Abstract
Extant research on teacher education has established that context plays an important role in sha** teacher learning and practice. However, a challenge to teacher education research remains the theorization of context and how context shapes practice. It is compounded when the contemporary educational context worldwide is penetrated by globalization, as educational contexts extend beyond geographical boundaries, and educational activities are shaped simultaneously in the intertwined global, national, and local contextual spheres. Propelled by the dominance of English as a lingua franca, globalization is manifest in the adoption of English-as-a-medium-of-instruction in education in non-native English-speaking countries at various levels, from primary to higher education. This phenomenon presents additional challenges for research in capturing the complexity of globalized contexts and how globalization shapes teacher practice. Drawing on Vygotskian sociocultural activity theory and globalization theory, this chapter argues for a novel conceptual approach to theorizing globalized contexts within teacher education and understanding globally affected education practices and teachers’ professional development. It then illustrates how this framework enables a systemic analysis of data to examine the effects of globalization on teacher practice, and its implications for teacher education and teacher education research in contemporary times.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aizawa, I., & Rose, H. (2019). An analysis of Japan’s English as medium of instruction initiatives within higher education: The gap between meso-level policy and micro-level practice. Higher Education, 77(6), 1125–1142.
Ali, N. L. (2013). A changing paradigm in language planning: English-medium instruction policy at the tertiary level in Malaysia. Current Issues in Language Planning, 14(1), 73–92.
Ament, J. R., & Pérez-Vidal, C. (2015). Linguistic outcomes of English medium instruction Programmes in higher education: A study on economics undergraduates at a Catalan university. Higher Learning Research Communications, 5(1), 47–68.
Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. University of Minnesota Press.
Avalos, B. (2011). Teacher professional development in teaching and teacher education over ten years. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(1), 10–20.
Beaumont, B. (2020). Identifying in-service support for lecturers working in English medium instruction contexts. In Internationalising learning in higher education (pp. 83–110). Springer.
Borg, S. (2009). Language teacher cognition. In A. Burns & J. Richards (Eds.), The Cambridge guide to second language teacher education (pp. 163–171). Cambridge University Press.
Borko, H. (2004). Professional development and teacher learning: Map** the terrain. Educational Researcher, 33(8), 3–15.
Bourdieu, P., & Wacquant, L. J. D. (1992). An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Chicago, IL: Chicago.
Burn, K., & Menter, I. (2021). Making sense of teacher education in a globalizing world: The distinctive contribution of a sociocultural approach. Comparative Education Review, 65(4), 770–789.
Cole, M., & Engeström, Y. (1993). A cultural-historical approach to distributed cognition. In G. Salomon (Ed.), Distributed cognitions: Psychological and educational considerations (pp. 1–46). Cambridge University Press.
Cole, M., & Scribner, S. (1978). Introduction. In M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman (Eds.), Mind in society (pp. 1–14). Harvard University Press.
Cross, R. (2006). Language teaching as activity: A sociocultural perspective on second language teacher practice. Monash University.
Cross, R. (2010). Language teaching as sociocultural activity: Rethinking language teacher practice. The Modern Language Journal, 94(3), 434–452.
Cross, R. (2020). The ‘subject’of Freeman & Johnson’s reconceived knowledge base of second language teacher education. Language Teaching Research, 24(1), 37–48.
Dang, T. K. A. (2012). Impact of globalization on ELT pre-service teacher education in a Vietnamese context: A sociocultural perspective. In Future directions in applied linguistics: Local and global perspectives (pp. 140–157). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Dang, T. K. A. (2013). Identity in activity: Examining teacher professional identity formation in the paired-placement of student teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 30, 47–59.
Dang, T. K. A. (2017). Exploring contextual factors sha** teacher collaborative learning in a paired-placement. Teaching and Teacher Education, 67, 316–329.
Dang, T. K. A., & Marginson, S. (2013). Global learning through the lens of Vygotskian sociocultural theory. Critical Studies in Education, 54(2), 143–159.
Dang, T. K. A., Nguyen, H. T. M., & Le, T. T. T. (2013). The impacts of globalisation on EFL teacher education through English as a medium of instruction: An example from Vietnam. Current Issues in Language Planning, 14(1), 52–72.
Dang, T. K. A., Carbone, A., Ye, J., & Vu, T. T. P. (2022). How academics manage individual differences to team teach in higher education: a sociocultural activity theory perspective. Higher Education, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-021-00777-6
Daniels, H. (2001). Vygotsky and pedagogy. London: Routledge Falmer.
Dearden, J. (2014). English as a medium of instruction-a growing global phenomenon. British Council.
Dewey, M., & Jenkins, J. (2010). English as a lingua franca in the global context: Interconnectedness, variation and change. In Contending with globalization in world Englishes (pp. 72–92). Multilingual Matters.
Edwards, A. (2010). How can Vygotsky and his legacy help us to understand and develop teacher education? In V. Ellis, A. Edwards, & P. Smagorinsky (Eds.), Cultural-historical perspectives on teacher education and development (pp. 63–77). Routledge.
Engeström, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Orienta-Konsultit.
Engeström, Y. (1999). Activity theory and individual and social transformation. In Y. Engeström, R. Miettinen, & R.-L. Punamaki-Gitai (Eds.), Perspectives on activity theory: Learning in doing (pp. 19–38). Cambridge University Press.
Engeström, Y. (2001). Expansive learning at work: Toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work, 14(1), 133–156.
Engeström, Y. (2008). From teams to knots: Activity-theoretical studies of collaboration and learning at work. Cambridge University Press.
Freeman, D. (1996). The ‘unstudied problem’: Research on teacher learning in language teaching. In D. Freeman & J. Richards (Eds.), Teacher learning in language teaching (pp. 351–378). Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.
Freeman, D. (2002). The hidden side of the work: Teacher knowledge and learning to teach. A perspective from north American educational research on teacher education in English language teaching. Language Teaching, 35(1), 1–13.
Gale, T., Cross, R., & Mills, C. (2019). Researching teacher practice: Social justice dispositions revealed in activity. In J. Lynch, J. Rowlands, T. Gale, & S. Parker (Eds.), Practice methodologies in education research (pp. 48–62). Routledge.
Government, A. (2020). International student data monthly summary: December 2020. Retrieved September from https://internationaleducation.gov.au/research/international-student-data/Documents/MONTHLY%20SUMMARIES/2020/Dec%202020%20MonthlyInfographic.pdf
Grossman, P. L., Smagorinsky, P., & Valencia, S. (1999). Appropriating tools for teaching English: A theoretical framework for research on learning to teach. American Journal of Education, 108(1), 1–29.
Grossman, P., Hammerness, K., & McDonald, M. (2009). Redefining teaching, re-imagining teacher education. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 15(2), 273–289.
Hawkins, M. R. (2004). Language learning and teacher education: A sociocultural approach. Multilingual Matters Limited.
Hawkins, M., & Norton, B. (2009). Critical language teacher education. In A. Burns & J. Richards (Eds.), Cambridge guide to second language teacher education (pp. 30–39). Cambrige University Press.
Held, D., McGrew, A., Goldblatt, D., & Perraton, J. (1999). Global transformations: Politics, economics and culture. Stanford University Press.
Ho, T. (2016). Reading attitudes and reading habits of Vietnamese undergraduate students (Doctoral dissertation). Flinders University, School of Education.
James, P., & Steger, M. B. (2014). A genealogy of ‘globalization’: The career of a concept. Globalizations, 11(4), 417–434.
Johnson, K. (2009). Trends in second language teacher education. In A. Burns & J. Richards (Eds.), The Cambridge guide to second language teacher education (pp. 20–29). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Johnson, K. E., & Golombek, P. R. (2011). The transformative power of narrative in second language teacher education. TESOL Quarterly, 45(3), 486–509.
Johnson, K. E., & Golombek, P. R. (2016). Mindful L2 teacher education: A sociocultural perspective on cultivating teachers’ professional development. Routledge.
Junor Clarke, P., & Fournillier, J. (2012). Action research, pedagogy, and activity theory: Tools facilitating two instructors’ interpretations of the professional development of four preservice teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28(2012), 649–660.
Kerosuo, H., Kajamaa, A., & Engeström, Y. (2010). Promoting innovation and learning through change laboratory: An example from Finnish health care. Central European Journal of Public Policy, 4(1), 110–131.
King, R. (2011). Governing universities globally: Organisations, regulation and rankings. Edward Elgar.
Kostogriz, A. (2006). Putting “space” on the agenda of sociocultural research. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 13(3), 176–190.
Lantolf, J. P., & Appel, G. (1994). Vygotskian approaches to second language research. Ablex Pub. Corp.
Lantolf, J. (2000). Introducing sociocultural theory. In J. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp. 1–26). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Le Cornu, R. (2016). Professional experience: Learning from the past to build the future. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 44(1), 80–101.
Le, D. M. (2012). English as a medium of instruction at tertiary education system in Vietnam. Journal of Asia TEFL, 9(2).
Leander, A. (2008). Thinking tools. In A. Klotz & D. Prakash (Eds.), Qualitative methods in international relations: A pluralist guide (pp. 11–27). Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230584129_2
Leontiev, A. N. (1981). The problem of activity in psychology. In J. V. Wertsch (Ed. & Trans.), The concept of activity in Soviet psychology (pp. 37–71). M. E. Sharpe.
Lortie, D. (1975). School teacher: A sociological study. Chicago IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Lynch, J., & Greaves, K. (2017). Michel de Certeau: Research writing as an everyday practice. In Lynch J., Rowlands J., Gale T. & Skourdoumbis A. (eds), Practice Theory and Education: Diffractive Readings in Professional Practice (pp. 69–84). Routledge UK. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315640532
Macaro, E., Curle, S., Pun, J., An, J., & Dearden, J. (2018). A systematic review of English medium instruction in higher education. Language Teaching, 51(1), 36–76.
Marginson, S. (2008). Global field and global imagining: Bourdieu and relations of power in worldwide higher education. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 29(3), pp. 303–316.
Marginson, S., & Dang, T. K. A. (2017). Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory in the context of globalization. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 37(1), 116–129.
Marginson, S., & Rhoades, G. (2002). Beyond national states, markets, and systems of higher education: A glonacal agency heuristic. Higher Education, 43(3), 281–309.
Marginson, S, & van der Wende, M. (2009). The new global landscape of nations and institutions. In Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Higher Education to 2030, Volume 2: Globalization (pp. 17–62). Paris: OECD.
Marinoni, G., Van’t Land, H., & Jensen, T. (2020). The impact of Covid-19 on higher education around the world. IAU Global Survey Report.
MOET. (2006). Teacher training colleges in Vietnam: Construction and development. Hanoi: Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam.
MOET. (2019). Syllabus for Marxist-Leninist Political Economy, Decision 4890/QD-BGDDT. Hanoi: Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam.
Newell, G. & Connors, S. (2011). “Why do you think that?” A supervisor’s mediation of a preservice English teacher’s understanding of instructional scaffolding. English Education, 43(3), 225–261.
Nguyen, H. T. (2018). English-medium-instruction management: The missing piece in the internationalisation puzzle of Vietnamese higher education. In Internationalisation in Vietnamese higher education (pp. 119–137). Springer.
Nguyen, H. T., Walkinshaw, I., & Pham, H. H. (2017). EMI programs in a Vietnamese university: Language, pedagogy and policy issues. In English medium instruction in higher education in Asia-Pacific (pp. 37–52). Springer.
Pardo, L. S. (2006). The role of context in learning to teach writing: What teacher educators need to know to support beginning urban teachers. Journal of Teacher Education, 57(4), 378–394.
Rizvi, F., & Lingard, B. (2010). Globalizing education policy. Routledge.
Ramanathan, V. & Morgan, B. (2007). TESOL and policy enactments: Perspectives from practice. TESOL Quarterly, 41(3), 447–463.
Roth, W.-M. (2012). Cultural-historical activity theory: Vygotsky’s forgotten and suppressed legacy and its implication for mathematics education. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 24, 87–104.
Schatzki, T. R. (2012). A primer on practices: Theory and research. In J. Higgs, R. Barnett, S. Billett, M. Hutchings, & F. Trede (Eds.), Practice-based education (pp. 13–26). Brill. https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789462091283/BP000003.xml
Schwille, J., Dembélé, M., & Schubert, J. (2007). Global perspectives on teacher learning: Improving policy and practice. International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) UNESCO.
Scottish Privy Council. (1616). School Establishment Act. Scottish Privy Council.
Seitz, B. M., Aktipis, A., Buss, D. M., Alcock, J., Bloom, P., Gelfand, M., … Haselton, M. G. (2020). The pandemic exposes human nature: 10 evolutionary insights. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(45), 27767–27776.
Sidhu, R. (2006). Universities and globalization: To market, to market. London: Routledge.
Smagorinsky, P. H. (2009). The culture of Vygotsky. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(1), 85–95.
Sundli, L. (2007). Mentoring—A new mantra for education? Teaching and Teacher Education, 23(2), 201–214.
Swartz, D. L. (2019). Bourdieu’s concept of field in the anglo-saxon literature. In J. Blasius, F. Lebaron, B. Le Roux, & A. Schmitz (Eds.), Empirical investigations of social space (pp. 177–193). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15387-8_11
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1981a). The instrumental method in psychology. In J. V. Wertsch (Ed.), The concept of activity in soviet psychology (pp. 134–143). M.E. Sharpe.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1981b). The genesis of higher mental functions. In J. V. Wertsch (Ed.), The concept of activity in soviet psychology (pp. 144–188). M.E. Sharpe.
Wartofsky, M. (1979). Models: Representation and the scientific understanding. D Reidel Publishing Company.
Yao, C. W., Collins, C., Bush, T., Briscoe, K. L., & Dang, N. L. T. (2021). English as a ‘double barrier’: English medium instruction and student learning at Vietnamese transnational universities. Higher Education Research and Development, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2021.1896485
Zeichner, K. (1999). The new scholarship in teacher education. Educational Researcher, 28(9), 4–15.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Dang, T.K.A., Cross, R. (2022). Globalizing Teacher Education Through English as a Medium of Instruction: A Vygotskian Perspective. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Teacher Education Research . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59533-3_57-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59533-3_57-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-59533-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-59533-3
eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education