Browsing by Author "Darwin, Stephen"

Now showing 1 - 11 of 11
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Analysing preservice teachers' enactment of the UDL framework to support diverse students in a remote teaching context
    (2023) Barahona, Malba; Reyes, José; Gallegos, Francisca; David, Viviana; Ibaceta-Quijanes, Ximena; Darwin, Stephen
    Internationally, the investigation of inclusive education in foreign language teaching and foreign language teacher education is a relatively new phenomenon. Part of this imperative has been the pressing need to research how teachers perceive inclusion and learn to support a diverse range of students. Responding to this challenge, this paper reports on the results of a case study that investigated the perceptions and attitudes toward inclusion of a group of Chilean preservice teachers of English (n = 6) enacting the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in ELT. The study drew on qualitative data generate through interviews, focus group discussion and an artefact analysis, and was conducted within a remote teaching context due to COVID pandemic during 2020 and 2021. The outcomes suggested that preservice teachers conceptualised inclusion as ‘not-segregation’, expressing positive attitudes toward diversity and a commitment to principles of inclusion in their teaching. The enactment of UDL allowed participants to diversify the representation of contents and making language more comprehensible. However, participants also experienced frustration and anxiety as they felt their practices were sometimes ineffective. The findings also made visible the complex challenges and struggles preservice teachers confront as they attempt to teach inclusively, particularly in remote learning environments.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Balancing being a 'good teacher' and a 'motivating teacher of English': Analysing the sense of professional responsibility of pre-service EFL teachers
    (2023) Barahona, Malba; Darwin, Stephen
    The professional responsibility of teachers has been primarily understood in international literature in terms of external obligations, primarily from an accountability perspective. Alternatively, more recent approaches have begun to propose that teacher responsibility is more appropriately understood as an internal drive toward their work and its contribution to broader social development, which is seen as crucial to the design of effective pedagogical practices. However, within this continuing dialogue, limited attention has been given to how professional responsibility develops and is nurtured within the unique contexts of English language teacher education. This mixed-method study investigated the sense of professional responsibility held by pre-service teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) context, framed by an online survey (n = 611) based on a teacher responsibility scale and a series of semi-structured interviews (n = 17). Results demonstrated that there was a comparatively higher sense of responsibility felt in two critical areas: building positive student relationships and ensuring an equitable classroom and society. However, lower levels of responsibility were demonstrated toward the discipline-specific issues of encouraging student engagement, student motivation or success in learning English. This suggests a critical tension that develops in the sense of pre-service teacher responsibility between the abstract and affective notion of being the 'good teacher' and the more concrete objectives of building learning environments for language development.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Balancing being a ‘good teacher’ and a ‘motivating teacher of English’: Analysing the sense of professional responsibility of pre-service EFL teachers
    (2023) Barahona, Malba; Darwin, Stephen; Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Universidad Alberto Hurtado
    The professional responsibility of teachers has been primarily understood in international literature in terms of external obligations, primarily from an accountability perspective. Alternatively, more recent approaches have begun to propose that teacher responsibility is more appropriately understood as an internal drive toward their work and its contribution to broader social development, which is seen as crucial to the design of effective pedagogical practices. However, within this continuing dialogue, limited attention has been given to how professional responsibility develops and is nurtured within the unique contexts of English language teacher education. This mixed-method study investigated the sense of professional responsibility held by pre-service teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) context, framed by an online survey (n = 611) based on a teacher responsibility scale and a series of semi-structured interviews (n = 17). Results demonstrated that there was a comparatively higher sense of responsibility felt in two critical areas: building positive student relationships and ensuring an equitable classroom and society. However, lower levels of responsibility were demonstrated toward the discipline-specific issues of encouraging student engagement, student motivation or success in learning English. This suggests a critical tension that develops in the sense of pre-service teacher responsibility between the abstract and affective notion of being the ‘good teacher’ and the more concrete objectives of building learning environments for language development.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Can an outsider become an insider? Analysing the effect of action research in initial EFL teacher education programs
    (2018) Darwin, Stephen; Barahona, Malba
    Action research methodology is commonly used in initial teacher education programmes as a pedagogical strategy to enhance student teacher learning. Action research is most often used in tandem with school-based practicum components in the latter stage of programmes as a means of bridging the theory-practice divide. It is also frequently used as a capstone assessment to assure prospective teacher capability for reflective inquiry. The study reported here focuses on the perspectives of teachers who were recent graduates of two initial English language teacher education programmes in Chile, who had undertaken action research projects as part of their degree programme. It also engaged the university-based supervisors who had overseen this work. These experiences are analysed in the context of the guiding epistemological and political foundations of action research. The outcomes of this research suggest that the use of action research in initial teacher education contexts may be more problematic than it is often assumed; particularly, where student teachers’ work is professionally isolated. From this, it is suggested that action research in initial teacher education needs to be conscious of potential constraints in school-based contexts, as these may act to limit the current and prospective impact of this learning experience.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Capital aspiracional académico-familiar: experiencias de estudiantes universitarios chilenos de primera generación
    (2023) Guzmán-Valenzuela, Carolina María; Flanagan-Bórquez , Andrea; Darwin, Stephen; Rojas-Murphy-Tagle, Andrés Felipe; Aguilera Muñoz, Almendra
    Este estudio analiza las experiencias de estudiantes de primera generación (EPG). Para ello, se llevaron a cabo 29 entrevistas con EPG de distintas universidades en Chile. Los resultados revelan que cada trayectoria es el resultado de la interacción de múltiples catalizadores entrelazados: (i) aspiraciones, temores y niveles de apoyo familiar, (ii) contextos facilitadores u obstaculizadores de las experiencias; y (iii) características de la universidad. De este análisis emerge lo que denominamos capital aspiracional académico-familiar, que apunta a las capacidades de resistencia y navegación de los EPG para escoger y transitar por la universidad.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Globalising or assimilating? Exploring the contemporary function of regionalised global university rankings in Latin America
    (Springer, 2023) Darwin, Stephen; Barahona, Malba
    Global university rankings (GUR) have become increasingly influential as a proxy measure of higher education quality. The more recent development of regionalised forms of rankings has increased their global reach, drawing a greatly expanded range of institutions into their orbit. As a result, regionalised GUR have developed an increasing potential power to shape social perceptions, institutional actions, and everyday academic practices. In this paper, the perceived impact of regionalised forms of GUR is analysed from the perspective of Latin American higher education. Based on a critical meta-synthesis framed by a glonacal heuristic (Marginson and Rhoades, Higher Education 43:281–309, 2002), the tensions arising around the application of regionalised forms of global rankings are mapped. Specifically, the impact of rankings on conceptions of the mission of universities is foregrounded. The meta-synthesis identifies three primary tensions around the regional application of GUR in Latin American contexts: how conceptions of regional higher education quality are most effectively developed, how the local university is imagined under the weight of global expectations, and the relativised value of local agency in assessing quality outcomes. The findings suggest that GUR have created strong fissures in Latin American higher education regarding the missions of institutions, particularly in confronting the powerful hegemonies of the epistemologies of the Global North imposing themselves on Latin American higher education. The paper concludes that the stratification and social anxiety caused by the regional applications of GUR may not be necessarily productive in encouraging regional institutional diversity or in enhancing the local relevance of higher education.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Introduction - Exploring avenues for the transformation of teaching and learning English in Chile
    (Taylor and Francis, 2024) Barahona, Malba; Veliz, Leonardo; Darwin, Stephen; Barahona, Malba; Veliz, Leonardo; Darwin, Stephen
    This chapter introduces the context and key issues explored in the book, providing a critical overview of each of the chapters. It begins by outlining the historical and contemporary landscape of English language teaching (ELT) in Chile, and then moving to consider how English was integrated into the national curriculum. A critical reality—the persistent socio-economic disparities affecting language acquisition and proficiency—is considered in the context of the persistence of neoliberal educational policies that have led to pronounced levels of school segregation and inequitable resource allocation. Reflecting on the inequities and social injustices in English language education, the chapter details the editors’ collective commitment in developing the volume to critically analysing contemporary ELT practices and exploring prospective opportunities for transformative change. The chapter emphasises that this work can act as a potential catalyst for practitioners, educators, and scholars to use these insights, experiences, and innovations to foster critical dialogue on curriculum, policy, and pedagogical practices with an orientation toward transformative change.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Looking from the outside in: Action research in initial language teacher education
    (Taylor and Francis, 2024) Barahona, Malba; Darwin, Stephen; Burns, Anne; Dikilitaş, Kenan
    © 2025 selection and editorial matter, Anne Burns and Kenan Dikilitas. All rights reserved.In this chapter, we critically explore the potential of action research (AR) for initial language teacher education programmes. In considering the foundations of AR, we assess how these relate to the challenges faced by pre-service teachers as they seek to navigate the language classroom. One of the key challenges we identify is the pre-service teacher as the 'outsider' and the dynamic this creates in building trust and change, often under the already difficult pressures of practicum teaching experiences. Further, using a case study from Latin America, we argue that the democratic-collaborative foundations of AR are also not necessarily suited to all teaching environments, particularly those where more vertical, directive forms of education practice prevail, and teaching conditions are highly challenging. We conclude the chapter by offering some critical questions for teacher educators to consider in designing pre-service teacher research and encourage a more nuanced understanding of the value of situated research for initial language teacher education.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Making research (more) real for future teachers: a classroom-based research model for initial teacher education
    (Taylor & Francis, 2021) Darwin, Stephen; Barahona, Malba
    Action research is characteristically used to provide research experience for late-stage, pre-service teachers as a means of breaching the perceived divide between theoretical knowledge and contexts of practice. However, aside from the considerable methodological challenges of enacting action research itself, pre-service teachers also enter schools as 'outsiders', therefore often simultaneously struggling to make sense of both their research mission and school context. This anxiety is amplified by the characteristic relationship of action research outcomes to summative, programme-level assessment of prospective teacher capability. Following research that confirmed negative experiences of a group of late-stage, EFL pre-service teachers using action research-based projects in two Chilean universities, potential alternative methods of encouraging research practice was investigated and piloted. Based on the outcomes of this research, a new classroom-based model was designed to provide a more useful and ultimately productive research experience for pre-service teachers, particularly those in the challenging environment of EFL teaching. This model stresses the need for pre-service teachers to be offered more research autonomy, to be less 'problem' focussed and to be more actively supported in the planning and enactment of achievable research to ensure the learning outcomes sought for this type of research-based inquiry were achieved.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    (Un)Limited choice: analysing the strategic choices of first-in-generation students in neoliberal higher education
    (2022) Guzman-Valenzuela, Carolina; Darwin, Stephen; Flanagan, Andrea; Aguilera-Munoz, Almendra; Geldres, Andrea
    In highly marketised higher education systems, massification has afforded greater access, particularly for first-in-generation students. Generally, this expansion has been fuelled by neoliberal ideologies that valorise the notion of choice and promise of social mobility. In this study, using interviews with 25 first-generation students, the issue of choice is critically examined in one of the earliest arenas of neoliberal experimentation: the Chilean higher education system. The study found that these first-in-generation students encountered complex and multi-levelled challenges in making higher education choices. Such choices were firmly anchored in differing levels of aspiration, and were strongly mediated by both family and school social capital. As a result, we propose an addition to traditional conceptions of choice: students (and their families) who act as strategic choosers. This outcome challenges the notion that first-in-generation students encounter unitary trajectories or equitable choices in encountering higher education.