Set in the rapidly changing world of the contemporary United Arab Emirates and bringing together detailed linguistic analysis with cutting edge social theory, this book explores the development of the first cohort of students to complete a new Bachelor of Education in English language teaching, theorizing the students’ learning to teach in terms of the discursive construction of a teaching identity within an evolving community of practice. Both a study of the influence of issues such as gender and nationalism in language teacher education in the Middle East, as well as of the power of discourse and community in shaping identity, this book will be of relevance to anyone working in teacher education as well as to those with an interest in theorizations of discourse and identity.
Set in the rapidly changing world of the contemporary United Arab Emirates and bringing together detailed linguistic analysis with cutting edge social theory, this book explores the development of the first cohort of students to complete a new Bachelor of Education in English language teaching, theorizing the students’ learning to teach in terms of the discursive construction of a teaching identity within an evolving community of practice. Both a study of the influence of issues such as gender and nationalism in language teacher education in the Middle East, as well as of the power of discourse and community in shaping identity, this book will be of relevance to anyone working in teacher education as well as to those with an interest in theorizations of discourse and identity.
Language Teacher Identities: Co-constructing Discourse and Community
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Overview
Set in the rapidly changing world of the contemporary United Arab Emirates and bringing together detailed linguistic analysis with cutting edge social theory, this book explores the development of the first cohort of students to complete a new Bachelor of Education in English language teaching, theorizing the students’ learning to teach in terms of the discursive construction of a teaching identity within an evolving community of practice. Both a study of the influence of issues such as gender and nationalism in language teacher education in the Middle East, as well as of the power of discourse and community in shaping identity, this book will be of relevance to anyone working in teacher education as well as to those with an interest in theorizations of discourse and identity.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781847699541 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Multilingual Matters Ltd. |
| Publication date: | 06/06/2008 |
| Series: | New Perspectives on Language and Education , #8 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 240 |
| File size: | 432 KB |
About the Author
Currently an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong, Matthew Clarke led the development and implementation of the new Bachelor of Education at the Higher Colleges of Technology in the United Arab Emirates between 1999 and 2006. Prior to working in teacher education, he taught in primary schools and language centres in the UK and Australia. His research interests include discourse analysis, identity, social theory, cultural studies and philosophy as well as language and literacy education.
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Language Teacher Identities
Co-constructing Discourse and Community
By Matthew Clarke
Multilingual Matters
Copyright © 2008 Matthew ClarkeAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-84769-954-1
CHAPTER 1
Discourse, Identity and Community
This chapter outlines the theoretical framework underpinning the book and my reasons for adopting it. In the process, I hope to make the nature of my engagement with the issues implicit in the book explicit, as well as to provide an opening for further debate and discussion (Holliday, 2002; Kamberelis & Dimitriadis, 2005; Phillips & Jorgensen, 2002).
The notions of discourse, identity and communities of practice provide an integrated and aligned conceptual framework throughout this study at the levels of epistemology, theoretical principles, methodology, analysis and interpretation (Kamberelis & Dimitriadis, 2005: 15). These theoretical concepts are introduced for their productive capacity, for as Phillips and Jorgensen (2002: 21) note, in the quote cited in the Introduction, 'It is by seeing the world through a particular theory that we can distance ourselves from our taken for granted understandings and subject our material to other questions than we would be able to do from an everyday perspective.' It is critical therefore to examine each of these concepts in some depth, to illustrate their appropriateness for researching teacher formation and to highlight their complementary contributions in addressing the questions motivating this study. I begin by examining discourse since in many ways it forms a bridge between the social worlds of communities of practice and identities.
Exploring Discourse
In the introductory chapter I noted the passion with which the student teachers were embracing the discourses of education as one of the sources of impetus for this study. Indeed, among other things, this study is crucially concerned with the power of discourse. However, in order to fully appreciate this productive power, we need to unpack the complex meanings carried by this term.
Discourse, like culture, is one of the most widely used terms in social and educational discussions, and like culture, it is also a term that is often used in different ways though often left undefined (Mills, 2004). These uses include reference to extended stretches of language beyond the sentence level, as well as to linguistically embodied systems of meaning, knowledge and belief, akin to notions referenced by the term ideology. These different senses are of course related, in that systems of belief will be evident in language-in-use. Discourse in the broader 'systems of meaning' sense is also used in different ways. We can refer to 'discourse' as an abstract noun, meaning something along the lines of language as social practice, or as a countable noun, when speaking of particular discourses (Fairclough, 1992). Within this latter use, at times we refer to the discourse of a field, such as the discourse of law, or teaching, while at other times we refer to the discourse of a social community, such as Emirati women, urban educated youths, upper-class Brits, etc. So discourse references both knowledge and communities. But discourses should not be thought of as separate, self-contained silos of meaning; rather, there will be polyvalent relationships between and among them involving differing degrees and combinations of articulation and overlap, complementariness and contradiction, similarity and difference, as a result of which discourses may produce, transmit and reinforce, but also contest and undermine, social meanings and social relations (Bove, 1995; Foucault, 1978, p. 100–102).
Overall, the most fruitful approach with discourse is to maintain a degree of openness and flexibility in relation to its meaning since the value of the term is as a heuristic tool, similar again to culture, and that value is likely to be lost if we try to pin the meaning of the term down too precisely (Phillips & Jorgensen, 2002). Working definitions of the term discourse, consonant with this study include the fairly loose: 'a relational ensemble of signifying sequences' (Torfing, 1999: 91), as well as the more detailed: 'a pattern of thinking, speaking, behaving, and interacting that is socially, culturally, and historically constructed and sanctioned by a specific group or groups of people' (Miller Marsh, 2003: 9).
Related to the wide usage of the term, are four common misunderstandings about discourse-based theories (Torfing, 1999: 94–96). These include:
(1) The view that discourse theory involves a belief that there is no external world – rather, discourse theory asserts that it is only through discourse that we can talk meaningfully about the external world.
(2) The view that discourse refers to the merely linguistic within the wider social world – rather, discourse theory views the linguistic and the social as coextensive in that 'All actions have meaning and to produce or disseminate meaning is to act' (Torfing, 1999: 94).
(3) The view that relations and identities within discourse are entirely arbitrary, stemming from Saussure's arguments about the arbitrary relationship between the signifier and signified within the sign – rather, discourse theory views the relationship between the whole and the parts, as well as between the parts, within discourse as one of reciprocal and mutual conditioning.
(4) The view that discourse theory entails a chaotic flux of meaning – rather, meaning within discourse is constrained by what Torfing (1999: 96), drawing on Derrida, refers to as a 'determinate openness', in that the fixation of meaning within discourse is always only temporary and partial.
Of the above misconceptions, the first is perhaps the most prevalent and one to which Laclau and Mouffe provide a robust response:
The fact that every object is constituted as an object of discourse has nothing to do with whether there is a world external to thought, or with the realism/idealism opposition. An earthquake or the falling of a brick is an event that certainly exists, in the sense that it occurs here and now, independently of my will. But whether their specificity as objects is constructed in terms of 'natural phenomena' or 'expressions of the wrath of God', depends on the structuring of a discursive field. What is denied is not that such objects exist externally to thought, but the rather different assertion that they could constitute themselves as objects outside any discursive conditions of emergence. (Laclau & Mouffe, 1985: 108)
Torfing's work is primarily concerned with the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe (1985). In this book, I draw on Laclau and Mouffe's view of discourse as a series of temporary, unstable and ambiguous closures of meaning and their post-structuralist insights into the way that the positive content of any discourse relies on the strategy of positing of an 'other' or 'constitutive outside', against which the terms of a particular discourse are negatively defined. But there are many other possible approaches and I draw on Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory as one of a number of related approaches, all of which reject notions of totalizing and universalizing knowledge, beliefs or identities emanating from an ultimate centre. The positive value of such principled eclecticism as part of a 'multiperspectival' approach is recognized by Phillips and Jorgensen, who note how 'many discourse analysts work across disciplinary borders, and there are many theoretical points and methodological tools that cannot be assigned to one particular approach' (Phillips & Jorgensen, 2002: 3). Indeed, while on the one hand Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory is a particularly broad-ranging social theory and offers valuable theoretical insights, on the other hand, it offers little in the way of detailed method for discourse analysis. Its reach can be extended by supplementing it, as in this study, with an approach that has developed a detailed set of tools, such as Fairclough's critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1992, 2003).
Despite this eclecticism, however, it is important to realize that discourse theory is a 'complete package' in the sense that it is not valid to use its tools and methods unless one embraces its philosophical tenets and principles. 'In discourse analysis, theory and method are intertwined and researchers must accept the basic philosophical premises in order to use discourse analysis as their method of empirical study' (Phillips & Jorgensen, 2002: 4). Indeed, alongside their various differences, all discourse analytical approaches agree on the following points (Phillips & Jorgensen, 2002: 12) with regard to the word/world relationship. First, language is not a reflection of a pre-existent reality, in the sense that thought and language only become meaningful in discourse, as well as in that language use patterned as discourse both produces and reflects particular ways of understanding or talking about the world. Second, discourse is not 'context-free' in the historical sense that it changes over time and in the sense that at any given time, discourse is coextensive with social relations of position and power. Third, discourses are maintained or transformed in discursive practices which involve a constant negotiation and renegotiation of meaning. Fourth, the maintenance or transformation of these patterns can be explored through the specific contexts in which language is used in action, as part of a process of discourse analysis.
Thus discourse implies a mode of acting upon the world as well as a means of expression or form of representation. It also implies a mutually constitutive relationship between language and society, between the word and the world at multiple levels: at the level of systems of knowledge and belief; at the level of social relationships and groupings, such as gender, class or institutions; and at the level of effects such as social identities (Fairclough, 1992). It is through discourse that the social production of meaning takes place, through discourse that social relations are created and maintained and through discourse that social identities are produced.
At the level of systems of knowledge and belief, 'Discourse is a practice not just of representing the world, but of signifying the world, constituting and constructing the world in meaning' (Fairclough, 1992: 64). In constituting 'reality' discourses determine what can and cannot be said; as Foucault's rarefied definition has it, discourses 'are practices that systematically form the objects of which they speak' (1972: 49). (It is worth noting Sim's (1998: 245) comment that whenever 'discourse' is mentioned 'we find Foucault's ghostly presence'.) An example of this constitutive capacity from education is the distinction between 'traditional' and 'new' methods of teaching in progressive educational discourse that we will encounter in Chapter 4. Thus the development of new ways of talking about teaching and learning in the wake of the Piagetian and Vygotskian 'revolutions' from the 1960s onwards led to the creation of the 'traditional' and the 'progressive' teacher as distinct categories, as well as to other distinctions such as that between 'teacher centred' and 'student centred' classrooms or between 'active' and 'passive' learning.
At the level of interpersonal relations, the regulatory and productive capacity of discourse constitutes certain social relationships and social groupings at the same time as it constitutes meanings. Thus discourses of advertising and consumption simultaneously constitute a consumerist understanding of the world and a community of consumers characterized by this understanding (Fairclough, 1992: 134). Of course, just as people adhere to multiple systems of knowledge and belief in different aspects of their lives, so they are members of multiple discourse communities that may overlap or be quite discrete, cohere or conflict.
At the level of intrapersonal identities, discourse is constitutive of who we are and how we are perceived by others. Thus within schools, colleges and universities, educational and pedagogical discourses and their associated practices construct certain people as teachers and others as students. However, as noted above, this is not a matter of straightforward or predictable determination; discourses and discursive practices are myriad and the individual is formed in the interface between these multiple and often competing discourses and practices. As Holland et al. note,
the idea of plural, even competing sites of self, is now common to a variety of disciplines ... the demise of the privileged concept of bounded, discrete coherent cultures has made room for the recognition that people are exposed to competing and differentially powerful and authoritative discourses and practices of the self. (Holland et al., 1998: 29)
In similar fashion, and writing specifically in the context of the power of discourse in shaping teacher identities, Britzman (1994: 56) explains how 'In this way, language – or more specifically discourse – becomes the site of the struggle, a place where the real is constructed, truth is produced and power is effectuated'.
Overall, discourse is central to this book. In Chapter 2, discourse is used to explore UAE history and society before going on specifically to look at discourses in relation to education and teacher education. I also use discourse as the basis for analysing the data gathered as part of this study, as also outlined in Chapter 2, in order to explore the discursive construction of the student teachers' community of practice and the constitution of their teacher identities. Indeed, discourse can be viewed as forming a bridge between communities of practice and identity, inasmuch as it is through discourse that the social is reflected in the individual and it is through discourse that the individual engages with the social. In this sense discourse links individual and social identities. It is to the question of identity that I turn next.
Exploring Identity
Like the construct discourse, the notion of identity was also implicated in the impetus for the study on which this book is based, insofar as I was intrigued by the student teachers' embodiment of learning to teach as the taking on of a new identity. By this I mean that the students seemed to exude a whole new sense of self as they reconceived themselves as 'teachers'.
Identity has long been one of the key issues in social and cultural theory with questions posed in terms of how it is that we endure as the same person over time. The concept of identity has also fascinated and preoccupied poets, playwrights and novelists. For example, in Pirandello's novella, The Late Mattia Pascal (1964 [1904]), a man fakes his own death in order to recast his life as a different person, only to discover that the psychological and social ties to his old 'self' constrain the possibilities for the new 'self' to the point of almost inhuman two-dimensionality. A similar exploration was carried out more recently in Hanif Kureishi's short story, The Body (2003). These stories raise many of the questions that philosophers have grappled with over time. Does the self reside in individual consciousness – in memories, thoughts and emotions – or is the individual created by the consistent reactions and responses of others that call forth each person as a separate and continuous individual? These questions are related to the timeless philosophical debate between structure and agency, between determination and freedom (Archer, 2000, 2003). One of these potentially determining forces, which featured prominently in a recent discussion about teacher education in the UAE, is culture. The following section explores the relationship between culture and identity in the context of this discussion.
Culturalism and cultural identities
Culture, like identity, has been one of the utilized and useful constructs in 20th century social theory and has been thoroughly incorporated into educational literature. Yet as Raymond Williams and others have pointed out, 'culture' is one of the most complex words in the English language in terms of its history and etymology, so it is not surprising to find it used in a range of disparate senses (Eagleton, 2000; R. Williams, 1983). Over 50 years ago, Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952, cited in Seel, 2000) reviewed different meanings of culture and identified 156 different definitions. It is certainly a word that is loaded with issues and ambivalences. 'Within this single term, questions of freedom and determinism, agency and endurance, change and identity, the given and the created come dimly into focus' (Eagleton, 2000: 2).
Reflecting the prevalent use of culture as a concept in education, an article in an educational development journal stated as its main purpose 'to compare key assumptions of reflective practice with the major cultural values about education in the United Arab Emirates' (Richardson, 2004: 429). Relying on an interpretation of culture as 'the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another' (Hofstede, 1994: 4, cited in Richardson, 2004: 431), Richardson characterizes Emirati students as programmed by Arab-Islamic culture and thus circumscribed in a number of specific ways. These posited cultural limitations include the following: 'resistance to making the change and taking more responsibility for their own learning' (2004: 432); difficulty in forming 'a comfortable relationship with her college supervisor, given ... the expectations of high power distance between her and her supervisor' (2004: 434); and 'aversion to risk and uncertainty ... [and] thus may rely on outdated professional practices to use as models' (2004: 434). The problem with these views is that they rely on an essentialized notion of culture that is potentially reductive and is unable to do justice to the complexity of history and society in the UAE. Moreover, they ignore past and present contestations over the meaning of the 'values' that are cited as the underlying reason for the posited cultural characteristics. To understand why Richardson feels able to make these claims, we need to explore further the notion of culture underpinning her work.
(Continues...)
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Table of Contents
Introduction: Learning to Teach within an Evolving Community of Practice
Chapter 1 Discourse, Identity and Community
Chapter 2 The Discursive Context
Chapter 3 The Formation of a Community of Practice
Chapter 4 The Discursive Construction of Systems of Knowledge and Belief
Chapter 5 The Discursive Construction of Interpersonal Relations
Chapter 6 The Discursive Construction of Intrapersonal Identity
Chapter 7 Summary of Findings and Future Directions
References