| The study reported in this thesis is a long-term case study embedded in the complicated sociocultural environment in China and the variation of educational background worldwide. Since the reform and opening up policy in China, foreign language education has become increasingly important in the political, economic, cultural, educational, and other activities. The significance of foreign language education has thus been widely recognized by the individual, family, society, and government. During this period of time the long-term isolation between Chinese foreign language education circle and that of western countries came to an end, and various contemporary language teaching approaches abroad were introduced to China, including publications of Cambridge Applied Linguistics, Cambridge Language Teaching Library, and the like. It has been an era with multiple foreign language teaching methods and theories. Chinese foreign language teaching community has got rid of the conventional teaching concept of Grammar-translation, and begun using outcomes from scientific research areas such as applied linguistics, cognitive linguistics, and psycholinguistics to interpret and conduct foreign language teaching practice. The level of foreign language education, however, has been criticized, complaints ranging from’dumb English’ to ’sham fluency’. Are the imported theories of foreign language teaching unaccustomed to China’s land? Or is teaching method not the fundamental problem of foreign language teaching practice?Almost at the same time, since the1970s, education science in the west has seen the big event of’ paradigm shift’, which has changed the paradigm of inquiry from universal law of education to situated educational meaning (Zhong&Zhang,2001). Foreign language teaching, accordingly, has experienced a shift from teacher-centred approach to learner-centredness, a teaching concept endowed with humanistic orientation (Rivers,1972). Situatedness means individual, local, with an educational quest for the meaning of there and then. Zhong and Zhang (2001) note that western educational theory has begun to consciously search for teaching wisdom in the Oriental culture, in the hope of realizing the communication and integration of Eastern and Western culture in the area of pedagogical research. In this context, we cannot help but ask, is there any practical wisdom in domestic foreign language teaching? If so, what is it? And under what circumstances is this practical wisdom formed and how? Thus, we have to come back to China’s social and cultural environment to explore practical wisdom from domestic foreign language teaching practice, the foothold of which is exactly where China’s foreign language teaching and research should establish its own alternatives.In this study I have set out to explore the experiences of two senior Chinese EFL teachers as learners with active and initiative roles shaping and being shaped by their classroom practices in social contexts. My purpose is to illustrate and to conceptualize this role with an emphasis on the knowledge held in relation to their values and options in order to understand the transformation of practical wisdom in their work. Four research questions guided the ethnographic study of the chosen EFL teachers:1) What life experience did the two EFL teachers have in their social contexts?2) How did such experience affect their EFL practice in their classroom settings?3) What sort of practical knowledge is reflected in their EFL pedagogy and its relation to current EFL/ESL teaching and learning theory?4) How did such knowledge develop and what are the driving forces hidden behind the Chinese EFL teachers in the transformation of practical wisdom?Teachers’practical wisdom derives from and is embedded in their teaching practice. Teachers are learners and get developed as they respond to their contexts of work, reflect on their practices, and come to a new understanding of teaching and learning in the process of seeking goodness. Toughness breeds wisdom. Practical wisdom is forced out in the intersection of tensions, and is value-laden. To understand the practical choice of EFL teachers has to do with their views of life, of education and of the language they teach. Therefore, the study begins with the teachers’ life experiences, including their schooling and teaching, and revolves around characteristics and practical knowledge embedded in their classroom practice for in-depth analysis against current EFL/ESL teaching theories for an investigation of the appropriateness and advancedness of their practice. Teachers, as initiative individuals, enter the classroom with a personal life history. Teacher learning is a process of growth and development, and life experiences, educational background, experience in teaching are important sources of teachers’ practical wisdom, affecting their cognition of self, students, EFL teaching and educational environment. Through their EFL classroom teaching practice, the present study displays tensions and problems the teachers have encountered in their classroom settings, intertwined with such key issues as school contexts, EFL teaching, and students with an aim to explore how teachers respond to and reconstruct the contexts they are embedded in, and consequently make accomplishment in EFL teaching, successful in maintaining their beliefs.After a comparison and qualitative analysis of the data collected through initial interviews of five teachers, two professors were selected as the final research participants of the case study reported here. In light of case study tradition, case study does not excel in terms of quantity of research participants, but rather in the accurate selection of participants, in the wealth of information and diversity of experiences. For example, Elbaz (1983) conducted the case study of Sarah, through which she contributed the concept of teacher practical knowledge. Likewise Tang Degang deployed an in-depth case study of Hu Shi (2012) via the methodology of oral history. This study has thus conducted collection of field data for about six years, ranging from interviews of the teacher participants, their publications of articles and books (including textbooks), unpublished articles, blog writings, lecture videos, reports on newspapers, and so on, amounting to nearly a million words. Based on the abundance of life experiences of the two professors and the Chinese sociocultural settings they have lived in, as well as my own experience as an EFL teacher, an identity of an insider, the study has deployed a mixed method of ethnography and narrative inquiry. On the one hand, the mixed method fits in well with the perspective of sociocultural theory; on the other hand, there exists a natural connection between the two methods, with the latter deriving from the former and has thus become a prior choice of this study.To date, education researchers have reached a consensus that the teacher is the key to education reform. This study is directed at the core power of foreign language education reform. From the theoretical perspective, this study embraces the viewpoint that people are the primary productive force, and claims that teachers are themselves initiators of foreign language teaching reform, and that teaching methods are the means for teachers to accomplish their teaching objectives. Therefore EFL teacher quality, the cultivation of self and the transformation of practical wisdom has become the most important issue for researchers to explore. Otherwise, it makes no difference of setting aside the origin for the end. Secondly, from the epistemological perspective of monism, this study intends to rectify the illusion that native speakers are qualified to be teachers of their mother tongue and the passive role that teachers are assumed merely as ’consumers of knowledge’, so as to empower teaching practitioners as active learners, dynamic in and responsive to social and school contexts. In other words, teachers are active in the process of constructing practical wisdom. As owners of professional knowledge, foreign language teachers should be fully respected, playing the role of the reform momentum and thus it is vital to inspire their enthusiasm in practice.There is no doubt that the study on practical wisdom of EFL teachers is significant for the non-native English teaching practice in regard to a wide range of practical issues. First of all, foreign language teachers’practical wisdom is alive and personal, tacit and situational, with a dynamic nature. For in-service teachers, practical wisdom study concerns about its developmental process and intends to discover the educational meaning formed through their teaching practice and thus share with colleagues and peers, contributing to their professional position, and leading to teachers’professional development. Secondly, the notion of practical wisdom enables teachers and administers to maintain inclusive, humanistic attitude towards novice teachers, paying special attention to their professional training, allowing them to grow in a tolerant ambience. Thirdly, the study on practical wisdom will provide fresh and useful nutrients for pre-service EFL teachers. In light of the dialectical relationship between practice and knowledge, all true knowledge comes from practice. For the pre-service teachers practical wisdom is transmitted to them as a source of priori truth for them to learn, which is thereby passed down with the integration of practice as well as theoretical learning, constituting a virtuous circle of the transformation of practical wisdom, and thus continuously enriching the treasury of truth and goodness in EFL teaching.The study has found that the two professors are characteristic of their EFL teaching concept and practice corresponding to their teaching environment and levels of students. For instance, Professor Y used to teach low-level English learners and implemented, through trial and error,’form-meaning-situation’trinity in her teaching practice (though she herself may have failed to form a clear theoretical cognition of the practice, the concept revealed through her EFL teaching practice precisely indicates that teachers practice knowledge is tacit). Professor G, on the other hand, known for his knowledgeability and benevolence, has shared his knowledge and passion with high-level EFL students, and insisted on ideological and emotional communication and resonance with students. By means of the interaction with students in and out of class, he has created a zone of proximal development (ZPD) for their EFL learning. His teaching is oriented in content, and through the use of the English language his teaching objectives simply go beyond the language per se. As Professor G says, language is not only a communication tool, but also shapes our thoughts. The two professors have formed their own particular EFL teaching approaches, through constant practice, reflection and exploration. Current ESL/EFL teaching research and practice have proved the appropriateness and advancedness of their practice, which embodies the wisdom of their EFL teaching practice.In the EFL teaching context in China, the two professors have an identity distinctively different from that of other disciplines. They excel in English with a direct or indirect experience of its culture, and at the same time stay loyal to the Chinese culture. The good command of English is their root to settle down as a qualified EFL teacher, while the latter reveals the utter innocence and integrity of the Chinese intellectuals of the old generation. They have gone through ups and downs with the nation; in face of difficulty they have conscientiously undertaken their social responsibility, manifesting sincerity, courage and obligation towards the nation as a Chinese intellectual. Their development indicates that they have not only brought their talents into full play, but also broken through their self-restrictions and boundary. Their indifference to material and obsession with beliefs has formed a great contrast, and they constantly improve themselves through self-cultivation for a larger extent of social benevolence and individual inner freedom. These are the defining features of their character, reflecting the sociocultural influence on their generation and the nurture of the traditional culture.With the exploration of their EFL practice, the two professors have insisted on teaching themselves in advance of their students, adhering to the search for knowledge, for effective way to solve the problems emerged in their teaching practice. They are highly responsible, teaching students with no distractions, requiring excellence and perfection from themselves and their students as well. The pursuit of knowledge is a process of cultivating oneself, of self-perfection. The EFL teaching activity embraces the life pursuit and ideals of the two teachers, during which they pursue truth and goodness in their life, practicing diligently and taking delight in their work. For western teachers, the pursuit of scientific truth takes priority, though there has emerged concerns of their innermost life in recent years (such as Palmer,2005). It is, however, different from the Chinese teachers’moral pursuit of self-perfection, displaying two divergent paths of teacher professional development with different cultures, also reflecting the gap between teacher practical knowledge and practical wisdom, the latter of which is value-laden. When practical knowledge meets with value, the former sublimates to practical wisdom. The study shows that the two professors’ pursuit of life has been integrated with the practice of their educational life.The academic contribution of the study reported here is multifaceted. First of all, the perspective of EFL teachers’ practical wisdom has made an organic integration of static teacher knowledge with teaching practice, expanding the cognition of teacher professional development. The conceptual framework of practical wisdom this study has ultimately found sheds light on teacher professional development home and abroad. Moreover, the study is innovative in terms of its methodology, combining ethnography and narrative inquiry as a mixed method. This accommodation of the two methods is of natural origin, and suitable for the teacher participants with a historical span of nearly80years in Chinese language education and sociocultural settings as well as for the vicissitudes in the Chinese society. Thirdly, unlike most educational research, this study of practical wisdom focuses on the disciplinary issues of EFL education. With the disciplinary characteristics in mind, the study focuses on teacher professional development and the cultivation of practical wisdom, the theme and perspective of the study has endowed it with originality. We believe that the study of local Chinese teachers’practical wisdom will enlighten international teacher education and have implication for teacher professional development worldwide. |
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