University of Canterbury Home
    • Admin
    UC Research Repository
    UC Library
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
    View Item 
    1. UC Home
    2. Library
    3. UC Research Repository
    4. Faculty of Education | Te Kaupeka Ako
    5. Education: Theses and Dissertations
    6. View Item
    1. UC Home
    2.  > 
    3. Library
    4.  > 
    5. UC Research Repository
    6.  > 
    7. Faculty of Education | Te Kaupeka Ako
    8.  > 
    9. Education: Theses and Dissertations
    10.  > 
    11. View Item

    Between learning and business : ESOL teachers’ perceptions of their professional practice in post-school private training establishments. (2020)

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Zohairy, Said_Final PhD Thesis.pdf (3.066Mb)
    Type of Content
    Theses / Dissertations
    UC Permalink
    https://hdl.handle.net/10092/101696
    http://dx.doi.org/10.26021/10749
    
    Thesis Discipline
    Education
    Degree Name
    Doctor of Philosophy
    Publisher
    University of Canterbury
    Language
    English
    Collections
    • Education: Theses and Dissertations [702]
    Authors
    Zohairy, Said Ahmad
    show all
    Abstract

    This thesis investigates English-for-speakers-of-other-languages (ESOL) teachers’ perceptions of their own professional practice in post-school private training establishments. This broadly phenomenological case study was grounded in five cases of teachers that described each teachers’ work life experiences in response to their immediate work context as well as their work milieu. The context of the study included private training establishments (PTEs) in Christchurch, New Zealand. PTEs are for-profit educational organisations with goals that generally seek to maximise revenue. Teaching in this type of educational context presented a particular work context which shaped ESOL teachers’ professional practice. This study examines how teachers perceived their interaction with the particular aspects of work context in PTEs, such as private institutions’ values, fee-paying students, curriculum deliberation, and relationships with colleague teachers. In addition, the study sheds light on teachers’ professional choices, identity formation, sense of agency, and resilience-building in a commercialised ESOL teaching milieu.

    Private ESOL teaching is still an under researched area and generally uncharted waters for researchers. Although there is some published literature on the impact of ESOL teachers’ performance on students’ outcome, few studies focus on teachers’ perception of their own professional practice. In New Zealand, there is limited research which focused on ESOL teachers’ perceptions of the relationship between their professional practice and work conditions in PTEs. Private ESOL teaching work environment seems to pose challenges to teachers which affect their performance, professional knowledge, and career progress. In private training establishments, ESOL teachers’ perception of their ability to reconcile between educational principles and business values provoked heated discussions in the literature regarding private higher education.

    An interpretative approach has been utilised to set the theoretical basis for this broadly phenomenological case study. The use of transcendental phenomenology allowed teachers’ views of the phenomenon of ESOL teachers’ professional practice in PTEs to emerge from the interwoven five narratives written to represent participants’ stories as described by them in the interviews. From the individual narratives, key themes were identified in relation to the specific experiences and perceptions of each of the participant teachers, and subsequently cross-case themes were identified to describe the phenomenon of teaching English language in PTEs as noted by teachers. Findings from this case study revealed various perceptions of private ESOL teaching and how this interacted with their professional practice. Teachers’ daily work seemed like a complex and multi-layered practice; a socially situated activity. The findings of this research also revealed the tensions and complicated relationships teachers have to grapple with to be able to achieve their moral and ethical goals. The findings provide insights into the need for changes in ESOL teacher training and education programmes to ensure they are more clearly aligned to the actual teaching conditions in PTEs, and prepare ESOL teachers to work in such a business oriented environment.

    Rights
    All Rights Reserved
    https://canterbury.libguides.com/rights/theses

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Head teachers’ perceptions and practices of school leadership in private secondary schools in Sirajganj district, Bangladesh 

      Ali, Sheikh Mohammad (University of Canterbury. Educational Studies and Human Development, 2011)
      The goal of this exploratory research project is to gather data on head teachers’ leadership perceptions and practices, so that educational researchers, government officials and head teachers themselves have a better ...
    • Teacher educators’ practices with m-learning: A case study of ‘far transfer’ into schools of practices learned during preservice teacher education 

      Obonyo C; Davis N; Fickel L (Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), 2020)
      A.J. Davis (2017) coined the term ‘far transfer’ in learning as the ability to apply knowledge and skills to novel situations, rather than the knowledge and/or skill that was originally learned, but research evidence of ...
    • Preparing Teachers for 21st Century Schools: Teachers and university educators collaborating professionally to create innovative learning environments for future teachers’ 

      Klopsch B; Sliwka A; Rautiainen M; Kostiainen E; Astall C; Fletcher J (2021)
    Advanced Search

    Browse

    All of the RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThesis DisciplineThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThesis Discipline

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics
    • SUBMISSIONS
    • Research Outputs
    • UC Theses
    • CONTACTS
    • Send Feedback
    • +64 3 369 3853
    • ucresearchrepository@canterbury.ac.nz
    • ABOUT
    • UC Research Repository Guide
    • Copyright and Disclaimer
    • SUBMISSIONS
    • Research Outputs
    • UC Theses
    • CONTACTS
    • Send Feedback
    • +64 3 369 3853
    • ucresearchrepository@canterbury.ac.nz
    • ABOUT
    • UC Research Repository Guide
    • Copyright and Disclaimer