The Baby in the Bathwater

This chapter is informed by the author's experiences of teaching English as a Second or Other Language (ESOL) before moving on to teach English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Accordingly, it is shaped by the laments of ESOL practitioners at their perceived Cinderella status and an understanding that EAP teaching is regarded by much of the academic community as support work. Qualifications in EAP per se are not awarded, but rather, like scaffolding, language teaching sits alongside a student's principal course of study. Most EAP teachers have provided scaffolding to the educational edifice at a range of levels spanning compulsory and post-compulsory education. This affords a unique perspective on what teaching looks like at different levels. Founded on a familiarity with pedagogy at other levels then, the chapter draws on personal insights into teaching practices at universities and posits that certain characteristics of teaching younger learners might be equally effective in EAP and throughout the post-compulsory context. After all, pedagogy, the term used to describe teaching throughout educational levels, derives from the Greek “paid,” meaning child, and “agogus,” meaning leader. Thus, pedagogy literally means “the art and science of teaching children” (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 2012).

Philosophies, Traditional Pedagogy, and New Technologies

This chapter reports on a study of teachers in transition, developing their practice and their cognitions regarding the integration of learning technologies with traditional approaches to the teaching of English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Taking a case study approach, it examines developments in the practice of three teachers during and after a teacher education programme on the use of technology in the EAP classroom. This is a study of cognition, teaching philosophy, and the relationship between pedagogy, technology, and content, and how teachers situate these within their own practice. The setting is the rapidly changing UK higher education environment, where the speed of change is such that today's latest fashions and gadgets may well be yesterday's news tomorrow. Thus, this is not a tale of individual technologies or tools to make teachers' lives better. This is a story of people, of pedagogy's traditional values intersecting with technology, and the issues arising from this, alongside the evolution of strategies for dealing with these issues.

A Case Study of Transformational Teaching Experiences of Higher Education Faculty in the United States

This chapter is a study of teacher experience amongst higher education faculty in the United States, drawing on a theoretical framework shaped by Mezirow's transformative learning theory, which first emerged in the late 1970s and has seen subsequent adaptations. Mixed-method research was used to analyze data on the transformational teaching experiences of faculty and examine the narratives of teacher experience based on this transformative learning theory framework. Data collected from 90 higher education faculty members were analyzed with regard to their transformational teaching experiences. Results indicate that the majority of faculty experienced transformational teaching. Mentoring, dialogue, critical reflection, personal reflection, scholarship, and research emerged as the educational factors shaping these experiences while relocation or movement, life changes, and other cultural influences were revealed as the non-educational factors. In addition to this, the chapter entails discussion of the theoretical framework of transformative learning as it applies to this research.

Preschool Teacher Identity

The teaching process cannot be simplified to definitions of the best teachers as those possessing certain desirable teaching behaviours and skills (Katz, 2002). Although there are numerous factors that significantly influence learning and teaching, one might agree that specific teaching roles dominantly determine the quality of preschool teaching processes and learning outcomes. Furthermore, two equally important dimensions that characterize teaching roles, as linked with concepts of identity, are professional and personal dimensions. Therefore, one might be wondering: Who are contemporary preschool teachers? How do they define their self and identity? What determines identity that preschool teachers describe as theirs? Consequently, how do these identities influence the quality of process of early and preschool care and education? Answering these questions is no easy task since the concept of identity is defined in various ways in the more general literature (Beijaard, Meijer, & Verloop, 2004). This chapter is focused on an analysis of preschool teacher identity from three specific aspects. First, since all identity models emphasize the cultural context within which preschool teachers' identity develops and its crucial role, contemporary changes in preschool teacher roles and a new study program called Early and Preschool Teacher Education and Care are analysed in the Croatian context. Secondly, in order to follow contemporary literature, theoretical models of identity are presented. Afterwards, based on such models, the personality traits and temperament of research participants are analysed within the context of preschool teacher identity. Finally, the chapter's third section analyses preschool teachers' values, motives, and narratives.

Teaching English Literature to a Heterogeneous Class

Teaching English Literature to an increasingly heterogeneous class is proving to be a major challenge in recent years, especially with the emphasis on inclusive higher education in India. The differences in educational experiences and socio-cultural background mean that both the learners and the teachers bring to the classroom certain ideas and expectations. A lack of awareness of the socio-cultural relevance of what is being taught, to whom, and how might lead to miscommunication and frustration among the teachers and the learners. The communication gap that exists between producers and receivers of a text can be attributed primarily to linguistic differences and cultural gaps. This chapter addresses some critical questions related to pedagogical interpretations and actions in the classroom: How to teach diverse learners in a complex culturally diverse setting? What challenges do teachers face in importing a foreign literature and how can they make this more relevant and meaningful in a different cultural context? How can classrooms be more interactive and communicative given the fact that students are expressing themselves in a language that for the majority of them is not their first language? This chapter is based on secondary rather than primary research, but it draws on the author's extensive experience of teaching English Literature to college and university students. It highlights the necessity to question the traditional paradigms within which we teach and learn English and also suggests some ways to tackle this problem and to further understand the broader socio-cultural context wherein meaning is contextually determined and constructed.

The Role of Blogging in a Changing Society

Educational blogs have remained a noteworthy component, even in an age of rapid technological development. The chapter makes an in-depth description of the blogging phenomenon as it tackles the most important findings of the international literature. It provides insights into the connection between teacher identity, within the context of higher education, by incorporating aspects of theory and practice. The practical tone reports on three case studies on the use of blogs in education. A set of evaluation criteria on blogging for educational purposes and a theoretical framework for utilizing blogging as a problem solving approach are addressed. Moreover, it stresses necessity for the development of a pedagogical framework that will guide blog integration as a learning-cognitive tool in achieving specific learning outcomes. The results underscore the importance of essential training for the effective implementation of educational blogging in teaching and learning environments. A compendium of terms, definitions and explanations of concepts are clearly explained.

Challenging Traditions

In this chapter, the author presents the case of Mariana, a Uruguayan non-native speaking teacher of English working at Lake Primary School in Uruguay. This chapter describes an action research process during which the author and a colleague reconstructed the experience of introducing a new approach to the teaching of emergent literacy with six-year-olds. In order to generate data, apart from holding a series of interviews and class observations, they engaged in Cooperative Development sessions (Edge, 2002, p. 18) using the framework to engage in “a mixture of awareness-raising and disciplined discourse” as a further means of facilitating the understanding of professional development processes. During and after the data generation period, the author analysed the data and shared the interpretations with her colleague, who examined them critically, adding her own views and clarifying as necessary. In the midst of the explorations of pedagogical experiences, the author and her colleague allowed other discourses to emerge, and were thus able to draw conclusions regarding Mariana's identity as a non-native speaking teacher, her ability to deal with change and innovation, her relationship with peers, as well as her newly-discovered roles as researcher, leader, and change agent.

African American Women, Education, and Self-Actualization

Americans cling to the mythology that education is the great social equalizer with the power to lift members of society out of poverty and to overcome gender and racial discrimination. In turn, American society becomes more harmonious, more equitable, and more democratic as a result of having an educated citizenry. The experiences of two African American women in higher education, particularly in religious institutions, offer a counter-narrative to the persisting mythology. Using a combination of secondary research and personal narrative, the authors posit that American education embodies ongoing institutionalized political, social, and economic injustices. The chapter presents through vignettes, the African American women's first-hand experiences, which potentially are representative of a broader constituency of American academics whose life and work experiences have been affected by their race and gender.

On Returning to Pakistan after Studying in the UK

This chapter is based on life-story interviews of three Pakistani teachers who came to the UK to pursue higher education (i.e. PhD). The chapter focuses on their lives in the UK and how this experience influenced their life, attitude, and behaviour after they went back home. Drawing on Bourdieu's notion of habitus as the analytic tool, the present study focuses on, firstly, the dilemma faced by these teachers in the UK due to the cultural and educational differences, and how each of them learned to cope with it. Secondly, the present study looks at the dilemma faced by these teachers upon their return home after acquiring education and spending five years of their life in the UK and how they continue to struggle to cope with it. The chapter aims to understand and highlight the identity crisis faced by the participants due to their experiences in two completely different cultures.

Getting Personal

For educators, understanding what draws an individual to the teaching profession and, arguably more importantly, what keeps them there, involves recognition of how one's professional identity is located in the classroom. This chapter presents the findings of a pilot study focused on qualitative data stemming from an autoethnographic approach in which one author's own narrative of ‘professional identity' is presented alongside several teaching colleagues at the Eynesbury Institute of Business and Technology (EIBT) in South Australia. EIBT offers full fee-paying pre-university pathways for predominantly international students entering one of two partner universities; The University of Adelaide or The University of South Australia. The multiplicity of social, cultural, and educational factors that have influenced the professional identity of these higher education lecturers are shared with the main objective being self-reflection and collaborative action for learning and teaching improvement.