Enhancing Autonomy in Language Education

A Case-Based Approach to Teacher and Learner Development

Manuel Jiménez Raya, Flávia Vieira

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781501501081
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

The book explores the idea that pedagogy for autonomy requires the integration of teacher and learner development and can be enhanced through a case-based approach in teacher education.

A case-based approach values experiential professional learning and expands professional competences necessary to promote autonomy in schools: developing a critical view of (language) education; managing local constraints so as to open up spaces for manoeuvre; centring teaching on learning; interacting with others in the professional community.

Two strategies to implement the approach are presented and illustrated. The first one involves teachers in designing, implementing and evaluating experiences of pedagogy for autonomy, which are the basis for writing professional narratives and building a case portfolio. The second draws on teachers' pedagogical experience as the basis for the construction of case materials where experiential elements are combined with theoretical input and reflective tasks, so that the teachers who use those materials can reflect about and explore their own practice.

Chapter 1

Promoting autonomy in (language) education

In this chapter we present a rationale for promoting teacher and learner autonomy in (language) education in the school setting. We start with a perspective on schooling nowadays, underlining the need to transform educational systems so as to respond to the demands of contemporary societies. Then, we focus more extensively on autonomy as goal of language education. Autonomy is framed within a democratic view of education and is conceived as both a collective interest and a personal competence that entails self-determination, social responsibility, and critical awareness. The relation between teacher and learner autonomy is discussed and practical implications of pedagogy for autonomy are presented.

1 A brief perspective on schooling

Every student is entitled to an excellent education, nonetheless not every student receives such an education (Barrett et al. 1991)¹. The difference between attending school and receiving an excellent education lies in the quality of the instruction students receive while in school.

Glasser (1992) depicts schools as being filled with a lack of involvement, a lack of quality work, and considerable failure. For many these problems are attributable to the students, however, Glasser contends, we need to look to the system that perpetuates them. In his opinion, schools are institutions characteristically designed for failure rather than success. Learners who respond in ways demanded by the teacher typically succeed, while those who find it difficult fail, the latter often resenting school, becoming disaffected from school, developing poor self-concepts and low self-esteem, and finally withdrawing from school. When students cannot see the relevance of what they are studying they easily become demotivated and disaffected (Lamb 2005). For this reason, relevance should never be assumed; it needs to be taught and learnt as teachers and students reflect on the significance of their work.

The rigid nature of schooling systems together with the need to socialise children and teenagers and prepare them for the industrial society have contributed to limiting the freedom of learners and hence the possibilities for experimentation (Aviram 1993). Despite school reforms and apparently progressive policies, schooling hardly prepares students to become citizens who engage in lifelong learning and democratic action, which justifies the need for change:

(…) millions of children leave school all over the world each day no better able to engage in democratic action and make changes in their communities to meet their needs than when they entered. Rather than a curriculum that constructs subjectivities around failure, around ‘knowing one’s place’, around complacent disregard of the misfortunes and experiences of others, around an apathetic acceptance that ‘things can’t change’, around a meritocracy that disowns its underclass, the chance always exists for education to construct curricula for challenge, for change, for the development of people and not the engineering of employees. (Schostak 2000: 50)

In a radical manifesto against neoliberal, market-driven educational policies and a “pedagogy of repression”, Giroux (2013) points out clearly what may be at stake:

At the core of the new reforms is a commitment to a pedagogy of stupidity and repression that is geared toward memorization, conformity, passivity, and high stakes testing. Rather than create autonomous, critical, and civically engaged students, the un-reformers kill the imagination while depoliticizing all vestiges of teaching and learning. The only language they know is the discourse of profit and the disciplinary language of command. (…)

A pedagogy of repression defines students largely by their shortcomings rather than by their strengths, and in doing so convinces them that the only people who know anything are the experts – increasingly drawn from the ranks of the elite and current business leaders who embody the new models of leadership under the current regime of neoliberalism. (…) Students are taught only to care about themselves and to view any consideration for others as a liability, if not a pathology. Ethical concerns under these circumstances are represented as hindrances to be overcome. Narcissism along with an unchecked notion of individualism is the new normal.

Under a pedagogy of repression, students are conditioned to unlearn any respect for democracy, justice, and what it might mean to connect learning to social change. They are told that they have no rights and that rights are limited only to those who have power. This is a pedagogy that kills the spirit, promotes conformity, and is more suited to an authoritarian society than a democracy.

Developments in our understanding of how humans learn have special significance in light of changes in what is expected of educational systems. Conventionally, school education has focused on the acquisition of traditional literacy skills, i.e. reading, writing, and calculating. It was not the general rule for educational systems to support learners to develop critical thinking, to express themselves clearly and persuasively, or to develop problem-solving skills. However, nowadays these key aspects of literacy are required of all citizens in order to successfully negotiate the intrinsic complexities of contemporary life. The skill demands for work have increased considerably, as has the need for organizations and the labour force to change in response to competitive workplace pressures. A responsible and constructive participation in the democratic process has also become progressively more complex in an increasingly globalised world in which we need to focus on global concerns.

Nowadays, particularly in Europe, there is a general consensus regarding the ultimate outcome of effective education being that students become lifelong learners. Lifelong learning, initiative, and personal creativity are acquiring increasing relevance in occupational life in a global economy. To this end, the EU has suggested the so-called ‘key competences for lifelong learning’. These are a combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes considered to be necessary for personal fulfilment and development, social inclusion, active citizenship and employment. These are essential in a knowledge society and are supposed to guarantee more flexibility in the labour force, allowing it to adapt more quickly to continuous changes in an increasingly interconnected world.² The Reference Framework proposed by the European Council (EC 2006) defines eight key competences and describes the essential knowledge, skills and attitudes related to each of them:

1. Communication in the mother tongue, i.e., the ability to express and interpret concepts, thoughts, feelings, facts and opinions both orally and in writing and to interact linguistically in an appropriate and creative way in a full range of contexts.
2. Communication in the foreign languages. This competence involves essential knowledge of vocabulary and functional grammar and an awareness of the main types of verbal interaction and registers of language. Knowledge of societal conventions, and the cultural aspect and variability of languages is also important. Essential skills for communication in a foreign language entails the ability to understand spoken messages, to initiate, maintain and close conversations and to read, understand and produce texts appropriate to the individual’s needs. Individuals should also be able to use aids appropriately, and learn languages also informally as part of lifelong learning. A positive attitude involves the appreciation of cultural diversity, and an interest and curiosity in languages and intercultural communication.
3. Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology.
4. Digital competence involves the confident and critical use of information society technology (IST) and thus basic skills in information and communication technology (ICT).
5. Learning to learn, i.e., the ability to pursue and organise one’s own learning, either individually or in groups, in accordance with one’s own needs, and awareness of methods and opportunities;
6. Interpersonal, intercultural and social competences and civic competence. Social competence refers to personal, interpersonal and intercultural competence and all forms of behaviour that equip individuals to participate in an effective and constructive way in social and working life. In turn, civic competence is supposed to equip individuals to engage in active and democratic participation.
7. Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship is the ability to turn ideas into action. It involves creativity, innovation and risk-taking, as well as the ability to plan and manage projects in order to achieve objectives. The individual is aware of the context of his/her work and is able to seize opportunities that arise. It is the foundation for acquiring more specific skills and knowledge needed by those establishing or contributing to social or commercial activity.
8. Cultural expression, i.e., appreciation of the importance of the creative expression of ideas, experiences, and emotions in a range of media, including music, performing arts, literature and the visual arts.

These key competences are all interdependent, and the emphasis in each case is on the development of critical thinking, creativity, initiative, problem solving, risk assessment, decision taking, and constructive management of feelings. Moreover, the rapid growth of knowledge and information requires different kinds of ‘knowing’ based on inquiry that draws on transdisciplinary bodies of knowledge rather than on discrete disciplines as represented in the school curricula (Costa and Liebmann 1995: 23). The meaning of ‘knowing’ has shifted from being able to remember and repeat information to being able to locate and use it (Simon 1996). As Bransford, Brown, and Cocking (1999: 5) put it, “the goal of education is better conceived as helping students develop the intellectual tools and learning strategies needed to acquire the knowledge that allows people to think productively about history, science and technology, social phenomena, mathematics, and the arts.”

Also, new developments in how people learn emphasize the importance of helping students develop personal autonomy. Thus, constructivist views of learning have emphasised that learning is an active, constructive, cumulative and goal-directed activity (Marton and Säljö 1984; Palincsar and Brown 1984; Shuell 1988; Brooks and Brooks 1993; Simons 1993; von Glaserfeld 1995; Steffe and Gale 1995; Mayer 2004). Similarly, humanistic approaches to education have extended our concept of learning by emphasising that meaningful learning has to be self-initiated (Rogers 1983). One of the basic tenets in humanistic education is that students should play a central role in directing their own education, in choosing what they will study and, to some extent, when and how they will study it. Thus, we can assert that constructivism and humanism presuppose self-regulated learning. The underlying idea is that the learner needs to be self-consciously reflective of the different aspects constituting the learning process. From these perspectives, learners need to be aware of their own growth in the learning to learn process or in the process of developing autonomy.

Everything seems to indicate that the transition from the industrial to the knowledge society calls for new skills and competencies typically associated with the notion of autonomy and lifelong learning, namely, self-awareness, critical thinking, advanced cognitive and self-regulatory competencies, tolerance of ambiguity, cooperation and dialogic communication, among others (Jiménez Raya 2008). To become lifelong learners, students...

Table of contents

• Studies in Second and Foreign Language Education
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword - The deep turn: Education for autonomy at a time teachers need hope
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 - Promoting autonomy in (language) education
• Chapter 2 - Teacher education for autonomy
• Chapter 3 - Working with and learning from cases
• Chapter 4 - Teachers writing cases from their own experience
• Chapter 5 - Teacher educators writing cases from teachers’ experience
• Conclusion
• References
• Index