EVALUACIÓN DEL MATERIAL DIDÁCTICO

Societal environments provided opportunities for participants to access their imagined communities, as seen in the previous section (Section 5.2.2). However, the affordances could also be recognised as constraints. Multi layers of context in the participants’ everyday lives were presented in their narratives and the changes in regulations and laws negatively influenced the access to their imagined communities.

In Mia’s case, her Korean ECE registration was transferred to Aotearoa NZ in 1999. However the regulation changed in 2003, and she was asked to show her language proficiency, and she did not clearly understand the registration process. The manager of the centre and the parents tried to help Mia obtain registration under the new regulations. The manager contacted the registration office to find out possibilities and advocated on her behalf. The parents wrote reference letters to

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support her case. However, all those efforts were in vain. Mia explained that the government regulation was greater than the local support, as seen below.

Even two years ago, it could have been possible, but now it is impossible unless I get 7.0 [IELTS]. My case is a bit different. I have an ECE certificate from Korea and transferred to NZ, and I worked part-time at [a town in the Waikato region]. At 2001, I worked full-time and 2003 the law changed. For ten years from 2003 to 2012, from Kindergarten to tertiary teachers, all teachers who were not educated in NZ have to have IELTS 7.0 each band or get an NZ certificate. . . . It is unfair for me because I have an NZ certificate. . . . The change in 2003, the government had full support for teachers who were registered and subsidized teachers' wages. So I had to do it [register]. If I knew that information before, I could have done it. My boss rang NZQA [New Zealand Qualifications Authority] to help me to register, and they said no. Then she wrote a letter explaining everything; they said no. And children's parents wrote reference letters, but didn’t work. . . . Anyway, she wrote me a reference letter. NZQA said law is law, and I had to follow. It is an NZ style. . . . I was a full-time teacher and became an unqualified teacher with qualification. . . . I agree to the requirements to become teachers, but it is very difficult for people from places that English is the second language, and especially who are not young. (Interview 4)

The excerpt above shows how the ECE teacher registration regulations influenced the way Mia viewed herself. She was a qualified full-time teacher one day and the next day she became an “unqualified teacher with qualification”. She accepted the regulation change. However, she also argued that it would be almost impossible for someone who was an adult language learner to gain the expected language proficiency.

The language proficiency requirement to access imagined communities did not seem to align with her perceived competence at work. The participants attended English language classes, but Mia, as an adult learner, did not feel that the class

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met her expectations. The following excerpt indicates the limitation of language courses for Mia.

You know, how much we can learn at school being a middle aged mum, just having fun, making jokes and etc. School English was helping me little so I went to volunteer at this kindergarten where I work right now again to learn English. (Interview 1)

Similarly, Jessica mentioned being an adult language learner. For Jessica, the curriculum of the Level 4 foundation course, which she was assigned to, was not necessary or worthy. The class offered nothing new to her, someone with a qualification at Level 7. She commented at the second interview, “Why do you have to learn a baby language when you already speak like an adult?”

Jessica’s competence in the English language was challenged by the institutional system. The identity assigned to her by the system limited access to her imagined communities. She reported her frustration saying that she was not content with the curriculum and institutional practice. The excerpt below shows her emotion.

How to write an essay, how to use APA. How to do an introduction about the body. . . . Gosh. It is like, every tutor requires a different style of APA. In the first class, writing lecturer, I found that usually when you do APA referencing, you write the first author, year, and title. The second line you indent. You don't space the line. [Demonstrating by drawing] . . . No, not usually we don't have space. I ask her; we don't do spacing in between. She said “We do here, double space”. . . . I haven't seen this style. I have been using APA referencing over a year [in a TESOL course], and we always do this. (Interview 3)

As articulated in Section 4.1, Jessica was not happy with the class, and she resisted her placement. However, she reported that she had to finish the level 4 foundation course successfully. She was worried that if she failed the course, she would have problems with Study Link [Government student benefit]. Financially dependent on Study Link, she was apprehensive about the regulations of the benefit. She mentioned that it “clearly stated that if you don’t pass [the course of study], you will have a limitation of borrowing money” (Interview 6). Such was the complex

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relation between the local context of classroom practices and wider global system forces like a governmental student allowance and a further student loan that challenged Jessica’s identity formation.