Lessons learnt from others: a celebration of co-operative development

1. Lessons learnt from others: a celebration of co-operative development Mike Beaumont and friends NATESOL 20th November 2009

2. The Friends’ Meeting House • 1828-1830, architect Richard Lane • one of Manchester’s ‘most prolific architects’; Greek revivalist • retractable shutter mechanism • among the Society: John Dalton, John Edward Taylor, Alfred Waterhouse, George Bradshaw

3. The founding of NATESOL • (well, actually, it wasn’t NATESOL, it was IATEFL North West) • took place here at the Friends’ Meeting House on Tuesday 20 November 1984 • was inspired by an idea of Gerry Abbott • but was, and always has been, a co-operative endeavour

4. Collaborative or co-operative? • Collaborative Teacher Development (CTD) e.g. Burns (1999), Beaumont & O’Brien (2000), Johnston (2009) • Co-operative Development (CD) e.g. Edge (1992) • ‘to work with another or others on a joint project.’ • 1. ‘willing to co-operate; helpful. 2. acting in conjunction with others.’ (Collins English Dictionary)

5. NATESOL: in the tradition of the CWS? • John Thomas Whitehead Mitchell and the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers • became the CWS in 1863 • ‘a. (of an enterprise…) owned collectively and managed for joint … benefit. b. …based on collective ownership and co-operative use of the means of production and distribution.’ • Teachers as equitable pioneers in a co-operative society of friends?

6. ‘About face!’ (Sidney Whitaker – a senior colleague) Morocco: a staff development course • What did the young man look like? • What was he wearing? • What kind of shop did he go into? • What did he want to buy? • How many did he want?

7. 6 How much did they cost – each? • Why did the young man leave and go to another shop? • What did he buy there? • How did he pay? • What was the young man’s job? (Alexander 1967)

8. ‘Know your onions’(Ron White – one of my tutors) • Highlight the simple past (dynamic) verbs. Where is the main narrative action? Who is the subject of these verbs? • Highlight the other past forms. Who/what is the subject of these verbs? • Identify the proforms (she, her) referring to ‘her ladyship’. Can you conclude anything from this analysis?

9. Identify the negative forms (not, no, nothing). What do you conclude about their number, location, patterning? • A few other interesting issues: a why ‘we’ in line 24? b what does ‘it’ refer to in line 38? c if ‘still in love’ is an example of ellipsis, what/who is the subject?

10. ‘holystoned’? John Huston's1956 filmMoby Dick … shows sailors scrubbing the deck with holystones. Holystoning is referenced in Richard Henry Dana's diary, the 1840 classic Two Years Before the Mast , in what he calls the "Philadelphia Catechism": • “Six days shalt thou labor and do all thou art able, • And on the seventh—holystone the decks and scrape the cable.”

11. ‘But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?’ • The Balcony Scene • Listen to the two brief summaries of ‘lessons learnt from others’. • Choose which one you would like to hear more about. • Retire to the appropriate balcony.

12. Space oddities(Andrew Wright – an occasional colleague) Raach am Hochgebirge (Lower Austria): an in-service course for English teachers • corridor with glass cupboards • concrete pillars • long black curtains • tearing is more interesting than cutting • Haggis News

13. 4 Leaving your comfort zone(Julian Edge – an accidental colleague) Blumenau (southern Brazil): a course on teacher development (??) • “Taster” 1 and 2 • Option groups 1 and 2 • Information exchange • Participant contributions • Lecture 1 and 2

14. Participant contributions ?

15. ‘Heavy loads of information bomber’ (My own students) ‘I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.’ (Oscar Wilde) • Masters programme • Module on the Psychology of Language Learning • Diary study

16. The nature of diary data(McDonough & McDonough 1997) • ‘rich’ both quantitatively and qualitatively • subjective and introspective • retrospective (memory vs (re)construction) • record of a variety of variables (events, feelings, attitudes, motives, behaviours, etc) (p. 124)

17. though expect contradictions… • “I much prefer working alone and feel that group work is often very time inefficient. I had anticipated that a certain amount … would be inevitable but am quite nervous about it.” • “I am very impressed by the group work …I always look forward to them and always find the small communities friendly and close, which made the abstract theories less intimidating.”

18. Egg-box or omelette? The ‘values’ of CTD (Johnston 2009) • Teacher learning as a fundamentally social process • Teachers, both individually and as a community, as producers, not just consumers, of knowledge and understanding about teaching • Teaching can and should be a fundamentally collegial profession (p. 241)

19. So here’s to another 25 years of NATESOL, and of celebrating co-operation. Thank you for coming.

20. References • Alexander, L. G. (1967) Question and Answer London: Longman • Beaumont, M. & T. O’Brien (2000) Collaborative Research in Second Language Education Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books • Burns, A. (1999) Collaborative Action Research for English Language Teachers Cambridge: CUP • Edge, J. (1992) Co-operative Development Harlow: Longman • Johnston, B. (2009) ‘Collaborative teacher development’ in Burns, A. & J.C. Richards (eds) The Cambridge Guide to Second Language Teacher Education Cambridge: CUP • McDonough, J. & S. McDonough (1997) Research Methods for English Language Teachers London: Arnold • Whitaker, S. (1983) ‘Comprehension questions: about face!’ ELT Journal 37/4: 329-334