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English language teaching in teacher education: A personal epistemology


account

Article  in  International Journal of Language Studies · June 2021

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Nhlanhla Mpofu
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International Journal of Language Studies
Volume 15, Number 3, July 2021, pp. 89-106

English language teaching in teacher education: A personal


epistemology account
Nhlanhla MPOFU, Rhodes University, South Africa

Burgeoning research in the field indicates the importance of teachers’


personal epistemology as a foundation for their professional practices.
Personal epistemologies refer to descriptions of the beliefs that
teachers hold about the nature and sources of knowledge. Although this
understanding is in place, most studies have focused on examining
personal epistemologies drawn from practitioners in school contexts.
Accordingly, there is limited research describing university academics’
personal epistemologies. To address this knowledge gap, in this
conceptual paper I discuss my personal epistemology on the theoretical
perspectives that underpin my instructional practices in English
language teaching. Specifically, the paper focuses on the theoretical
perspectives that shape the curriculum, as well as the pedagogical
choices that are made in facilitating learning for student teachers in
English as a Second Language (ESL) programmes in initial teacher
education. Based on the discussion, I affirm the importance of personal
epistemologies in framing professional development for university
academics. This personal epistemology account may help instructors
structure their own epistemic reflection practices as a strategy for
enhancing their teaching practices.

Keywords: English Language Teaching (ELT); Personal Epistemology; South


Africa; Teacher Education; University Academics

1. Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to provide a personal epistemological account of
facilitating learning for student teachers in English Language Teaching (ELT)
as a university instructor. Muis, Bendixen and Haerle (2006) state that the
study of one’s epistemic beliefs is a prominent field among educational
researchers. This occurs against an orientation in terms of which teaching is
an enactment of scholarship where the practitioners are able to describe and
reflect on their professional lives and practices by drawing from an array of
theoretical and philosophical reasoning (Kelchtermans, 2009). In tandem
with these views, I provide an account of my personal epistemology as a
lecturer in English teacher education. My goal is to provide details of my
personal epistemology based on the assumption that teachers tend to

ISSN: 2157-4898; EISSN: 2157-4901


© 2021 IJLS; Printed in the USA by Lulu Press Inc.
90 N. Mpofu

implement classroom practices that reflect their philosophical beliefs


(Mehrpour & Moghadam, 2018). In this paper, I convey my core ideas about
what it means to be an effective university lecturer in ELT. I develop these
ideas from relevant literature and draw from concrete examples of my
experience in the field. I believe that a well-reasoned personal epistemology
account provides basic principles behind teaching English as a second
language while simultaneously highlighting the current debates in the field.
This means that I take insights and contributions that include not only
knowledge claims and ideas about ELT, but also reasoning and inquiry,
epistemologies and the use of empirical data and everyday experiences to
support my worldview.
In this paper, I organise critical principles and theoretical worldviews that
constitute an epistemological foundation for guiding English as a Second
Language (ESL) in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in the context of the Global
South. This organisation draws insights from previous studies in language
education and from the researcher’s experience as a lecturer in ITE to provide
a conceptual argument and position on ESL teaching. This stance on teaching
is one that provides a salutary reminder of the need to overturn and subvert
the overtly confident ways of knowing that have become the norm in ESL.
Akin to Comaroff and Comaroff (2012, p. 1), this subversive stance
destabilises the norm by posing the question:
. . . what if . . . we invert that order of things? What if we subvert the
epistemological scaffolding on which it is erected? What if we posit that,
in the present moment, it is the global south that affords privileged
insight into the workings of the world at large?
This epistemological disobedience is built on developing a supportive
community of language educators interested in raising awareness of and
researching language learning and teaching in several contexts. This means
recasting language teaching in Global South, away from Western
understandings and gazes (Cook & Wei, 2016).
In recent years, there has been a marked difference in language teaching as
there has been a global demand to understand how language works in
different contexts (Paris & Alim, 2017). This demand in language teaching has
led to the emergence of new forms of teaching. Language teaching is no longer
exclusively limited to the language classroom as learners are often exposed to
multiple language sources outside the classroom (Prinsloo & Krause, 2019).
Added to this global agenda in language teaching is a call to have networks
and collaborative groups that promote pedagogical and professional practices
through the development of language teaching materials that include
language and language-related topics oriented to a culturally sustaining
International Journal of Language Studies, 15(3), 89-106 91

pedagogy (CSP) (Makalela, 2015). Thus, my understanding of English


language teaching in South Africa today is one that allows for the
reimagination of what:
. . . our pedagogies would look like if this gaze [the White gaze] (and the
kindred patriarchal, heteronormative, English-monolingual, ableist,
classist, xenophobic, Judeo-Christian gazes) were not the dominant
ones? What would liberating ourselves from this gaze and the
educational expectation it forwards means to our abilities to envision
new and recover community- rooted forms of teaching and learning?
(Paris & Alim, 2017, p. 7).
This shift allows one to draw from several theoretical perspectives to
understand ESL teacher education in the Global South. To understand the
differences that exist in the teaching of ESL in a variety of contexts, there is a
need to interrogate the Global North/South divide. The Global North holds
dominance and hegemony over the intellectual and epistemological access to
knowledge, while the ways of knowing in the Global South have always taken
a peripheral or accidental position (Grosfoguel, 2008). For ESL educators, this
has resulted in the realisation that approaches and theories developed in the
Global North do not translate successfully to the Global South where English
is the language of learning and teaching.
To structure this paper, I draw insights from current literature and my
experience in ESL teacher education instruction. The teaching profession
provides one with experience that acts as a source of knowledge, as well as
providing one with justification for knowing. Hofer (2002, p. 3) makes use of
an example to explain this process, stating that “as we read the morning
paper, we make judgments about the credibility of the claims in the particular
article. In our professional lives, we confront the learning of a new skill and
make determinations about their particular value.” This means that in the act
of teaching and being involved in its activities, individuals come to know and
hold idiosyncratic views about knowing how to teach, which in turn influence
their cognitive processes and develop their personal epistemological beliefs
(Mehrpour & Moghadam, 2018; Brownlee, Schraw & Berthelsen, 2012).
Epistemology refers to the nature of knowledge. It is a way of seeking
knowledge or engaging in inquiry to understand and explain how we know
what we know (Peabody, 2011). Personal epistemology refers to “. . . the
theories and beliefs that individuals hold about knowledge and knowing and
the way in which such epistemological perspectives are related to academic
learning” (Hofer, 2004, p. 120). This means it is a process by which individuals
declare the theories or beliefs that they hold about the nature of knowledge
and the process of knowing (Feucht, Lunn Brownlee, & Schraw, 2017).
92 N. Mpofu

2. Defining personal epistemology


Personal epistemology, according to Hofer (2002), is the study of how
individuals develop a conception of knowledge and its acquisition, and how
they use that conception to understand the world. That is, it can be described
as intuitive epistemology, what people know about knowledge, knowing and
learning as acquired from their experiences as university educators. Personal
epistemology seeks to explore the following:
1. What ideas do people have about knowledge?
2. How do these ideas develop over time?
3. What epistemic mental constructs can we ascribe to individuals?
4. Are some ideas about knowledge better than others?
Through this process of constructing knowledge about their pedagogical
practices, each lecturer advances beliefs about what knowledge is, and how it
is constructed as a system of cognitions known as personal epistemology
(Barger, Perez, Canelas, & Linnenbrink-Garcia, 2018).
Personal epistemology is a growing area of education research, with
implications for the instructional practices that a lecturer decides to use. The
basic assumption is that lecturers acquire and use knowledge based on their
beliefs about knowing, knowledge and instruction (Brownlee, Schraw, &
Berthelsen 2012; Ferguson, 2020). Through the process of teaching, lecturers
acquire new knowledge which they evaluate to integrate as part of their
pedagogical beliefs (Ferguson, 2020). Lecturers are involved in a variety of
multifaceted activities as part of their work. They engage in activities such as
creating goals and performing the pedagogical practices related to planning,
implementing and assessing student teachers’ learning. These activities are
not conducted in a void but integrate lecturers’ epistemic understanding
exhibited in their instructional practices (Barnes, Fives, Mabrouk-Hattab, &
SaizdeLaMora, 2020; Lunn Brownlee, Ferguson, & Ryan, 2017)—that is, the
lecturers’ beliefs about knowledge and the epistemic beliefs that underpin
their pedagogical practice. According to Greene and Yu (2016, p. 43), this
epistemic cognition process is the lecturer’s “ability to construct, evaluate,
and use knowledge” by drawing on their “dispositions, beliefs, and skills [to]
determine what [is] actually known versus what one believes, doubts, or
distrusts.” This area of study in educational research is important as it
highlights the ways in which lecturers explain the nature of knowledge and
knowing and how they use this understanding as the basis of their
instructional practices.
Studies such as Pauler-Kuppinger and Jucks (2017) and Kayzouri,
Ramezanzadeh and Moradian, (2020) indicate that there is a need to
understand university academics’ personal epistemologies. This call comes
International Journal of Language Studies, 15(3), 89-106 93

against the background that most of the research in personal epistemology


has focused on school contexts (Kayzouri, Ramezanzadeh, & Moradian, 2020).
Thus, university academics’ personal epistemologies aligned to their actual
classroom practices are still tentatively understood in literature. This suggests
that the way in which a university academic theorises about the nature of
knowledge and justifies it influences learning and teaching in their classroom
(Brownlee, Schraw, & Berthelsen, 2012).
Personal epistemologies can be drawn from (1) perennialist views where
values are emphasised, (2) essentialist standpoints where knowledge is
upheld, (3) progressive ideas where experiences are favoured, or (4)
reconstructionist perspectives which emphasises societal reform (Mooney-
Simmie & Edling, 2019). I embrace this idiosyncratic orientation in writing
my personal epistemology, as I combine all of the above views from the stance
that ELT in the Global South is too contested and complex for one to cling to a
single, identifiable orientation of teaching. By accounting for my personal
epistemology, I am able to interpret, find meaning and direct the daily work I
perform as a university lecturer.

3. Culturally sustaining pedagogies as an orientation to ELT


In discussing the theoretical perspectives that are useful in understanding
teaching practices in ITE for ESL students, it is critical to have a philosophical
worldview that orients the argument. Magolda (1992) explains that there are
four ways of understanding how individuals think about knowledge. First, as
an absolute thinker, seeing knowledge as an absolute presupposes that
knowledge is given to students through the authority of the teacher and the
texts. The student has the task of recalling this knowledge when it is required.
This suggests that this type of knowledge is the truth, and the receiver of such
knowledge accepts it without question. Secondly, the transitional thinkers
relate to the world as either right or wrong. They view the knowledge
obtained from teachers and texts as wrong and as providing an opportunity
for students to figure out what is right. The transitional understanding is that
because teachers present irrelevant knowledge, the students’ task is to
constantly find the right way and justify why it is so. Thirdly, independent
thinkers do not relate to the world as either right or wrong as they believe
there are many ways to constructing knowledge. The independent student’s
role is to learn about diverse opinions and truths about the world and provide
justifications for them.
Lastly, contextual thinkers believe that there is no absolute truth as each truth
is understood in the context in which it is held as true. These thinkers hold an
awareness that knowledge construction is a dynamic process that interacts
with human agency (Muis, Bendixen, & Haerle, 2006). That is, truth exists but
94 N. Mpofu

is only based on truths held in context. A contextual thinker holds that truth is
located in the integration of experiences, learning, life histories and reflection.
Hence, from a contextual understanding, the ideas of personal epistemologies
and justification are critical in understanding how one shapes one’s own
meaning (Hofer, 2001). Although there is merit in being an absolute,
transitional and independent thinker, I regard ESL pedagogical practices as
effective when located in contextual thinking and justification. As a result, I
position my pedagogical practice and reasoning in culturally sustaining
pedagogy (CSP). By embracing CSP, I acknowledge that one’s ways of knowing
have a lot to do with culture. In explaining this position, Smith and Ayers
(2006, p. 8) state that culture is at the centre of what we do in the education
system in terms of “curriculum, instruction, administration, or performance
assessment. Even without our being consciously aware of it, culture
determines how we think, believe, and behave, and these, in turn, affect how
we teach and learn.” This means that in describing my epistemological
orientation in English teaching positioned in CSP, I explore the theoretical
grounding and the practical implications of pedagogical practices that are
designed to explore, utilise, sustain and expand the cultural practices of
student teachers in the way they construct knowledge in my classes (Christ &
Sharma, 2018).
Traditionally, schools have viewed the languages and cultures that ESL
learners bring to the classrooms as deficits that need to be ‘fixed’ in order for
them to be proficient in the dominant practices (Charamba, 2020; MacSwan,
2020; Menken & Sanchez, 2019). Such ideas are, of course, becoming
regarded as archaic in contemporary English language pedagogy, as the
resources that learners bring to the classroom in terms of languages,
literacies and cultural practices are seen as assets (MacSwan, 2020). An asset-
based approach to teaching views learners’ home and community cultural
practices as educational resources that should be honoured, explored and
extended to ensure effective learning experiences (Paris, 2012). The asset
worldview provides for an ideological space where positive assets such as the
language, culture and diversity of thought that students bring into the
classroom are valued as opposed to being viewed as lacking and deficit (Lin,
2020). The orientation in this conceptual paper is that learning is grounded in
an asset-based approach. Such an approach to English language teaching is
about creating a culture in which learners’ home and community strengths
are used to scaffold their language acquisition process (MacSwan, 2020; Paris,
2012)—That is, using English language classrooms to develop and facilitate
culturally relevant and sustaining learning experiences that resonate with
student teachers and connect to their backgrounds. This approach to ELT is
supportive of student teachers, as it acknowledges their diversity of thought,
culture, language and traits as positive assets to be celebrated rather than
International Journal of Language Studies, 15(3), 89-106 95

things to be overcome (MacSwan, 2020; Souto-Manning, 2019).


Ladson-Billings’ (1995) article, ‘Toward a theory of culturally relevant
pedagogy’, challenges the emphasis on teaching pedagogy that does not focus
on the connection between culture and learning by proposing a culturally
relevant pedagogy (CRP) (cf., Chauke, 2020; Fata, Gani & Husna, 2020). CRP is
a reaction to deficit approaches that privilege the culture, literacies and
language of the dominant middle class (Jackson & Boutte, 2018). According to
these approaches, the cultural ways of learners who are outside the white
community were thought of as deficient. The aim of the deficit approach was
to eradicate the cultural experiences that learners brought from home and
replace them with those of the dominant culture. In responding to the limiting
view of deficit approaches, Ladson-Billings (1995) gave prominence to the
CRP approach. This pedagogy rests on three criteria or propositions: “(a)
students must experience academic success; (b) students must develop
and/or maintain cultural competence; and (c) students must develop a critical
consciousness through which they challenge the status quo of the current
social order” (p. 160).
Although acknowledging the work of Ladson-Billings (1995), Paris (2012)
argues that the use of terms like ‘relevant’ and ‘responsive’ does not capture
the full complexities of cultural pedagogy. Instead, Paris (2012) suggests a
new term, “culturally sustaining pedagogy” (CSP). According to Paris (2012, p.
93):
Culturally sustaining pedagogy seeks to perpetuate and foster—to
sustain—linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of the
democratic project of schooling. In the face of current policies and
practices that have the explicit goal of creating a monocultural and
monolingual society, research and practice need equally explicit
resistances that embrace cultural pluralism and cultural equality.
Thus, CSP exists in education systems that sustain the cultural ways of groups
whose being has been marginalised by the education system.
According to Paris and Alim (2017), CSP seeks to position schools as places
for sustaining culture, literacies and histories as a strategy for dismantling the
many ways in which the schooling system has continued to work as part of
the colonial project. By embracing CSP, educators use pedagogies that “are not
filtered through the glass of amused pity . . . but rather are centred on
contending in complex ways with rich and innovative linguistic, literate, and
cultural practices” (Paris & Alim, 2017, p. 2). The CSP viewpoint explains that
all learners engage with several fluid cultural groups founded in shared
histories and perspectives, and cultural dexterity is encouraged and
celebrated as a valuable skill. CSP seeks to address the gap in the school
96 N. Mpofu

system, the home and the culture. By deliberately making these connections
the heritage is affirmed, as CSP requires that pedagogies be relevant to the
cultural experiences and practices that sustain the learners’ linguistic and
cultural competence, while simultaneously providing access to the dominant
culture. This approach encourages educators to go beyond tolerating and
accepting learners’ cultures to openly supporting parts of their cultures,
literacies and languages. By grounding my theoretical perspectives in CSP, I
sought to undergird my language pedagogies in order to recognise “students’
cultural displays of learning and meaning making, [and] respond positively
and constructively with teaching moves that use cultural knowledge as a
scaffold to connect what the student knows to new concepts and content in
order to promote effective information processing” (Hammond, 2014, p. 15).

4. Beliefs about teaching ESL


Teachers’ beliefs are premises or propositions they hold as true from
countless experiences (Pajares, 1992; Susilowati, 2020; Weigand, 2018;
Pajares, 1992). They serve as personal guides in helping them to define and
understand the world and themselves (Pajares, 1992), which according to
Cunningham, Schreiber and Moss (2005, p. 179) permits them to “proceed as
if the world makes perfectly good sense.” The theorisation and conceptions of
what entails effective language teaching are fiercely debated in the literature.
The focus of this paper is not to re-enact these epistemological debates but
rather to explore the insights that each strand provides in framing my
understanding of English language teaching in South Africa. My
understanding of theory is drawn from Stern’s (1983, pp. 23-24) in that a
. . . [t]heory is implicit in the practice of language teaching. It reveals
itself in the assumptions underlying practice, in the planning a course
of study, in the routines of the classroom, in value judgments about
language teaching, and in the decisions that the language teacher has to
make day by day. A language teacher can express his theoretical
conviction through classroom activities as much as (or, indeed, better
than) through the opinions he voices in discussions at professional
meetings.
In this regard, Richards (2002) provides a useful categorisation that describes
three theoretical orientations and conceptions that underpin English
language teaching. Following the initial work of Zahorik (1986), Richards
(2002) mentions that theoretical perspectives in English language teaching
fall into three categories: (1) science-research, (2) theory-philosophy, and (3)
art-craft. The science-research theoretical orientation refers to language
teaching that is influenced by findings drawn from the common practices of
effective teachers. This view of language teaching involves “teaching
International Journal of Language Studies, 15(3), 89-106 97

principles from research on memory, transfer, motivation, and other factors


believed to be important in learning” (Richards, 2002, p. 39). Teaching as
understood from this view allows learners to practise language structures
and forms as they negotiate meaning embedded in the classroom activities.
The task-based language teaching (TBLT) approach is an example of this
viewpoint. The role of TBLT is not grammar or lexical learning but the
learners’ ability to complete a task using the correct linguistic resources to
express their ideas (Bahri, Achmad, Burhansyah, & Syafriyana, 2020; Moore,
2018).
On the other hand, the theory-philosophy perspective is not premised on
understanding what worked before but on “what ought to work . . . [and]
beliefs about what is viewed as morally right” (Richards, 2002, p. 41). This
means that instead of using findings from empirical data on effective language
teaching, logical argumentation is used to support the approaches and
methods used in the classroom. The communicative language teaching
approach is an example of the theory-philosophy perspective and emphasises
notional-functional concepts and communicative competence, rather than
grammatical structures, as central to teaching (Tumansery & Munden, 2020).
This suggests that the manner of teaching is learner centred, a concept that
embraces self-directed and initiated learning activities. Lastly, the art-craft
theoretical view of language teaching acknowledges the teacher’s own skills
in shaping the quality of teaching; that is, in view of the context the teacher
decides on the course of teaching that will best suit the situation (Tiainen,
Korkeamaki, & Dreher, 2018). Although there is a tendency in the literature to
view these theoretical orientations to language teaching in isolation, a more
valuable viewpoint entails embracing them as a binary system. Such an
approach to the theoretical perspectives acknowledges language as a
communal event, a collective activity that learners develop within the
community of the classroom. Such a positioning sees language not as resulting
from a fragmented learning experience but rather as a shared social activity
(Choi, Lindau, Whitehurst, Kulenthran, & Liu, 2018; Smagorinsky, 2020).
Thus, drawing from a combined understanding of these three theoretical
conceptions of English language teaching, I believe language teaching to be a
facilitative activity that allows for a collaborative and supportive environment
that models the natural way of language acquisition (Byram & Wagner, 2018;
Choi et al., 2018). By relating language teaching to social interaction, I firstly
guide students to knowledge construction using multiple ways of language
acquisition such as text, task, communicative and process-based approaches.
These approaches allow for the scaffolding and sequencing of language
acquisition that replicates the natural way language is acquired. To activate
students’ cognitive skills, I use a variety of learning strategies that take
account of the students’ language levels and their optimal abilities. Drawing
98 N. Mpofu

from multiple theories of language teaching, I provide appropriate activities


geared to individual and collaborative ways of acquiring knowledge of a
language (cf., Nigar & Kostogriz, 2019).
Secondly, based on insights from science-research, theory-philosophy and art-
craft conceptions (Richards, 2002), I hold that language is a tool for thinking
about and communicating worldviews. In line with this belief, I approach
teaching language and language across the curriculum from different
worldviews such as social constructivism, reflection, and experiential and
transformative learning (Choi et al., 2018; Nigar & Kostogriz, 2019). This
means paying attention to the ways in which students construct knowledge in
context, by interacting and experiencing and reflecting in action. The goal is to
engage students in knowledge construction in ways that result in both
transformative thinking and practice. Such classes allow students to engage
with one another using online media such as blogs and social media sites.
Language students who engage in knowledge construction in the way
described transform into learning mediators, interpreters and designers of
learning, researchers and lifelong learners, community citizenship and
pastoral advisors, assessors, and learning area specialists (Byram & Wagner,
2018).
Based on the science-research conceptions, my approach to curriculum
implementation encompasses behavioural, cognitive and constructivist
orientations. This integration assists students to appreciate the multiple ways
in which instruction unfolds in language teaching. Based on this belief, my
language lectures are reflective of direct instruction and expository and
inquiry-based ways of learning (cf., Nigar & Kostogriz, 2019). This means
valuing the students’ inferences, intuitions and discoveries, as well as the
conclusions they hold from interacting with the module content. To achieve
this ideal, students need to be encouraged to make meaning through critical
thinking and reflective activities that involve interactions with peers using an
array of online mediums (Choi et al., 2018; Farrell, 2012). This is the belief
that approaching the curriculum in this way is valuable in empowering
students and creating emancipatory thinking (Paris & Alim, 2017; Susilowati,
2020).

5. ESL teaching beliefs and practice


There is a strong bias towards teaching that nurtures English language
student teachers to become pragmatic, transformative, reflective and service-
oriented professionals (Ostman & Wickman, 2014; Tiainen, Korkeamaki &
Dreher, 2018). From this understanding, ITE should equip student teachers
with knowledge to bridge the gaps between general pedagogy (theory) and
the disclosure of the content to the learner (practice). This means guiding the
International Journal of Language Studies, 15(3), 89-106 99

student teachers to find answers to the following questions:

 What do I teach in this subject?


 Who do I teach in this subject?
 Why am I teaching this subject?
 How can I teach this subject?
 How successfully do I teach this subject?
These questions cannot be addressed as independent processes, as they are
interconnected and interrelated. The answers to these questions can be found
by selecting the most appropriate teaching strategy for a specific objective
within a learning context. Teaching is a process (i.e., the how) that involves
supporting learners in constructing knowledge in a creative way, how they
remember it, as well as how they organise and evaluate it (Byram & Wagner,
2018; Smagorinsky, 2020). Based on this belief, there is need to plan for
learning in teacher education to reflect three components of curriculum
design, which are addressed in an integrated manner, namely, (1) aims and
objectives, (2) contexts, and (3) the content of teaching strategies. This
highlights the need for student teachers to reflect on the two fundamental
aspects of the teaching (i.e., the context, and the learners) which are the
natural result of theory-philosophy and art-craft theoretical
conceptualisations (Choi et al., 2018; Darling-Hamond et al., 2019).
By not guiding the student teachers to practical and experiential
opportunities in their teaching, lecturers estrange them from the theoretical
and practical orientations to teaching. To address this gap, there is a need to
rework the ITE curriculum to deliberately infuse three sites that would
prepare the student teachers holistically for the realities of the classroom.
That means including the nature, history, theories, methods and lesson
planning for teaching English as a second language, but also integrated
situation analysis, micro-teaching, school-based subject-specific practicums
and reflection (Kanakri, 2017; Farrell, 2012). In doing this, I reason that the
student teachers would be better prepared for the classroom if they apply the
theoretical insights they discuss in class immediately in micro-teaching
laboratories (in the university) and practicums (outside of the university)
(Darling-Hamond et al., 2019; Farrell, 2012).
As a result of the insights from the theoretical perspectives discussed above,
the approach to language teaching should be aimed at developing skills,
dispositions and competencies in students by recognising that holistic
learning is not exclusively achieved through direct interactions during
‘classroom’ learning activities (Choi et al., 2018; Smagorinsky, 2020). In
teaching activities, there is a need to reinforce in the minds of students the
transformation intentions of the profession; this occurs through reflection
100 N. Mpofu

and situation analysis in the practice of teaching (Farrell, 2012; Navidinia,


2021; Tiainen, Korkeamaki & Dreher, 2018). This means guiding the student
teachers to develop an understanding of—and positive responses to—matters
of teaching and learning within and outside the classroom within the
irreducible diversity of human opinion and worldview (Darling-Hammond et
al., 2019). This is necessary to develop in students a culture which ensures
that they all come to embrace teaching as a profession that requires reflection,
a lifelong sense of connectedness to craft and a disposition to making a
difference through education. However, this journey with student teachers is
not always easy and clear cut.
The teaching of theoretical aspects that are largely drawn from the Global
North is common in most ITE programmes in the Global South. According to
Sayed, Motala and Hoffman (2017), this way of teaching results in students
regurgitating knowledge during assessment opportunities without applying it
to address the different contexts in which English language is taught as a
second language. For example, I was unable to guide the students to sequence
their knowledge by connecting it to prior experiences and building newer
connections. By the time my student teachers were in their third year of
study, they had learnt about educational paradigms such as positivism,
behaviourism, social constructivism and suchlike, but possessed limited skills
to enable me to draw on this prior knowledge when introducing them to the
teaching of English.

6. Conclusion
The study of personal epistemology offers instructors an opportunity to
acknowledge their role in active knowledge construction and in the process of
meaning-making drawn from the experience of the profession (Ostman &
Wickman, 2014). This cognitive experience allows the instructor to
continuously interact with the social world of university teaching to develop
an epistemic base that they use to merge theoretical viewpoints to
incorporate their personal epistemologies. This situation positions personal
epistemology as an important exercise which is both idiosyncratic and
nuanced but necessary for shaping one’s professional development. By
analysing the content in which learning takes place, one develops a deeper
appreciation for teaching students to apply content knowledge meaningfully
by prioritising the students’ experiences in accessing and building their
knowledge (Nigar & Kostogriz, 2019; Paris & Alim, 2017). This means paying
attention when guiding the student teachers to access knowledge through the
sources that are used in that domain, but going a step further by emphasising
a multidisciplinary approach to learning. For example, by incorporating
theory, practicals (i.e., class demonstrations/simulated prompts, micro-
teaching labs), experiential learning (in real-world contexts) and reflection.
International Journal of Language Studies, 15(3), 89-106 101

Importantly, the student teachers should be able to explain the following:


1. What worked in the real classroom? (They may use any reason available
to them from a general study of the theory of education.)
2. Why did it work? (What is new/novel about their application in the real
classroom? If they were using a method, how did they modify it in the
classroom considering the learning context and the characteristics of
their learners?)
3. What did not work? (What did not work in terms of lesson delivery,
their disposition, classroom management and knowledge sequencing?
What could have been done differently?)
From this continuous engagement with content knowledge and its application
in real-life situations, the student teachers develop dispositions to reflective,
experiential and action-oriented teaching knowledge construction. The three
questions posed above have the potential to guide them to teach effectively by
nurturing them to think critically about their teaching goals, activities,
assessment and reflection within the context in which learning takes place.

The Author
Nhlanhla Mpofu (Email: [email protected]) is Associate Professor of
English Language Teaching at the Faculty of Education, Rhodes University,
South Africa. She is a South African National Research Foundation Y rated
researcher, a Fulbright alumna, COIL alumna and an Executive member of the
South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS). Her research explores
second language learning approaches in second language classrooms where
English is the medium of instruction. Through this research focus, she seeks
to gain a strategic, epistemological and pragmatic understanding of the
nuanced discourse of knowing how to teach in language. She draws her
orientation from knowing sciences positioned within the Culturally
Sustaining Pedagogies (CSP). Drawing from this research foci she explores
teaching knowledge from an epistemological repertoire that is contextually
embedded and held together by the dispositional and linguistic resources at
the control of the practitioner. Her findings are important in dismantling the
hegemonic positivist orientation that disempowers the teacher, from the
critical role of a knowledge constructor to that of a transmitter.

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