Aspectos históricos de la aplicación de la tomografía

The following section will look into how the identified data had an impact on the development of interventions in terms of strategy, content and delivery.

Areas to be addressed during the First Intervention

A number of issues in relation to the teaching population in the UAE needed to be considered before making any decision towards the interventions to be developed. These can be further reviewed in detail in the Context of the Study, but can be summarised below

Teacher Population

The teacher population was non-homogeneous in terms of teachers’ educational, social and contextual backgrounds. Any developed intervention should not assume that teachers had similar backgrounds, interests or needs. It should rather make use of the differences and encourage opportunities to exchange ideas and experiences.

Teachers’ Qualifications

The majority of the teaching force did not hold a teaching qualification. This meant that teachers did not have a well-established background in teaching practices. Their adopted methodology was mainly developed as a by-product of work.

Nature of Professional Development Input

The most common source of professional development input teachers received was through an external provider during regional promotional events and in the form of workshops. No follow up or support was provided to ensure that session objectives were met.

Teachers’ Language Proficiency

The language proficiency level of teachers was relatively low; this made it difficult for them to pursue common international qualifications such as the Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA), or the Diploma in English Language Teaching to Adults (DELTA).

Teachers’ Economic Status

The economic status of teachers restricted their ability to pursue degrees in education that supported their teaching profession.

Teacher Preparedness to Teach

The local teaching force, although generally less experienced than the expatriate teaching force, was better prepared to become teachers. However, they were a considerable minority in the teaching population.

Teacher Ability to use Technology

Although the majority of the teaching population classified themselves as being either beginner or intermediate users of technology, only a few teachers actually practiced using technology in the classroom. Their use was mainly restricted to the use of PowerPoint presentations: no active or effective use of technology was taking place. This was either due to technological limitations or restrictions imposed by their supervisors. Therefore, any intervention developed would need to be realistic in terms of what teachers wanted to do, and what they could actually do by offering alternatives that were accommodating to what was evidently available in the classroom.

Teachers’ Interests versus Students’ Interests

There was a growing gap between what teachers assumed would be most appropriate to help engage students in a more productive learning opportunity, and what students were actually interested in being involved in. This was mainly in relation to how learning opportunities were delivered to students and how students responded to them.

Mentoring Approach

There was no constructive or systematic approach in the mentoring strategies devised. The relationship between teachers and their mentors or supervisors was highly hierarchical. Teachers were expected to abide by what their supervisors recommended, which was often restrictive to what teachers could or wanted to practice.

Differences in Educational Practices among Non-native Teachers

Training schemes adopted and implemented by external professional providers working with the Ministry of Education on the development of the teaching force, came pre- packaged without properly defining the characteristics of the teaching force or understanding the teaching context or educational culture. It was commonly assumed that non-native speaking English teachers in the UAE had similar interests and needs to English teachers from the EU. However, this research was able to identify the key differences between language teachers in the UAE and the EU, which is how teacher needs were addressed in a more effective manner.

In constructing interventions, it was useful to note the key differences between learning opportunities offered to non-native speaking teachers coming from the EU and those

offered to teachers from the UAE and more widely in the Arab world. These conclusions mainly relate to two sets of people experienced during the phases of the research and conclusions introduced can be offered as an example. These differences can be summarised in the table below:

Table 5.1: Comparison Between Educational Cultures in the EU and the Arab World

Criteria EFL Teachers from

the EU EFL Teachers from the AW Pre-service

Teacher Training All appointed language teachers undergo official teacher training

Teachers graduate as subject specialists and begin their teaching career with limited or no teacher training

Post Graduate

training A range of opportunities exist for teachers interested in being involved in official training schemes to develop their teaching practices

Limited professional development opportunities aimed towards developing teachers’ practices are available

Availability of

funded training Teachers are often eligible for several funded training opportunities during their period of service

No available funded professional development schemes

Exposure to

Native Language More exposure on a regular and irregular basis due to the proximity of the UK

Limited exposure due to financial and geographical constraints

Attitude towards

change Generally open and more willing to experiment with new strategies that would help enrich students’ learning opportunity

Conservative and hesitant towards change Hierarchy, micro politics within educational system Hierarchy often coupled with collegial culture

Strong presence and consideration of seniority in the educational

structure. Teachers are led by a supervisor who works as a mentor

Criteria EFL Teachers from

the EU EFL Teachers from the AW Professional development opportunities; type, consistency and follow up Multiple sources of structured and non- structured professional development strategies (Wang et al., 2008): -Workshops -Mentors -Collaborative learning -Peer Observations -Content-focused teacher induction -Pedagogical- focused induction Induction and learning opportunities are done on a regular basis and assessed based on teachers ability to effectively implement and use newly adopted strategies. Multiple sources of unstructured professional development strategies: - Workshops - Supervisors - - - - - Content focused induction - - -

Induction and learning opportunities are done on an irregular basis and rarely assessed for effectiveness.

Freedom of

practice Teachers are encouraged to apply newly recommended strategies in hope of enriching the learning opportunity for students. Teachers can work effectively with their mentors.

Teachers refrain from applying the majority of recommended strategies unless advised by the supervisor. Teachers work along lines recommended by their supervisors.

Educational

Emphasis Enriching the learning opportunity to ensure that students have an effective learning experience

Enriching the teaching process to ensure that curriculum standards are being met

Teaching

Approach Based on the use of multiple resources while being guided by a set of standards and at some point a

curriculum

Based on the use of a single resource which represents the curriculum standards. Limited

opportunity to use multiple resources.

The above table attempts to outline some key differences between the educational and professional cultures of employed teachers in the EU and the Arab world. Based on my observations as a practitioner researcher and teacher, these differences have a strong

impact on teachers’ learning opportunities before and during employment. Teachers in the Arab world have limited opportunities to receive structured professional development input that is based on their actual needs. Additionally, teachers in the Arab world have limited funding opportunities that allow for more intensive learning experiences on both a social and professional level. Due to the limited opportunities available and the nature of constructed work relationships, teachers in the Arab world are less receptive to change, more conservative towards sharing their views and experiences, and have a tendency to focus more on the actual teaching process rather than the learning that takes place. As in the EU and the Arab world, schools are organised as bureaucratic hierarchies. However, in the EU there is a cultural value put on collaboration between colleagues and individual professional development that is not present in many schools in the Arab world.

Teachers from the EU often have multiple sources of professional development that assist them in the choices they make about more effective teaching practices. As Ingersoll and Smith (2004) note, multiple sources of input provided to teachers has a crucial impact on the decisions teachers make towards their teaching patterns and approach. Teachers from the Arab world do not have this and are limited to the input received from their seniors and supervisors, which does not provide an opportunity to make choices about the most effective teaching practices they might find appropriate. Teachers within the Arab culture work within authoritarian micro-political structures. This reiterates against the openness to change. Differences also indicate the need to develop independent training programmes that specifically address the needs and interests of teachers from the UAE. It also explains why pre-packaged training programmes may be insufficient to address the needs of teachers in the UAE.