British Studies Now issue 11
Mark Andrews, British Studies Methodology Advisor,
the British Council, Budapest, and
Uwe Pohl, Teacher Trainer, Centre for English
Teacher Training,
Eötvös Lorand University, Budapest
Introduction |
British Studies for secondary schools |
British Studies + Action Research = teacher development? |
Whose project is it anyway? |
Cultural content explored and taught |
Experiencing a different kind of action
|
Where do we go from here? |
Points of principle for a secondary school-based British Studies project
Introduction
"When someone reflects-in-action he [sic] becomes a researcher in
the practice context" (Schön1983)
We have been involved in an on-going project, British Studies in the Secondary School, which brings together a group of teachers
from all over Hungary. In a sense, what we have been doing over the
past two years is a form of 'action research'. But what exactly is
the meaning of 'action' in the context of a British Studies project? What
or who is the driving force behind it?
The concept of 'action research', though much heralded lately as a developmental
tool for teachers, is not unproblematic in practice. As Wallace (1991,
p. 56) notes, 'to do research properly requires special expertise, a lot
of time, financial resources, and even perhaps [... ] an academic bent'. Action research with an emphasis on adopting the techniques usually
employed by full-time researchers easily becomes the poor cousin of academic
'research'.
In the context of our project we felt strongly that all meaningful teacher
action must above all be anchored in the everyday classroom experience of
the teachers themselves. This is crucial for understanding the teacher's
existing practices, beliefs and constructs. Authentic research in the
context of our project is also about taking into account the importance of
'knowing-in-action' (cf. Schön 1987, p. 25), i.e.
the need for teachers to know and respond in a dynamic fashion, intuitively
and confidently. 'Rules' or 'procedures' of action derived from whatever
model of British Cultural Studies if divorced from the teacher's conceptual
world, will push them into the world of research agendas and academic discourses
and take them away from themselves. Ironically, both British Cultural
Studies discourse and Action Research discourse may therefore alienate rather
than empower, if they are not mediated by a genuine respect for the way
teachers think and articulate their classroom concerns. The challenge for
us has been to find out to what extent teachers might benefit from British
Cultural Studies input: how can they make sense of its related concepts and
practice and use them as part of their English language teaching?
British Studies for Secondary Schools
In the past, little attention has been paid to the Secondary Sector. As
in other countries, British Studies in Hungary is largely understood as an
academic pursuit within university contexts. In Britain itself, it
is rare to find a lecturer with a real interest in finding links between
culture, language teaching and pedagogy. At British Studies conferences,
too, most plenary speakers conveniently ignore school contexts, even though
their audience often contains a large proportion of classroom teachers.
Three related assumptions seem to be lurking behind this stance:
-
British Studies is an academic discipline, and strictly speaking, does not
belong to the domain of the school;
-
teachers' access to British Studies work ought to be regulated by experts
on aspects of contemporary British society
-
passing on British Studies content through lectures for Secondary School
teachers will automatically lead to innovation in their classroom practice.
We do not believe that these assumptions are justified, yet, in most of Eastern
and Central Europe they seem to be all-pervasive. Here we will put forward
a different perspective on British Studies work and suggest some principles
that have become important signposts in our project.
British Studies + Action Research = teacher development?
For us, the key players in the project were non-native teachers whose everyday
work is mainly based on British textbooks and who were looking to British
Studies as another opportunity to make learning English meaningful for their
classes of 14-18 year-olds.
To help amend the status-quo described above the project was geared towards
achieving the following aims:
-
to help a group of experienced English teachers incorporate British Cultural
Studies into their language teaching.
-
to produce materials with a British Cultural Studies dimension that can be
used by other secondary-school teachers in Hungary
-
to raise the profile of cultural content in language teaching
-
to disseminate novel approaches to cultural teaching and learning throughout
the country by liaising with existing pre-service and in-service projects.
We had to build into our project design a less resource-intensive approach
built around action on the part of the teachers which was, above all, practically
feasible. To this end the project participants negotiated and signed
a contract which spelled out their commitments.
Members of the British Council project
Teaching Culture in the Secondary School
are committed to the following:
-
to devise and work with a broad long-term plan which reflects individual
circumstances and preferences; this includes some form of intermediate
lesson-planning and reflective writing (e.g. notes; diary)
-
to carry out regular group involvement tasks, such as maintaining
course correspondence, providing seminar feedback, doing preparatory
or follow-up tasks (reading; assignments);
-
to document all work relating to the project, such as seminar materials
and handouts, key lesson-plans as well as post-lesson reflections
-
to work towards sharing experiences, concerns, ideas as a project group
by networking with others [... ]
This was the kind of action that each member of the group felt that they
could commit themselves to. Arriving at such a commitment was an important
step towards shared ownership of the project.
Whose project is it anyway?
The Central and Eastern European region has become a laboratory for both
ELT and British Studies Projects. However, after 1990, it was necessary
to initiate innovation from outside which was usually implanted within the
paradigm of a British model, imported and developed by British experts. This
is not to say that we deny the value of bringing in external British Studies
expertise. In fact our project has benefited greatly from this. Early on, John McRae from Nottingham University, for example, encouraged
the teachers to explore the interface between language, literature and culture
in their classrooms. Other consultants committed to a pedagogy of
educational change were invited when they had a specific role in the dynamics
of the project. For example, a series of observations by Alan Pulverness,
a teacher trainer from Norwich, formed the basis for group discussions around
the following points:
-
What resources would be required to enable teachers and students to assess
the relative significance of representations of everyday life in Britain
(or elsewhere)?
-
How might students be helped to develop a similar degree of sensitivity to
the connotations of other cultural contexts as they have for those in their
own environments
-
What opportunities might exist for thoroughly integrating language work with
cultural learning.
-
Does this imply a need for different materials or simply a different
approach to lesson planning?
Questions like these have become a key element of the evolving framework
of thought and action within which the teachers' development is grounded. This framework evolves because of the interplay between the teachers'
own perceptions, motivation and developmental needs and the input received
through the project group.
In his final report, which was also read by the teachers, Alan noted 'the
resourcefulness which already exists among the teachers in the project -
and their students.' He went on to say. 'Clearly different teachers
with different students in different school environments are developing their
practice in ways that suit their particular circumstances."
Cultural content explored and taught
Interviews earlier this year revealed specific aspects of classroom'action'that
our project members would like to explore. Most have also started to
engage in action within the context of their schools or region as the following
comments about individualising their work shows:
Rita: Working with statistics; grammar, literature; running cultural
workshops for secondary school teachers.
Livia: How to combine the teaching of grammar with cultural learning:
how do my trainees respond?
Outi: [... ] Hidden potential of ready-made materials; helping students
think logically, not haphazardly. Running an English club [...]
At our joint meetings, teachers have been presenting examples of such work
and their personal insights, questions and problems. For the project
group as a whole, this has become an exciting and instructive way of monitoring
how each member tries to accommodate new approaches and new content with
their existing classroom arrangements.
Especially in the content domain the British Cultural Studies angle has been
well represented, as findings from sociology, ethnography and cultural theory
have clearly informed the teachers' thinking about 'culture' as reflected
in their practice.
The teachers have been observing quite closely and systematically the effect
of working with such new content on every aspect of their classroom life,
from the way the students respond to activities and materials, to the quality
of the teacher-student/student-student relationship. This has brought
with it a new educational consciousness, i.e. an awareness of their roles
as teachers of language and educators of young people within the Hungarian
school system. Such concern for their own and the students' linguistic,
cognitive and social development has in fact moved the teachers towards a
model of classroom research that Allwright (1991, p. 2) calls 'exploratory
teaching': 'the exploitation of pedagogic activities for the purpose of helping
teachers and learners better understand language learning and teaching."
This notion of teacher research seems particularly appropriate in the context
of a British Studies project which has encouraged teachers to experiment
with cultural content in a principled way and on their own terms. It also allows teachers who'reflect-in-action' to remain teachers and develop
as their thinking reshapes what they are doing while they are doing it.
(Schön
, 1987, pp. 26-27)
Experiencing a different kind of 'action'
From the project point-of-view, it was essential to give the teachers some
form of extended experience of contemporary Britain. For us, British
Cultural Studies must include an experiential dimension and involve emotional
engagement as well as cognitive analysis. Otherwise, key concepts remain
abstract and divorced from lived experience. Collecting authentic materials
for further processing was also important if the materials development objective
of the project is to be achieved. Finally, we expected that a study trip
would greatly enhance the teachers'standing vis-a-vis their schools, students
and colleagues.
If teachers had been to Britain before, it was not with the conscious aim
of deepening their understanding of 'Britishness' or what it is like to be
in the role of 'participant observers'. This is why in November 1997
Michael Byram from Durham University introduced the group to the principles
and techniques of ethnography. Here are some of the questions which
teachers raised before the study trip:
-
How free are we going to be in deciding what to do and how to do it while
in Britain?
-
Besides the host family, what kind of other opportunities will we have to
contact
British people in an organised way?
-
Should I discuss the British Cultural Studies project with my students? Shall 1 tell them what I am doing at the moment and what's coming up
next?
As course leaders, we did not impose an a priori theoretical framework
on the teachers' investigations of 'Britishness'. On the other hand, we did
want them to find a way of uncovering the underlying values, beliefs and
attitudes of different British people.
When we were discussing this as a group, the teachers themselves came up
with the idea to contextualise whatever topics they chose to work on within
the dimensions of tradition, gender, region, age, values and class. We
used the graphic representation of a 'cake metaphor' to illustrate how the
dimensions they had identified blended into each of their particular areas
of interest:
Where do we go from here?
At that point the teachers did not, however, identify ethnicity' as another
important category. So, although the actual residential experience
took place in Plymouth, we decided to pick up on this by organising
a visit to a multi-ethnic school in Bristol. In the preparation period
most teachers also identified areas which were of particular interest to
their students. Apart from the teacher and student agendas, we wanted the
group to investigate aspects of Britishness on a national level which were
particularly relevant in 1998.
We called this angle 'Snapshot Britain' and included expressions like 'Zero
Tolerance', 'Eurosceptic', 'The Millennium Dome', 'Cool Britannia' and 'Welfare
to Work'.
We are now in the process of digesting the impact of the visit to Britain
within the context of the overall project. Everybody has produced extensive
written evaluations of the Plymouth experience and the way they see their
development over the past two years. All teachers pointed out the tangible
benefits of the study trip, such as a wealth of raw materials.
One project member also wrote: 'I feel my concept of 'Britishness' has deepened
and the issues 1 was reading and thinking about have become real because
1 have seen how they are reflected in people's lives. 1 am now working on
transforming all this into actual teaching material, which I would like to
use with my students and also share with other members of the project group."
Another teacher refers to the value of seeing a different educational context
at work: "Altogether this trip has been an encouraging experience and I have
been reassured that an open, listening, responsible and caring attitude is
that which should be supported and taught in Hungary.' All of these features
will enrich the action plans of the project members in the near future.
Points of principle for a Secondary School-based British Studies
project
Finally, we would like to summarise the beliefs and insights that we gained
from the project experience in a number of principles. A British Studies
project that is seriously concerned with educational innovation and lasting
change at school level may benefit from the following working principles
:
-
Rebranding 'Britain' as new content is not in itself going to lead to meaningful
cultural learning.
-
The project must situate itself in and draw on the wider social-educational
context of a society, its existing national curriculum and its framework
for pre-service and in-service teacher education. It needs to engage
with the people who are already active in this as well as with teachers whose
initial commitment cannot stretch further than the classroom.
-
Working with existing/dominant representations and perceptions of (British)
culture (in coursebooks; teachers' and students' constructs) is a central
element of the project methodology.
-
The perspective of the classroom learner is represented at all key decisions
of the project group.
-
The project design allows for implicit and explicit modelling of learning
processes, group dynamics and the impact of techniques and activities.
-
It is vital to make sure that the ownership of the project is reviewed by
all project participants on a regular basis.
-
Attending to the changes in project members themselves is as important as
dealing with changes in British Culture.
A final comment on the dynamics of the project from a management point of
view. We now feel it is fortunate that a BC British Studies specialist with
a background in ELT and a local teacher trainer with a background in Cultural
Studies have come to manage the project jointly. Each represented two
different 'constituencies' and emphases. Yet this inherent tension
became productive in so far as it was tempered by our willingness to negotiate
generously on issues and decisions for which there are no readily available
models. We think this is one of the reasons why the project has remained
faithful to the aims of both British Studies and Teacher Development.
There is much work to be done in our project and we are looking forward to
it. We would also be pleased to hear from anybody who would like to
share their views and experiences concerning projects of this kind.
Bibliography
Schön, D., Educating the reflective practitioner: towards a new
design for teaching and learning in the professions, Jossey-Bass,
1987
Wallace, M. J., Training foreign language teachers, Cambridge University
Press, 1991
Allright, R. L. and Bailey, K. M., Focus on the language classroom,
Cambridge University Press, 1991
© Mark Andrews and Uwe Pohl 1999
Permission must be sought from the authors before reproducing this work and
due acknowledgment given both to the authors and the British Council
Give feedback to the authors by e-mail:
mandrews@sis.elte.hu
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