As your trusted Sunday newsletter companion, I feel pretty much contractually obligated to start today's email with a very heartfelt: happy World Teachers' Day!
I'm not one for platitudes, but if there is a day to remind ourselves that teachers are valuable, I say: why on earth not?
To me, teaching is a myriad things - exhilarating, rewarding, confusing, challenging, and I could go on. But I know that it can get tiring, so sometimes it's useful to pause and take stock, to remind ourselves of the good we do.
When I get the feeling that I cannot possibly carry on any longer, thinking back to names and faces helps me find my drive again.
So, I ask you: what is your best memory as a teacher? The one, big or small, that you treasure the most?
I feel like I have a million little memories that bring a smile to my face: from the always silent teen who suddenly spoke up when I did a lesson on his favourite band, to all the little aha moments (how satisfying is it when they finally understand the past simple vs. present perfect difference?), to all the funny mistranslations I've heard over the years¹.
But I guess if I had to choose the memory that I treasure the most, it would be when one of my exam prep students passed their IELTS. Like many of my students at the time, they were a refugee², had gone through unfathomable experiences and just really wanted to go to university. After failing IELTS multiple times³, my class helped them succeed in the dream they had been pursuing for years.
So, what's your most treasured memory? I hope I get tons of reply so I can smile for you on Monday morning.
Now, you may have noticed October is upon us, and the theme I have in store for this month's newsletter is the slightly wordy but please bear with me "new perspectives on things you (kind of already) knew".
And with it being World Teachers' Day today, I thought it was only fair to dedicate today's newsletter to all of us teachers 💗ྀི
So, in today's email, I'm going to share a little encyclopedia of all things teachers, from A to S (with a few gaps in between, don't worry).
Grab a coffee and let's get going!
A is for Apprenticeship of observation
Do you sometimes do or say things that when you think back to them sound a little inexplicable? Almost as if you had done them... automatically?
Well, if they're things that your old teachers could have done, you may be exhibiting signs of apprenticeship of observation. Jokes aside, the ways in which teachers think and behave are shaped by many interacting forces. One of these is the many years of observing their own teachers during schooling: this is what sociologist Dan Lortie termed "apprenticeship of observation".
So, as much as you would like to teach exclusively in the L2, never explain a grammar rule deductively and do a lot of fun-filled, joyous, group activities, you may very well find yourself doing the exact opposite and replicating what your teachers did.
The (often tacit) persistence of teaching practices derived from our own learning experiences is not an issue in itself; however, it can become one when we look at the effectiveness of pre-service teacher education (i.e. the courses and training you do before becoming a teacher - see below). In other words: what's the point in investing time and resources in learning all about novel methodologies if beliefs from our past will ultimately prevail?
A is also for... Anti-apprenticeship of observation
If you've been reading this and thinking "hold it right there, lady: I'm actually trying to do the exact opposite of my former teachers!", then I can't say you're wrong: the opposite phenomenon to appreticeship of observation has also been observed in research, namely an anti-apprenticeship of observation.
So essentially, you observed your teachers... and vowed to be nothing like them.
Like one of the participants in my research said:
I'm using this in one of my Speak Better Teach Better lessons, starting next week!
I myself went through a slightly adolescent-sounding rebellious phase of this sort when I started out, only to realise I was burning out trying to plan these super-engaging, high energy activities and be a clown an entertainer and I should really go back to basics.
Which side are you on? Desperate to distance yourself from your old teachers' methods, happy to take the occasional leaf out of their book or somewhere in between?
The document may be almost 60 years old, but its words are still eerily relevant. Having established the need for countries to provide society with an adequate supply of teachers who possess the necessary moral, intellectual and physical qualities (though I have qualms about the "physical" qualities?) and who have the required professional knowledge and skills, the document states that
the purpose of a teacher-preparation programme should be to develop in each student his general education and personal culture, his ability to teach and educate others, an awareness of the principles which underlie good human relations, within and across national boundaries, and a sense of responsibility to contribute both by teaching and by example to social, cultural and economic progress.
And boy do I wish that were the case. Unfortunately, in countries like Italy, the really important job of educating teachers before they start teaching (i.e. pre-service teacher education) has seldom been front and centre in policy-making, leaving generations of teachers to fend for themeselves, facing whole classes without being equipped with the right tools.
Indeed, the 2018 international TALIS survey of teachers in OECD countries found that only 64% of Italian lower secondary teachers received pre-service training in subject content, pedagogy and classroom practice, compared to the 79% average in OECD countries and ranking 48th out of 50 countries.
Similarly, only a quarter of teachers in Italy reported participating in induction programmes when they joined their current school, compared to 42% across OECD countries (OECD, 2019). What's perhaps even more striking (but hopefully it's changed for the better now) is that a measly 5% of Italian teachers had an assigned mentor when they started at a new school.
Italian teachers are, on the whole, extremely well-educated: they have master's degrees (this is called ISCED level 7 in OECD speak) and even doctorates (ISCED level 8) far more often than the OECD average 👇
With all that knowledge, my hope is and remains that policy-makers will soon find a way to leverage it with appropriate, organised and useful pre-service courses that are actually helpful to teachers. ASAIK, this hasn't happened yet, but hey, a girl can dream.
S is for teacher salaries
Loads of, well, layman folk like to argue that teaching is a second choice for most teachers. While I'm sure there's some truth to that sometimes, according to TALIS, teaching was the first-choice career for 65% of teachers in Italy and for 67% in OECD countries.
One of the things that would attract the best and brightest to the profession is certainly a good salary. Yes, I won't dispute that teaching is a calling, but at the end of the day, you can't eat a calling.
Now, I don't think I need to tell you that Italy lags behind many other OECD countries in terms of teacher salaries, but what I find more interesting is the comparison of teacher salaries with the salaries of the general population with a university degree.
In other words, on average, it doesn't really pay to stay in the teaching profession if you've got a university degree. Plus, salaries have risen very little over the last decade: in countries like Italy, your salary after 15 years of teaching will have actually fallen in real terms. Which, albeit depressing, will at least make for good for for thought for the next teacher-hating naysayer you meet (though never debate them online. You will never ever win).
S is also for Sense of plausibility
Can you give teachers X forms of training and know that they will emerge with Y set of competences? Once upon a time, people in charge of teacher education thought so. You may have noticed that I use the word teacher education, not teacher training, because thankfully, we are now progressively stepping away from a transmission model and recognising the complex individuality in the teacher profession.
One of the key contributors in this path is NS Prabhu. He was not only a pioneer in Task-Based Language Teaching but also the thinker behind the concept of "sense of plausibility".
According to him,
In teaching, as in any human interaction activity, one needs to work with some understanding, some concept of what is going on in teaching, how the act of teaching might lead to the act of learning. That conceptualisation of intentions and effects and so on is ‘a sense of plausibility’. I call it that because I don’t want to make any claims about it’s being the truth. For that teacher, however, it is the truth! There is also in teaching, as in other recurrent interactions, a need for routinisation. But if the job becomes ‘overroutinised’, there is no sense of plausibility. The ‘sense of plausibility’ gets buried or frozen or ossified. From that point of view, the aim of professional activity should be to keep the teacher’s sense of plausibility alive and, therefore, open to influence by the ongoing experience of teaching and interaction with other teachers’ perceptions and senses of plausibility.
And that is the philosophy that guides me (and that thankfully allows me to end this newsletter on a positive note): each teacher is the expert in their own classroom and any teacher education initiative needs to work within that teacher's sense of plausibility ⭐
That concludes today's newsletter! If you want to share your best memory as a teacher with me, I'm always all ears.
I hope this was somewhat interesting, new or mildly inspiring and as usual, I wish you a lovely Sunday.
Take care, dear teacher ✨
¹ Many years ago, I had an adult student who had been to Pakistan for work. Upon his return, he proceeded to inform me that after walking like half an hour from his hotel, he still could find no establishment that would serve him a beer. I sometimes still chuckle to myself when I hear his somewhat emphatic characterisation of his state of mind: "Desperation, Chiara! Desperation!"
² I'm using the singular "they" here to protect their identity since this was a vulnerable student. If you're into etymology at all, here's a brief but nonetheless fascinating history of the singular "they", dating back to the 1400s!
³ A technicality that you may already know, but it really bugs me, so: you can't really "fail" IELTS. You get a grade from 1 to 9 and each grade corresponds to a CEFR level. So what you can do is fail to achieve the grade set as a requirement by an institution, like a university. Most UK universities require IELTS 5.5 to 7.5 (i.e. B2 to C1) for entry, depending on the course.
P.S.: My weekly suggestion for things to listen to/watch/read to improve your English while relaxing: The best advice I can give you today is one of the books from the award-winning Hands Up project. Proceeds go towards the important work they do supporting English learners and teachers in Palestine.
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