Propósito y Metodología

The chapter presented the findings of the research in light of the research ques- tions and the literature on teacher professionalism and teachers’ professional identity. The analysis of data revealed several contextual macro, meso and mi- cro factors that influenced the professional self of semi specialists TEYL teachers in a context of the educational reform. These are: teachers’ initial ex- periences with TEYL, the status of TEYL as a profession, the politics of the Ministry of Education, capacity for autonomy in a classroom, collaboration with others, supportive relationships , role of the online platform.

Some of these factors like the politics of the Ministry, teachers’ initial experienc- es with TEYL or the status of TEYL as a profession are disempowering. These factors have negative impact on capacity for autonomy in a classroom and col-

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laboration between teachers. On the other hand, the teachers listed several fac- tors that were empowering like the supportive relationships with others and the role of platform.

Realization of empowerment/ disempowerment seems to be at the meso (school level). Teachers’ capacity for autonomy and relationships with teachers in a teachers’ community depend on macro/ micro factors. The teachers used their life histories, the supportive relationships with ELT teachers or family members as tools to manage to find a balance between the powerful contextual factors that exist in the context in which they work and live and their beliefs and values about teaching. The teachers also see the value of participation in the online platform for teachers’ professional development on teachers’ feelings of empowerment. Through involvement in different practical tasks the teachers managed to develop collaboration with teachers as well as reflexivity processes which act as agentive capacities. In the next concluding chapter, I will aim to reveal in more details factors that empower or disempower semi- specialists TEYL teachers at meso level and highlight the importance of finding different ways to create opportunities to empower these teachers at the level of teachers’ community.

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6 Implications, recommendations and conclusions

6.1 Conclusions

The purpose of the study is to examine the ways in which semi specialists TEYL teachers construct their professional sense of self (or professional identi- ty) within the context of educational reform in Poland which has led to the lower- ing of the start age of English instruction the last to the first grade of primary school, as well as to the introduction of new child-friendly pedagogic practices. The thesis answers the following research questions: 1) What factors contribute to semi- specialists TEYL teachers’ feelings of empowerment/ disempowerment in a context of educational reform in young learners’ classroom, 2) What strate- gies do semi-specialist TEYL teachers use to feel empowered, 3) In what ways does participation in the online platform for teachers professional development help teachers to feel empowered?

The study was conducted in response to Johnston’s (1997) call to conduct more research on ELT teachers’ professional careers in a context of dynamic socio-political context in Poland which led to teachers’ feelings of disempower- ment. Johnston’s research (1997) was conducted in a time when English lan- guage was introduced as a main foreign language in the secondary schools and the universities, however, only few percent of the graduates of English language philology wanted to seek employment in public schools. It was due to low pro- fessional and financial status of ELT teachers. The teachers from Johnston’s study claimed the dominance of the powerful discourses that exist in a context in which they live which prevents them to use agency to feel empowered. John- ston appealed to the researchers to investigate how recent educational reforms impact teachers’ professional identity, and whether the teachers manage to rep- resent educational change as the “progression along their career path” (John- ston, 1997, p. 691).

Johnston claims that more research should be published to deepen understand- ing of professional careers of TEYL teachers in Polish schools whose voice is

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rarely being heard and who are marginalized by the politics of the Ministry of Education.

Since Johnston’s research was published, general ELT teacher professional status was raised. According to the research published by Eurostat (2012), all teachers being employed in higher primary and secondary schools have full MA qualifications which means they feel confident to teach at various levels. What is more, there is an increasing number of pupils who wish to take English lan- guage lessons in public secondary school or private language schools which increase the comfort of teaching. The group of ELT teachers who needs atten- tion of researchers and the Ministry of Education are the semi specialists TEYL teachers who are marginalized by the politics of the Ministry as easy to enter and easy to go profession. The marginalization of TEYL teachers can be ob- served not only in countries where TEYL has a relatively short history like in Po- land, but also in countries with long tradition of implementation of English lan- guage lessons to primary school curriculum (Garton et al., 2014). The results of transnational studies conducted for example by Emery (2012) and Rixon (2015) show that in many contexts due to a shortage of well qualified TEYL teachers who have not only high proficiency in English, but also thorough knowledge on methods of teaching for young learners, responsibility for TEYL is given to semi specialists teachers, which are those who either transferred from secondary schools and have good proficiency in English and knowledge in ELT instruction, or are not qualified ELT teachers (Enever, 2014). Semi- specialist teachers in European countries and beyond are marginalized by the recruitment practises in many countries who prefer to employ the graduates of formal pre- service and in- service training opportunities such as certificates offered by Trinity House, International House, or special online certified programme for TEYL by the British Council (Rich, 2018) and poor access to CPD provision for TEYL teachers. Thus, it is of urgent priority to identify the challenges faced by semi specialists TEYL teachers in order to ensure that the support is adjusted to their professional needs (Rich, 2018).

The narrative inquiry strategy adopted enabled me to foreground semi- special- ists TEYL teachers accounts of their understanding their professional self in the context of the educational reform in young learners’ classroom. Through this, I

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identified the following macro, meso and micro factors that shape teachers’ pro- fessional self: teachers’ initial experiences with TEYL, the status of TEYL as a profession, the politics of the Ministry of Education, capacity for autonomy in schools, collaboration with others, supportive relationships and a role of the online platform. Some of the factors (like the status of TEYL as a profession and the politics of the Ministry of Education) lead to teachers’ feelings of disem- powerment. The teachers invested lot of time and energy in their education, still they experienced disappointment when they noticed that their professional sta- tus is challenged (Palmer, 1998). However, some factors like for example : sup- portive relationships with other teachers and family members, and the participa- tion in the platform are regarded as a valuable empowering tool. Indeed, these factors act as agentive tools (useful strategies) through which teachers can ac- tively transform the reality in which they work and live, and which lead to their feelings of disempowerment.