scholarly journals Relational Agency of University Teachers of Chinese as a Second Language: A Personal Network Perspective

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weijia Yang ◽  
Citing Li ◽  
Xuesong Gao
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Research Capacity ◽  
Concentric Circle ◽  
Personal Network ◽  
Relational Agency ◽  
University Teachers ◽  
Educational Challenges ◽  
Relational Resources ◽  
Education And Development ◽  
Iterative Coding

Relational agency is pivotal for understanding how language teachers seek and utilize relational resources in different contexts and grow to be agents of change amid various educational challenges. This study explored how three university teachers of Chinese as a second language (CSL) enacted their relational agency to enhance their research capacity and sustain their professional development. Data on their personal network development was collected through concentric circle interviews, life-history interviews and written reflections over three months. Thematic analysis was adopted for iterative coding and interpretation of the data. The findings revealed that teachers’ personal networks provided them with value guidance, emotional support and academic support, which exerted differential levels of impact on them to make agentic choices and actions. The study suggests that personal network analysis may serve as a suitable theoretical lens to achieve a multi-layered understanding of relational agency. The study also calls for more efforts to create learning opportunities and spaces in the relational context for teachers to build their career as agentic academics in language teacher education and development programs.

INTERNATIONAL GRANT COOPERATION AS A TOOL FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCIES OF UNIVERSITY TEACHERS

2018 ◽  
pp. 4-8
Author(s):  
Milan Chmura
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Professional Education ◽  
European Countries ◽  
International Project ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
University Teachers ◽  
Quality Of Higher Education ◽  
Education And Development

The education and development of university teachers have its justifcation and its importance is signifcant not only in the Czech Republic but also abroad. This study provides an analysis of further professional education of university teachers in the Czech Republic and in selected European countries. Subsequently, it presents an international project with participants from the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Slovakia and Poland, which, ultimately, plays a role in the improvement of the quality of higher education.

scholarly journals Foundation phase teachers’ views of the involvement of male caregivers in young children’s education

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mzoli Mncanca ◽  
Sarita Ramsaroop ◽  
Nadine Petersen
Keyword(s):  
Early Years ◽  
Children's Education ◽  
Male Caregiver ◽  
Generic Qualitative ◽  
Male Caregivers ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Children’S Education ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Education And Development ◽  
Iterative Coding

Background: Studies in South Africa show a high prevalence of male caregiver absence in the lives of children under the age of 9 years. In this respect, foundation phase teachers are well positioned to provide input and shed light on how schools can contribute towards improving male caregiver involvement in their children’s early education.Aim: This study aimed to explore foundation phase teachers’ views of the involvement of male caregivers in the education and development of young children.Setting: The paper reports on the qualitative phase of a mixed methods study conducted in three township schools near Johannesburg.Methods: Focus group interviews involving a sample of 17 foundation phase teachers were conducted in three schools. An iterative coding process within a generic qualitative data analysis approach was carried out to articulate overarching ideas and themes.Results: The results highlight how teachers’ taken-for-granted gendered assumptions about the roles of females and males in the education and development of foundation phase children and about the children’s care arrangements influence how they communicate with parents, unconsciously alienating male caregivers.Conclusion: Although teachers had not considered the role of male caregivers in the early years of children’s education, they acknowledged that such an undertaking would be beneficial to the learners and the school. Therefore, the authors argue for training aimed at capacitating foundation phase teachers with the essential competencies necessary to galvanise and increase meaningful involvement of male caregivers in the education of learners in pre-service and in-service teacher professional development.

scholarly journals What do trade unions think about continuing education for teachers in Galicia?

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 161-169
Author(s):  
Baena Ampudia ◽  
Ana M. Fernández Tilve ◽  
M. Dolores
Keyword(s):  
Continuing Education ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
University Teachers ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
Educational Challenges ◽  
Education Professional Development ◽  
Training Activities ◽  
Management Staff

The common ups and downs of school agendas coupled with the existence of new educational challenges have created a complicated scenario that places the issue of continuing education for teaching staff directly under the spotlight. As a consequence, the role of teachers' trade unions as with other requirements of continuing education is now put centre stage. Within these considerations, we have carried out an unprecedented and ongoing survey in Galicia with the intention of taking a closer look at continuing education for non-university teachers promoted by trade union organisations. For this purpose we put forth a qualitative and quantitative methodological approach while using documentary analysis as a tool for gathering data as well as discussion groups and Likert type assessment scale questionnaires. In this essay we provide the data obtained during the intensive-qualitative stage of the investigation. The resulting findings although provisional and partial reveal that an improvement in students' education should go hand in hand with the continuing education of teaching staff. It also becomes apparent that training activities are being substantially conditioned by the legislative jungle that is shrouding continuing education, by the lack of resources and by the pragmatic lines followed by the Education Administration. Furthermore, certain pending issues are cropping up such as the need to channel learned contents into our classrooms, to satisfy the emerging concerns of training recipients regarding their training, to perform follow-up and evaluation tasks regarding the training actions that are being undertaken and to strive for an improved coordination between management staff, users and knowledge workers.   Keywords: Non-university personnel, continuing education, professional development, union organisations, education needs or requirements

scholarly journals Student teachers' conceptions of curriculum: Toward an understanding of language-teacher development

1989 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alister Cumming
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
Professional Knowledge ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Current Input ◽  
Second Language Teachers ◽  
Curriculum Decision Making ◽  
Education And Development

Programmes for the education of second language teachers necessarily base themselves on conceptions of what learning to be a teacher entails. But surprisingly little study has been devoted to understanding the processes by which second language teachers actually develop their knowledge, or to defining what such knowledge consists of. This paper approaches this issue through a content analysis of data on one aspect of student teachers' professional knowledge: their conceptions of curriculum decision making. Different representations of this knowledge emerge, ranging from schemata which appear inadequately developed to those which seem sufficient to guide curriculum decision- making effectively. Implications are drawn for the education and development of second language teachers, as well as further research in this area. It is argued that current "input-output" models of teacher education can be augmented by "developmental learning" models, if further understanding of language teachers' professional knowledge is obtained.

Distinctiveness and Assimilation in Vowel Perception in a Second Language

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (12) ◽  
pp. 4534-4543
Author(s):  
Wei Hu ◽  
Sha Tao ◽  
Mingshuang Li ◽  
Chang Liu
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Vowel Identification ◽  
Vowel Perception ◽  
Perceptual Distance ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
English Vowels ◽  
Chinese Counterpart ◽  
Vowel Categories

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate how the distinctive establishment of 2nd language (L2) vowel categories (e.g., how distinctively an L2 vowel is established from nearby L2 vowels and from the native language counterpart in the 1st formant [F1] × 2nd formant [F2] vowel space) affected L2 vowel perception. Method Identification of 12 natural English monophthongs, and categorization and rating of synthetic English vowels /i/ and /ɪ/ in the F1 × F2 space were measured for Chinese-native (CN) and English-native (EN) listeners. CN listeners were also examined with categorization and rating of Chinese vowels in the F1 × F2 space. Results As expected, EN listeners significantly outperformed CN listeners in English vowel identification. Whereas EN listeners showed distinctive establishment of 2 English vowels, CN listeners had multiple patterns of L2 vowel establishment: both, 1, or neither established. Moreover, CN listeners' English vowel perception was significantly related to the perceptual distance between the English vowel and its Chinese counterpart, and the perceptual distance between the adjacent English vowels. Conclusions L2 vowel perception relied on listeners' capacity to distinctively establish L2 vowel categories that were distant from the nearby L2 vowels.

Second Language Speech Fluency

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parvaneh Tavakoli ◽  
Clare Wright
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Speech Fluency
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