Teachers' perceptions on learning and teaching are assumed to have an impact on their teaching practice (Alanen et al., 2013). In this longitudinal study, we examine future language teachers' perceptions of teaching and learning relying on several data collection methods (i.e. visual narratives, metaphors, written reflections and group discussions). Over the last decade, visual methods in particular have become more common in uncovering the perceptions of (language) teacher students (Kalaja & Pitkänen-Huhta, 2020). Moreover, metaphors as research material have a long tradition in exploring student teachers' perceptions (Saban, 2006 ). In this study, we combine these two data sets. In addition, we make use of reflective data (written texts, group discussions) to tap into the change in pre-service teachers' perceptions during their pedagogical studies.
In the first phase, the participants' were given a task of visualizing "the ideal language learning situation" and complementing a number of school and teaching-related metaphors (e.g. "Teacher is like …", "Learner is like…") at the outset of their one-year pedagogical studies. 67 pre-service language teachers participated in this phase. The students could produce multimodal visual narratives as they were allowed to supplement their visualizations verbally.
Overall, both the visual narratives and metaphors provided a fairly multifaceted picture of learning and teaching. On the one hand, the institutionality of learning was strongly present. Many visual narratives depicted textbook-driven learning, the teacher was a central figure in them and students had a fairly passive role. On the other hand, socio-constructivist views of learning and a safe learning environment were prominent in many visualizations. The metaphors mostly reflected the process-like nature of learning and lifelong learning.
In the second phase, the participants reflected on their initial visualizations and metaphors in the last session of their one-year pedagogical studies. They wrote a written reflection of whether and how their perceptions of teaching and learning had changed during the studies. Seven participants also took part in group discussions in which they further reflected on their visualizations. They also offered their insights into the procedure of making the visual narratives and the feeling and views associated with the entire process.
In this presentation, we report the main findings of the project and discuss how the participants' perceptions evolved during their teacher training. We also elaborate on the implications that this study offers to subject teacher training programmes and critically reflect on the potential and limitations of using visual narratives and metaphors as data collection methods.
References:
Alanen, R., Kalaja, P., & Dufva, H. (2013). Visuaaliset narratiivit ja valmistuvien aineenopettajien käsitykset vieraiden kielten opettamisesta. In T. Keisanen, E. Kärkkäinen, M. Rauniomaa, P. Siitonen & M. Siromaa (Eds.), AFinLA-e (pp. 41–56). Jyväskylä: AFinLA.
Kalaja, P., & Pitkänen-Huhta, A. (2020). Raising awareness of multilingual-ism as lived – in the context of teaching English as a foreign lan-guage. Language and Intercultural Communication, 20(4), 340–355.
Saban, A. (2006). Functions of metaphor in teaching and teacher education: A review essay. Teaching Education, 17(4), 299–315.
