Contribution to Knowledge and the Originality of the Research

The theoretical lenses for this study were Community of Practice and Institutional theories while the practical lens was continuing professional development. First, this study makes theoretical contribution in the field of Community of Practice theory as it validates the currency and relevance of CoP for adoption and implementation within the primary school sector in the Gharian district of Libya (Wenger, 1998; Lave and Wenger, 1991). This is because this study shows that the four key themes of professionalism, teacher training, personal development and academic adaptability help to shape EFL teachers’ attitudes towards participating in group training session

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where they share their experiences of teaching EFL for the benefit of others and to improve themselves (Kennedy, 2005, 2011).

Moreover, succinctly, this contribution is original in that, whilst scholars in the field of Community of Practice theory have generally conceptualised this theory from a professional perspective (Kietzmann et al., 2013; Wenger, 1998; Lave and Wenger, 1991), this study adds personal development goals and academic adaptability skills as necessary in influencing teachers’ participation in group training sessions in order to improve their professionalism and teaching competencies in the research context. This contribution follows that, whilst CoP has been extensively discussed as a theory shaping the way in which members of a given group share knowledge, experiences and information in order to improve their efficiency and effectiveness within a given job environment, there remain other intrinsic (personal development) and extrinsic (reward, regular promotion, bonus, recognition of service by providing additional perquisite, ensuring that teachers are trained to be adaptable given the volatility of the Libyan environment, skills on how to manage native language fanatics who may oppose English language) factors, which catalyse professionalism and which should be integrated into the CoP framework, especially in the Gharian district of Libya. Overall, this study uses its themes to propose a new theoretical framework referred to as the Situational Community of Practice model. This proposed model is concerned with the use of CoP by researchers in examining teachers’ perception and experiences at work within the Gharian district in particular and Libya in general. This postulation is situational because it is particular to the Libyan context; this might not be the same in another country given its culture and beliefs. Secondly, it is unique because the study is the first to identify five critical themes that influence teachers’ participation in CPD within existing CoP theory.

Page 142 of 226 Figure 14: The proposed Situational Community of Practice model

As per involvement in CoP, Wenger recognises that a CoP could be a platform for neither fruitful relationship nor an academic island that departs from political and social relations. Additionally, competition, discrepancies and orchestrated drawbacks constitute types of involvement and participation (Wenger, 1998). This suggests that competition, discrepancies and challenges can serve as a catalyst to building a viable community of learners and the reverse can also be the case. Simply put, teachers who hail from diverse background could bring to the table of discussion their carried values and opinions, dexterities and experience which might be contrary to and/or supportive to existing rituals/practices in the community. However, the CoP did not create opportunities for analysing and interpreting the origin of carried values or influences of the conflict conceptualisation. Furthermore, from the researcher’s interpretation of Wenger’s conceptualisation of CoP theory, the researcher believes she assumed that in any case, opportunities for innovation and creativity could emerge during community activities that strictly oppose bureaucracy. At the same time, this innovation and creativity may have a negative impact as participants might have different expectations as they engage in the community. Wenger (1998) identified some ways in which community tension can arise like age limits, which raises some struggles between old community participants and new comers and vice versa. For example, a participant in this study reported the following:

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‘In my school, I have realised that the school management tends to give new teachers opportunity to attend CPD than those of us who has been teaching EFL over 10 years.’ (Interviewee 3)

‘I told you I have worked in this school around 15 years now and the older ones who have more responsibilities are sometimes given priority to those younger in the system.’ (Interviewee 9)

This tension could create a positive or negative impact on community activities in the school. For the positive, when new teachers are given opportunities to attend CPD over old teacher they are encouraged to participate in the community activities and because they are younger their capacity to carry more responsibility are built up whilst the other ones are less burdened and prepared for administrative jobs in addition to reduced academic roles within the school.

‘I have just been employed here about 5 years ago but I have attended CPD for 3 times, although I have gathered from some older colleagues that they have also attend CPD 3 times too and so you can see that I am lucky.’ (Interviewee 1) Old teachers might feel cheated and marginalised, as some teachers already consider that attending CPD programmes may be viewed as a professional compensation, especially when they are sent overseas for short courses.

‘Each time I travel abroad for sponsored CPD I feel so happy as I not only learn new teaching skills, but also gives me the opportunity to enjoy other environment. For example, I have been to the UK twice for 2 months short programme each (2009 and 2011) and it was fun as I have worked here for 15 years.’ (Interviewee 9)

This supports Lave & Wenger’s (1991) proposition that age factor could be a source of positive and/or negative tension in community practice. Just as some participants reported that age and residency at work helps to improve community of practice when older teachers are given CPD opportunity over younger teachers, but when new teachers are prioritising over old staff for CPD participation it hinders smooth integration of new ones into the community circle. This is because participants’ opinion suggests that age facilitates community communication and that relationship and communication patterns between the young and old are restricted and take a formal

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dimension and this would expand existing gaps and breach mutual engagement amongst community members. In the researcher’s opinion the researcher thinks these proponents of CoP theory (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998) did not consider the influence of age from a developing country’s context like Libya with diverse cultural, religious and social backgrounds instead their propositions were contextualised within the context of developed countries. This is because in the Western context, age does not deprive individuals of opportunities to get involved in professional or social activities. In Libya however, age moderates how people relate in a community setting. Within the Libyan context, age is a source of favouritism and it therefore hinders professional community of practice especially when members of distant age limits are grouped together. Nonetheless, age may facilitate community of practice when members of same age bracket or related age are grouped together hence the researcher’s conceptualisation of the Situational Community of Practice model (see Figure 14). This model suggests that the Western community of practice theory cannot survive and be effectively applied in the Libyan context where age and sex favouritism are prevalent (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). There is need for a CoP model that takes into account issues that would facilitate mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire amongst community members.

Political, social and tribal impasses are used to criticise and validate Wenger’s CoP theorisation with regards conflict and how this has an impact in the Libyan educational and social context. For example, in Libya political cultural, religious and social disagreements creeps into professional communities through individual members and, after a while, it begins to collapse existing mutual structure within the professional community. Additionally, since the start of the bloody political, social and power contest in Libya community relationships have tremendously changed to the negative bringing along with it heightened isolation. For example, political, social, cultural and religious loyalty now goes to different militia group otherwise you are dead. This has negatively influenced the relationships of community members.

Linking these general societal issues to professional CoP it implies that conflict arising from the society shapes what happens in the community. This is because, if there is a combination of loyal and disloyal members to the militia, those who are not loyal may lose their lives or jobs or something strange might befall them. Hence, mutual engagements in the community will be hindered for fear of being hurt, victimisation or

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brutality. Another example is that some of the researcher’s participants expressed conflicting political empathy because of the impasse in the country and under this condition; it became illusive to experience beneficial engagement in the absence of none. In fact, the impact of these conflicts helped to facilitate military actions when professionals- some that are known to me, began showing interest in and/joining different political groups, pressure groups or associations and militia groups, they began to display negative attitudes towards opposing members within the community. Hence, members of the community became careful of everything thus, bringing about ineffective interactions amongst members of the community for fear of death, loss of job or societal incarceration (Colley et al., 2007). These group participants might stop at nothing to prevent newcomers to join the community, especially those who are not loyal to them. Therefore, based on these conflicts, members have naturally become self-protective, with many limiting their interactions to those they know within the community as a way of enjoying political, ethnic and social loyalties.

In terms of operational contributions, the five overall themes (professionalism, teacher training, personal development, academic adaptability, length of service) from this study provide a practical template for policy makers in schools and ministries in the Gharian district primary education sector in particular and Libya in general, to explore in order to meet English foreign language teachers’ training expectations. This template is critical for teachers’ productivity particularly if the relevant authorities could build aspects of these themes into their training strategies for primary schools. Furthermore, these findings might provide a spring board for proprietors of privately owned primary schools in the Gharian district of Libya when making plans to train and retrain their teachers. Second, this study contributes to the practical dimension of CPD because it revealed that CPD is incomplete without helping participants meet their personal development goals (see Figure 10). This is because while existing literature have discussed continuing professional development as training strategy that helps improve teachers’ productivity (Guskey, 2003, Faour, 2012, Barton and Armstrong 2015),this study suggests that the personal interest of English foreign language teachers in the Gharian gives impetus to the value of CPD.

For example, some English foreign language teachers in the Gharian reported that personal reward and motivational incentive had a positive influence on their decision to participate in CPD programmes. This implies that there is a direct relationship

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between personal development and CPD. Hence, the value of CPD is incomplete without first taking into consideration the personal development interest of English language teachers in primary schools in the Gharian district of Libya. This contribution draws support from theme No. 3 (see Section 5.4 and Figure 10) of Personal development with sub themes, such as: personal reward; personal CPD, networking opportunities and future employability. To further support the researcher’s proposition, whilst previous studies are of the opinion that CPD is critical for professionalism, the finding drawn in this work opposes this, instead suggesting that there should be a systemic integration of continuous personal development and continuous professional development for teaching effectiveness. The following two interviewees’ quotes support this contribution:

‘CPD stand for continuous personal development because if I wait for the government I cannot be trained sufficiently to complete internationally.’ (Interview 10)

‘Yes CPD means to me Continuing my students in a professional way and it is good to hear the ministry is keen to start programmes around Gharian and it is really good sign after the revolution and Gaddafi era, that we have to cope with the development around the world.’ (Interviewee 4)

In summary, from the first point of contribution above, this study extends the practical relevance and scope of continuous professional development with the postulation of continuous personal development, which is currently lacking in the literature. Secondly, this study contributes to Institutional Theory (Scott, 2008) by revealing that the quality of teachers’ CPD programme is a function of government commitment to its success; that is, it is the responsibility of the government or the concerned agency to show commitment towards improving teachers’ skills in teaching EFL and for students to be able to speak, write and hear the English language; this can be achieved by identifying the specific professional development needs of EFL teachers (such as organising specialised writing EFL training, content and knowledge pedagogical skills) through the leadership of primary schools for the purpose of strengthening their existing competencies. Moreover, because this study has revealed that personal reward expectations (enhanced financial and pecuniary rewards) is a catalyst for sustaining knowledge (familiarisation, utilisation and reorientation) gained

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from CPD in teaching EFL, it explicitly validates that Institutional Theory is a critical lens for understanding employee and employer relationships in developing economies, such as Libya. For example, issues of payment of allowances, increase in monthly salary and other inducing packages to teachers for participating in CPD programme is outside the control of the teachers and their school leadership but is within control of the government hence they have external institutional influences. This study is original because it is the first to investigate the perceptions and experiences of English foreign language teachers in regards CPD participation within the community of practice theory in the Gharian district of Libya using the qualitative interview approach. Second, it is the first to suggest five critical themes as influencing teachers’ perceptions about and participation in CPD programmes in the Gharian district of Libya.

6.4 Chapter Summary

This chapter has presented a discussion of findings with existing literature. It has presented the study’s contribution to knowledge. In particular, the chapter has focused on highlighting the study’s theoretical contributions. This deals with how this study has contributed to existing literature—not only in terms of validating or questioning the relevance of community of Practice and Institutional theories, but also in validating and extending the knowledge of CoP. The chapter has presented operational contributions using the five emerging themes, which implies that these themes are its contribution to practice as policy makers in the primary school sub-sector in the Gharian district can take advantage of these in an effort to improve EFL teachers’ participation in CPD programmes. Moreover, in terms of originality, this is the first study to examine the perception of EFL teachers about CPD in the Gharian district of Libya using CoP and Institutional Theory as its theoretical lenses.

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Chapter 7: Conclusion, Research Implications,