LACS Survey: Influencing policy: the role of language teacher associations in language policy development(Part 1: Background drivers – FIPLV, ECML and links to teacher autonomy)

Dr Terry LambDr Terry LambUniversity of Sheffield, UKUniversity of Sheffield, UK

President, FIPLVPresident, FIPLVPresented at the AILA World Congress, Essen, Presented at the AILA World Congress, Essen,

August 2008August 2008

www.fiplv.org / www.fiplv.org / T.Lamb@sheffield.ac.ukhttp://lacs.ecml.at/http://lacs.ecml.at/

Outline• What is FIPLV?

• FIPLV and ECML (Language Associations and Collaborative Support)

• Background to the LACS project– Autobiographical (professional and academic)– Links to teacher autonomy and the EuroPAL

project– Policy making, policy implementation and

collaborative teacher empowerment

FIPLVFIPLV

/

An NGO in operational relations with UNESCO

FIPLV Mission StatementFIPLV Mission Statement A global network of support for language professionals

• FIPLV exists for the worldwide support, development and promotion of languages through professional associations

• Active in over 100 countries covering several hundred thousand teachers of languages worldwide

What we believe• languages enhance both individual and national

potential• there is no single global recipe for good language

teaching• we can all learn from each other • ideas are for sharing and information should be a

‘free good’• all languages and their speakers deserve equal

respect• language diversity is essential to the human heritage• each and every language embodies the unique

cultural wisdom of a people• the loss of a language is a loss for all humanity 

Our membership • international unilingual associations such as FIPF (French),

IATEFL and LATEUM (English), IDV (German), ILEI (Esperanto), MAPRYAL (Russian) and SIPLE (Portuguese)

• national multilingual associations such as AFMLTA (Australia), ALL (UK), ANILS (Italy), ASEC (Bulgaria), FUPL (Uruguay), ITE (Ireland), GMF (Germany), KMF (Czech Republic), LALT (Latvia), LMS (Norway), LMS (Sweden), MANYE (Hungary), MLA (USA), MLAN (Nigeria), MLTASL (Sri Lanka), NZALT (New Zealand), PTN (Poland), RALMLT (Russia), SAALT (South Africa), STIL (Iceland), SUKOL (Finland), VLLT (Netherlands)

• FIPLV Regions, bringing together local members of international unilingual and national multilingual associations

(for a full list see our website www.fiplv.org)

What we do

• contribute to the professional development of language teachers

• collect and disseminate the latest international research to our member associations

• enable professional associations of language teachers worldwide to learn from each other

What we do

• campaign on issues of concern - e.g. language policy, plurilingualism and multilingualism, class sizes, less commonly taught languages

• represent language teachers internationally through their national and international associations

• represent UNESCO, where requested, on Linguapax, language policy, language rights, multilingualism, endangered languages and related matters

What we want in future is to:

• impact more significantly on individual teachers

• foster and increase links between associations of language teachers

• help our colleagues in countries where working conditions leave a great deal to be desired

• create links with international humanitarian, industrial and business communities

FIPLV and ECMLFIPLV and ECML

• FIPLV participated in the EDL (European Day of Languages) Workshop Initiatives for pluri-lingualism. Cooperation between teachers and the ECML (European Centre for Modern Languages) in Graz, Austria, September 2006

• Official base moved to Graz (2007)

• LACS project (Language Associations and Collaborative Support), began 2008

(Professional) Biographical background (Professional) Biographical background to the LACS projectto the LACS project

Significance of language teacher associations in my own life

• Association for Language Learning

– Former President

– Member of National Languages Steering Group

• Appointment by Secretary of State to be Chair, Diploma Development Partnership for Languages

→ impact on national policy

(Academic) Biographical background to (Academic) Biographical background to the LACS projectthe LACS project

• AILA Research Network on Learner Autonomy in Language Learning

• Teacher development work at the University of Sheffield

• EuroPAL project, developing a pedagogy for autonomy for languages education in Europe (Socrates funding)

→ focus on teacher autonomy

EuroPAL: Pedagogy for Autonomy in Language Education in Europe

(www.euro-pal.net) • Bulgaria

• Cyprus

• England

• Italy

• Norway

• Portugal

• Spain

• Sweden

EuroPAL definition of teacher and learner autonomy

• The competence to develop as a self-determined, socially responsible and critically aware participant in (and beyond) educational environments, within a vision of education as (inter)personal empowerment and social transformation.

Jiménez Raya, Lamb and Vieira 2007

(Inter)personal empowerment and social transformation…

• Learner and teacher development towards autonomy assumes that education is a moral and political phenomenon whose goal is to transform (rather than reproduce) the “status quo”. In this sense, autonomy is a collective interest oriented by democratic and emancipatory ideals.

Jiménez Raya, Lamb and Vieira 2007

EuroPAL and teacher (and learner) self-empowerment

As with pupils, teachers need to understand the constraints on their practice but, rather than feeling disempowered, they need to empower themselves by finding the spaces and opportunities for manoeuvre. (…) Critique (resistance) needs to be linked to transformation rather than resignation.

Lamb 2000: 127

Opportunities for manoeuvre…

“However, along with Hadfield and Jardine (1997), the chapter recognises that policy making and policy implementation are not two simplistic stages of a process, but rather complex, interrelated, and socially-mediated. It also highlights the contradictions between policies and policy processes, which can of course provide an obstacle to principled change, but which can also “allow the micro-political processes of struggle and influence at each stage to ‘recontextualise’ (and reconstruct) the meaning, implementation and practice of policy” (Ranson 1995: 436). In other words, it recognises that policies are often “incomplete policies [which] means that implementation necessarily involves policy-making” (Stewart 1996: 37), thus opening up spaces for interpretation and development.”

Lamb 2008

Teacher networks to lead change

“…the second implication is that support systems need to be developed to include student and practising teachers in the change process. One member states that “innovative policies will eventually fail if the only priority is to set the rules for action and not also to create conditions that make such rules workable, and to support action taken” (Portugal). As another member says, “innovation must emerge from the teachers themselves” (Norway). Support systems would include teacher networks within and between schools, the fostering of a spirit of enquiry, the space to try out new ideas without fear, resources (including funding and resource centres), facilitation on a local level by trainers who are themselves open to policy implementation which is of a restructuring rather than reproducing nature, and dissemination opportunities to encourage cross-fertilisation.” (Lamb 2008)

References • Hadfield, M. and Jardine, M. (1977) ‘Getting to grips with ‘enabling’ youth policies’, in Day,

C., Van Veen, D. and Walraven, G. (eds.) Children and youth at risk and urban education: research, policy and practice. Leuven, NL: Garant: 235-257

• Jiménez Raya, M. and Lamb, T.E. (eds) (2008) Pedagogy for Autonomy in Modern Languages Education: Theory, practice, and teacher education. Dublin: Authentik

• Jiménez Raya, M., Lamb, T.E. and Vieira, F. (2007) Pedagogy for autonomy in language education in Europe: a framework for learner and teacher development. Dublin: Authentik

• Lamb, T.E. (2000) Finding a voice - learner autonomy and teacher education in an urban context. In Sinclair, B., McGrath, I. and Lamb, T.E. (eds) Learner Autonomy, Teacher Autonomy: Future Directions. Harlow: Addison Wesley Longman: 118-127

• Lamb, T.E. (2008) ‘Learner autonomy in eight European countries: opportunities and tensions in education reform and language teaching policy’, in Jiménez Raya, M. and Lamb, T.E. (eds) Pedagogy for Autonomy in Modern Languages Education: Theory, practice, and teacher education. Dublin: Authentik

• Ranson, S. (1995) ‘Theorising education policy’, in Journal of Education Policy, 10, 4: 427-448

• Stewart, J. (1996) ‘The dogma of our times – the separation of policy making and implementation’, in Public Money and Management, July-September: 31-41

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