Sun’s (2012) paper is a case study of a Chinese immigrant language teacher, Wenying, at a secondary school in New Zealand. The author argued that teacher’s identity and cultural heritage plays an important role in shaping her personal practical knowledge and teaching practice.
Focus questions:
1) What are the characteristics of teachers’ personal practical knowledge?
2) What factors shape their personal practical knowledge?
World view:
Teacher’s identity and cultural background have an impact on his/her knowledge and teaching practice.
Philosophy/
Epistemology:
Humans, individually and socially lead storied lives. Through such stories, each person interprets his/her own experiences and forms personal knowledge.
Theory:
Knowledge and practice are inseparable from one’s identity and cultural belonging.
Principle: Factors that influence teacher's beliefs, thinking process and classroom actions are complex.
Concept:
Teacher knowledge, personal practical knowledge, identity awareness, cultural heritage, immigrant teacher
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Value claims:
Teacher’s personal practical knowledge is blended by personal background and characteristics of the teacher.
Knowledge claims:
Immigrant teacher’s identity and cultural heritage shape his/her personal practical knowledge and teaching practice.
Transformations:
Transcription of interviews, open-coding, line-by-line coding
Construct:
Personal practical knowledge
Records:
Interviews, videoed classroom observation, field notes, lesson plans, worksheets, samples of student work
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Events and/or objects:
1) A case study of a Chinese immigrant teacher (Wenying), teaching Chinese language at a secondary school in New Zealand.
2) She was interviewed, and her classes video-recorded.
In this article, personal practical knowledge is defined as “knowledge which is experiential, embodied, and reconstructed out of the narrative of a teacher’s life” (Clandinin & Connely, 1987, p.490, cited in Sun, 2012, p.761). In the case of Wenying, her awareness of immigrant identity and Confucian-heritage culture background shaped how she handles her students and classroom. Her desire to be accepted made her conscious of reinforcing the image that her predecessor had established. In line with the Confucian belief of “discipline first, then teach”, Wenying asked her students to be compliant with the classroom rules before teaching. The findings are supportive of the author’s claim that knowledge and identity and entwined. Sun concluded the article by calling for more cross-cultural research to help immigrant teachers making a smooth transition from their native cultural context to a new one.
It is interesting to note that Wenying was the focus of this article when three participants took part in the study. I wonder why the other participants and their experiences were not mentioned in this article. Did their experience not support author’s philosophical and theoretical assumptions? How do I make sure, in my own study, that my beliefs and assumptions do not get in the way of explaining events and objects that may not support them?
Hi Jingyu!
ReplyDeleteI think you raised a very interesting question. I think the reason why the author only mentioned one teacher in her article he purposely only focus on one teacher in the research, but not because there are conflicts between the author's assumptions and the other two teachers' experience. What confused me is that why the author mentioned the other two teachers even though he didn't investigate them. In addition, I agree with the author that the immigrant teachers should integrate into local environment and culture. In my point of view, not only cross-culture study should be conducted but also the teacher education opportunities should be provided to immigrant teachers.
Have a nice day!
Yuxi
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ReplyDeleteHi Jingyu, from what I understood, the author did consider all the three participants' answers in the outcomes of his research but chose to focus on only one of them for that specific paper. I'm not sure about that, but it's what makes sense to me when he mentions: "Wenying (pseudonym), the teacher reported on in this paper, is one of the two native Chinese speakers." In regards to your second question, it is indeed relevant that researchers try to find unbiased ways to analyze facts and data, and be open to notice that sometimes the answers might not support their assumptions. I believe the supervisor is a key element in guiding and orienting the student in effective ways as to prevent that to happen.
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