An exploration of structure and agency through the English language learning initiative "ACCESS"
Bonazza, Ruth Krista
An exploration of structure and agency through the English language learning initiative "ACCESS" - Beirut American University of Beirut - Faculty of Arts and Sciences - Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences 2011 - 85 pages
النوع : Mémoire
This thesis explores teachers' discourse around English language education, and seeks to address the possibility of agency within dominant structure by examining the English Access Microscholarship Program (ACCESS), a US Department of State funded English language learning program in Lebanese public schools. I compare Bourdieu’s idea of a restricted agency within habitus, which is echoed within theories of linguistic imperialism, to the idea of more specific and individual performances of agency, as seen in the works by Giroux and Canagarajah. My results consider the questions: How are the English language in Lebanon and global English language education initiatives such as the Access program discussed by those involved? What is the degree of agency within these structures? Methodology for this work includes unobtrusive research methods, structured interviews with program administrators and teacher trainers, and unstructured, in-depth interviews with ten teachers in the program. Through the discourse of the teachers, I locate three overarching structures: the structure of the English language globally, the structure of the Lebanese public schools where the teachers give the program and finally, the structure of the program itself. This thesis looks beyond the idea that structure is all-encompassing and wholly dominant and recognizes that there could be moments of resistance or performativity that indicate that teachers can play active roles in choosing which parts of structures to internalize and transmit and are in some ways able to filter programs such as Access to fit local needs without completely subscribing to the program goals.
ACCESS
ACCESS
ACCESS
English Language Education Curricula
L’enseignement de la Langue Anglaise Curriculum
sociologie de l'éducation
Sociology of Education
تعليم اللغة الانكليزية المناهج
علم اجتماع التربية
An exploration of structure and agency through the English language learning initiative "ACCESS" - Beirut American University of Beirut - Faculty of Arts and Sciences - Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences 2011 - 85 pages
النوع : Mémoire
This thesis explores teachers' discourse around English language education, and seeks to address the possibility of agency within dominant structure by examining the English Access Microscholarship Program (ACCESS), a US Department of State funded English language learning program in Lebanese public schools. I compare Bourdieu’s idea of a restricted agency within habitus, which is echoed within theories of linguistic imperialism, to the idea of more specific and individual performances of agency, as seen in the works by Giroux and Canagarajah. My results consider the questions: How are the English language in Lebanon and global English language education initiatives such as the Access program discussed by those involved? What is the degree of agency within these structures? Methodology for this work includes unobtrusive research methods, structured interviews with program administrators and teacher trainers, and unstructured, in-depth interviews with ten teachers in the program. Through the discourse of the teachers, I locate three overarching structures: the structure of the English language globally, the structure of the Lebanese public schools where the teachers give the program and finally, the structure of the program itself. This thesis looks beyond the idea that structure is all-encompassing and wholly dominant and recognizes that there could be moments of resistance or performativity that indicate that teachers can play active roles in choosing which parts of structures to internalize and transmit and are in some ways able to filter programs such as Access to fit local needs without completely subscribing to the program goals.
ACCESS
ACCESS
ACCESS
English Language Education Curricula
L’enseignement de la Langue Anglaise Curriculum
sociologie de l'éducation
Sociology of Education
تعليم اللغة الانكليزية المناهج
علم اجتماع التربية