doing professional development in international eap: paradoxes, perspectives, best practices...

Doing Professional Development in International EAP:

paradoxes, perspectives, best practices

Presenter: Ray BennettYork UniversityEnglish Language Institute

[email protected]

Agenda

• Introductions

• Experiences

• Paradoxes and Perspectives

• Best Practices: an offering

• Adding to this…

Takeaways

• A more complete (but more complex) perspective on doing professional development in international EAP, its paradoxes, tensions…

• A set of best practices that you can adapt for your own professional development work

Experiences

• China: Southwest University, Chongqing (2007-2010)

• Mongolia: University of the Humanities (and others),Ulan Bator, (2006, 2009)

• Palestinian Territories: Al-Quds University,Abu Dis (2012)

Paradoxes and Perspectives

I. Who knows what?

II. (IN)securities

III. Contexts: zooming in, zooming out


I. Who knows what?• The ‘Facilitator’, ‘Animator’, ‘Resource’ (i.e. ‘us’)

• Theoretical framework• Practical experience (praxis)• Contextual comfort

• The ‘Participants’, ‘Trainees’ (i.e. ‘them’)• Theoretical framework• Practical experience (praxis)• Contextual comfort


I. Who knows what?Observation: Collaboration could be the ticket!

Paradox #1• Collaboration, yes, but…• Psychologically ‘structured in’ is their expectation that we know

something we can transmit to them so they can ‘get better’• Psychologically ‘structured in’ is our expectation that we know

something we can transmit to them so they can ‘get better’

How do we balance:

(i) expectations around our ‘expertise’ (given its context-specific limits);

(ii) participants’ evident expertise in their own context;

to make REAL a collaborative approach to this work?


II. (IN)securities• For ‘us’

• Confidence in what we do here may be offset by our lack of familiarity with this ‘foreign’ context

• We are under pressure (self-imposed or external) to ‘make a difference’ here, through PD – to meet that expectation

• A collaborative approach… hmmmm… loss of control?• Proving ourselves in foreign territory – ‘What! They want me to

demonstrate teach in one of their classes!!!’


II. (IN)securities• For ‘them’

• Is the ‘expert’ going to watch me? Do I have to prove that I’m ‘with it’ – that I get all these Western-manufactured concepts and practices?

• Is someone from one of the ‘homes of English’ going to judge me?

• Will my own English proficiency come into question?• Besides, what do these ‘experts’ know about the situation

here anyway? They don’t know what I have to deal with.


II. (IN)securitiesObservation: Neither we, nor they, feel all that secure in this situation. And insecurity leads to… @%*&&%*@#

Paradox #2•Insecure people can be the worst collaborators: they tend to build walls of false certainties around their feelings. •The international professional development situation, whose complexities call for collaboration, is also one in which insecurities arising from such complexities can confound that very collaboration.


III. Contexts: zooming in, zooming out

• Zooming in• Personal chemistry, the working relationship, the

emotional climate… these condition everything else

• Playing the ‘exotic foreigner’ is messing with a double-edged sword


III. Contexts: zooming in, zooming out• Zooming out

• Historical contexts – Our previous PD experiences; their previous PD experiences – Where’s the baggage?

• Institutional Context – What constraints are imposed on them by their curriculum, their program, their institution? And what constraints are imposed on us by ours?

• What issues, on both our parts, arise because administrators with power don’t ‘get’ that language teaching/learning is fundamentally different than physics teaching/learning?

• Do they see us as aligned with an administration they feel is unsupportive, dense, duplicitous...?


III. Contexts: zooming in, zooming out• Zooming out

• The context of the Intercultural underpins, permeates international professional development • respect and how it is shown • face saved and lost • roles of teachers and students• significance of age• explicit vs. implicit communication modes…


III. Contexts: zooming in, zooming outObservation: This is a lot messier than I thought! How many pairs of glasses do I have to bring to this situation

Paradox #3•We parachute into a foreign situation in the here and now, relying on our good will and what we’ve learned, wanting to be helpful, but…•The parachute has taken us to a multi-dimensional world with invisible holes and sharp sticks along with an Einsteinian bending and looping of time. •Dorothy anyone?

Best Practices: an offering

I. Do all of your homework

• Learn as much as you can in advance about the situation and context in which you will be working.

• Try to mine info from multiple viewpoints.• Find out who has been the driver in arranging this PD, and

how the PD is being presented to participants.• Determine what previous PD experiences people have had,

and how these went.• Try to cultivate a positive attitude among participants by

connecting with them in advance – e.g. via a google group.


II. Learn to be a real collaborator… and make it happen• Accept the desirability, and necessity, for collaboration in

this work.• Name this collaborative approach with participants, and

explain why, as soon as you establish contact with them. At the same time, give them reason to trust that you do bring skills in ELL and in this kind of PD – that you will lead in this collaborative effort.

• Show in a culturally appropriate way your authentic respect for their professional skills, knowledge, and experience.


III. Avoid the ‘expert’ trap• Be clear and confident about what you ‘know’, but be

ready to revise this as it applies in the foreign context.• Get as comfortable as you can with not knowing some

things, and feeling like an infant for short periods of time.• Be ready to learn from participants. • Keep an eye on your own insecurities in this foreign

situation. Watch for the tendency to overplay your ‘expert’ hand to compensate for your impulse to scream and retreat.


IV. Be a realist: see the project’s scope and limitations• Time

• How much can you do well?• How can you deploy the time in your work to achieve a

multiplier effect, to achieve the biggest bang for the buck?• Extension

• Use online communication tools to extend the work and its impact. Set up a blog, a wiki...

• Organize action research projects in which participants can apply PD ideas in their own work, beyond the end of the PD session proper.


V. Do careful, customized program design• Ask yourself (and others, including participants) what

program elements will produce optimal benefits, given what you know about this particular situation. Examples:

• Group workshops• Lectures/Presentations• Observations• Demonstration teaching• Co-teaching• Meetings with administrators to support PD participants’

work and advocate on their behalf, as appropriate


VI. Be a resource

• Share your awareness of and access to research, journal materials, online resources, downloadable apps, etc.

• Note that they may have financial constraints that you, through your institution, can help with.


VII. Be a learner as a PD practitioner

Don’t overcompensate for the uncertainties and challenges of international PD by shutting down and ceasing to listen, watch, and learn!

Adding to this…

Comments?Questions?

Revisions?

Doing Professional Development in International EAP:

paradoxes, perspectives, best practices

Thank you!

Ray BennettYork UniversityEnglish Language Institute

[email protected] y BennettGraduate Programs Writing TutorFaculty of Environmental Studies

doing professional development in international eap: paradoxes, perspectives, best practices...

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