Exploring language teacher roles at a higher education context through the lens of critical pedagogy: Transmission or transformation?

Abstract

This study explores assumed and practiced roles of language teachers at a higher education institute based on Kumaravadivelu's (2003) categorization of teachers as passive technicians, reflective practitioners, and transformative intellectuals. It dwells on the characteristics of the language teachers’ teaching philosophies along with these views' translation into practice. The extent to which the teaching philosophies of the participants and their classroom reality correspond to each other has also been focused on. Data were collected from ten language instructors through reflection journals, classroom observations, field notes, and semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that the instructors took over diverse roles in their teaching philosophies and relevant practices. While their teaching philosophies can be linked to the reflective practitioner understanding predominantly, their daily reality showed several tendencies to the role of passive technicians. There are also a few areas where there is firm agreement with the role of passive technicians, which can be categorized as engaging in research and power distribution in the classroom.