Discourse Patterns in First Language Use at Hcme and Second Language Learning at School: an Ethnographic Approach

Iaplications / 172

All the above considerations lead to the characterization of teachers as:
- educators

- who have to interpret curricula and syllabi

- in order to adapt then to:

- their own beliefs

- the perceived needs of the learners

- the constraints of the classroom

- in the socio-political context of the country.

In this perspective, it would be necessary to study the background wisdom
and knowledge which teachers use for such Interpretations, and the
criteria they employ to assess curricula and syllabi as fit for the job.
This analysis would offer indications of how to involve teachers in the
processes of training and innovation. Io such a study has been done in
Mozambique, where Teacher Training Courses tend to start from socio-
political considerations, to proceed to the pedagogical, but do not
present the teacher as a professional who interprets the curriculum or
questions his own beliefs.

It is the aim of this concluding chapter to suggest how an ethnographic
approach to Teacher Education could Invert such an order of priorities
and link education with cognition and culture for both learners and
teachers. Language learning and teaching will be used as an illustrative
paradigm because of the nature of this study, but it is believed that
wider applications are possible.

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