Category Archives: Teacher education

Hi there.       

Back in frantic rushing-about mode, I’m afraid. Off to Boston tomorrow for the TESOL Convention. I’ll hang my handout onto this posting, so that you get the idea of what I shall be going on about.

 I have been threatening to go on about Luddites for so long now that I had better say something. You can always google them, no doubt, but that wouldn’t give you my associated rant, would it?

 Well, historically, Luddite was the name given to a group of workers who stood out against the introduction of the factory-based power looms that led to the end of the home-based handloom worker in the weaving industry. The name came from a semi-apocryphal Captain Ned Ludd (probably based on a man called Edmund Ludnum) who was meant to be their leader. The Luddites became famous for breaking into factories and smashing the power looms.

 Anyway, it’s not so much the detail of the history as the use of the metaphor that is important, because those in charge of representation have succeeded in establishing ‘luddite’ as an expression to mean someone who is massively out of date and who tries to stand in the way of progress. That’s not what the Luddites were about. The Luddites were fighting against the use of technology by those in power to destroy the livelihoods of working people and to subjugate them to machines at wages calculated only to maximize profit. They might be accused of standing in the way of what was to come, but that is not exactly the same thing as standing in the way of progress, I would say.

 And I feel an affinity with the luddite position as far as the use of technology in education is concerned. I don’t object to the use of technology. Quite the reverse. Technology has made possible developments in teacher education that are completely in tune with my convictions about the usefulness of studying while teaching and working to theorise one’s practice in a particular situation.

 The quality of that work can be exhilarating. Supporting that work can be hugely satisfying, but it also requires a major investment of time, energy and creativity. The luddism kicks in when one deals with employers who see what they call ‘distance education’ as a way of dealing with large numbers of students on the cheap, and when the efficiency of e-communications builds up volumes of work that demand a cut in quality of response. At least, that would be the very real danger if one came across such employers.

 So, listen up the next time you hear the word, luddite, used. The issues have not gone away. Not at all.

But I am. Off to Boston. Say hello if you’re there, too.

 Best,

 Julian

Well, I had every intention of telling you my Luddite reflections this time, but they will just have to wait. One thing I have learned about these new, tek-savvy times, is that it doesn’t matter if you do what you said you were going to do, because you can always send a text to say that you’re doing something else.

 Anyway, first up, edgeblog had to decide between the two outstanding entries in the neo-Gricean Principles competition. The committee discussed long and hard the merits of Magdalena’s data-based contribution and logical analysis, as compared to Jane’s somewhat cheekier effort. In the end, and not until the bottle was empty, it was decided to award first prize to Jane, for her postmodern pedagogic:

Only provide as much information as can comfortably fit on your smartboard screen.

 Jane, if you send in a suitable address, an inscribed copy of Edge & Garton 2009 will come winging your way.  Ha! Bet that surprised you all, dinnit? Didn’t think edgeblog would really give a prize, dijja? And as for the book itself, what about this for a mind-boggling sentence from Chapter 2?

 So far in this chapter, we have introduced three levels of mental activity and two general approaches to language teaching. We are now going to examine five basic elements of ELT which have a role to play in both general approaches and which need to be integrated.

 And that’s on p.19 already! Just imagine how we’re getting on by p.119! It’s all there, believe me, it’s all there.

However, back to the Luddites. Or not, actually, of course, because I haven’t written that yet. And the reason is that thoughts of Cap’n Ned were displaced by a brief Blackboard exchange on the topic of teacher training, education and development, along with CELTAs, DELTAs and MAs. I found myself writing the following, which I thought came out rather well in an area that is always tricky:

 Many thanks for these questions, which are really useful in helping us clarify what we mean when we use these terms. Here’s my take: An introductory course such as the CELTA will be very much oriented to the training end of the spectrum: Showing and telling people what to do in a set of predictable circumstances. This is the apprenticeship phase. A DELTA course will extend this training and take on some aspects of education, in that the participant will come out with a good understanding of why some decisions are made and with an ability to respond on a principled basis to novel situations. This is the ‘journeyman’ phase. An MA course will broaden the educational base of the participant’s experience and will bring into question also those principles that were previously accepted, while not losing touch with the need to act. This is the ‘master’ phase. Those are what I see as the responsibilities of the courses. At each phase, the possibility exists for the participant to create from these training and educational scenarios developmental experiences of their own. The best courses will be trying to create conditions under which these experiences are more, rather than less, likely, and a master’s course should provide the greatest scope. Well, excuse the historical sexism of the terminology back there. I’ve never tried to express those ideas in quite that form before, so, thanks again.  best,  Julian

 Wodja think?

 Luddites next. Look after yourselves out there.

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