Various socio-cultural approaches have been developed for the understanding of learning in diverse contexts. These socio-cultural theories of learning are derived from Vygotsky’s writing (who was born in Russia in 1896 and died in 1934) and these theories created great controversy and debate amongst researchers and theorists interested in learning (McInerney, Walker and Liem, 2011; Al-Nassar, 2011). According to Vygotsky (1978), learners gain knowledge and skills when they participate in learning processes with the presence of qualified guides to learn. This means that there is mutual interaction between the learners and teachers, and events which occur in the context. Through this theory, states Al-Nassar (2011, p. 33), “learners find meanings not just through individual experiences but also through social interactions”. Vygotsky believes that “development involves learning much more than domain knowledge and includes becoming a contributing member of a community and society” (Hedges and Cullen, 2011, p. 7). So, according to Vygotsky’s theory: “interaction and collaboration could lead to the development of learning” (Al-Nassar, 2011, p. 34). This means that communicating and engagement within cultural-social groups and institutions is a resource for learners’ knowledge. To clarify, we design the context we interact with to fit the position in which we are learning and teaching. However, this context should help to create this position. Specifically, it could be argued that student-teachers interact and communicate to
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learn within two professional communities (university and school) during their preparation to teach, as a formal context of education. However, there are other social and cultural communities in the society such as family and friends, which could be informal, and impact on student-teachers’ learning and teaching. Consequently, the level of student-teachers’ quality of development is dependent on what they gained and experienced from these communities. In other words, this development depends on significant role models and the forms of modelling they experienced that helped them to form their knowledge and beliefs.
Vygotsky wrote about “aesthetics, human and child development, language and thought, education and pedagogy, methodology and the crisis in psychology” (McInerney, Walker and Liem, 2011, p. 4). His writing was continued by those concerned to develop research and theory in fields involving the study of human understanding. In 1980s, his ideas began to have an influence on the understanding of learning as a social construct. This understanding has continued to develop through the years. This is because the researchers and theorists reinforced some areas of Vygotsky’s work, or developed new ideas to meet the challenges in different contexts. The idea from his work, as socio-culturalists believe (McInerney, Walker and Liem, 2011), is that human thinking and actions are related to social processes in the environment, and there are social and cultural factors in this environment (such as classroom, school, family and community) indirectly impacting educational outcomes. According to Vygosky’s theory, Khomais (2007) stated that when learning/teaching happen under different cultural circumstances, it is reasonable to predict different outcomes. She noted:
Vygosky’s socio-cultural theory described how human minds develop in relation to their interaction with their culture in general, which appears to be applicable to all societies, in developed and developing countries. From this point of view, the process of development is the same, but the difference is in the context where the development happens (Khomais, 2007, p. 63).
Khomais (2007) agrees with John-Steiner and Mahn’s point of view (1996) that learners’ experiences differ according to the different circumstances under practice. The perspective of the post-Vygotskian scholars is: “culture as a dynamic system of
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meaning, with values, goals and practices that promote particular approaches to education” (Hedges and Cullen, 2011, p. 5).
Hence, the philosophy of socio-cultural perspective shows how social interactions and cultural and political forms impact on phenomenon involving people or they are impacted by it (Schoen, 2011). Also, Vygotskian theories see “that knowledge is formed in social interaction and broader cultural activity” (Hickey, 2011, p. 139). However, the socio-cultural research involves not only awareness of research processes and knowing of specific content but it also requires “the added dimension of thinking about the phenomenon in a way that sees the big picture of the embedded context in which it occurs” (Schoen, 2011, p. 18). Thus, the socio-cultural research attempts to see the whole of the context, and the social and cultural factors which impact human activity.
A number of researchers explored how the socio-cultural contexts impact motivation. For example, Winne suggested that motivating students requires multiple goals and competing where the students themselves create and change (Winne, 2004, as cited in McInerney, Walker and Liem, 2011). Vadeboncoeur, Vellos and Goessling (2011), designed conceptual framework which illustrates a socio-cultural perspective on identity construction. Their first educational implication was that learning as a particular kind of social, cultural and historical practice always:
Involves an interrelation of identity, knowledge, and values construction, even when the perspectives of educators, policymakers, and researchers do not address all three. Knowledge construction shapes-facilitates, fosters, hinders, challenges- the identities and values of students. As students’ identities shift over time and across contexts, how they contribute, what they see as important, and how they themselves are valued changes (Vadeboncoeur, Vellos and Goessling, 2011, p. 247).
A socio-cultural theory can be adopted in this study, because its perspective claims that the learning context is an important element in student-teachers learning (Goldhaber, 2000, as cited in Wang, 2007). In socio-cultural theory, the context includes the physical environment and the people who are involved, and the values and beliefs which are influenced by their cultures. Also, according to this theory there is the process of interacting and transforming between people and the context with each other, where the people change their response through these interactions and
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transformations to establish different kinds of meaning (Stevenson, 2004). Moreover, the socio-cultural perspective is more than a selection of the social level of analysis ‘over the individual level’ (Schoen, 2011, p. 28). Hence, the research which adopts the socio-cultural perspective should include data from multiple levels in order to understand how the individual develops in an indicated context (Ibid, 2011). Figure 3. 2 represents the KSA context in which student-teachers learn and teach.
As can be seen from the model, three main communities impact on student-teachers’ learning and teaching. However, there is also the global community (as a result of modernization) which could potentially have a strong impact on student-teachers in the KSA context. This influence of globalization could be significant despite the efforts of decision/policy makers and religion scholars to prevent its infiltration into Saudi society. They try to keep the Saudi social and cultural values in Saudi society as an Islamic entity in the time of change.
Global context University community Saudi context New global community Student-teachers School community Other communities in society Saudi context Global context
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It is argued that “people construct their identity through social interaction, and different sides of identity arise in different situation” (Kaasila and Lauriala, 2010). Burr (2003) asserts that knowledge comes out from social interaction, in which it is influenced by particular culture and history of individuals. Alebaikan (2010, p. 119) states that: “Religion and culture in Saudi Arabia not only shape people’s attitudes, practices, and behaviours, but also form the construction of the reality of their lives”. Thus, social-cultural theory is appropriate in this study because student-teachers are learning in a particular social, cultural and historical context within KSA. Student- teachers’ knowledge is co-constructed with others in the university and school contexts. Therefore, this knowledge could be influenced by their own social, cultural and historical context development. Also, in KSA becoming a teacher is a socially acceptable career for women. So, they may build a teacher identity that is consistent with wider social-cultural expectations of their roles in society. Learning to teach involves transmitting and reproducing the society’s dominant values and beliefs where the Saudi cultural context considers the Islamic religion as the foundation of Saudi culture and it influences all areas of life for Saudi citizens. Student-teachers learn educational theories about children’s learning and development from other cultures in their programme. So, it noteworthy to question within the context of the study whether there might be some issues about the cultural reproduction of dominant ideas through university curricula.
Summary of the Chapter
The chapter has reviewed the literature on aspects of ITE, which were related to the present study. This review has provided substantial evidence of the importance of providing high-quality of teacher preparation programmes, and consequently improving outcomes for children’s learning and development. The chapter offered substantial research evidence on what are considered to be fundamental knowledge bases for teaching. Through these views, it is clear that there is some overlap between these knowledge bases, and the PCK plays a crucial part in effective teaching, and it reinforces all other forms of knowledge bases for teaching. Since studies on ITE programmes in KSA are still scarce, this literature review helped to understand the ITE programmes in the field of pre-school education, in KSA context, based on Saudi student-teachers’ knowledge and beliefs, which in turn helped the researcher to build
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the theoretical model of the study. This model marks the important ideas of teaching and learning in ECE to be used for preparing IT in the field of ECE.
Providing examples of international studies have added depth to the context of this chapter, and that helped to interpret student-teachers’ beliefs, and their learning and teaching experiences in a particular social and cultural context within KSA. As empirical research, the current study has the potential to identify whether the Saudi cultural identity impacts on student-teachers’ knowledge and beliefs during their professional preparation. In addition, this chapter provided some insights into the data collection methods for the current study, and how they helped the researcher to gather worthwhile data. The following chapter will discuss the research methodology and data collection methods for the current study.
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Chapter Four: The Research Design and Methodology
Introduction
This chapter aims to present the rationale for the methodological approach taken for this current study. The research objectives and questions are followed by the theoretical and philosophical assumption of this study. Then, description of the sample in terms of the participants and settings of the case study is demonstrated. The methods used for gathering and analysing data are discussed, making reference to issues such as ethical considerations of the data collection, validity and reliability where appropriate. Finally, research challenges and issues are highlighted.
Research Objectives
1- To understand a teacher-training programme for kindergarten teachers from the point of view of the student- teachers.
2- To investigate programme content, and how this programme is concordant with the pre-school curriculum in KSA.
3- To understand the knowledge and beliefs of kindergarten student-teachers.
4- To understand the extent to which the kindergarten teacher-training programme develops student-teachers’ knowledge bases for teaching and learning.
Research Questions
1- What are the perspectives of student-teachers regarding the training of kindergarten teachers in the COE at a University?
2- How does the programme content prepare student-teachers to become kindergarten teachers according to the perspective of the student-teachers?
3- What are the knowledge and beliefs of kindergarten student-teachers? And how do their knowledge and beliefs develop over a four-year programme?