From Utopia to Reality: Trans-Formation of Pedagogical Knowledge in English Language Teacher Education

Abstract

In this article the author reports on a study of some English language student-teachers’ trans-formations of knowledge about language education. The question that guided the study was: How are English language student-teachers’ formative pedagogical and research experiences portrayed in a transformative and critical outlook for initial teacher education? Reflections, perceptions, and conceptions served as data and were collected by means of diaries, interviews, and degree projects or monographs. From the analysis of data, two main themes emerged: “Going Back and Forth from Utopia to Reality” and “EFL Student-Teachers as Novice Critical Researchers”. A conclusion was that the participants’ trans-formations mediated by pedagogical and research agendas represented alternatives with high levels of sensitivity towards socially associated issues in language education.

Keywords

• Formative research
• initial language teacher education
• language education innovation
• language pedagogical knowledge
• language pedagogy