Planning micro-level language education reform in new diaspora sites: two-way immersion education in the rural Midwest

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Paciotto ◽  
Gloria Delany-Barmann
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Immersion Education ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Two Way Immersion

English Education Reform in Asian Countries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenyang Sun ◽  
Xue Lan Rong
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Education ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
English Language Education ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
The Status ◽  
Globalized World

Language education is becoming an increasingly important topic in education in Asian countries, especially as schools in Asian countries have become more multilingual and multicultural as a result of rapid urbanization and globalization. A comparative analysis of the issues in language education reform in Asian countries—using China, India, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore as examples—shows that, historically and currently, English language education policies are shaped by various underpinning ideologies such as linguicism, nationalism, and neoliberalism. English can serve as a vehicle for upward socioeconomic mobility, or an instrument of linguistic imperialism, or both, in Asia contexts. These ideologies, through language education policies and reforms, impact the status as well as the pedagogy and promotion of the English language. There is a trend and a need with regard to addressing critical consciousness in English education in order to counter the forces of linguicism and neoliberalism in an increasingly multilingual, multicultural, and globalized world.

scholarly journals Pioneer teachers: How far can individual teachers achieve agency within curriculum development?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Kneen ◽  
Thomas Breeze ◽  
Emma Thayer ◽  
Vivienne John ◽  
Sian Davies-Barnes
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
National Level ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Teacher Agency ◽  
Institutional Level ◽  
Meso Level ◽  
Curriculum Framework ◽  
New Curriculum ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Different Levels

AbstractEducation reform requires the commitment and investment of teachers if it is to succeed. Recognising the importance of teacher engagement, some countries have made teacher agency a feature of their curricula. Wales has embraced the notion of teacher agency within the building of its new curriculum by creating a body of Pioneer teachers to shape its new curriculum framework. This paper considers the nature of teacher agency experienced by a group of these Pioneers working on the expressive arts area of the curriculum. It does so through an exploration of the ecological nature of teacher agency, as theorised by Emirbayer and Mische (1998), and it considers agency through a framework of different levels: the micro-level focuses on the individuals and their personal contributions; the macro-level considers Pioneers’ work at national level, liaising with teachers from across the country and taking responsibilityfor creating the curriculum; the meso-level refers to where the two former levels come together, i.e. the Pioneers’ work within their own institution, trialling the new curriculum. The evidence indicates that teacher agency was easier to achieve at micro-level and macro-level, than at meso-level. This paper suggests, therefore, that achieving teacher agency at institutional level is more complex and challenging than is the case at the other levels. Greater understanding and attention are, therefore, needed about how to achieve teacher agency in teachers’ different spheres of work, particularly when working at institutional level.

scholarly journals Russian language maintenance among multilingual teachers in Israeli educational settings

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 1103-1125
Author(s):  
Galina Putjata
Keyword(s):  
Education Policy ◽  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
Language Maintenance ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Educational Settings ◽  
Meso Level ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Regular Teacher

The present paper focuses on language maintenance among multilingual teachers and presents a research project with Russian-Hebrew speakers on their ideas of language-related normality in educational settings. The main objective is to investigate the role of migration-related multilingual teachers within the multilingual turn. The project approached the topic from three perspectives: the macro level of educational policies, the meso level of educational institutions, and the micro level of linguistic development. Data were collected through biographical interviews with 17 teachers and interpreted within the theoretical framework of language beliefs using the concepts of linguistic market, language awareness and language education policy as well as pedagogical competence. The results show the close interconnectedness of language beliefs on all the three levels. They also show that beliefs can experience a reconstruction. In order to challenge the monolingual idea of normality among teachers, an interwoven intervention on all the three levels is necessary: there is a need for education policy measures (macro level) that would anchor training on dealing with multilingualism (meso level) in regular teacher training and, in doing so, would draw on the existing migration-related multilingual practices of prospective teachers (micro level). This interaction between top-down (professionalization in dealing with multilingualism anchored in educational policy) and bottom-up (migration-related multilingual practices among prospective teachers) measures can enable a shift toward multilingualism as an idea of normality in educational contexts. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the formation, development and reconstruction of language-related idea of normality among teachers and discusses its methodological and theoretical implications.

scholarly journals Empirical Research on Leadership Capacity of Secondary Vocational Teachers in Yunnan Province of China

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Xiaoyao Yue ◽  
Yongjun Feng
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Leadership Capacity ◽  
Collaborative Culture ◽  
Vocational Teachers ◽  
Chinese Language Education ◽  
Promotion Strategies

Teacher leadership continues to be a growing educational reform initiative across the world. With the rapid development of Chinese language education, the role of teacher leadership in education reform is becoming more and more prominent. Based on the survey data of 104 teachers in a secondary vocational school in Yuxi City, this study investigated the level of teacher leadership capacity and discussed their promotion strategies. Based on Lambert’s (2003a) theory of teacher leadership capacity, the author developed a research questionnaire that including four structures of teacher leadership capacity, which focus on the vision, reflection and innovation, shared governance, supervision, and response to student achievement. This study adopted the five-likert point scale. Data analysis shows that the average scores of 17 items does not exceed 4.00 points, while the highest and lowest score are from “focus on the vision.” To improve the teacher leadership capacity, the study suggests that leaders should concentrate on the school’s vision as well as establish collaborative culture and atmosphere among teachers.

scholarly journals Teaching and Learning English Language through Literacy Drive Policy in Grade 3 in Public Schools: Teachers’ Perception and Challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 4664-4676
Author(s):  
Umaira Aleem, Dr. Sadia Irshad
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Grade 3

This paper investigates the place of pedagogy in language-in-education policy through an analysis of how the macro-level government policy interacts with the micro-level English language teaching practices. Since 2015, the teaching and learning of English language to grade 3 students, in all public schools of the Punjab, has been carried out through a literacy and numeracy drive called LND. The present study investigated the effectiveness of teaching English to grade 3 through literacy drive policy (LDP) of LND programme. It locates the implementation of LDP, in language in acquisition policy perspective and supports the stance that language teaching and learning is central to language planning and policy research (Johnson, 2013; Menken & García, 2010). It argues that language interventions deployed at any level of education are extension of language education policies which aim to improve the quality of education and to promote the learning of the language. Like all language in acquisition policies, LDP for teaching and learning of English is being executed in the same context of increasing the number of language users through teaching of foreign or second language (Cooper, 1989). The study investigated perceptions of teachers regarding teaching and learning of English through LDP with the notion that effective implementation of any language programme is linked with the understanding and practices of teachers who are the real implementers and final arbiters at micro level (Menken, 2008). The present study included a portion of data from my PhD dissertation. It collected teachers’ experiential standpoints to explore teachers’ awareness regarding implementation of LDP and issues they face inside the classrooms when they carried out teaching learning of English through LDP. The findings of the study revealed that teachers teaching English to grade 3 lack awareness in terms of clear understanding regarding LDP mainly because it is less elaborated and not accessible. It ultimately hindered the successful implementation and poses multiple classroom challenges.

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