Teacher Professional Learning: The Case of Arab Education in Israel

• In Event: 58.050 - Teacher Discussions of Problems of Practice: Conceptualizing and Investigating "Productive" Pedagogical Discourse

Abstract

Objectives
This study aims to examine how social and cultural contexts shape teacher pedagogical discourse in staff meetings in Arab schools in Israel. The schools are part of a District-wide intervention designed to foster productive pedagogical discourse, with the teacher team leaders participating in professional development alongside their Jewish Israeli counterparts. Central research questions include:
1. In what ways do the local cultural norms interact with the Western discursive norms promoted by the intervention?
2. In what ways do the participants negotiate the intercultural encounter?
3. What are the implications of this intercultural negotiation for teachers’ opportunities to learn?
Theoretical framework
Many educationalists would like school staff meetings to function as professional learning communities, which provide opportunities for professional learning through participation in pedagogical discourse and problem-solving (Horn & Kane, 2015). To be effective, the dialogue is supposed to provide participants with opportunities to share and discuss problems of practice in a supportive and reciprocal environment (Levine & Marcus, 2010; Horn, 2007, 2012).
These ideas reflect Western assumptions about discourse and professional community that privilege equal and reciprocal relationships, collaboration, involvement and transparency (Wegner, 1998; Lave & Wegner, 1991). These assumptions run counter to the local culture in Arab schools, which tends to be hierarchical in nature and to emphasize respect for authority (Abu Asba, 2007).
Methods and data sources
The study is part of a design-based implementation research project. Methods of data collection include participant observation of teacher team meetings in Arab primary schools; individual semi-structured interviews; playback interviews; and focus groups. Data are comprised of audio-recordings and field notes of 80 collaborative meetings across two years of data collection; documents collected during teachers’ collaborative work; and interviews with 26 participants.
Select segments from both the meetings and the interviews were transcribed for close analysis. This analysis, using linguistic ethnographic methods (Rampton, 2010), reveals the tensions that exist between western discourse norms and Arab local culture, both in the interactional norms in the meetings and the participant perspective as reflected in the interviews.
Results
Interaction among teachers in staff meetings in Arab schools is characterized by a tendency towards consensus centered on the ideas and the content presented by the leading teachers, and relatively limited space for teachers to express critical positions and divergent points of view. Furthermore, the teacher leaders adopt a didactic stance towards their colleagues, reminiscent of the teacher in the classroom, rather than collaborative discursive models. Interview data highlight a tension between the participants' interest in Western culture, which is perceived as prestigious, and their orientation to local cultures.
Scholarly significance
The study will contribute to the body of knowledge regarding the implementation of pedagogical intervention programs in schools, training and professional development in various sectors, and highlights the significance of specific cultural characteristics. Since discourse is culture dependent, theories of ‘learning communities’ require adaptation to apply to non-Western cultures, taking into account local discursive norms.

Author

• Islam Abu-Asaad, Ben Gurion University of the Negev