dc.description.abstract | This dissertation investigates the professional learning of English language teacher educators (ELTEs) in Finland and Japan, with a focus on teacher educa-tors’ professional agency within their collegial communities. The purpose is to contribute to our understanding of the particular resources and obstacles to professional learning through a study of how language teacher educators exer-cise professional agency in developing their work. The aim is to gain a better sense of how ELTEs develop as professionals to meet the current challenges of English language teacher education, both individually and with colleagues.
The study is founded on interviews with eight English language teacher educators at two universities in Finland and sixteen English language teacher educators at eleven universities in Japan. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis in relation to professional learning, its resources and constraints, and the enactment of professional agency at work. Further, a comparative thematic analysis was conducted to compare the findings between the two contexts.
Findings showed that in Finland, ELTEs’ professional learning is understood as a social endeavor practiced at its best with shared inquiry, while in Japan ELTEs professional learning is understood as an individualized endeavor of personal effort accrued over time. In each context, resources and constraints to professional learning were related to the respective interpretations of the value of collegial interaction for professional learning. The findings show that ELTEs in Finland readily interpret their work as agentic, both at the individual and collective level. In Japan, ELTEs practiced individual agency in refraining from exerting influence on others’ professional practice, and while collective agency was rare, the ELTE’s own leadership was central to its development. Findings from the comparative analysis indicate variations in the role of public dialogue in professional learning, and distinctions in the teacher educators’ framings of agency, temporality and structure. Mindful to refrain from reifying Finnish or Japanese education, this dissertation elaborates similarities and differences in the shared discourses of professional learning and professional agency in both contexts. The dissertation concludes with suggestions for further research and practical implications for the development of language teacher education. | en |