The transformation of teachers existing dispositions of conformity and reproduction, to dispositions of creativity, innovation, risk-taking and experimentation, can be achieved through different processes of inculcation. In literature inculcation processes relating to the awakening of consciousness are associated with different forms of learning and reflection. Fullan (1995) for instance argues that change is a journey or process involving teachers learning, which for Hargreaves et al. (2001) involves both intellectual and emotional work. Alternatively, Opfer and Pedder (2011) argue, conscious awaking requires problematising existing ways of being and believing to bring teachers to the edge of their meaning-making systems, which can be achieved through reflection. Literature regarding reflection and teacher learning is thus reviewed.
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The awakening of consciousness occurs for Opfer and Pedder (2011), through the
interaction and intersection of knowledge, beliefs, practises and experiences. They (Opfer and Pedder, 2011) argue teachers need to confront and problematise (Fataar and Feldman, 2016) their existing ways of being and believing (Hargreaves et al., 2001), and from this produce cognitive conflict or dissonance between their perception of the ideal and their current capabilities, approaches or perceptions (Fullan, 2001; Opfer and Pedder, 2011). The cognitive conflict or dissonance that arises from problematising existing practices, beliefs or perceptions (Opfer and Pedder, 2011), brings teachers to the edge of chaos (Fullan, 2001; Opfer and Pedder, 2011) where creativity resides, and where higher levels of adaptability, mutation and experimentation can lead to unique and novel solutions (Fullan, 2001). At the point of chaos, dissonance and disequilibrium that arises between teachers’ current
capabilities, skills, beliefs and knowledge, and the ideal, provides the impetus to change “what they believe, know, and know how to do” (Opfer and Pedder, 2011, p. 388). Although a theoretically sound description of conscious awakening, researchers have questioned various elements of this approach and its applicability for teachers in developing countries. Conscious awakening through dissonance and cognitive conflict relies on teachers’
capacities to problematise and reflect on existing practice, processes that cannot be
assumed universal or inherent in teachers. Reflection is widely recognised (McWhinney and Markos, 2003; Berger, 2004; Hicks, Berger and Generett, 2005; Tinsley and Lebak, 2009; Herrington, Parker and Boase-Jelinek, 2014) as a tool to bring teachers to the edge of chaos and allow individual teachers and groups to examine, reinterpret and reassess existing beliefs, practices and experiences (Tennant, 2005). However, O’Sullivan (2002) cautions that western reflective approaches cannot be assumed relevant to all teachers. In her work with Namibian teachers, O’Sullivan (2002) found that teachers who have not been exposed to the practices and theory of reflection, struggled to reflect on their pedagogic practices, beliefs or experiences. This finding echoes the challenges Fataar and Feldman (2016) experienced in their work with teachers from disadvantaged schools in South Africa. They note:
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“…we discovered that the teachers seemed unable to provide clear descriptions of their actual pedagogical practices. Instead, they displayed a limited vocabulary to problematise and discuss the central aspects of their teaching.” (Fataar and Feldman, 2016, p. 103)
In order to achieve conscious awakening, it may be more beneficial to develop teachers’ capacity to problematise existing practices and reflect on particular pedagogic techniques, rather assuming that such capacities are already in place. Hargreaves et al. (2001) suggest that TPD/4ETs should be systematically designed and to make the intellectual and emotional work of learning explicit. Explicit and systematic reflective learning is thus suggested for inclusion in a potential TPD4ETs model, as means to achieve conscious awakening. This may include activities in which teachers can problematise existing practice in order to revise and rethink educational beliefs, practices or perceptions (Hargreaves et al., 2001; Vetter, 2012; Pareja Roblin et al., 2018) and uncover values and interests (Vetter, 2012). However, as Fataar and Feldman (2016) indicated, language adds an additional complexity to reflection in TPDETs. English, although not always teachers’ home language, is generally the LOLT in TPD/4ETs in the Western Cape province where this study is situated. However, reflection often requires higher cognitive language skills (Kapp, 2004), and the vocabulary or linguistic proficiency to articulate central aspects of teaching. Hence, to mediate reflective learning, the Teaching Change Frame (TCF) (Tarling and Ng’ambi, 2016) is suggested as potential reflective tool, providing teachers with descriptors and the vocabulary to describe their current teaching and learning practices as situated within or across the different quadrants of the TCF.
The awakening of consciousness can also be achieved through different forms of teacher learning which researchers (Guskey, 2002, 2014; Darling-Hammond et al., 2009; Twining et al., 2013; Tondeur, van Braak, et al., 2016) identify as essential to improve the quality of teaching (Fishman et al., 2003; Penuel et al., 2007; Desimone, 2009; Parsons et al., 2016). Teacher learning is understood as socially embedded activities (Avgerou, 2010) and
contextually situated in teachers’ daily lives and working conditions (Desimone, 2009, 2011; Opfer and Pedder, 2011) and based in discourse and community practice (Lave and Wenger,
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1991; Putnam and Borko, 2000; Opfer and Pedder, 2011). Teacher learning involves
processes of self-organisation through which the individual habitus constructs meaning and structures new dispositions, and processes of enculturation (Cobb, 1994; Desimone, 2009) through which the individual interacts with others and participates in cultural practice, inculcating shared meaning within the collective pedagogic habitus.
Different forms of teacher learning are identified in research. Learning that emphasizes teachers’ content and pedagogical knowledge (Desimone, 2009; Parsons et al., 2013) is collectively referred to as professional learning. The purpose of professional learning is twofold (Twining et al., 2013): to support and enhance existing teaching practices, aligning with structures of the field to increase the flow of cultural capital; and to develop new understandings of the role of knowledge, the teacher and learners, and even the school in transformation of learning (Koehler et al., 2011; Twining et al., 2013; Glover et al., 2016). Since teachers learn most effectively when they actively engage (Putnam and Borko, 2000; Garet et al., 2001) with materials and pedagogical processes “that reflect how they should teach” (Opfer and Pedder, 2011, p. 385), identifying the need for active learning (Desimone, 2009; Parsons et al., 2013). Through active learning, teachers manipulate and experience physical and virtual materials and tools, the actual application of transformative ET integration (Twining et al., 2013; Tondeur, Forkosh-Baruch, et al., 2016), and develop
different perspectives at more complex levels (Major and Ayrton, 2016). Active learning also includes opportunities for teachers to develop teaching plans and resources that are
contextually relevant to their needs (Hargreaves et al., 2001; Tondeur, Forkosh-Baruch, et al., 2016). Engagement in active learning fosters commitment (Meyer, 2010) and buy-in (Parsons et al., 2016) and having experienced and learnt from the actual application of transformative ET integration, teachers may be more open to implementing TPD4ETs-goals in their classrooms.
Additionally, conscious awakening can be achieved through relational learning (Meyer, 2010) and learning to collaborate. While active and professional learning may involve greater intellectual work, relational learning may involve more emotional work (Hargreaves et al., 2001). Researchers (Twining et al., 2013; Parsons et al., 2016; Tondeur, Forkosh-
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Baruch, et al., 2016) emphasize the need to use ETs to foster cultures of sharing and collaboration at local level, and across locations using social networks to share ideas and examples of good practice (Tondeur, Forkosh-Baruch, et al., 2016), encourage collegial support and increase the likelihood of ongoing growth and change (Parsons et al., 2016). Collaborative cultures can develop a shared meaning of change in general (Hargreaves et al., 2001) and specific to this study, how transformative integration of ETs may impact existing teaching and learning practices and experiences, curriculum delivery and assessment (Hargreaves et al., 2001; Vetter, 2012; Pareja Roblin et al., 2018). Although the strengths and value of professional collaboration are widely acknowledged (Lortie, 1975; Hargreaves et al., 2001; Darling-Hammond, 2010; Talbert, 2010; Twining et al., 2013), deep-seated traditions of teacher isolation (Lortie, 1975; Fullan, 1995; Hargreaves et al., 2001) limit collaboration between teachers (Hargreaves et al., 2001; Talbert, 2010; Twining et al., 2013). As with reflective learning, it is therefore suggested relational learning be explicitly and systematically included in TPD4ETs, that not only prepares teacher to collaborate, but to share, interact and support each other using online collaborative tools.
A fifth process to achieve conscious awakening, transformational learning (Meyer, 2010), remains largely unexplored in literature. Footprints of transformational learning are strewn throughout educational change literature. Fullan (1995) calls for the development of core capacities of creative thinking, committed action and skills needed to contend with the forces of change. Similarly, Hargreaves et al. (2001) associate the intellectual work of change with high levels of creativity, technical skills and knowledge to solve open-ended questions and alter existing teaching and learning practices. Although often conflated, Bateson and Martin (2013) define creativity as capacities to generate original and novel ideas and behaviours using divergent thinking processes, and innovation as using
convergent thinking processes (Guilford, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1966) to develop practical steps to implement creative thoughts and behaviours. Dispositions to create and innovate as suggested by Fullan (1995) and Hargreaves et al. (2001), capacitates teachers to be
adaptable, flexible and fluent (Torrance, 1993; Sternberg, 2006; Bateson and Martin, 2013) when confronted with challenges, to create novel solutions and practical steps to
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implement such solutions. Hence, professional, active and relational learning should be designed to develop teachers’ ability to create and innovate as means to develop
dispositions of creativity and innovation. However, evidence from the repeated failure to effect largescale and sustained change teaching and learning practices, globally and in South Africa, suggests that an emphasis on creativity and innovation may not be adequate to prepare teachers to change.
In order to prepare teachers to change, a conscious awakening process of transformational learning is suggested that deliberately, explicitly and systematically prepares teachers to change. Although reflective learning may bring teachers to the edge of chaos (Fullan, 2001; Opfer and Pedder, 2011), once at the edge, there appears an assumption in literature that teachers are capable of designing, enacting and managing change processes. Instead, the process of change, Berger (2004) argues, is captured in the journey from the edge of chaos and every step beyond that. Berger (2004) describes the process of change as a movement from what is known across an unchartered, undefined space, the liminal zone, to the not- yet-known and un-experienced. Transformation, she argues, surpasses the superficial adding of knowledge or skills, but concerns a redefinition of the way that one knows and a re-shaping of how meaning is made (Berger, 2004; Hicks, Berger and Generett, 2005; Baily, Stribling and McGowan, 2014), requiring “changes not just what [someone] thinks, but how he or she thinks about things” (Berger, 2004, p. 340). Transformational learning involves the systematic and explicit inclusion of processes within a TPD/4ETs design, to a) bring teachers to the edge or threshold (Berger, 2004) of their meaning-making systems, b) support their crossing of this threshold into the liminal zone, and c) support their journey across the liminal zone that systematically and explicitly prepares teachers to plan and manage change processes following their engagement in the TPD/4ETs. Hence, transformational learning not only supports the transformation of teachers’ dispositions within the TPD/4ETs process, but also thereafter, increasing the sustainability of change (Tondeur, Forkosh-Baruch, et al., 2016).
Transformational learning is an emergent process. Although Hargreaves et al. (2001) argue teachers should articulate clear reasons for change, and describe, alone or in a group, what
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changed practices look like in their classrooms, it may not be feasible for teachers, who have rarely if ever experienced transformational ET integration, to envision the actual application and complex changes it may require. Instead, Fullan (1995) argues, complex changes such as transformative ET integration, create dynamic and complex conditions which cannot be known at the start of the change journey, but become evident as each new step in the journey is taken. Only through experience gained as part of the change journey, can those immersed in the journey take ownership of their part therein, and can shared visions and strategies emerge, that are in turn dynamically “shaped and reshaped given the complexity of change” (Fullan, 1995, p. 30).
Transformational learning also involves emotional work (Hargreaves et al., 2001). Teaching is an emotional, caring profession with Hargreaves et al. (2001) noting that virtually all aspects of teachers’ work is in one way or another connected to emotional and relational goals. Fullan (1995) notes that in any change process some teachers may be invigorated by the complexity and excited by the opportunity, while for others change may be loaded with anxiety and fear brought on by uncertainty and risk of potential embarrassment or
challenges (Pareja Roblin et al., 2018). The uncertain and vaguely articulated goals of the emergent transformational learning process through the liminal zone, may potential increase teachers’ exhilaration and excitement, but also anxiety and fear (Fullan, 1995, 2001; Berger, 2004). These emotions are referred to as the weight of change, and since, “[h]ow teachers conduct and express themselves emotionally always matters” (Hargreaves et al., 2001, p. 137), teachers’ emotional experiences as the weight of change should be supported within the design of the TPD/4ETs.
The literature reviewed in this section, described the complexity the awakening of
consciousness as involving reflective, professional, active and relational learning, while the case was made for the inclusion of transformational learning as well. The design of a potential TPD4ETs model for South Africa teachers, may for instance include as Hargreaves et al. (2001) suggest, collaborative activities in which teachers work together to plan lessons or pedagogic activities that transformative integrates ETs in practice (Pareja Roblin et al., 2018). Working collaboratively, teachers may reflect on and reflect in (Vetter, 2012) their
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learning to articulate how they experience change, and using the TCF (Tarling and Ng’ambi, 2016) as tool, they may reflect on their existing knowledge, practices and beliefs.
Additionally, Hargreaves et al. (2001) suggest teachers should articulate how changed practice will be enacted, and, selecting a focus area, decide what bitesize chunk they want to address within the greater complexity of transformative ET integration to start their change journey. Professional and active TPD4ETs should provide teachers with
opportunities to create and innovate using ETs, while transformational learning can be explicitly and systematically included to provide teachers with an experience of the process of change, and prepare them to plan and manage sustained, self-directed change through their own transformative integration of ETs. In the next section, literature is reviewed to gain insight into existing TPD4ETs that largely employ training, pedagogic work and the transmission of capacities.