Cultural historical activity theory (CHAT)

The PD literature reviewed in this chapter shows that changes in teaching practice are affected by contextual factors, which include personal, organisational, and wider social influences (Timperley et al., 1997). Personal factors are factors exhibited by individual teachers such as personality and prior learning experiences. Organisational factors include school culture, classroom issues, and PD activities in which teachers are engaged. Lastly, wider social factors include those affecting teachers that are situated outside of organisations, such as educational policies or demands from society.

Studies about PD highlight different contextual factors depending on the different circumstances of PD learning in each study. Even the same contextual influences drawn from two different studies may be interpreted differently based on the study’s own context.

Although PD literature deals with contextual factors, the influence of contextual factors are often described in a simplified way such that each contextual factor seems to affect PD experiences independently. Enumerating each influencing factor on PD experiences does not fully reveal what really happens; there is a limitation in explaining interrelationships among contextual factors and effects from these interrelationships.

A useful theoretical framework for understanding diverse relationships around experienced EFL teachers’ PD learning is cultural historical activity theory (CHAT). This framework was developed from social constructivist approaches to learning and thoroughly reflects the notion of learning as a social phenomenon (Douglas, 2011). As inquiry with a consideration of various aspects of the educational setting is one of the strengths of activity theory (Murphy & Rodriguez-Manzanares, 2008), it allows the relationships between

multiple contextual factors influencing PD learning to be examined. Kuutti (1996) defines an activity as:

a form of doing directed to an object, and activities are distinguished from each other

according to their objects. Transforming the object into an outcome motivates the existence of an activity. An object can be a material thing, but it can also be less tangible (such as a plan) or totally intangible (such as a common idea) as long as it can be shared for manipulation and transformation by the participants of the activity. (p. 27)

In this study, experienced EFL teachers’ professional development is an activity in CHAT. It is an activity where teachers themselves, PD, and contextual factors work together. The

extent of PD learning and the application of PD learning in teaching practice can be

explained through this activity. Therefore, CHAT is employed as a theoretical lens to explain the complex relationships between PD and teacher change in this study.

Engeström (2001) analysed first- and second-generation activity theory along with his framework of third-generation activity theory called CHAT. First-generation activity theory was developed based on Vygotsky’s (1978) notion of artifact-mediated action in human activity (Engeström, 2001). What is important in the activity is that the action is mediated by artifacts, or material and psychological tools such as pencils and signs.

Second-generation activity theory, inspired by Leont’ev (1977), focused on collective aspects of an ‘activity system’ that different people with different roles are engaged in. Leont’ev also emphasised the rich social contexts in which the activity system is situated (Worthen, 2008). That is, an individual’s goal-oriented actions should be understood only within the context of collective activity. Leont’ev proposed six essential elements of an activity system: subject, object, community, tools, rules, and division of labour.

Figure 1. The structure of activity system (Engeström, 1987, p. 78).

Figure 1 is a representative activity triangle diagram presented by Engeström (1987), which describes these elements and their interconnections in the activity system. The subject is the participant in the activity system. The object is the motive or activity itself and the

outcome is the ultimate goal that the subject wants to achieve. In an activity, the subject acts

on the object to attain outcomes. Mapping the CHAT activity triangle to the activity system of experienced EFL teachers’ professional development, experienced EFL teachers are the subjects of the activity system. The object is PD learning for building expertise in teaching

EFL in order to bring about a change in practice, which is the desired outcome. The tools include a wide array of PD courses and programmes.

Three elements affect the subject’s action towards the object. The first element is the

formal and informal rules underlying what and how the subject acts on. Community

represents a place the activity is located in and for. Division of labour means the vertical and horizontal distribution of tasks, power and status (Engeström, 2001). Accordingly,

community in relation to experienced EFL teachers’ professional development corresponds to teachers’ groups, schools where the teacher is working, and PD providers. Rules are school and national educational policies whilst division of labour includes roles and hierarchies existing within schools and MEST. As illustrated in Figure 1, second-generation activity theory is used as an analytical tool for understanding complex human learning situations that can be observed in natural settings (Yamagata-Lynch, 2010).

Engeström (2001) developed third-generation activity theory called CHAT by

pointing out the importance of contradictions arising within and between activity systems and reflecting multiple voices. Peruski (2003) contends that activity theory “views conflict as not so much rooted in the personalities of individuals, … but as rooted in the systems in which individuals are a part of” (p.158). Engeström (1987) divided such contradictions into four categories: contradictions (a) within each element of the system, (b) between elements of one activity system, (c) between the object of an activity system and the object of a culturally more advanced form of the activity, and (d) between the activity system and other activity systems. Among the four categories, contradictions among activity systems are beyond the scope of this study since this study investigates one activity system of experienced EFL teachers. However, by employing a framework of CHAT, “the internal tensions and contradictions” (Engeström, 1999, p. 9) which arise from diverse factors involved in the process of changes in teaching practice can be examined.

Therefore this study has adopted CHAT to explain social, cultural, historical, and political dynamics brought from the interactions of elements and contributions of each element (Sannino, Daniels, & Gutiérrez, 2009), and to understand tensions and conflicts in the activity system of experienced EFL teachers’ PD learning at “micro and macro levels” (Leadbetter, 2005, p. 18).

This chapter has discussed literature around the topic of this study. It began by exploring the paradigm shift in the history of PD and then gave examples of constructs of effective PD. The next sections investigated the link between teacher change and PD, the scope of teacher change through PD, and sustainability of teacher change. After this, changes related to experienced teachers and EFL teachers were discussed and particular attention was given to changes that were likely to take place in the practice of experienced EFL teachers. The final section of this chapter introduced CHAT as the theoretical framework for this study in order to capture the complicated nature of teacher change through investigating teachers’ PD experiences. The next chapter will discuss the research methodology used in this study.

Chapter 3