Since attending this lesson I’ve been thinking about what a teacher’s role in implementing change that goes beyond the classroom is, and the impact this could have on society. This idea is known as Critical reflection. Critical reflection is reflection beyond practice, whereby a teacher looks beyond the classroom and the school. According to Farrell (2018, p95) critical reflection “entails exploring and examining the moral, political and social issues that impact a teacher’s practice both inside and outside the classroom”. Therefore as teachers, we should be analysing and questioning established assumptions about ourselves, the school we work at and the social and political implications of schooling. Lui (2015) as discussed in Nancy’s talk, adds a more social justice perspective to Farrell’s idea of critical reflection. Lui advocates the idea of implementing changes to work towards a better experience for students, a better school and a better society overall.
As part of my preparation for this lesson I read a study by Goulah (2017) about Climate Change and TESOL.The study looks at the field of TESOL needing to respond to the growing problems of climate change. The study involved looking at religious adolescent English language learners curricular engagement with climate change to understand how it affects their language acquisition and literacies development. It also looked beyond these ideas, and included the affects on epistemological development and religious expression. Even though religion and spirituality are acknowledged in education, there is still an uneasiness about how to deal with moral and spiritual values and incorporating controversial issues into the classroom. The adolescents in this study did not believe in the theory of climate change because it wasn’t in the Bible and they felt it could not be proved. The teacher was able to use a number of different strategies and incorporate both religion and climate change into the classroom. He gave the students the space and time to explore possible connections between religion and climate change. This led to some students being able to express links between their faith and climate change. They were able to see the personal benefits of a greener society as well as the contribution they could make to society and the planet overall.
As a teacher I feel it’s important to be open minded and look at a students point of view as well as our colleagues and our own. This can be difficult to do at times if I don’t agree with something that occurs within the classroom or the school. Some of the critical incidents I might be involved in are when my beliefs are not inline with a student’s ideas or their own cultural norms. I have been in a position where an Arabic male refused to work with an Arabic woman during class. When I asked him why, he said it was against his culture. Within that class I could facilitate this and organise a different pair, but I didn’t feel happy about it. When I discussed it with my colleagues there seemed to be different perspectives on this. Some agreed with me that even though we didn’t like it, if I was able to facilitate within the classroom then I should. Others felt that because the student was learning at a school in Britain they should fall in line with the way we do things here. There didn’t seem to be a clear cut answer, including from management, so I kept with my initial decision of them not working together, but I honestly wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing or not.
Critical reflection calls for teachers to be critical of theorists and authority. Questioning managers, theorists and those that write the course books and be able to have judgements of our own. I agree with this in theory, however, I think this could be very difficult to carry out in practise. I can feel powerless to question for a number of reasons, sometimes just being on a zero hours contract might makes me not want to ‘rock the boat’. I feel this puts me in a moral predicament.
Further reflection
- The third critical incident I have written about ties in with the difficulties I have about questioning my manager. Even though I did find the courage to discuss my concerns I felt very uncomfortable and anxious about doing so.
- During the pandemic I have felt lucky still have a job. So many language teachers haven’t been as fortunate. Questioning authority figures has felt even more difficult and I have felt in a much more vulnerable position. The focus has been much more on ‘getting through’ teaching in these very different times and finding ways to this as best we possibly can. Voicing my opinion that I really don’t think hybrid teaching works doesn’t feel like something I can raise. What would be the alternative? Personally I would rather have mixed level classes and teach a whole class all online or/and a whole class in the physical classroom. In fairness, it was recently acknowledged by the DOS that he feels the students don’t get a great lesson with hybrid teaching. However, it was agreed with the principle that we should still do this to allow all students access to lessons until they can be present in the physical classroom. Unfortunately, I still haven’t felt able to voice my true feelings. Although I think this is more to do with my own confidence.
References
Farrell, T (2017) Beyond Practice. In T. Farrell Research on Reflective Practice. [e-book] New York: Routledge.
Goulah, J. (2017) Climate Change and TESOL: Language, Literacies, and the Creation of Eco-Ethical Consciousness. TESOL Quarterly. 51: 1, 90-114