Context, Communities, and Conflict: Novice Language Teachers in Malaysia

Abstract

This narrative inquiry focuses on two Malaysian novice English language teachers whose pre-service teacher education had included two years of study abroad. The experiences of novice language teachers remain an under-investigated area and this study furthers our understanding of that experience. Furthermore, while research on the effectiveness of pre-service language teacher education has reported mixed results, accounts on the impact of studying abroad claim multiple benefits. Thus this study extends the literature on novice language teachers by adding a study abroad dimension. It asks what influences the teachers' pedagogical decision-making and how they now view their study abroad. In line with models of language teacher cognition, a dynamic interplay of influences on these novice teachers' classroom practice emerges. These influences include their 'apprenticeship of observation', the national and local context, their professional learning, and support networks. Multiple layers of both context and community were found to influence the teachers. The study abroad experiences features in both positive and negative ways. It conveys status, and raises expectations, but is not always regarded as relevant to teaching in Malaysian primary schools. It can also, however, have an alienating effect. This is a previously unacknowledged effect of study abroad on language teachers.

A 30-year Perspective of Bibliometric Analysis on Teacher Cognition: Toward Teacher Development

“…However, the role of other elements or communities in language teacher cognition models that may result in cognitive and behavioral changes in novice teachers has not been given due attention (Macalister, 2022). Therefore, it is worth stating explicitly the impact of these influential factors.…”

Probing the Sociocultural Relevance of TESOL in Three Stories of Becoming an English Teacher

“…At the center stage of teacher education, research has focused on pre‐service student teachers in the process of becoming a teacher (Kılıç & Cinkara, 2020; Prabjandee, 2019; Trent, 2011; Villegas, Varona, & Sanchez, 2020). Very recently, in line with examinations of in‐service English teachers' views (Macalister, 2022), there have been investigations of student teachers' construction of their professional identities in different contexts. A study in Colombia (Castaneda‐Trujillo, Alarcon‐Camacho, & Jaime‐Osorio, 2022) analyzed the written narratives of four pre‐service teachers of English to understand how they construct their professional identity in an undergraduate teacher education program.…”

“…Many studies have scrutinized various concerns of language teachers and their evolving understandings, attitudes, and challenges during their teaching career (e g., Kanno & Stuart, 2011; Nazari & De Costa, 2021; Numrich, 1996; Trent, 2012; Wang, 2021). Within this landscape, the ongoing (re)construction of teacher identities have been the focus of a significant body of research, considerably based on narrative and discursive approaches (e g., Barkhuizen, 2019; Cheung, Said, & Park, 2015; De Costa & Norton, 2017; Haniford, 2005; Kayi‐Aydar, 2019; Macalister, 2022; Trent, 2016; Tsui, 2007; Yazan & Lindahl, 2020).…”

Teaching Moral Values Through Real-life Dilemmas

“…Ever since then, there has been no turning back because ME in Malaysia (MEM) is dynamic and always changing. There is no completion period to say that we have the most ideal syllabus and that teaching ME has achieved its aim (Macalister, 2023).…”