Teacher Professional Discourse as Intercultural Encounter

• In Event: Teacher education programmes: lessons from Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Europe

Proposal

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). These communities aim to enable professional development and create learning opportunities for teachers (Levine & Marcus, 2010; Horn, 2007, 2012).
However, the principles and norms of the professional learning communities reflect Western ideals about egalitarian, equal and reciprocal relationships characterized by cooperation, engagement, and transparency in discourse (DuFour et al., 2008; McLaughlin & Talbert, 2006; Pirtle & Tobia, 2014; Riveros et. al., 2012; Hord, 2009). These principles are not necessarily suitable for teachers from non-Western cultures and sometimes even run counter to these cultures' values and norms.
The study builds upon comparative education research that examines what happens in the process of "silent borrowing" or undeclared transfer of an intervention program that aims to cultivate pedagogical discourse and leadership among teachers in Israeli schools, include in the Arab education sector. It also recognizes the hegemonic relations of power that mark local knowledge as irrelevant (Takayama, 2017; Cowen, 2000; Altbach, 1991; Conell, 2007; Chen, 2010). It assumes that teaching and learning practices, including practices of teacher development, are shaped by the cultural, structural, and policy context in which they occur, and can be interpreted appropriately only within cultural, historical, and social contexts (Alexander, 2001; 2000).
This study aims to examine how local professional discourse norms in Arab schools interact with the Western discursive norms promoted by the intervention. It also examines how social, political, and cultural contexts shape teacher pedagogical discourse in staff meetings and their consequences for teachers’ opportunities to learn.
Arab Education in Israel:
The establishment of Israel in 1948 turned the Arab Palestinian community into a weakened minority. The community who lost its elite during the war, or as a result of expulsion and/or flight. The percentage of the indigenous Arab minority is currently about 20.8% of the Israeli population, which includes 82.7% Muslim, 9.4% Christian, and 7.8% Druze (Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, 2016). Arabs in Israel live in separate communities from the Jewish community, except for a small number of mixed cities, and are concentrated in three geographical areas: the Galilee in the north, the Triangle in the center and the Negev in the south (Khamaisi, 2009).
The Israeli education system is divided into sectors by nationality, religion and religiosity: Hebrew state education for Jewish pupils, religious-state education for religious Jewish pupils, and Arab state education for Arab pupils. The Arab educational system is different and separate from the general education system. It exists in different geographical areas, is conducted in a different language, and manages different lifestyles and culture (Golan-Agnon, 2006; Totry, 2008(, though it exists within the same educational system and is guided by similar curriculum policies (Benavot & Resh, 2003).
The local culture in Arab schools tends to be hierarchical in nature and to emphasize respect for authority. Though this culture is in a state of flux, due to geopolitical developments, including contact with Jewish Israeli culture, among other factors (Dwairy, 1997, 1998; Muhawi & Kanaana, 1989; 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 in teacher team meetings in Arab primary schools; individual semi-structured interviews; playback interviews; and focus groups. Primary data are comprised of audio-recordings and field notes from 91 teacher team meetings across four years of data collection.
Select segments from the meetings and the interviews were transcribed for close analysis. This analysis, using linguistic ethnographic methods (Rampton, Maybin & Roberts, 2010), reveals the tensions that exist between Western discourse norms and local Arab culture, both in the interactional norms in the meetings and the participant perspectives as reflected in the interviews.

Results
The implementation of the intervention program among teachers in Arab staff meetings is characterized by the space that is given to teachers to express critical positions and divergent points of view; teachers tend to speak in a way that suits the mainstream and school policy.
The teacher discourse is characterized also by short utterances, orderly turn-taking, polite and disciplined talk; relatively technical implementation of protocols (intervention tools), sometimes without attention to their conceptual basis. The discussion stick to the stages of the protocol without intensifying an inquisitive or critical discussion. Teachers also avoid disagreements by 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 leading teachers 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.
The study contributes to knowledge regarding the implementation of pedagogical intervention programs in schools, training and professional development in Arab sector, and highlights the significance of specific cultural characteristics. Since discourse is culture-dependent, theories of ‘learning communities’ require adaptation to non-Western cultures, taking into account local discursive norms.

Author

• Islam Abuasaad, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev