Taxi, Takeoff, and Landing: Evidence of Mobilization of Knowledge in Raising Bilingual Teachers' Language Awareness

• In Event: 35.051 - Mobilization of Knowledge and Boundary Crossing in a Bilingual Teacher Education Program

Abstract

This qualitative case study (Dyson & Genishi, 2005) aims to identify evidences of mobilization of knowledge for teacher candidates leading to expansive learning (Engeström, 2003; Engeström, & Sannino, 2009). It describes learning in two activity systems (training sessions for teacher candidates and implementation sessions for in-service teachers) when the object (e.g., the teacher candidates as learners) in the language awareness training session of the first triangle became the subject (e.g., the teacher candidates as teachers) of the second triangle in what we describe, following Engeström and Sannino (2009), as a miniature learning cycle.

In the theory of expansive learning, Engeström (2003) states “concept formation typically occurs as stepwise two-dimensional negotiation and hybridization” (p. 2). From this perspective, the organic and multimodal features of teaching and learning gave rise to the research question of this study: What evidences of expansive learning emerged in language awareness workshops from training to implementation? The data came from transcripts of video and audio recording of the training and implementation sessions, effectiveness surveys on participation in the language awareness workshop, fieldnotes, artifacts, debriefings, and reflections of six teacher candidates. The content and conversation analysis focused on characteristics of expansive learning, which Engeström defines as transformative, learning by experiencing, horizontal movement and boundary crossing, and knot-working. These elements have primarily contributed to the cyclical process of expansive learning.

The preliminary findings point to expansive learning as expressed in participants’ talk through movement in several dimensions and this presentation will focus on two of them:
First, from normalizing to negotiating: In one of the Chinese Tai-chi demonstrations, the leading teacher candidate was moving her body around with empty bowls in hands while giving oral instructions in Mandarin. The rest of the in-service teacher participants had to hold bowls filled with water following the instructions in an unknown language. When the fellows reflected on teaching and learning, they realized that one of the in-service teacher participants had commented the unfairness of leading teacher not having water in the bowls when carrying out the Tai-chi performance, which triggered the fellows’ discussion on the fundamental difference in teacher-centered (e.g. Western, American style) versus student-centered (e.g. Eastern, Chinese style) curriculum design.

Second, from restrictiveness to reconciliation: The discourse of bilingual education among Chinese international teacher candidates is often restricted to English and Chinese in a sense that Non-Mandarin dialects (or other ethnic minority indigenous languages) are deemed as less valuable and inferior compared to Mandarin. However, through their participation in the language awareness workshop, the fellows have crossed the sociolinguistic boundaries and sensibly recognized the value of their own dialects (Foochow and Wu dialects) as well as their surnames.

The significance of these findings point to the sociocultural characteristics of expansive learning from the cross-cultural experiences of bilingual teacher candidates who are international students themselves. It also helps to conceptualize the mobilization of knowledge as a plane ride which symbolizes how the fellows are transforming, metaphorically, through taxing, taking-off, and landing from one activity system to the other, not in a linear way but through horizontal learning.

Authors

• Sharon Chang, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Hansun Z. Waring, Teachers College, Columbia University