profession, and marital status.

Once, teachers completed the statements, researchers separately went all the statements to group whether the statements were in Category A, B, C, or D. The, the two researchers checked whether their categorizations were consistent. There were different categorizations among a few of the categories. There was over 95 % consistency among statements. Only few statements differed and the researchers worked out the differences working together. Following that, the statements were entered into an SPSS file. Following that, descriptive statistics and the distribution of statements were calculated.

Although there have been many procedures on how to code TST statements, mainly two different procedures categories are prevalent in the literature. They are “specific category approach” or “total domain approach.” The first one only classifies specific types of statements, the second one classifies every statement presented. McPartland (1965) developed a comprehensive method called “referantial schemes” which includes four categories. This method assumes that the responses to “Who I am?” reflect various relationships individuals with their objective world. There are four categories and they are self-exclusive (Nigel Rees & Nigelson, 1994).

1. Statements about physical characteristics such as age, home location, etc. Category A: Conceptions of the self as a physical structure in the world in time and space (‘I am ...cm tall”, categorized as “physical”

2. Identifications of the self in relation to social groupings (interpersonal) and norms. Category B: The self identified himself/herself in terms of position within social structure such as roles (“I am a teacher”), categorized as “social.”

3. If a statement makes a reference or imply to a specific pattern of behavior such as attitudes, values, and needs, they are coded as Category C: As an abstract social actor from social structure (“I am very self-confident”), categorized as “reflective.”

107


4. If the self identifications are so vague and abstract, they were coded as Category D: Self as abstracted from physical being, social actor, and social structure (I am a world citizen), categorized as “oceanic.”

This paper used these categories. First, all the statements were coded in one of these categories by one researcher. Then, a second researcher reviewed the codes and there was over 85 % agreement between the coding of the two researchers. So, the data may be accepted as reliable.

There might be a possibility of confusion between B and C. However, there is an easy way to separate them. Styles of behavior individuals attribute to themselves within a situational reference. Qualified statements of B can also be coded as C. For example, if a teacher stated that “I am an effective teacher”, then he/she is coded as Category C because the performance of the individual is the qualifying the role. Not any “teacher” but “an effective teacher.” Reflections on mood, motivation, temperament, style or ability is included in this category (Rees and Nigelson, 1994).

Results

The results were presented as follows: First, the gender, marital status, age distributions of participants were presented. Second, the analysis of TST followed.

Table 1. Gender of the participants

Frequency Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

male 17 48.6 48.6 48.6female 18 51.4 51.4 100.0Total 35 100.0 100.0

Table 2. Professional distribution of the participants.

Frequency Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Teacher 29 82.9 85.3 85.3Research Assistant 3 8.6 8.8 94.1 Counselor 2 5.7 5.9 100.0Total 34 97.1 100.0Missing System 1 2.9

Total 35 100.0

Almost half of the participants were male and half of them were females. There is a balance among the genders. While the majority of the participants were single (78 %), about 22 % of them are married. Over 80 % of them were teachers. About 6 % of them were counselors (named as counselor teacher) in schools. About 9 % of them were research assistants at a university.

108


Table 3. Marital status of the participants

Frequency PercentValid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Married 7 20.0 21.9 21.9Single 25 71.4 78.1 100.0Total 32 91.4 100.0MissingSystem 3 8.6

Total 35 100.0

There was only one individual over 30 years of age. The mean age of the participants was 26. However, the majority did not indicate their ages. This group is overwhelmingly composed of relatively young teachers. Only one teacher in the group was over 40.

Table 4. Age distribution of the participants

AgesFrequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

31 1 2.9 9.1 9.125 2 5.7 18.2 27.328 2 5.7 18.2 45.523 3 8.6 27.3 72.729 3 8.6 27.3 100.0Total 11 31.4 100.0Missing 24 68.6

Total 35 100.0

Chi-square was used to check whether there is a relationship between individuals’ classifications regarding gender, profession, age and marital status. However, no significant differences have been found.

Table 5. Total number of categories

A % B % C % D % Total %

11 1.56 32 4.55 618 87.9 42 5.97 703 100

Among the 703 statements, the overwhelming majority of individuals used statements that were categorized as C which is “reflective”. Others were as follows: 11 statements in

109


category A (1.56 %), 32 statements in Category B (4.55 %), 42 statements in category D (5.97 %). 618 statements were in category C (87.9 %).

These teachers typically identify themselves as reflective (Category C) to the question of “Who I am?” In the literature, Category C is more preferred since individuals who have dominant categories of C may have a higher adaptive capacity (Rees & Nigelson, 1994). The participants in this group are composed of MA degree students, they may have higher awareness of themselves (referential category). Thus, they might have demonstrated an overwhelmingly dominant category C style.

Among these categories, the reflective ones in category C was the dominant category. These categories were analyzed whether they were positive or negative statements. They were important because category C reflect their situational references (Reflections on mood, motivation, temperament, style or ability is included in this category). Therefore, individuals’ evaluations regarding their internal states, 618 statements categorized based on their positive or negative meaning. Of the 618 statements in category C, 450 of them positive (72.81 %) and 168 were negative statements (27.19 %).

These teachers have a positive outlook on life and their profession in general. Therefore, they may have not yet reached to burn out stage. They are still relatively young. A common characteristic of these teachers is that they currently are enrolled in an MA program. In order to prevent teacher burn-out, graduate training should be encouraged.

Category D does not lead to any expectations of behavior. Research indicates that young people define themselves in terms of personal traits, older people tend to describe themselves in terms of social roles. The finding of this study is consistent with the research in the literature.

Table 6 presents the Twenty Statement Test (TST) protocol by a teacher as an example. As one could easily observe, it was evident that the teacher was quite concerned with personality traits. See Table 7 for a comparison with Table 6 statements. Both protocols were written female teachers at different cultures at quite different times. There are similarities between the two statement protocols.

Table 6. The TST protocol statements by a teacher in Kuhn (1960) studyI am a serious personI like to workI have ingenuityBut lack tenacityI am loyal to those I don’t know as well as those I do knowI have overcome obstaclesI am independent thinker need encouragement from someI am somewhat bound by group opinionsI am not able to take criticismI am not emotionally stable enough to get respect of othersI do not approach others with my views in the right mannerI accept what others do, not because of who is doing it but because of what is doneI like being a woman—there are advantagesI am afraid of lazinessSome people don’t understand what I say because I’m too brief—don’t explain

110


I feel capable of doing many thingsI do not depend on others for decisionI don’t like unfairness

Source: Kuhn, 1960, p. 43.

Another TST protocol with one of the teachers in the current study was presented in Table 7. One of the statements had written by a teacher almost 50 years ago. The other one was written by another teacher almost half a century later in another culture. Comparison of the two teacher statements reveal that both teachers were quite concerned with their personality traits. TST provides quite rich data indeed. When one has such statements, it might be easier to develop training programs to teachers because one knows what the issues, ambitions, hopes and problems are.

Table 7. The TST protocol statements of a teacher in the current studyI am a person who tries to do the best in her workI like helping peopleI sometimes talk too muchI am tired at timesI like working and innovationsI am sometimes a pessimistI am too picky sometimes and it impedes my workI am really liked indeedI have dreams about the futureI use “no” rarelyI am really too busyI think myself as a good listenerI can become very patient when it is requiredI really think that I have to work hardI like childrenI can express myself comfortably in a social environmentI sometimes trust too much to individualsI like my familyI think that I have a side of me which produces solutions to issues.

Reflection has been an important concept in teacher training. Valli (1997) argued that reflection means to bend back with grammatical, physical and psychological implications. Teacher training places too much emphasis on technical aspects of teaching. However, reflection in teaching includes reflection-in-and-on-action, deliberative reflection, personalistic reflection, and critical reflection in addition to technical reflection. Personalistic and critical reflections are both related to personal, social, moral and political dimensions of schooling. As once can easily find out, teacher protocols in Table 6 and Table 7 are involved a considerable amount of reflection.

The role of reflection in teacher development has been widely acknowledged (see Larrivée, 2000; Korthagen, Kessels, Koster, Lagerwerf & Wubbels, 2001; Rodgers, 2002). Indeed, it has been recognized as the very core of effective teaching (Jay, 2003). Korthagen and Vasalos (2005) suggested that ‘core’ reflection, directed at identity and mission, is what is needed to tap into a sense of self (p. 53). Therefore, when one considers identity in the development of either student teachers or beginning practitioners, one must include the notion of reflection as central to this development (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009).

111


Conclusion

The review of the literature indicates that TST is a rich and powerful method that may be used towards the orientations of self-concept. TST may be used teacher socialization for new and in-coming teachers, students and principals. Since it emphasizes identity and self-concept and the reflective practice is important in teaching, TST may also be useful to develop teacher in-service training programs and trainings of other professional groups. Moreover, TST may be a useful tool for evaluating courses and seminars that include experiential learning.

Emotional experiences play an important role in teaching and learning because they involve socially situated practices. The act of teaching is charged by motivation and positive emotions (Hargreaves, 1998). Teaching takes place at an intersection between personal and public identities. Discussions of professional identity or the aspect to improve his/her professional role require how emotions are related to our professional practices (O’Conner, 2008). TST may provide us a foundation to discuss professional as well as personal issues. TST may be used in conducting needs analysis and sources of stress in teacher’s work.

The literature points out that employee’s perceive change in themselves early years; however, this change is not for the better towards others in organization (Arnold & Nicholson, 1991). As a result, motivation and commitment do not happen automatically. In order to keep participants positive and with high self-esteem in schools, ministries of education and schools should design appropriate career steps and development and promotional procedures.

How can teachers create models natural to them in teaching? They can do it through self-reflection through TST. How? They can continually generate insight into what accounts for both their successes and your failures. Then, they can identify the limits of their current model and opportunities for new areas of growth. And finally, they can experience renewed alignment of their work with what they most value.

While earlier studies (Kuhn, 1960;) noted that professional identity increases with years of training. Individuals reflected their identity and professional intentions and ambitions as well as their own self-evaluations. The findings of this study are consistent with Kuhn’s findings. While as more recent studies (Rooth, 2000) indicated, by tapping these statements better, in-service training programs that are interesting and consistent with individual goals, ambitions and intentions could be developed. Thus, better in-service training of teachers might be achieved. This may also be used in pre-service training in the same set of observations for all undergraduates and graduates in teacher training as teachers.

The comparison between the statements of two different teachers who live in different periods and different cultures reveal similar aspects. Teachers were highly concerned with their personality traits. Paying greater attention to this point may be important. TST may be used in teacher socialization, adaption, training and prevent teacher burn-out.

The participants in this research have relatively high-self esteem and a high achievement orientation. The reason for that they self-selected themselves to study towards a master’s degree. A larger sample with individuals from different programs should be used

112


to further evaluate the needfulness of TST. TST may be used to examine interpersonal relationships among teachers, students, and administrators in schools. Teacher education programs may find TST useful while training their student teachers. Ministries of education could find ways to use TST to design in-service training programs.

References

Agaraou-Fernandez, E., & de Guzman, A. B. (2006). Exploring the dimensionality of teacher professionalization. Educational Research Policy Practice, 5, 211-224.

Atay, D (2007). Teacher research for professional development. ELT Journal, 62(2), 139-147.

Arnolds, J., & Nicholson, N. (1991). Construing self and others at work in the early years of corporate careers. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 12(7), 621-639.

Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, L. (2009). Understanding teacher identity: An overview of issues in the literature and implications for teacher education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(2), 175-189.

Borich, G. (1999). Dimensions of self that influence effective teaching. In R. Lipka & T. Brinthaupt (Eds.), The role of self in teacher development (pp. 92–117). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Britzman, D. (2003). Practice makes practice: A critical study of learning to teach. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Bryson, C., & Hand, L. (2007). The role of engagement in inspiring teaching and learning. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 44(4), 349-362.

Burden, P. R. (1982). Implications of teacher career development: New roles for teachers, administrators, and professors. Action in Teacher Education, 4(4), 21-25.

Burke, P. J., & Tully, J. C. (1977). The measurement of role identity. Social Forces, 55(4), 881-897.

Carpenter, S., Meade-Pruit, S. M. (2008). Does the Twenty Statement Test elicit self-concept aspects that are most descriptive? World Cultures eJournal, 16(1), art 3.

Couch, C. J. (1967). Self-identification and alienation. Sociological Quarterly, 7(3), 255-267.

Darling-Hammond, L. (2003). Keeping good teachers: Why it matters, What can leaders do. Educational Leadership, 60(8), 6-13.

Falk, W. H., Sonenfeld, C. (1974). Self theory and the Twenty Statements Test: An application to women. ERIC Document 110 397.

Flores, M. A., &Day, C. (2006). Contexts which shape and reshape new teachers’ identities: A multi-perspective study. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22(2), 219–232.

Freese, A. (2006). Reframing one’s teaching: Discovering our teacher selves through reflection and inquiry. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22, 110–119.

Frank, C. R., & Uy, F. L. (2004). Ethnography for teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 55, 169-283.

Hamachek, D. (1999). Effective teachers: What they do, how they do it, and the importance of self-knowledge. In R. Lipka & T. Brinthaupt (Eds.), The role of self in teacher development (pp. 189–228). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Hammerness, K., Darling-Hammond, L., & Bransford, J. (2005). How teachers learn and develop. In L. Darling-Hammond & J. Bransford (Eds.), Preparing teachers for a

113


changing world: What teachers should learn and be able to do (pp. 358–389). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Hargreaves, A. (1998). Emotional practices of teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 14, 835-854.

Hargreaves, A., Jacka, N. (1995). Induction or seduction? Postmodern patterns to teach. Peabody Journal of Education, 70(3), 41-61.

Hoban, G. (2007). Considerations for designing coherent teacher education programs. In J. Butcher & L. McDonald (Eds.), Making a difference: Challenges for teachers, teaching and teacher education (pp. 173–187). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

Hussein, J. W. (2007). Experience gained through engaging student teachers in a developmental reflective process. Teacher Development, 11(2), 189-201.

Jay, J. K. (2003). Quality teaching: Reflection as the heart of practice. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.

Korthagen, F., & Vasalos, A. (2005). Levels in Reflection: Core Reflection as a Means to Enhance Professional Growth. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 11(1), 47–71.

Korthagen, F., Kessels, J., Koster, B., Lagerwerf, B., & Wubbels, T. (2001). Linking practice and theory: The pedagogy of realistic teacher education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Kuhn, M. H., & McParland, T. (1954). An Empirical Investigation of self-attitudes. American Sociological Review 19, 68-76.

Kuhn, M. K. (1960). Self-Attitudes by age, sex, and professional training. The Sociological Quarterly, 1(1), 39-54.

Larrivée, B. (2000). Transforming teaching practice: Becoming a critically reflective teacher. Reflective Practice, 1(3), 294–307.

MacLure, M. (1993). Arguing for your self: Identity as an organising principle in teachers’ jobs and lives. British Educational Research Journal, 19(4), 311–323.

Nicholson, N. (1984). A theory of work role transitions. Administrative Science Quarterly, 29, 172-191.

Olsen, B. (2008). Teaching what they learn, learning what they live. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.

Peng, Nisbett, R. E., & Wong, Y. C. (1997). Validity problems comparing values across cultures and possible solutions. Psyhcological Methods, 2, 329-344.

Rees, A., & Nicholson, N. (1994). The Twenty Statement Test. In C. Cassell and G. Symon (Eds.), Organizational Research Methods: A Practical Guide. Thousands Oaks: Sage.

Rodgers, C., & Scott, K. (2008). The development of the personal self and professional identity in learning to teach. In M. Cochran-Smith, S. Feiman-Nemser, D.J. McIntyre & K.E. Demers (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education: Enduring questions and changing contexts (pp. 732–755). New York: Routledge.

Rooth, E. (2000). An investigation of the enhanced relationships in life skills between participants: In courses and the environment. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council.

Sachs, J. (2005). Teacher education and the development of professional identity: Learning to be a teacher. In P. Denicolo & M. Kompf (Eds.), Connecting policy and practice: Challenges for teaching and learning in schools and universities (pp. 5–21). Oxford: Routledge.

Schön, D. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. O’Conner, K. E. (2008). “You choose to care”: Teachers, emotions, and professional

identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24, 117-126. 114


Valli, L. (1997). Listening to other voices: A description of teacher reflection in the United States. Peabody Journal of Education, 72(1), 67-88.

115

· Web viewMentoring can be defined in general as maximizing individuals’ learning...

Documents

Transcript of · Web viewMentoring can be defined in general as maximizing individuals’ learning...