Cognitive/emotional dissonance as growth points in learning to teach
Issue: Vol 1 No. 2 (2014)
Journal: Language and Sociocultural Theory
Subject Areas: Writing and Composition Linguistics
DOI: 10.1558/lst.v1i2.125
Abstract:
While teaching has long been considered an emotional practice with teachers’ daily practices recognized as being permeated with emotional meanings and influences, as teacher educators we are often perplexed by how best to respond to novice teachers’ expressions of emotion. In this study, we document the practices that characterize our work as teacher educators in assisting novice teachers in the processes of learning-to-teach. Specifically, we explore how instances of cognitive/ emotional dissonance that often emerge in these practices signal growth points in novice teacher development. The empirical data come from a teacher education practice designed to create multiple opportunities for novice teachers to participate in a range of authentic activities associated with the teaching of English as a second language (ESL). The findings bring to the surface the inherent challenges of both recognizing and capitalizing on instances of cognitive/emotional dissonance as growth points in novice teacher development.
Author: Karen E. Johnson, Dorothy Worden
References :
Bogdan, R. B. and Biklen, S. K. (2007). Qualitative Research for Education: An Introduction to Theory and Methods (5th edn). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Borg, S. (2006). Teacher Cognition and Language Education: Research and Practice. London: Contiuuum.
Childs, S. S. (2011). ‘Seeing’ L2 teacher learning: The power of context on conceptualizing teaching. In K. E. Johnson and P. R. Golombek (eds), Research on Second Language Teacher Education: A Sociocultural Perspective on Professional Development, 67–85. New York: Routledge.
Cole, M. and Engestrom, Y. (1993). A cultural-historical approach to distributed cognition, In G. Salomon (ed.) Distributed Cognitions: Psychological and Educational considerations, 1–46. New York, Cambridge University Press.
Denzin, N. (1984). On Understanding Emotion. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
DiPardo, A. and Potter, C. (2003). Beyond cognition: A Vygotskian perspective on emotionality and teachers’ professional lives. In A. Kozulin, B. Gindis, V.S. and S. M. Miller (eds), Vygotsky’s Educational Theory in Cultural Context, 317–345. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511840975.017
Edwards, A., Gilroy, P. and Hartley, D. (2002). Rethinking Teacher Education: Collaborative Responses to Uncertainty. London: Routledge.
Flores, M. A. and Day, C. (2006). Contexts which shape and reshape new teachers’ identities: A multi-perspective study. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22 (2), 219–232. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2005.09.002
Freeman, D. (2002). The hidden side of teachers’ work: Teacher knowledge and learning to teach. Language Teaching, 35 (1), 1–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0261444801001720
Gee, J. (1999). Learning language as a matter of learning social language within discourses. In M. Hawkins (ed.) Language Learning and Teacher Education: A Sociocultural Approach, 13–31. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Golombek, P. R., and Johnson, K. E. (2004). Narrative inquiry as a mediational space: Examining cognitive and emotional dissonance in second language teachers' development. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 10 (3), 307–327. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1354060042000204388
Golombek, P. R., and Doran, M. (2014). Unifying cognition, emotion, and activity in language teacher professional development. Teaching and Teacher Education, 39, 102–111. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2014.01.002
Gonzalez Rey, F. L. (1999). Personality, subject and human development: The subjective character of human activity, In S. Chaiklin, M. Hedegaard and U. J. Jensen (eds) Activity Theory and Social Practice. Oxford: Aarhus University Press.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1985). Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold.
Hargraves, A. (1998). The emotional practice of teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 14 (8), 835–854. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0742-051X(98)00025-0
Hargraves, A. (2001). The emotional geographies of teaching. Teachers’ College Record, 103 (6), 1056–1080. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/0161-4681.00142
Imai, Y. (2010). Emotions in SLA: New insights from collaborative learning for an EFL classroom. The Modern Language Journal, 94 (2), 278–292. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2010.01021.x
Johnson, K. E. (2009). Second Language Teacher Education: A Sociocultural Perspective. New York: Routledge.
Johnson, K. E. and Dellagenlo, A. (2013). How ‘sign meaning develops’: Strategic mediation in learning to teach. Language Teaching Research, 17 (4), 409–432. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1362168813494126
Johnson, K. E. and Arshavskaya. E. (2011). Reconceptualizing the micro-teaching simulation in an MA TESL course. In K. E. Johnson and P. R. Golombek (eds). Research on Second Language Teacher Education: A Sociocultural Perspective on Professional Development, 168–186. New York: Routledge.
Kubanyiova, M. (2012). Teacher Development in Action: Understanding Language Teachers’ Conceptual Change. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9780230348424
Lantolf, J. P. and Thorne, R. (2006). Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Language Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lortie, D. (1975). Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Mahn, H. and John-Steiner, V. (2002). The gift of confidence: A Vygotskian view of emotions. In G. Wells, and G. Claxton (eds), Learning for Life in the 21st Century: Sociocultural Perspectives on the Future of Education, 46–58. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9780470753545.ch4
McNeill, D. (2005). Gesture and Thought. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226514642.001.0001
McNeill, D. and Duncan, S. D. (2000). Growth points in thinking-for-speaking. In D. McNeill (ed.), Language and Gesture, 141–161. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Meyer, D. (2009). Entering the emotional practices of teaching. In P. A. Schutz and M. Zembylas (eds) Advances in Teacher Emotion Research: The Impact on Teachers’ Lives, 73–91. New York: Springer. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0564-2_5
Nussbaum, M. C. (2001). Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511840715
O’Conner, K. E. (2008). ‘You choose to care’: Teachers, emotions and professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24 (1), 117–126. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2006.11.008
Oplatka, I. (2007). Managing emotions in teaching: Toward an understanding of emotional displays and caring as nonprescribed role elements. Teachers College Record, 109 (6), 1374–1400.
Peirce, C. S. (1894/1998). What is a sign? In Peirce Edition Project (ed.), The Essential Peirce: Volume 2, 4–10. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Ratner, C. (2000). A cultural-psychological analysis of emotions. Culture and Psychology 6 (1), 5–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1354067X0061001
Reis, D. S. (2011). ‘I’m not alone’: Empowering non-native English-speaking teachers to challenge the native speaker myth. In K. E. Johnson and P. R. Golombek (eds), Research on Second Language Teacher Education: A Sociocultural Perspective on Professional Development, 31–49. New York: Routledge.
Schutz, P. A. and DeCuir, J. (2002). Inquiry on emotions in education. Educational Psychologist, 37 (2), 125–134. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15326985EP3702_7
Schutz, P. A. and Zembylas, M. (eds) (2009). Advances in Teacher Emotion Research: The Impact on Teachers’ Lives. New York: Springer. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0564-2
Slobin, D. (1987). Thinking for speaking. In L. Aske, N. Beery, L. Michaelis, and H. Filip (eds). Papers from the 13th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Linguistics Society.
Solomon, R. C. (1993). The philosophy of emotions. In M. Lewis and J. M. Haviland (eds), Handbook of Emotions, 3–15. New York: Guilford.
Swain, M. (2011). The inseparability of cognition and emotion in second language learning. Language Teaching, 42 (2), 195–207.
van de Veer, R. and Valsiner, J. (eds) (1994). The Vygotsky Reader. Oxford: Blackwell.
Van Huizen, P., Van Oers, B. and Wubbels, T. (2005). A Vygotskian perspective on teacher education. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 37 (3), 267–290. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0022027042000328468
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). The Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky: Problems of General Psychology. Including the Volume Thinking and Speech (R. W. Rieber and A. S. Carton, eds). New York: Plenum Press.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1998). ‘The problem of age’. In The Collected Works of L.S. Vygotsky, Vol. 5. Child Psychology (R. W. Rieber, ed.). New York: Plenum.
Wertsch, J. V. (1984). The zone of proximal development: Some conceptual issues. In B. Rogoff and J. V. Wertsch (eds) Children’s Learning in the ‘Zone of Proximal Development’, 7–18. San Fransicso, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Wertsch, J. V. (2007). Mediation. In H. Daniels, M. Cole, and J. Wertsch (eds) The Cambridge Companion to Vygotsky, 178–192. New York: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521831040.008