This section summarises the teacher’s professional development in this research, both in liberal education and at the UAS, and how I as the teacher-researcher understood it. What teacher’s professional development would precisely concern here and how it would take shape evolved as the research proceeded, but it began with a planned oral English course in liberal education.
The two different institutions as the locations of teaching and researching expanded the teacher’s views of teaching. In liberal education, I started the construction of the course from the very beginning, based on what I knew and what I had already found out in the literature.
I chose and wrote material, planned and implemented the course and found answers to the problems. These tasks, and the independence, the freedom and complete responsibility for the studies and decisions and for what happened there supported professional development.
Through these, the course developed the teacher’s professionalism in ways different from those at the UAS. Dörnyei and Ushioda write: “It is an exciting and illuminating process to find one’s own answers, and being engaged in this process can be one of the most effective forms of professional development” (Dörnyei & Ushioda 2011, 196). The interviews and course discussions with the students in liberal education became mutual mentoring events and sources of teacher development. The interviews contained, among other things, discussion on such important conceptions in FLE as for example autonomy, motivation and student awareness. Discussion on ethics emerged in one of the two course groups. The UAS gave the possibility to work and converse with the students and colleagues there.It was necessary that the first research phase in liberal education was planned. It gave a good start. As a result, the research at the UAS after it easily found its paths as it proceeded.
The study of literature is a self-evident strategy for increased theoretical knowledge, perspective and insight into the research area and beyond it. At the beginning of the research phases, my lack of knowledge central to this field hindered me from understanding the concepts and the relations existing between different theoretical frameworks. This deficiency made the theories and especially more demanding literature needed for the research “inaccessible” (see Duckworth 2001a, xiii) or perhaps somehow semitransparent, but a change took place along with the reading process. I noticed that I had learned to discuss with the authors and negotiate between the text and my own thoughts.
I explored Rauhala’s holistic existential conception of man (Rauhala 1990, 31-32) and found it helpful when beginning this research. However, what I gained most from considering it was the clarification of my own conception of man as a teacher. I became aware of what it means to me “to be a foreign language teacher” (see Lehtovaara, J. 2001, 141, italics in original). The exploration of the teacher-researcher’s history and horizon as a teacher, her knowledge, abilities, and experiences, conception of man, values and ethics related to being a foreign language teacher were one point of departure especially in a research study related to Gadamerian research philosophy. The awareness of these was a prerequisite and a possibility for change and holistic development.
A long career as a teacher creates convictions and beliefs. Here a good example of such beliefs is suggestopedia with its roots in another time and different culture.This research, first the oral English course and then the follow-up research convinced me that features characteristic of suggestopedia and often of humanistic learning such as, for example, positive study climate, student support, good atmosphere, promotion of participation, mutual respect and encouragement (see also the first subsection, in section 3 in Part I), are beneficial and bring confidence. Furthermore, the students value them, even if their significance varies from person to person. I noticed that the humanistic orientation of suggestopedia was still a living part of my teacher’s personal theory even if only to some extent.
With regard to the students, the students in liberal education strengthened my understanding of adult students’ awareness of their own learning and its challenges, how they monitored it, their self-direction and the significance of their independent studies for the growth of their proficiency. As a result, I found more opportunities for drawing benefit from the students’ self-assessment and their self-direction at the UAS. Other understandings reinforced in liberal education were the division of power, reliance on their expertise in their own learning and the significance of their awareness of their needs in English and Swedish, which the stories above reveal. In liberal education, I had got used to the students’ feedback on the course and their suggestions for improvement. The experiences in liberal education also taught me more about the difficulties and resources of those UAS students whose English studies only consisted of studies in lower secondary school and perhaps a few study units elsewhere. This had been one of the initial interests in the research.
The diary writing continued, which showed that the visit to liberal education had promoted not only knowledge of oral English communication but also the teacher development at large in her permanent work. The diary written in 2005 concerned the studies at the UAS, just as the diaries in liberal education had. In contrast, the 2006–2007 diaries contained the researching teacher’s thoughts and experiences. It was meaningful to increase the extent of the research. Learning from many experiences in a research study takes time. Ethical considerations concerning the teacher’s work are one such good example.
During the follow-up research, much of my language teacher’ theory was encapsulated
around concepts and conceptualizations. Such were dialogue and listening and the familiar conceptions of motivation, autonomy, student-awareness and encouragement.
The teacher-researcher’s work at the UAS contained English and Swedish courses in several UAS units. The courses often became recognised sites of the teacher’s professional development. The students and the teacher’s professional development were entwined. In one of these events, my experience of the motivated and autonomous students in liberal education made me decide on sharing the organization of a study unit and the decisions on the course contents, the timing and the exams with the students there. I saw the power that motivation has on the students’ learning also when the studies are very demanding for the student. I also noticed how important dialogue and listening is in study guidance. Teaching is not always necessary. It is important to hear the students’ voices and be open to them, even if they do not act as expected of adult students. They may have good reasons for doing so. For example, the same group can need much support for their learning in one language but it hurts and frustrates them if they are considered to need it in another language. I also learned to consider whether I ought to be the facilitator rather than the teacher on a course.
In any case, the student ought to have the ownership of his/her studies. Lifelong learning views people as self-directed and autonomous students who take responsibility for their own learning and are willing to do so when they find that it helps and is necessary in their present or future life situations (Filander 2007, 262). The teacher’s role was clearly that of a facilitator in liberal education and it suited well a language teacher and foreign language studies at the UAS.
At the beginning, there were many assumptions and hopes about acquiring the competency and professional teacher development required to update my knowledge and gain a wider view of the FLE. I wished to know more and still do, but I cannot help recognising that the research, despite my aims, led me to think that it is even more important to understand differently. In hermeneutic research, prejudgements follow each other and the interview data tell about the proceeding researching but not the final results.
Becoming a teacher is a lifelong process. If you think that you have reached destination, you are mistaken. If you act as if you were already there, you make bad decisions.