A Narrative Inquiry into the Development of Four Bangladeshi EFL Teachers’ Cognitions

Abstract

This qualitative study aims to explore the development of four tertiary level EFL teachers’ cognition in the context of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh at tertiary level aspiring teachers get recruited as lecturers mainly based on their academic results and research publications. These teachers seem to have excellent content knowledge and experience of learning English in formal and informal settings. However this study indicates that besides content knowledge they need practical knowledge of teaching, and proper understanding of the profession (i.e., challenges and complications in teaching, teacher-student relationship and so on) before joining the profession. Questions arise, how do EFL teachers at tertiary level learn to teach who usually do not receive any formal teacher training? Do they really face complications in their first years of teaching? If yes, how do they cope with those complications? What type of training can be provided to them? This research aims to answer these questions. Using the paradigm of narrative inquiry this study explores the experiences of four EFL teachers’ at tertiary level— two of them are novices and two experienced— as they join teaching and learn to teach. Findings of this research indicate that the participant EFL teachers at tertiary level face many complications in their initial stages of learning to teach, which in many cases remain unresolved due to lack of proper direction. This study also recommends teacher education program, run by experienced EFL teachers and researchers working in this field, for tertiary level EFL teachers as a platform where they can share their everyday experiences of learning to teach. Furthermore, this research points to the need for special journal issues to publish EFL teachers’ narratives so that EFL teachers who might have been going through similar complications can be benefited. This research carries direct implications for in service and pre-service EFL teachers, and experts involved in EFL teacher cognition research, and the development of effective teacher training programs.