Starting the conversation: work, life and research during a global pandemic

Last week was October half term and a much needed autumnal break. It was a chance to lift my head out of the gruelling practicalities of teaching in FE during a pandemic. By far the most challenging part of my job is the CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults), and it’s the CELTA where my EdD focus lies. 

The CELTA is an internationally recognised qualification to teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL) abroad or a subject-specific qualification to teach English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) in the UK. I have run a part-time CELTA at Kirklees College for over 10 years, and two years ago I had the light-bulb moment (6 months into my EdD) that switched my research focus.

Learning to Teach through observation

Observation is a common feature on teacher education programs. On the CELTA the trainees only teach for 6 hours, yet the structure of the Teaching Practice (TP) means they observe their peers teach for 30 hours. In a typical CELTA TP you would find five trainees and a trainer sitting at the back of a 2-hour ESOL class while three of those trainees take it in turns to teach 40 minute sections each. Previously, the observing trainees were given a handout with prompts to guide their observations. The tutor wrote feedback and then led group feedback after the session.

The introduction of text-based synchronous chat during TP was becoming ‘a thing’ in the CELTA world. I was only vaguely aware of this because, firstly, the CELTA is actually quite a small proportion of my job (one part time course a year). Secondly, working in an FE college I find myself isolated from the broader CELTA community.

Often the only time I talk to another CELTA trainer is when the assessor visits. It was during one such visit, discussing how I was finding using Yammer during TP to engage the observing trainees, that the seed of my research focus germinated.

The clichéd ‘chicken and egg' question

What comes first, the research question (RQ) or the approach? This has dominated my thoughts for much of the past 12 months. I felt a strong pull to have the RQs and then choose the approach that provided the best fit for an answer. Even as I write, this still makes sense - but in practice, it's not so easy. I have lists of RQs, often re-worded, re-phrased versions on a theme. Am I asking about the technology? Strategies and tools? Reflective practice? Models of teacher education?

Twelve months on, I find it is the approach that has guided my thinking. Action research is the mash-up of research ‘n’ practice (not research and practice, the ‘n’ signifying an inability to separate).

Action research during a pandemic

Setting up a CELTA, during a pandemic, has disrupted all my usual practices:

• Recruiting ESOL students - we can’t have an ‘open evening’ as usual, so find another way. 
• Having six people observing a trainee teach in a socially distanced classroom is going to be difficult, so find another way.
• Accessing the resources in the library to write the TP points that guide the trainees' planning, you can’t just go and pick them off the shelf, so find another way. 

I have been so absorbed in overcoming the additional barriers that this pandemic has thrown up I’ve had no head space for ‘research’. Or so I thought. I berate myself for not being more productive. I struggle to go back to my desk to study having spent the day at my desk working. Yet, the ‘research’ is always there, I am always thinking about it. Like a long distance chess game, I’m trying to hold the placement of pieces in my head while walking the dog, making the tea, playing Clash Royale, and all the while plotting the next moves.  

The immortal conversation

Attending the virtual CARN conference recently opened my eyes to my genuinely self-imposed self-isolation.

I have a Twitter account @cathywint and I am prone to lurking, but I had stopped even looking. I stopped blogging a long time ago, then flirted a little with a new blog but never with any direction or habit. But now I'm here on 'Ed Space and plan to spend a bit more time on twitter. 

If doing a doctorate means having a very intense conversation with yourself, I think this has to be while engaged in conversations with others. 

Would anyone like to chat?