Anderson, Jason (2021) Eight expert Indian teachers of English : a participatory comparative case study of teacher expertise in the Global South. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis reports on a comparative case study of teacher expertise involving eight teachers of English working in state-sponsored secondary education in varied contexts across India, each identified using multiple criteria. An original, participatory design involved a planning workshop prior to data collection to enable participants to contribute to the study’s research questions and plan other outputs of use. Qualitative and quantitative data were analysed to identify similarities and differences both among participants and in relation to prior research on teacher expertise.

The findings document many shared features and practices among these expert teachers, which were usually less frequently observed among their colleagues, including well developed PCK and English proficiency, beliefs in building learner self-confidence, engaging learners and ensuring understanding of lesson content. In the classroom participants demonstrated warm, inclusive, supportive relationships with learners. Key similarities in pedagogic practices include the frequent use of interactive whole-class teaching balanced with regular learner-independent activities including both collaborative learning and active monitoring to provide differentiated individual support. Their professionalism was underpinned by extensive reflection, lifelong learning and care for their learners, whose opinions they valued most. Variation among participants was most evident in classroom practices, revealing clinal differences relating to their conception of subject and degree of control over classroom processes. While multilingual practices also varied, all participants were inclusive of their learners’ languages and used them themselves.

Strong agreement with the findings of prior studies of teacher expertise was also found, although important differences include participants’ prioritisation of inclusion and confidence-building over setting high standards, their focus on learner understanding over higher-order thinking skills and their varied strategies for helping learners assimilate content from highly ambitious curricula.
Implications for research on teacher expertise, particularly in the Global South, improving teaching quality in low-income contexts, and teacher education in India are explored.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1603 Secondary Education. High schools P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	English language -- Study and teaching -- India, English language -- Study and teaching -- Foreign speakers, Teacher effectiveness -- India, Education -- Research, Teachers -- Training of -- India
Official Date:	July 2021
Dates:	Date Event July 2021 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Centre for Applied Linguistics
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Smith, Richard
Sponsors:	Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain)
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	377 leaves : illustrations
Language:	eng

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