Pedagogical Practices of English Language Student Teachers during the Practicum in Pakistan

Along with the government documents, a number of authors have showed concern on the quality of teachers being produced by the teacher education institutions and have called for reforms in teacher education programmes and teacher preparation to improve quality of teaching in Pakistan. I conducted this study to analyze the pedagogical practices of a group of English language student teachers and support provided to them during the practicum in Pakistan. Another focus of analysis was conceptualization of teacher learning by the practicum triad. The study has fit well into the research agenda on teacher cognition and teacher education and contributes to improve the teacher preparation programmes through improvement of the practicum. Methodologically, the study was qualitative and used case study approach. I selected four student teachers, two supervising teachers, one course teacher, four cooperating teachers and the head of the department as participants in my study. The student teachers did six weeks practicum in public secondary schools. I generated data mainly through classroom observations of and interviews with the student teachers and other participants of the study. In addition, I also used documents such as lesson plans, reflective journals and the textbooks of English for grades 9 and 10. The purpose of these documents was to provide additional data needed for field notes and interviews. I analyzed data through thematic analysis and reported the findings individually for each student teacher. In relation to the existing literature, my study has suggested that the school and the contextual factors exert strong influence on the teaching practices of the student teachers. It has also suggested that in the contexts and situations where student teachers are not appropriately supervised and supported, their teaching practices would likely to be based on their previous learning experiences as learners of English, hence, it would minimize the impact of the teacher education programmes. In relation to conceptualization of teacher learning by the practicum triad, the study found contradictions about the notion of what constitutes teaching and learning to teach. The contradictions were held strongly by the student teachers, supervising teachers and the head of the department and no explicit and sustained effort was made by the teacher education programme to raise awareness of beliefs about learning through dialogue and reflection. My study is the first of its kind to provide evidence of what occurred during the practicum in my context. As the practicum is the only opportunity for the student teachers to enact their learning from the university based course work, any reforms in teacher preparation programmes without improving and re-organizing the practicum are less likely to succeed.