Teacher change and professional conversations: A case study of an ESL instructor's changing beliefs and practices regarding literacy learning and instruction

This study, grounded in a sociocognitive perception of literacy, examines an English-as-a-second language teacher in the midst of classroom change. This study is part of a larger one that entails a group of researchers and teachers working together to develop and understand the workings of a sociocognitive literacy instructional curriculum in various classrooms. In this specific study, the teacher and researcher worked together to implement various sociocognitive theoretical and pedagogical concepts via a literacy activity in her adult ESL classroom. The study examines how the collaborative professional conversations impacted the teacher's ideas and instruction as well as how those changing ideas and behaviors affected the interactions with her students, the learning environment and ultimately, the types of literacy her students used and produced.; The analyses presented in this study are intrinsically linguistic, involving dialogue analyses as well as interpretation of all gathered documents. The research questions examine the teacher in the midst of change, the classroom interactions and dynamics (and their change across time), and the literacy learning of the students. The teacher was found to seek advice on instructional, pedagogical and evaluative concerns from her colleagues. Tensions were representative of the institutional demands placed on the teacher regarding instruction and evaluation. Classroom interaction changes were found in the types of questions asked by the teacher, the encouragement of student exchanges and expression of ideas, and the student-to-student interactions. Over time, changes were also noted in the classroom organization. As interactions among the teacher and students changed, so too did the interactions among the students. Finally, students were found to use the narrative mode for constructing oral meaning and for spinning oral and written stories. Intertextual links were found as students moved from the oral to the written language. Pictures were also an important link as students moved from one mode of language (oral) to the other (written). Major theoretical and instructional principles were discussed, practiced and learned by the teacher through professional meetings and conversations. These principles guided the changing classroom interactions and behaviors, as the instruction moved from a language to a literacy instruction and learning environment. Reflection was an important tool for change in this teacher's evolving literacy practice. An epilogue of on-going conversations between the instructor and the researcher follows the teacher's literacy instructional development after the research project's end.