Dialogic investigations of teacher–supervisor relations in the TESOL landscape

The study referred to in this article adopted a dialogic approach, putting the voices of experienced teachers and supervisors into the form of a dialogue in order to examine how both parties perceive, enact and justify their pedagogical practices in actual school settings. Various sets of data were...

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Main Author: Osman Z. Barnawi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2016-12-01
Series:Cogent Education
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2016.1217818
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author Osman Z. Barnawi
author_facet Osman Z. Barnawi
author_sort Osman Z. Barnawi
collection DOAJ
description The study referred to in this article adopted a dialogic approach, putting the voices of experienced teachers and supervisors into the form of a dialogue in order to examine how both parties perceive, enact and justify their pedagogical practices in actual school settings. Various sets of data were utilised, including interviews, classroom observations and a post-observation conference with Saudi EFL teachers and supervisors. The findings demonstrate that teachers and supervisors all occupy different positions in the school hierarchy in the TESOL landscape, depending on the “type” as well as “amount of capital” they possess. Specifically, although some supervisors continue to believe that their accumulated experience, including teaching credentials, supervision and administrative experience, outweighs the academic and scientific capital of teachers, teachers also claim that their accumulated experience of several years of teaching, their EFL qualifications and training, their knowledge of ground realities in school settings and their experience of two different national educational systems have enabled and legitimised them to devise their own classroom practices. It is therefore concluded that supervisors should re-conceptualise their roles, challenge their own assumptions and be willing to engage in continuous critical discussions with the teachers. Both parties conduct their pedagogical practice with strong sense of agency/engagement. This study argues that these forms of agency in language teaching need further scholarly attention, for “they are inherently contextual and dialogic, in that they have a history and a present that resides in an ongoing negotiated state of intense and essential axiological interaction”.
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spelling doaj.art-b5f9c811ac6644b98101783d285af09b2023-08-02T01:27:03ZengTaylor & Francis GroupCogent Education2331-186X2016-12-013110.1080/2331186X.2016.12178181217818Dialogic investigations of teacher–supervisor relations in the TESOL landscapeOsman Z. Barnawi0Yanbu English Language Institute, Royal Commission Colleges and InstitutesThe study referred to in this article adopted a dialogic approach, putting the voices of experienced teachers and supervisors into the form of a dialogue in order to examine how both parties perceive, enact and justify their pedagogical practices in actual school settings. Various sets of data were utilised, including interviews, classroom observations and a post-observation conference with Saudi EFL teachers and supervisors. The findings demonstrate that teachers and supervisors all occupy different positions in the school hierarchy in the TESOL landscape, depending on the “type” as well as “amount of capital” they possess. Specifically, although some supervisors continue to believe that their accumulated experience, including teaching credentials, supervision and administrative experience, outweighs the academic and scientific capital of teachers, teachers also claim that their accumulated experience of several years of teaching, their EFL qualifications and training, their knowledge of ground realities in school settings and their experience of two different national educational systems have enabled and legitimised them to devise their own classroom practices. It is therefore concluded that supervisors should re-conceptualise their roles, challenge their own assumptions and be willing to engage in continuous critical discussions with the teachers. Both parties conduct their pedagogical practice with strong sense of agency/engagement. This study argues that these forms of agency in language teaching need further scholarly attention, for “they are inherently contextual and dialogic, in that they have a history and a present that resides in an ongoing negotiated state of intense and essential axiological interaction”.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2016.1217818teachersupervisorcapitaldialogicpost-methodenglish language
spellingShingle Osman Z. Barnawi
Dialogic investigations of teacher–supervisor relations in the TESOL landscape
Cogent Education
teacher
supervisor
capital
dialogic
post-method
english language
title Dialogic investigations of teacher–supervisor relations in the TESOL landscape
title_full Dialogic investigations of teacher–supervisor relations in the TESOL landscape
title_fullStr Dialogic investigations of teacher–supervisor relations in the TESOL landscape
title_full_unstemmed Dialogic investigations of teacher–supervisor relations in the TESOL landscape
title_short Dialogic investigations of teacher–supervisor relations in the TESOL landscape
title_sort dialogic investigations of teacher supervisor relations in the tesol landscape
topic teacher
supervisor
capital
dialogic
post-method
english language
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2016.1217818
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