The Classroom As A Place of Grounded Ethnography
The discussion in this paper is based on segments of data derived from a seminar, Language and Cultural Engagement that has been part of a teacher education programme at a southern Ontario university. This seminar was designed as part of our efforts to help internationally educated students learn the language and cultural norms of Canadian classrooms. The key components of this seminar are as follows: (a) Discussions and presentations about diversity, language, culture and the learning and teaching nuances of the Canadian classroom; (b) Video-recorded, peer and teacher analysed ‘rehearsal’ classroom teaching and (c) Enriched English as a Second Language classes for those interested in further improving their linguistic skills (for a detailed description of this seminar, see Dlamini & Martinovic, 2007). The first two components, discussions and presentations about diversity, language and culture, and rehearsal of classroom teaching, formed the basis of teacher candidates’ learning and were critically important for preparing them to enter the practicum classroom, which, for the majority, would have been their first ever experience in Canadian schools.
In its first several years, this noncredit seminar would start with a number of participants, the majority of whom were from minority backgrounds and some were mainstream Canadians. After the first placement, the attendance of the mainstream Canadians would drop significantly so that in the end, the participants were all either recent immigrants3 or Canadians born from minority cultures. Although the activities we offered before the first practicum (e.g. videotaping of their mock teaching and visits to the neighbouring school), were perceived as valuable by all seminar participants regardless of cultural background, later on when the course became more focused on marginalised cultures, the mainstream students faded away. Consequently, because of this observation, we concluded that the seminar was most beneficial to lETCs and to additional language speakers of English.
The placement of teacher candidates in schools for the internship/teaching practice component of the programme depends on the willingness and availability of teachers in the local school boards. This placement in schools is complex and demanding both for the faculty’s administrative personnel4 and the candidates themselves. For the candidates, the complexities exist partly from the way the practicum is organised. Basically, the practicum constitutes of four three-week long segments, where each teacher candidate would, during the eight months of the academic year, potentially teach in at least three different schools under the supervision of at least three associate teachers. From these associate teachers, the candidate receives one formative and three summative evaluations of teaching. In addition to supervision by associate teachers, the teacher candidate is observed by a faculty advisor at least two times during the school year. Each placement is progressively more demanding in teaching time and tasks expected of the teacher candidates. The incident discussed below, strategically entitled The Meaning of Good, draws from discussions with lETCs after their second practicum.5 one of the features of our seminar was to organise debriefing sessions after each of these practicum blocks.
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