Wheels of change. Insights into the professional development of teachers of Dutch as a second language

In the pursuit of high-quality education, the professional development of teachers is high on the agenda. The advancement of learners or students is after all closely linked to the quality of the teacher. It is therefore not surprising that research wants to examine how the quality of teaching can be increased. On the one hand, the focus of this type of research is on the impact of professional development initiatives: what are the characteristics of effective professional development initiatives? What is the transfer between the content of these initiatives and the teaching practices? On the other hand, research focusses on acquiring insights into the process of teachers’ professional development. In this respect, the key question is: how do teachers learn, change or grow during their career? Our research focusses on this second question as we wanted to understand how teachers of Dutch as a Second Language (DSL) grow: what changed for them with regard to their profession and which factors stimulated these changes? At the same time, as staff members of the Centre for Language and Education and of the postgraduate ‘Teaching Dutch as a Second Language’ course (both affiliated with KU Leuven), we wanted to gain more insight in how a DSL teacher training programme influences this process. The research in the DSL-field has been very limited to date. Moreover, in the international field of Second Language (L2) research, little attention has been paid to the professional development of L2 teachers. With our research, we wanted to address these gaps.

This research examines DSL teachers’ beliefs about their professional development. Professional development is understood as a process of change and growth in becoming a better teacher. The answer to the question what is a good or better DSL teacher may differ. A commonly agreed list of expected competencies which a competent teacher must meet does not seem to exist. Furthermore, teachers build a personal view of these competencies on their own experience and practical knowledge; therefore, the perspective of the teacher in terms of what a good teacher is or should be, is indispensable. In addition, the perspective and the voice of the teachers are important to be able to understand their beliefs, about themselves as a teacher (professional self-understanding) and about their teaching practices. It is these beliefs that influence their practices and their development or growth. For these reasons, our research studied what teachers themselves believe about their professional development: what has changed according to them, both with regard to their practices and to their professional self-understanding, and which factors are influencing these changes?

Research design

Our research consists of five narrative case studies and a cross-case analysis. The first part, the narrative case studies, describes the professional development of five DSL teachers. These five descriptions are based on talks and written reports of the teachers in which they were given the space to narrate their experiences and beliefs. To collect this data, we followed the DSL teachers for a year, a year in which they participated in the postgraduate ‘Teaching Dutch as a Second Language’ course, in addition to their teaching job. Throughout the year we talked with them about their job, their centre, their beliefs, changes, their teaching practices, factors of change, etc. They also wrote some written reports on these issues. All these data form the basis for five stories, one for each teacher, in which we describe the views of the teachers on their DSL approach, on themselves as a teacher, on their working environment, the changes that have occurred and the factors that have stimulated these changes. These stories constitute the first result of our research. In the second part of our research, the cross-case analysis, we have examined which changes have taken place for the different teachers, how these changes occurred, which factors contributed to these and which role the postgraduate course has played in this process.

Results

The results of our research show that the professional development of teachers is a complex combination of change and movement. Change does not only occur in the teachers’ practices or beliefs with regard to these practices, but also in teachers’ professional self-understanding and in their relationship with their working environment. The teachers in this research become more confident, enthusiastic and motivated throughout the year. They find themselves becoming a better teacher and their self-confidence increases. In the context of their working environment, teachers gain confidence in their relation to their colleagues and their course material. They dare to defend their own opinion and approach more firmly, critically questioning the general approach in the centre and the course material that is used. That sometimes creates discrepancies and tension between the teacher and the colleagues, but it does not keep the teacher from going her own way and implementing new practices.

These three aspects, DSL approach, professional self-understanding and relationship with the working environment, and the changes in these three domains are closely intertwined. They are all part of the professional development of teachers. They intervene and reinforce each other. Together they constitute the professional growth of teachers, and therefore growth in these three domains is to be considered when talking about professional development of teachers.

The complexity and intertwining of different factors in professional development is not only seen in the above three areas. It is also evident in the factors that stimulate growth and change. The six factors which stimulate change that emerged from our research are collaboration and interaction, experimentation or putting ideas into practice, reflection, input of new ideas and insights, confirmation, and reactions of the students. Each factor contributes to change and growth, but the different factors are so intertwined and interwoven with each other that it is the interplay of these factors that truly nurture teachers’ growth. Input leads to experimentation, brings teachers to reflect, which makes them experiment again, which elicits positive reaction of students, confirming teachers in what they are doing, which makes them more self-confident and makes them try out other things and so on. In this respect, the postgraduate course plays a role for the teachers because it involves the various factors of change and makes an interplay possible.

This brings us to the image of wheels of change in which the wheels are all connected to each other and react to each other. Both the factors of change and the three areas in which we have been able to discover change (approach, self-understanding and working environment) are wheels in this machinery and give momentum to teachers’ growth. For teacher educators or trainers, it implies that they need to look for ways to put the different wheels in motion. For teachers, it implies that they need to engage in different initiatives (both formal and informal) to address the diversity of change factors and the interplay between them.

Three additional results are borne out in our research. Firstly, specifically with regard to the DSL field, we saw that teachers mainly changed in terms of their approach to grammar, extramural activities and a needs-based approach. Teachers were very pleased to get input (theoretical and practical) about these topics and they signalled a need for gaining these insights. Although the teachers already assumed or tried out certain things, they indicated that the theoretical background and the reasons for adopting a particular approach were new to them. It shows that there is (still) a need in the DSL field to pay attention to these theoretical insights.

Secondly, the process of change also evoked doubts and discrepancies. The postgraduate course has certainly played a role in this. It sometimes caused the teachers to doubt whether they were doing well. It sometimes leads to ‘conflicts’ with their colleagues because the teachers wanted to implement new insights or ideas in their centre. However, the research has shown that these doubts and conflicts did not impede the teacher's personal growth. It shows that these tensions are part of a growth process and that they can also lead to change. In addition, it can be reassuring, certainly for teacher educators, to know that complicating factors in the working environment do not necessarily impede the growth of teachers and that teachers can continue to grow.

Finally, we have found that listening to the teachers can lead to a lot of insights. Not only about their practices and about what they are trying to achieve with their students, but also how much effort they put in, what they find important and what difficulties they encounter and try to overcome in their professional life. If we want teachers to grow, the first task is, therefore, to let them talk and tell about their teaching and about what it’s like to be a teacher.