In the previous sections, I have illustrated how my teacher-researcher roles have developed throughout my research. I have identified how I have been inspired by van Lier's (1994, theory of practice model for examining interaction in my BFC classroom and have illustrated the flaws in his model.
My critique of van Lier's theory of practice has involved taking considerable risks in order to adapt his model to my needs. This also reflects in general the risks that I have taken as teacher-researcher for developing my theory of practice. The notion of risk is discussed in the social sciences, predominantly in sociology (for Beck, 1992; Douglas and Wildavsky, Douglas,
Giddens, 1990, 1991, 1993; Giddens and Pierson, 1998; Luhmann, 1993; Lupton, 1999; Melucci, 1996). In educational research, it is mentioned in school improvement literature (Hargreaves, 1998; Jeffrey and Woods, 1996) and particularly in Adventure Education (Beedie, 1994; Gair, 1997; Miles and Priest,
1999; Mortiock, Discussing my risk-taking in relation to these research areas is not appropriate since my risk-taking was largely personal and has not been the subject of systematic inquiry. Therefore, I discuss my risk-taking in relation to my development as teacher-researcher.
As a teacher, 1 took considerable risks by working as a newly qualified foreign language teacher in the newly created Bilingual Foundation Course:
• As an NQT, 1 started teaching in the BFC together with two other NQTs.
• We were supported by the Senior Management Team and experienced teachers in the FC. However, none of us had any previous experience of CLIL.
• Most of the resources and materials for delivering the BFC curriculum had to be created based on existing FC materials or from scratch.
• As an NQT, I also experienced some classroom management problems.
As a researcher, I also took considerable risks:
• At the outset of my research, 1 was a novice researcher.
• I had no knowledge about research methods or data collection processes and possibilities.
• 1 had only a fairly limited understanding of foreign language research.
• I did not begin my research with a series of research questions, but my support and challenges framework (discussed in Chapter 3, Part 4) emerged gradually. As a teacher-researcher, I took considerable risks by attempting to combine my roles of teacher and researcher. This involved combining my teaching and my research, attempting to find a research focus and be willing and able to re-adjust my research focus in relation to my practice and generate theories from the data collected whilst teaching.
All of these risks taken as teacher, researcher and teacher-researcher required me to be self-critical and reflective in the development of my theory of practice. This process of self-critique and reflection has led me to consider my theory of practice as pragmatic, and focused:
• I understand pragmatic as achievable in terms of time planning in relation to my dual roles as teacher-researcher. For example, as a teacher in the BFC, I had to plan my lessons, develop BFC materials and resources, establish a new curriculum with my colleagues whilst also being a form tutor, mnning a chess club and a German club at lunchtimes and collect research data as a researcher. • I consider meaningful as aiming to collect data and to develop my theories in
• I understand focused as specific in relation to my classroom practices and my research interests.
These key features of my theory of practice are reflected in the choice of research methods that 1 have employed during the data collection period. I discuss these in the following chapter.
Chapter 2: Theory of Practice in Practice
1 Introduction
In this chapter, I describe the tools that 1 have used for exploring the theory of practice outlined in the previous chapter. 1 describe these methodological tools by relating diary entries written during the data collection period to the relevant literature.
I have previously identified the need for a theory of practice to be meaningful and pragmatic. These principles also apply for conducting theory of practice research since the researcher selects (and possibly adjusts) what he/she considers as meaningful for developing a theory of practice and since the teacher-researcher needs to be pragmatic in his/her use of time as he/she fulfils a dual role during the research process. These two key of meaningful and pragmatic are reflected in my choice of research methodology: I have conducted my research as a of my classroom between September 1998 and July 2000. 1 have collected most of my data whilst teaching by keeping a teacher-researcher diary from September 1998 until July 2000 and by conducting two-weekly focus group interviews with two groups of my learners between November 1999 and June 2000. In addition, I have conducted one additional interview with the former headteacher on May 2001.
Teacher-Researcher Diary TRW My BFC classroom Focus Group Interviews Headteacher-
I present an overview of my research tools in Figure These tools are intended as means to explore perceptions of interaction in my classroom in order to develop my theory of practice of CLIL classroom interaction:
• In my teacher-researcher diary 1 have explored my perceptions of CLIL classroom interaction from September 1998 until July 2000. (For a detailed discussion see Section 4.)
• In my Focus Group interviews I have discussed perceptions of CLIL classroom interaction with two groups of my learners between November and June 2000. (For a detailed discussion see Section 5 and Appendices A, B, C.)
• I have conducted one interview with the headteacher who introduced the BFC at the College du I focus in this interview on the implementation and ongoing support for the successful creation of the BFC. (For a detailed discussion see Section 6 and Appendix C.)
All three tools allow me to explore perceptions of CLIL classroom interaction from my perspective as a teacher, from some learners' perspectives and from the headteacher's perspective in order to collect data for my case study. These data have allowed me to develop the support and challenges framework that I discuss in Chapters 3-4 for promoting classroom interaction in the foreign language in my BFC classroom.