Teachers' perspectives on ELT : a research journey from challenging to conflict circumstances in Syria
This thesis is a journey which started investigating CLT innovation and implementation in Syrian schools and, due to the armed conflict in the country, ended with another layer of focus on the impact of Syria War on (education and) ELT, teachers and students. Employing a qualitative approach, the data incorporated audio-recordings and interviews as the two main research tools in the study. The lesson transcripts from two teachers in Syria (Grade 7) and a teacher in a camp school in Turkey (Grade 8) were explored in light of retrospective interviews to uncover how far teachers responded in their actual classroom practices to CLT curriculum innovation tenets and how implementation challenges, including teachersâ cognitions and contextual realities, influenced their practices. Celebrating diversity rather than uniformity, I also endeavoured to appreciate teachersâ own complex reasoning on their practices and how they made sense of their teaching in their immediate contexts. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 other Syrian teachers to further elicit perspectives on contextual forces and teacher beliefs, suggestions for a locally feasible ELT pedagogy and the impact of the current war circumstances
Alyasin, Abulqader
LB Theory and practice of education
Teachers' perspectives on ELT : a research journey from challenging to conflict circumstances in Syria. This thesis is a journey which started investigating CLT innovation and implementation in Syrian schools and, due to the armed conflict in the country, ended with another layer of focus on the impact of Syria War on (education and) ELT, teachers and students. Employing a qualitative approach, the data incorporated audio-recordings and interviews as the two main research tools in the study. The lesson transcripts from two teachers in Syria (Grade 7) and a teacher in a camp school in Turkey (Grade 8) were explored in light of retrospective interviews to uncover how far teachers responded in their actual classroom practices to CLT curriculum innovation tenets and how implementation challenges, including teachersâ cognitions and contextual realities, influenced their practices. Celebrating diversity rather than uniformity, I also endeavoured to appreciate teachersâ own complex reasoning on their practices and how they made sense of their teaching in their immediate contexts. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 other Syrian teachers to further elicit perspectives on contextual forces and teacher beliefs, suggestions for a locally feasible ELT pedagogy and the impact of the current war circumstances
teachers perspective elt journey challenge conflict circumstance syria journey start investigate clt innovation implementation syrian school due arm_conflict country end another layer focus impact syria war education elt teachers student employing qualitative_data incorporate audio_recordings interview two_main tool study lesson transcript teacher syria grade teacher camp school turkey grade explore light retrospective interview uncover far teacher respond actual classroom_practice clt curriculum innovation tenet implementation challenge include teacher_cognition contextual reality influence practice diversity rather uniformity also endeavour appreciate teacher complex reasoning practice make_sense teach immediate_context semi_structured interview_conduct syrian teacher elicit perspective contextual force teacher belief suggestion locally feasible elt pedagogy impact current war circumstance