Creativity in TESOL in the Primary Stage
Nonetheless, a definition for what creativity means in the TESOL field needs to be apprehended. This definition needed to be as grounded as possible because of the unique context and field. Moreover, generalising from the previous studies would not have done justice to the enriching of the field as maybe the study is more likely to neglect unexplored elements if it depended completely on testing previous theories and ideas. Furthermore, the aspects that stimulate as well as suppress creativity in English language teaching in the context of the study were studied. Both the studies in creativity and the studies in language teaching are inconclusive, so the approach in this study is mainly based on the grounded theory approach and the outcomes are suggestive rather than conclusive and final.
The study was done in the context of English language teaching in the state of Kuwait in the primary stage. 14 English language teachers were interviewed, 5 of whom were senior teachers. Also ten observations were undertaken.
As for the definition of creativity in this context, the result of the study suggests that clarity, freedom, relationships and the making and preparation of teaching aids are associated with the concept of creativity in English language teaching. From this, it can be seen that the scope of the current study is mainly related to that of the literature of English language ownership. As for the creativity research contribution, since relationships were emphasised then this related to the creativity literature of cooperation and social personal side.
Then there are the aspects that are viewed by participants as creativity-stimulating in English language teaching. They mainly referred to personal fulfilment and accomplishment as well as the positive relationships with colleagues, parents and students. As for the aspects that participants considered suppressing to their creativity, the negative relationships, the work load and the curriculum are mentioned as the main challenges to their creativity in teaching.
Chapter 1 Introduction
Nature of the problem, rationale and significance
The acceptance of English as one of the major languages of formal and informal communication across the world has increased the demand of people with knowledge of English. This has increased the importance of the English language teaching. The growth of the need to English language teaching and teachers around the globe is almost increasing simultaneously with the growth of economic exchanges, internet usage and popular culture. More countries around the world have introduced English in their schools and colleges. Kaufman and Crandall (2002) have noticed that the unprecedented spread of English throughout the world has been due to various pressures from the academic, cultural, political and business areas. There have been number of studies that indicated that growth of learning of English is not limited to non English speaking countries (Crystal 1997, McArthur, 2002). The English speaking countries like the United States, Australia, Canada, Britain, New Zealand and others have also focused on English teaching and learning. English has been part of main medium of teaching or as a separate subject. Governments are paying more attention to English language teaching. The reason behind individuals focusing is the use of English language as a main language of instructions for the professional trainings or higher studies in different countries and the demand generated from the job sector. Individuals are also paying more attention on English and putting efforts and money to learn the language. One more reason is the increasing penetration of internet across the world. English is the main language for the websites across the world. People need to know English so that they can understand the information published on the website. Access of internet can be done through the informal learning of the language, but there are certain areas which require formal education in English or instructions are in the English language. This makes it important to have formal learning of English language. The formal education of English language at the school level is the responsibility of teacher. Teacher teaches the language, is responsible for making student understand, learn and acquire the language. The success and failure of the learning process is usually linked with teachers performance. The performance of student is the language is the main justifying factor of the competence English language teaching.
However, the English language teaching is predicted to be unstable. The teaching standards are changing with the changes in the global environment. This makes it very challenging for the learner and teacher to maintain the standards as per the changing global and local requirements. According to Kachru (2005166), the world is redefining its relationship with the English language use and is witnessing more developments and evolutions of English language teaching. There are various studies that have emphasised on the need of the creating more space for the creativity in the teaching of the English language. This is considered to be more productive in a manner that would fit in different contexts of the unified methods and styles. The diversity aspects existing in different country, school and individuals can be handled effectively.
Different studies on the language teaching methodologies and theories fail through time. There are very few instances where any theory or methodology has fit to all international contexts of teaching English language (Celce-Murcia, 2001 Kumaravadevilu, 2003). The main reason to this is the lack of flexibility and reflectivity of the teaching and learning of the language. The English teaching requires creativity in the methods of teaching and incorporation of the flexibility in teaching model. This may help in developing a universal model that is applicable to all international contexts. There is need of a more costumed English language teaching. It was noticed that the current trend of dictating teachers what to teach and how to teach is not very successful. The TESOL teachers face more constraints than any other subjects and fields. The reason for it is the flexibility available to the other teachers at the local levels. The teachers of other subjects are usually not as constrained as English language teachers. The textbooks which are locally designed are connected to international methodologies. Nevertheless, for TESOL the norm for teachers is that they have to be obliged to the local and international moves of the language teaching. This is normally developed and designed from any native country. The teaching of a language evolves more than linguistics (Celce-Murcia, 2001 Kumaravadevilu, 2003 Pennycook, 2003). This leaves English language teacher with very less space to be creative and have clarity of teaching methods used in ready-made language teaching. The general notion regarding English language is related to the ownership of the English language (Bernat Gvozdenko, 2005). English learning becomes more difficult for the students for whom this is a second language. The perception, belief and attitude regarding the language would be entirely different among students of diverse backgrounds. This makes the role of teacher more important to recognise individual needs and help students with the learning of language. However, lack of flexibility and creativity in teaching hinders this process.
Krauffman and Crandall (2005 eds.) have emphasized on the standards for the education programs of TESOL (2002). The TESOL standards have emphasised on improving the linguistic foundation of the teacher candidates. Further, this solid grounding can be developed with the core curriculum in the respective disciplines.
The theme of preparing English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) teacher candidates who are able to provide access to the core curriculum across content areas for primary and secondary school students is reiterated across the standards.
There are some elements of the research of creativity in the research of TESOL. However the research findings in particular to creativity have been inconclusive. There changes witnessed have been culture specific and less universal to be applicable in all the scenarios. The creativity can be different in different context of teaching and learning of the language. The methodology, curriculum or the unified way of teaching English and learning would require different types of creativity. As a result, being creative in English language teaching is likely to be contextually unique. The uniqueness of creativity comes from the fact that the more recent studies explain a culture-related and context-bound phenomenon opposite to being universal (Craft, 2001). The way the creativity is valued, defined and used in school may be different in accordance with time and place. Culture-related studies can be even more sensitive and interesting when it comes to languages. English language is known for the language to be the carrier of culture.
Creativity is vital in TESOL where language is known to be connected with culture and not just mere linguistic skills and features (see for instance Harrison, 1990). Therefore teaching it should be in a creative way to suit the different context in which English language is taught around the world. Creativity in TESOL would allow flexibility to the teachers. Teachers would be able to design and develop their teaching methodologies on the basis of the class requirements and student profiles.
Creativity can be seen as a special research concerns. Study of creativity with respect to the English language teaches has been limited for the English Language teachers. The literature review section and the creativity section of this chapter deals with various aspects of the creativity in teaching. This study has been an effort to fill that gap within the Kuwaiti context. The significance of the study is high as it would explore different opportunities to improve overall teaching and learning process. This is an original research undertaken that has various special areas of interests.
The role of teachers views and ideas or voice is considered very essential in the teaching and learning process (Hayes, 1996). The element of creativity is seen needed for English language teachers. The professional roles can jump from one metaphor to the other (Cummins Davison, 2007). To elaborate further, English language teachers may embody the role of technician or artist at one time and a leader in other times. The teachers creative role has become vital prerequisite for their success in most educational systems around the world. The creative role is seen as facilitating role of to fulfil teachers responsibilities successfully. The field of secondforeign English language teaching is of an ever-changing. This needs to incorporate flexible ideas that can allow teachers and learners bigger space to discover. This would be workable, beneficial and enjoyable for teachers and their pupils.
Similarly, the idea that creativity is context-bound makes it very important to understand it in this particular study. This study particularly focused on the teachers of English in the primary schools in the state of Kuwait. English is a secondary language and learners are not the native speakers of English. This makes it important to understand the creativity in TESOL within the Kuwaiti context and understand the success or failures of the creativity methods and theories adopted in it.
This is expected that creativity is useful concept of TESOL in different ways. This research has been an effort in the direction of understanding different angles of the TESOL creativity and the most relevant of all. There are limited studies done in the area of understanding the role of creativity in teaching of English language. This study is an effort to fill this gap and find the relevance and importance of creativity in education. The expected outcome from this study is development of a theory or model that would facilitate the teaching process of English language teachers. Kleiman (2008) has argued on the role of creativity in the education sector.
There are a relatively small number of research studies that have focused on the academics perceptions of creativity (Kleiman, 2008 210).
It is understood from the literature review and creativity section that Creativity in English language teaching is a topic that needs to be more focus. This fact has been considered in the current study. This needs to be done particularly from the teachers perspectives. Teachers are the ones who would eventually implement it according to their understanding and perceptions. In general, research in the area of creativity is very limited. The existing literature reveals that there are even fewer studies dedicated in contexts like the primary stage teachers in Kuwait.
There are six major aims of the governmental programme of Ministry of Education of Kuwait (Official Website, Ministry of Education Kuwait, 2007-2010). The first governmental aim is concerned with the participation in achieving the communication with the current era. This is based on the requirements of freedom of thought and adaptation with the changes in a manner that does not conflict with the unique culture of the society. Three programmes are recommended to achieve this aim. These are teachers and students creative thinking, supporting language and IT learning, and socio-cultural communication amongst generation.
The recommendations are developed with respect to the way creativity has been adopted in the Ministry of Education with particular focus to English subject language. It is sometimes questioned whether creativity is content general or content specific (Plucker, 2004). Therefore, investigating creativity within the context of English Language Teaching (ELT) student teachers in Kuwait is important in-order to know their views and whether they agrees with the general recommendations, which seem to be more applicable to other subjects (science, art etc.).
For the programme of teacherlearner creative thinking, a strategic goal is set to be encouraging free scholarly thinking and developing the skills of sound thinking and creative thinking. Then for this strategic goal the following purposes are recommended developing creative thinking and using the human brain, developing models of thinking and the ability to evaluate educational outcomes, confirming the role of the teacher in the thinking development of the learners, and using the brain storming method.
Kuwaiti Ministry of Education is also focusing on encouraging innovative thinking and freedom of thought. The ministry of education in the State of Kuwait encourages learning foreign languages and computer usage. The ministry is focusing on developing individuals to cope with the challenges of globalization age without abandoning the uniqueness of the local culture (The Kuwaiti Ministry of Education).
This makes it clear that government is also focusing on the innovation and creativity in education. However, there are no specific details given for the focus of government on the English language. Ministry of Education is the highest authority in the education sector in Kuwait. This makes it clear, if the creativity is encouraged from this level, this is going to have better impact on the education system. There has been limited research done in various educational subjects including English in Kuwait. The lack of knowledge and proficiency in English language might have significant impact on the growth and progress of industry and society. In order to keep pace with the globalisation, government has to improve teaching and learning in this field of TESOL.
Assuming that Kuwaiti socio-cultural context welcomes creativity, this study should help in understanding teachers perspectives of creativity in the English language teaching. Further, understanding of gaps in the current English teaching methodologies should be worth investigating to develop better framework for English language education.
Similarly, tentativeness of creativity introduces another dilemma to teaching. This is the fact that most decision-makers in many countries (including the State of Kuwait) are increasingly encouraging teachers to be creative. However, the working definition and meaning of creativity to those teachers may not be clearly comprehended. Davies (2004) has noticed the similar situation in the UK. This creates a problematic situation for decision makers and English language teachers. English language teachers are supposed to be creative and foster creativity but creativity can sometimes be taken for granted. The issue of the criteria in evaluating the endeavours of creativity is not clear to teachers. The currently set criteria for teaching evaluation are inadequate to identify the very nature of creativity that implies more freedom for teachersstudents to produce and explore ideas and others.
The setting of criteria for the evaluation of creativity of teachers in a particular field requires understanding of different aspects of creativity, lacunas in the current English teaching methods, teachers perspectives and challenges in teaching students in Kuwait. This is also important to understand what teachers perceive for the current system of evaluation of creativity in English education. This study helps in finding out the factors that motivates teachers to be creative and its significance in TESOL. The factors contributing to lack of motivation, dissatisfaction and gap in the understanding of expectations helps in developing the essential grounds for observing, measuring and evaluating creativity. Researcher has explored the understanding of creativity among the teachers and the facilitating or suppressing creativity. This is the reason that the main participants of this study are teachers of English language teaching for the primary stage.
In various cases, creativity research is also linked to other field like economy, science, psychology, and education. It is generally associated with imagination, play, art and similar aspects in the educational field. There are certain limitations to study the role of creativity on TESOL heavily.
Similarly, many researchers try and handle one angle of the English language teaching to explore further. In this particular study, researcher deals with various research interests from language use and writing to teaching methods. The researcher realised that TESOL needs a broader view. This view should be with less fixed solutions. Based on the idea of giving teachers their voice, researcher has defined the general scope to be creativity in TESOL for this study. This combines the knowledge from existing literature, ministry of education strategies in Kuwait as well as the data collected from teaching experiences and ideas of the respondents.
The benefit of this research is not limited to teachers and students alone. The research would be of the interest of the theorists. This has provided various useful insights from the existing theories and new approach for the creativity in the English language. This should help theorist to develop and extend further. The information provided in the study and the factors discussed should help the decision makers to decide on various aspects from the teachers training to evaluation of the performance of the teachers. Material and training program designers can develop flexible solutions for the teachers where they are allowed to introduce creativity in their teaching without disturbing the uniqueness of the culture of the society and core curriculum. Therefore, it can be said that this research effort should be of the interest of theorists, researchers, decision-makers, material-designers, and training programme along with the teachers and students who would get direct benefits from this study.
1.2 Research questions
The research questions for this study are as follows
Which are the elements of creativity in English language teaching
How the elements of creativity in English language teaching are significant at the primary stage of English language teaching in Kuwait
How teachers in Kuwait perceive creativity in their teaching of English language
Which are the factors motivating creativity in the English language teaching in the primary stage in Kuwait
What restricts creativity in the English language teaching in the primary stage in Kuwait
How creative are the teachers in the present scenario in teaching English language at the primary level in Kuwait
First research question helps in understanding the elements of English language teaching. The understanding of elements of teaching are further explored through second research question in terms of its significant to the English language teaching in Kuwait at the primary stage. The perception of the teachers is important to understand. This is useful in determining the readiness of the teachers for the creativity. The preconceived notions become part of the success and failure. The knowledge of factors motivating or restricting creativity would help the program designers and material designers to develop their designs in such a manner that would encourage creativity and minimize the factors suppressing creativity. This study is worth investigating how student teachers see the life in the classroom, should it be strictly influenced by an established method and theory or a bigger space for creativity should be created.
1.3 Structure of the thesis
This thesis consists of nine chapters. The first chapter introduces to the research rationale, significance, and questions. The second chapter presents the context of English language teacher in the primary stage in Kuwait. This includes general information on the education in Kuwait, the teaching of English language in Kuwait, happened in the English language teaching, and some information on creativity views in Kuwait. The third chapter reviews the literature on areas of creativity in general, its definitions, types, related theories, motivating elements in education, and empirical research in the educational field. The fourth chapter the creativity research in the TESOL is reviewed. This section is followed by research methodology section. The thesis also includes ethical issues of the study that is included in the fifth chapter. In this chapter the ontology, epistemology and methodology underlying the research are presented. The details of the research sample, methods of data collection and analysis and their rationale are part of this section. The research results are compiled in the chapter six. This is followed by the chapter seven where findings and discussions are presented. Chapter eight is the conclusion chapter that is followed by chapter nine. This consists of limitations and recommendations.
Chapter 2 The Context and Background
This chapter consists of general introduction and background information of Kuwait. This explores education in general in the State of Kuwait with special emphasis on the English language teaching in the primary stage. There is an attempt to introduce the creativity element within the educational context of Kuwait.
Kuwait Background
Kuwait has borders with Arab states in the north-western part of the Arabian Gulf, between Saudi Arabia in the south and Iraq in the north. Kuwaits total area is of about 18, 000 Km. The population in Kuwait reached 3, 182, 960 in 2006. The 63 of the population is male and 37 is females (Educational statistical group 15). However out of this population, the Kuwaitis make around 30.5 that is nearly 1 million. The rest of the population consists of non-Kuwaitis from different nationalities. According to the Educational statistical group (17-9), the Kuwaiti population are mostly described as a youth population as almost 49.4 are under 24 years of age.
2.1 General information about the education in the state of Kuwait
In order to understand the importance of education in Kuwait, it is necessary to know it from the constitutional perspectives. The Article 40 of the Kuwait constitution clearly states the significance of education in the Kuwaiti constitution. The Article 40 is as follows
Education is a right for Kuwaitis, guaranteed by the State in accordance with law and within the limits of public policy and morals. Education in its preliminary stages is compulsory and free in accordance with the law.
The law lays down the necessary plan to eliminate illiteracy.
The State devotes particular care to the physical, moral, and mental development of the youth.
(Kuwait constitution, article no. 40)
Education has been considered important in the Kuwaiti constitution and it is the responsibility of the State to eliminate illiteracy. However, the illiteracy rate in Kuwait is 6.28 for Kuwaitis and 6.33 for the total population (Educational statistical group 24). There are three compulsory stages in the educational system of the State of Kuwait. These are five years for the primary stage, four years in the intermediate stage, and three in the secondary school. This new educational stage division was introduced in 2004-2005. Before this, academic year at each stage consisted of four years (4 for the primary-4 for the intermediate-4 for the secondary stage). In Kuwait, the majority of the Kuwaiti population are youth and children make a high rate of the population. The population in the different compulsory stages in the year 2005-2006 were 63.8 for preschool, 88.8 for primary, 87.8 intermediate and 63.7 for secondary (Educational Statistical Group).
In the public schools and colleges, there is a gender separation law. This means that there should be different schools for boys and others for girls starting from the primary stage. In general it is found that females have higher percentage in the schools and college levels in the Kuwait. For instance, female graduates from Kuwait University are 2713, while males are 937 (Educational statistical group 298). There was a decision in the year 2001 that stated that teacher in the primary stage should be females only for both girls and boys schools. Nonetheless, most recently some members of the Kuwaiti parliament suggested that this should be stopped. The male teachers should remain as the teachers of boys school to meet with traditional wants (Al-Watan newspaper).
In the past teachers used to be qualified to teach after a two years diploma however the Teachers Institute became the Basic Education College with the 4 years course in 1993. Kuwaiti Teachers working in the public schools get their education and preparation mainly from two institutions Kuwait University and the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET). Kuwait University was first opened in 1966. Tertiary education in Kuwait is distributed in the following percentages Kuwait university 27, PAAET institutions 24 scholarshipsstudying abroad 18, PAAET colleges 17, private universities 13, and other others 1. (Educational Statistical Group 2005-6 246).
Kuwait as an Arab and Muslim country used Arabic as an official and first language. It is known in history and in the modern studies of language that the Arabs are one of the most proud people for their language. The most distinguished Arab poets before Islam are so appreciated that their pieces of work were hanged on the Kaaba. This later became the destination of pilgrimage for Muslims.
2. 2 The English language teaching in the primary stage
It has been stated that for the aim of employing the innovative thinking and encouraging freedom of thought, the ministry of education in the State of Kuwait also encourages learning foreign languages and computer usage to cope with the globalization age without abandoning the uniqueness of the local culture (the Kuwaiti ministry of education).
English taught as a separate subject along with the seven subjects at the primary stage. Each subject requires specialised teacher. Students were taught English four times a week in the past. According to the recent changes, this is taught five times a week. This means that English is taught every day in the school.
This was year 1992 English was introduced at the primary stage of the education. Until the year 2002, the teaching of English curriculum was based on a textbook series called English for the Emirates. A new series of textbooks for Kuwait called Fun with English was developed with the cooperation of Ministry of Education and the experts of UK. There was a local department in the Ministry of education that cooperated with Longman Company in Egypt for this purpose. This new series adopts structural and communicative approach to meet the needs of the students. The reflection of this new book can be understood now, after the five years of implementation of these new textbook at the primary stage. The recent evaluation of the new series by Al-Nwaiem, (2006) indicated that this is creating challenging situations for the teachers to meet the educational demands through this material.
In Kuwait, teachers have no choice at all in choosing a textbook for classroom use the Ministry of Educations policy is to ensure that all public schools in the country follow the same textbook Therefore, the process of material evaluation is performed not by the teachers, but by the responsible department in the Ministry of education Curriculum Evaluation and Development (Al-Nwaiem, 2006 16).
Along with this study, there were some other studies that criticised this approach of the Ministry of Education. The studies relating to the primary stage in Kuwait, the performance of primary stage teachinglearning and sometimes in particular the English language teaching was criticised. A common note in those studies is that teachers were not effectively trained and motivated. Other common justification for the weakness is that teachers without a degree in education from the accredited organisations have been employed. This step was taken in order to compensate the shortage in the number of teachers especially in the English departments (Al-Mutawa, 1997 AlAhmad, 2000 Syed, 2003 Al-Sahel, 2005 and Al-Nwaiem, 2006). Al-Mutawa, (1997) had questioned on teachers competence. Other evidence comes from the literature Chairs that look for competence in EFL teacher. Sullivan (2004) argues that creativity is valued more than competence by pricipals in other studies with different background than the language. Some researchers found out that language teaching relies on a teachers experience and individual creativity (Mooko, 2005). Traditionally teachers formal, academic and professional training and preparation is seen vital for their performance. However, a study evaluating this preparation in Kuwait University suggested that improving the teachers preparation and better cooperation between the college of education courses and the current curriculum are more important aspects than the traditional aspects alone (AlAhmad, 2000). The same has been emphasied on the Kuwait university website i.e. student teachers are trained to serve society and accomplish comprehensive development. It is also mentioned that creative supervision is provided for student teachers (Kuwait university).
This leads to the question whether good and effective teachers performance can solely be improved by academic and professional training, or can factors like creativity play a crucial role in that. This is especially important as in one paper it was commented that in (English as a foreign language) EFL primary school the teaching is weaker because,
Teachers in Kuwait tend to be eclectic, employing an approach which is more influenced by their personal experience than by the established methods of FL teaching. (Al-Mutawa, 1997 41)
Similarly, it was also pointed out that there is a difference between how teachers evaluated themselves, and how others do (Al-Mutawa, 1997). This agrees with another study which provides that Beginning teachers self-evaluation differed from the associates evaluation in many categories including planning, competence and classroom management (Aitken Mildon, 1992 32-2). Nonetheless, the tendency of not following an established method is recently seen as a positive and normal way of dealing with the teaching and learning process. For example it is noticed that certainly the case that many teachers do not consider their practice to be consciously driven by learning theories (Craft, 2001 129-130). Neither the growing body of research believes that there is no ready-made, perfect method for all contexts that separating theorist from teachers and prioritising the former is nor serving the field and that teacher education models do not make successful future professional teaching (Kumaravadivelu, 2003). There is a disconnection between the theoriesmethods and teachers perception and thinking and way of teaching in classroom. This suggests that creativity should be fostered early in the teachers education. This will help overcome the disadvantages of that of that gap. Therefore the need of understanding the perspectives of student teachers is equally important when it comes to understand role of creativity in education.
2.3 Creativity in the state of Kuwait educational system
The positive aspect is that the Ministry of Education in the State of Kuwait has valued the role of creativity in our ever-changing time. The ministry has encouraged the innovative thinking by incorporating a formal call for innovative thinking as a part of a governmental strategy. This was done with the aim of achieving optimal dealing with the current age. This requires a freedom of thought in response to the dynamics of change without contrasting with the uniqueness of the societys culture (ministry of education). Moreover, in a recent meeting with secondary schools managers, the minister of education- Norya Al-Sabeeh stressed that the school mangers should encourage teachers and students to seek creativity, development and excellence. She also mentioned her belief that the educational development cannot be achieved without the initiatives and involvement of teachers, students and those who are in the field and that creativity, distinctiveness and originality. These are necessity in the current time in order to cope with the latest international developments of science in the age of globalization (Al-Jarida-Newspaper, 14-03-08).
Additionally, Syed (2003) has seen creativity to be vital on the basis of the studies conducted in the Gulf area. The study concluded that students relied on rote learning and memorization. This hinders the process of innovativeness and prevents students to think about new aspects and issues of different sphere of their lives. Syed further stresses on this on the basis of rapid societal changes are witnessed in the recent past. This supports the role of creativity. It is noticed in the literature that creativity provides a tool for coping with changes required not only in the Gulf region but in all counties including the UK and the US (Craft 2003, 2008). This aspect is further explored in the literature review section.
It is a general notion in the Kuwait or Arab countries that creative studies are limited to the certain geniuses or few people in the society with particular IQ levels. The creative studies in Kuwait and other Arab countries still count on the psychometric theories of creativity. The relevance of the study is clear from this aspect as this would help in clearing out this notion. In a recent conference in Kuwait, one of the speakers covered the topic creativity (as an embedded one). The speaker was Al-Jinaee (2009), who spoke about the biological structure of brain i.e. hemispheres of the brain and the left and right side of the brain and its functioning. He linked this to the action, behaviour and learning. He further added that there is a social side in the learning process that teachers, trainers and parents should take into consideration. Even although the main written body of the paper was of a psychoanalytic nature, the comments and the reflections had ideas of a social, personal and humanistic nature. This means that formal studies on this issue would raise awareness on the other sides of creativity. This is expected to be better suited to the nature of Kuwaiti context.
2.4 Conclusion
Creativity and innovation are interrelated concepts. These two are associated with development. These are essential aspects of the growth and development in different areas of life. This is important to know the perceptions of the teachers regarding themselves, teaching process, training process, current programs and other related issues. This is mentioned in this section that research on creativity in teaching English has been very limited, particularly when it is compared with other subjects. This aspect has been elaborated in the literature review section as well. This is clear from this section that it would be important to start with the teachers in the primary stage and know their perceptions of creativity in the English language teaching.
Key Insights
Kuwait constitution recognises education as right for Kuwaitis.
Innovativeness has been considered important by the Ministry of Education.
English language has gained popularity in the recent past with the transition of the global business and communication environment. The acceptance of the language has increased.
English language is growing acceptance at all the levels of education.
The previous studies on the English teachers and training indicated that teachers were not effectively trained and motivated.
The recruitment of the untrained teachers or teachers without a degree in education was justified to fulfil the gap of demand for the teachers.
Language teaching relies on a teachers experience and individual creativity (Mooko, 2005)
The need of better cooperation between the college of education courses and current curriculum.
Some authors have emphasised that creativity has vital role in the Gulf area.
Chapter 3 Creativity
3.1 Introduction
Inspite of the fact that it is noted that there is a relatively limited creativity research around the world (Sternberg, 2006 2) and that Creativity research does not yet have a textbook (Sawyer, et al., 2003 51), it is observed that creativity has been linked to a range of topics. It is seen by many writers as a very vital phenomenon in many fields. Recently, there was some level of agreement on the importance of creativity in various fields has been achieved. However, there is less consensus when it comes to the way each field and research utilises the idea of creativity. This makes the concept of creativity hard to define. Different fields and reseach have tackled creativity and its use in different terms and elements of creativity. This makes it complicated to understandt if creativity serves its aims and approaches. It would be useful to read some of the main definitions mentioned in the literature. It is important to know the philosophical roots of the creativity concept by reviewing the main creativity theories before knowing how the definition(s) of creativity was approached in the literature.
3.2 Creativity theories
The main theories and approaches are presented in this section explains various ways of people and theorists dealt with creativity throughout the history. It is noticed that there are three main phases to how creativity had been approached. The first phase was where people thought of creativity as something that comes from a power that is beyond the human. This human is just a channel or source through which creativity can resemble. The second phase was when the human was more appreciated as the one responsible for creativity and had been tested closely. The third main phase treated creativity as a context-bound phenomenon. This was different than the universal phenomenon. This is suggesting that creativity might be a result of cooperative efforts. The sequence of the approaches does not necessarily resemble the historical order. These approaches will be briefly reviewed next section.
Mystery as a source of creativity
Creativity was viewed as a source of inspiration and a mysterious matter from the mysterious power in the Greek, Judaic, Christian and Islamic traditions (Craft 2002, 2007a). As a matter of fact, in the past the word genius was used more often to refer to a creative person. It was seen that a Devine intervention occurs for a person to be inspired. For instance, Plato thinks that Muses are the sources of the poets works. According to Sternberg Lubart (1999) scientific proofs looked for when mystery got evolved (Sternberg Lubart, 19994-5).
However this view changed in the mid 19th century in Europe. This was the time when the Romantic era was dominating as creativity. It was perceived a human ability to be original. In this era the psychological explorations started to be the main research type. By the end of the 19th century however, the psychological explorations flourished even more and was the leading research trend in the creativity area.
In the mid 20th century, creativity was no longer exclusive to art. Science was also appreciated as a creative domain. By the late 20th Century, creativity was perceived by many as a necessity of life. This was accepted as a concept appropriate for almost any field and domain in the life. Moreover, the universal perception of the creativity started to be replaced with the perception that creativity is socially and culturally positioned phenomenon.
There are several approaches which were introduced during the 20th century. The main approaches are explored in this section briefly. This research is based on some approaches to a certain extent. These approaches are dealt in more detail.
Psychoanalytic approach
This is said to be one of the major 20th century theoretical approaches. According to Sternberg Lubart (1999 6) this approach was led by Sigmund Freud. This approach is, Based on the idea that creativity arises from the tension between conscious reality and unconscious drives Sternberg Lubart (1999 6). For example, poetry can be conscious reality and being creative in poetry can be driven by unconscious power like fame, honour, love and others. According to this approach, Freud sought that only sad people are the ones who have daydreams. This is essential to the creative process in order to ovoid pain (Barguest, 2007). The human inner drives are given more importance. This led some to look for pure, unconscious inner expression (as in the Surrealists and Abstract Expressionists (Cunliffe, 2008 310). It is seen that the view which imply that tension can produce creativity can be linked to the role of environment. Further, how some people believe that hardships generate success and creativity, while others stress the healthy and encouraging environment surrounded by the person provides the climate for the ultimate creative processproduct. The next approach is at least in part was developed as a response to the psychoanalytic approach. The next influential approach is concerned with the mental processes leading to creative thinking.
Cognitive approaches
The cognitive approach to creativity studies seems to be informing many succeeding approaches. Mainly, it seeks to understand the mental representations and processes underlying creative thought (Sternberg Lubart, 1999 7). The methods in the cognitive tradition used human and computer simulations to reach the findings. One of the major aims of these simulations is to encourage problem solving and association. The next approach to creativity research is largely based on the cognitive approach.
Psychometric approaches
Then there is the psychometric approach which is influenced by the cognitive research and work on developing creative thinking tests. Examples of the prominent thought in the cognitive tradition are the divergent and convergent thinking. One main writer who adopted this approach to creativity is Guildford (1950, 64, 67). Guildford proposed fluency of ideas, flexibility and originality as factors in creativity. In an attempt to show appreciation to varied human unique abilities, Guildford (1967 84) notifies that IQ tests makes it easy to count and select gifted children according to its measurements. The score 130 would be a standard of a gifted child. However, he stresses that there are many creative children who do not score 130 in the IQ tests. The Guilfords multiple intelligence are employed sometime to reach creativity (reported in Craft, 2002). There are linguistic, special musical, logical, bodily, social, intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences celebrated in Guildfords proposal of multiple intelligences (reported in Marks-Tarlow, 1996). Gowan (1967 79) commented that Guildfords Structure of Intellect Model is particularly amendable to interpretations which suggest implications for creative learning. Guildford also presented the Unusual Uses Test which requires suggesting as many uses for an object as possible (Sternberg Lubart, 1999 7). Many researchers adopt divergent thinking even until this day. Another example of those who adopted this thought is Hudson (1968) (reported in Craft, 2007b). He is one of the first British authors to handle the topic of creativity among several other American thinkers.
Following the steps of Guildford and building on it, Torrance came and became one of the main writers to contribute in developing creativity tests for the educational field. His tests of creative thinking use simple verbal and figurative tasks involving divergent thinking and problem solving.
In an attempt to make a closure to the issues raised about creative as opposed to traditional learning, Torrance (1967 57) clarifies that the human mind and personality are wonderful and complex and that respect for human values demands that attention is given to both creative learning and learning by authority, to test creative thinking as well as to tests of intelligence.
This is to explain that the traditional views in education are not rebelled against each other to eliminate. These are reviewed and added up-on for a richer learning experiences and creativity opportunities. Torrance also raised the issue of discipline and the stereotype that creativity is against discipline and asserts that flexible discipline is needed.
Torrance is known to provide valuable suggestions for creative learning including respecting questions, imaginative ideas, students ideas, providing non-evaluated practice, and linking between cause and sequence to evaluate students instead of telling them that they are wrong (Gowan, 1967 80-1). Moreover, Torrance (1967 214) recommends that children should be provided with materials which enrich imagination as children are naturally story tellers and poets, and can compose charmingly and excitingly, if encouraged to do so.
In the early seventies, there were three theoretical emphasis in the research, intelligence and abilities personality characteristics and education and training the investigation of educational precepts, principles and techniques conductive to the development of creative latent and aptitude (Freeman et. al., 1971 4). Testing creativity is one of the issues which were questioned by some as this may be a type of restriction (Sternberg Lubart, 1999 7).
Humanistic (Social personality) approach
The Humanistic approach, more or less, came as a reaction to the deterministic views of the psychoanalytic approaches to creativity research.
The major humanistic thinker is Maslow suggests that self-actualisation as a source of creativity. He also thinks that boldness, courage, freedom, spontaneity, self-acceptance help the person do his best, and sees that creativity makes the person healthier human beings. Maslow (1962) distinguishes between special talents creativenesses, which imply high abilities in special field with relatively independence of mental health and between self-actualisation creativenesses that arises from the personality which is an effect of positive mental health (reported in Demos Gowan, 1967 2). He also distinguishes between primary creativity and secondary creativity. Primary creativity is the one which is related to being unconstrained, unconscious and inspired this type of creativity can be found in all people according to him. On the other hand, secondary thinking is associated with creativity achievement in science and arts and requires more effort and influence from the past. Maslow prefers the former as he believes it is spontaneous and comes from the original, deep person (Cunliffe, 2008 309 Ochse, 1989 22).
Rogers suggested that self-actualisation brings motivation in an evaluation-free environment. Rogers agrees with Maslow on most of his ideas, but insists that there should be a focus on the creative product again (reported in Ochse, 1989 24 Sternberg Lubart, 1999 8). It is seen that creativity requires motivation as well as generates it (ibid 9).
Furthermore, on the educational level, Gale (2001) thought that for teacher education the Humanistic model is useful amongst other models such as person-centred psychology. This implies learner-centeredness. According to Al-Nwaiem (2006)s results, this learner-centeredness is favoured by ELT primary teachers, but is viewed as contradictory to the actual teaching practices like Reflective practitioner Critical theory and Post-structural. Davis (1999) also thinks that self-actualisation is needed for creativity, and identified some barriers of creativity like habits and learning, rules and traditions, cultural blocks, emotional blocks, research barriers and the idea squelchers.
Social personality approach
Sternberg Lubart (1999) think that social personality approach is parallel with the cognitive but they do not complete each other. Those following this approach viewed personality variables, motivational variables, and the socio-cultural environment as sources of creativity (Sternberg Lubart, 1999 8). The methods used in this approach to reach conclusions are correlation studies on high and low creativity. Personal traits that are associated with creativity are independence, confidence, complexity, aesthetic orientation and risk taking.
The next approaches in the social personal philosophy is the confluence approach which is adopted by a number of authors including Amabile, Csikzentmihalye, Gardner, Lubart, Perkins, Sternberg and Weisberg (Sternberg Lubart, 1999 10). Amabile proposes three main components important for creativity intrinsic motivation, domain relevant knowledge, creative skills (e.g. cognitive styles, generating novel ideas, and concentrated work styles) (ibid). However, Gruber and Davis suggest the persons purpose, knowledge, and affect as essential components of creativeness. Then there is Csikzentmihalye who came up with a different systems approach which stress the interaction of the individual, domain, and field (ibid). The individual used cognitive processes, personality traits and motivation to expand information from the domain the domain transmits creativity by culturally defined symbols, and the field consists of those who influence the domain.
Another author in this tradition is Barron (1967) who highlights personal traits. He belongs to the area of psychotherapy and who believes that original people are complex, independent, assertive and dominant, not submissive (Gowan, 1967 81). He also suggests that energy needs to be broadened and not to set the grade-getting as the sole goal (ibid).
Runco (1999) is one of the authors who followed this approach. Runcho provides that tension and stress can be related to creativity and he gave the Wright brothers as an example of tactic argument for successful creativity. He commented what I am calling tension, then, would be seen in a struggle for resources (ibid 169). Then he discussed the educational implication of this argument indicating that conflict can take place between structured schools and spontaneous students, or experienced teachers. Nonetheless, adaptation is possible for such conflicts. Adaptations are related to creativity but they are not the same, suggests Runco (1999).
Pragmatic approaches
This creativity approach was developed in the 20th century. One example of pragmatic thinkers is De Bono with his work of lateral thinking and brainstorming. He thinks that nothing have been done on thinking since Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. He also sees that progress can not come with certainty, therefore he encourages thinking outside the box and using lateral thinking which is doing against what logic tells one to usually do. Creativity to him is a new idea which has value (De Bono, n. d.).
Traditionally it is viewed that
Brainstorming is a formal setting for the use of lateral thinking. In itself it is not a special technique but a special setting which encourages the application of the principles and techniques of lateral thinking while providing a holiday from the rigidity of vertical thinkingBrainstorming is a group activity (De Bono, 1970 131).
Cross stimulation, suspended judgement and the formality of the setting are seen necessary for brainstorming (ibid). More recently, face-to-face brainstorming groups, nominal and electronic groups are compared in their efficiency of producing ideas, and sometimes group work is not the optimal option (Mongeau, P. Morr, M. (1999). One of the critiques of Brainstorming is that it may encourage the learner to be less self-critical (Cropley, 1997 88). Moreover, this approach is said to be emphasising practice at the expense of theory and that it lacks scientific tests (Sternberg Lubart, 1999 5).
Finally, in the early 21st century perceives creativity as complex, collective, culturally situated. It is also seen that in this century, creativity should be characterised rather than measured (Craft, 2007b).
The Current Research
The step of choosing one or more of the established theoretical approaches of creativity to adopt for ones study requires lots of time and reflection. It is felt that because of the nature and uniqueness of the topic of creativity in English language learning (in a context where English is treated as a Foreign or second language) a grounded theory is a useful choice. However, it is important to announce the biases and preconceptions (resembled in the theories read) that the researcher may have during the time of preparing for the research topic and the literature review in order to start with the grounded theory approach. According to Fritz (2008) the outcomes obtained from the grounded theory approach are largely free from bias. This is because the researcher does not depend on preconceived ideas. This theory allows researcher to begin the research with an open mind. This theory permits investigator to conduct the study and analyzes all the collected information without having formulated a prior hypothesis. All the data used in the study can be sourced from primary and secondary sources (Fritz 2008). This allows more flexibility in terms of selecting the sources of data and type of data. This approach provides flexibility and opportunity to develop ones creativity.
Nonetheless, literature review can sometimes be treated as part of data as in the Grounded Theory approach any useful material for the purposes of the study can be included in the data (Strauss Corbin, 1998). Thus, some informed literature may not weaken the grounded theory.
Similarly, in the educational field, researchers are encouraged to follow qualitative thought in general. Accordingly, there are following preconceptions to think about in this area of study. The main creativity theories currently adopted by most scholars (especially in the UK) belong to Humanistic, social personality, and confluential approaches to research on creativity. It is agreed that the creativity phenomenon is context-related and not universal. In fewer cases, majorly in American Studies cognitive and psychoanalytic approaches are adopted now-a-days. Although, there is a preconception that the more humanistic views can serve the educational field, but there are possibilities that the participants in Kuwait may still feel that the cognitive approaches are more suitable for the foreign language learning and teaching outcomes.
Furthermore, the researcher has pre-conceptualised ideas about what creativity might mean in the TESOL area which are various and the possible creative contributions from teachers are numerous and mentioned directly or embedded in the literature. A Foreign language teacher can be creative if she has some features such as risk-taking and confidence (to teach by her principles and according to her learners situation). Also in TESOL, the teacher can creatively design a course for his student follow a post-method approach which also required on-going creativity and extending the learners awareness of the culture of both first and target cultures. There have been various studies on the language study and culture. According to the observations of Giroux, (1992) and Hall (1997) a strong relationship exists between culture and language. The factors that complement among these two aspects could be functional and mutual. The role of language teacher becomes challenging as he acts as a change agent. The changes are brought at individual, social and cultural levels. This is an extension of the functions from a facilitator and educator. Teaching a language of a different culture to students who have grown up in entirely different set of environment and different bent of mind, it becomes more challenging for the foreign language teachers of foreign origin. However the complexity of the teachers who are not native speaker of language is not less. The language teacher can also show affection and make close relations with his student to facilitate accepting the target language. Collaboration can take place in the school environment between language teachers to form a healthier culture for the creative language teaching. Collaborative work can be between English language teachers and other subjects teachers maybe (arts, PE) to come up with creative courses, songs, plays etc. Learner can easily learn the foreign language with the help of his local or native language. The teachers of two streams can work together to bring better learning outcomes.
Brown (1991) argued that there is more need of activities and encouragement to the students so that they explore the language further. According to him, the role of students should be extended to be creators of language rather than passive recipients of it. The active participation of students in the learning process can change it from a passive act. A creative teacher may transform students from passive receivers to the active participants.
Furthermore, technology and media can help teacher developing creative software, or use it as a forum for teachers to communicate their experiences and ideas with other educators. Technology is an effective means to facilitate learning process and developing ones skills. This requires introduction with technology and a facilitator. The facilitator can support learning process of language study through technology. Technology offers more than the traditional means. It can be interactive, sound and images can be used and students can be involved in various ways for example the CALL e-dictionaries used in Saudi Arabia in L2 English learning. The use of different form of art and literature in a new, fruitful way can be creative. The English language teacher can develop a creative idea to teach a certain skill or a novel way to make children use the language, as it is known that sometimes educators in the field are the best theorist. From their creative ideas, language learning can continue to develop progressively. This is important to have their views about the whole debate about the ownership of English. The understanding of the way, they identify themselves and their perception of the native vs. Non-native English language can affect their creativity in the teaching process. The other aspect is the way teachers deal with childrens errors and the extent to which they encourage them to use the language freely and play with the word or not.
These ideas are based on the principle that the teachers role and perceptions matter, and that explicit emphasis on creativity is healthy in the area of TESOL. It can improve and overcome many of the current weaknesses in the language learning in the context of the study. However, from the Grounded Theory point of view, these preliminary ideas of what creativity might mean in TESOL area should not be viewed as final answers or as a suggestions to guide participants towards a certain answer in mind. This is because the points mentioned earlier can be different from what the data may tell. Thus the literature covered which will be mentioned in more details next can be regarded as part of the professional knowledge to help better understand the phenomenon of creativity (Strauss Corbin, 1998).
It is seen that social-personal theories of creativity is the closest approach to this research.
3.3 Definition(s) of creativity
The definition of creativity is very vast and complicated that almost in all the literature covered it has been pointed out that it is a difficult if not an impossible idea to define. Nonetheless, it would still be useful to present some of the definitions and descriptions of creativity. The next examples of creativity are taken mainly from an educational perspective.
In many definitions, the aspects of being both new and valuable are common. In education, there are many meaning and definitions of it. Craft (2003a 144) for example, reports a definition mentioned in (National Advisory Committee on Creative Cultural Education NACCCE, 1999) stating that it is an imaginative activity fashioned so as to produce outcomes that are both original and of value (p. 29). It is also seen that it is very complex and that it covers all aspect of behaviour and will require all the abilities to reinterpret ideas in the educational field (Foster, 1971 13). Following similar perception for creativity, more recently, it is proposed that Creativity constructs new tools and new outcomes new embodiments of knowledge. It constructs new relationships, rules, communities of practice and new connections new social practices (Knight, 2002 1).
Creativity is a confusing issue. The authors like Jones and Wyse (20042) stress the importance of The move away from defining creativity as a fixed entity to one which is dependent upon peoples judgements is important for teachers because they are often in the role of assessing the extent to which school work is creative. This agrees with the idea that the definition should be grounded by teachers instead of prescribed from decision makers.
The next section presents some elements that are associated with creativity and motivational aspects of creativity.
3.4 Elements motivatingassociated with creativity
In Fryer (1996 75 12) factors from project (1000) that teachers saw assisting development of creativity (N 922) Building pupils confidence 99 Encourage pupils to ask questions 97 A creative teacher 94 Some free choice at home 92 etc. Therefore, those teachers consider that teachers assist creativity.
In a study of organisational creativity, motivation was seen a key factor (Sundgren, 2005). This study shows that motivation is a factor that leads to creativity, but others see that creative impact can improve motivation and self-esteem for both teachers and learners (Creative-Partnership,20071,14 Sefton-Green2007 4). Additionally, it is reported that intrisic motivation can encourage creative work of poets and consequently teachers can learn than motivating their learners help making them more creative (Jones Wyse, 2004 4).
In an American study, one opinion sees that creativity involve close relationships with the student inside and outside the classroom to make them engage more with learning (Fischman et. al., 2006 392). Furthermore, Craft (2000 23) states that for creativity to be achieved there must be a dynamic interaction and a relationship with the people, domain and even oneself, nevertheless, she clarifies that not all creative people like to work in company or colleagues (ibid102). The strategies which was found useful in fostering creativity in one Spanish study is use of humour (dalsa for salad) friendly environment using names to call individuals, high expectation and getting the right answer for those who are not struggling and keeping the pace fast (Craft, 2000 113).
In the report of NACCCE (1999) factors like risk-taking, independent judgemnet, commitment, resilience in the face of adversity, and motivation as factors that will help developing creativity in children (Craft, Jeffrey, Leibling 2001 also Burnard et. al. (2006 250) noticed risk-taking as result of possibility thinking in a 3 years old). Moreover, a list of characteristics like curiosity, resilience, experimenting, attentiveness, thoughtfulness, and environmnet-setting are considered as creativitys habits and dispositions (Claxton et. al., 2006).
For teachers to be creative, some belive that to be indeterminate and empathetic is crucial but that few training and professional development seriously consider those elements (Trotman, 2008). Moreover, positive thinking is seen essential elements to get around problems Craft (2001 54). Possibility thinking has a number of qualities such as self-determination and direction innovation development, depth (awareness of conventions) risk being imaginative posing questions and play (Craft, 2001 56-8). It provides a vehicle for bringing together a number of different attributes of little c creativity imagination, intelligence, self-creation, self-expression and know how (Craft, 2002 117). With the issue overall nurturing of children, some see that tolerance, identifying shared needs and interests with other individuals and culture, and respecting diversity as examples of enhancing creativity in curriculum (ibid 140-1). This can be related to language learning, as teachers learn from other cultures and learners also may get to be tolerance and respecting of diversity.
Furthermore, play, art, and problem solving have been strongly associated with creativity for children (e.g. Craft, 2002, 2003, also see (Wood, 2007)). Childs creativity is said to be benign, central to the arrangement of teaching and learning, and associated with play (Craft, 2003a 144).
Play and imagination are mentioned as a connecting tools for childrens creativity (e.g. Egan et. al., 1988 88). Imagination is perceived in the literature as being both a negative and positive side of creativity. Imagination is a driving force behind creativity and some consider that the play can be the channel through which imagination, risk taking and testing ideas can appear (Beetlestone, 1998 76). Reasoning for the frequent link between imagination and play suggests that both are driven by openness to possibilities (Craft, 2000 50). The origin of the link between imagination and creativity can be tracked to the 1970s (Craft, Jeffrey, Leibling, 2001 2). In project (1000) 88.7 per cent of the participating teachers perceived imagination as a vital element (Fryers, 1996). In another study creativity is considered about facilitating the ability to see the world differently and about the flexibility of the imaginative muscles (Creative-Partnership, 2007 1).
Sometimes the theoretical background tend to reject the reliance on imagination for example, in cognitive psychology words like mental models can replace the word imagination(Fryer, 1996 41).
More recently, the notion of wisdom has been discussed for teacher creativity for a person prepared for the school life as well as the outside world (Craft et. al 2008). It is proposes by some that to be wise is somehow to be creative, but not all creativity is wise, considering wisdom as being successful in balancing the interest (ibid5). It is also claimed that unwise creativity may not be effective for students or their communities and thus this leads to questioning the value and importance of calling for creativity. However, Feldman (2008 78) does not agree with the role of wisdom creativity For most known varieties of creative achievement, wisdom would seem to play a minor role, if it play any role at all, Commenting on aspect of wisdom and trusteeship as sides of creativity, the example of Ghandi who is considered both wise and committed to what he wanted to accomplish and change is discussed (Claxton et. al., 2008 174). It is not known whether or how teachers training and education in Kuwait encourages for wisdom for English language student teachers. The aspect of commitment could be related to ones believe and inner theory, which influence ones actions and activities.
3.5 Component of creativity
There are two major, so to say, types of creativity mentioned in the literature, one for extraordinary genious people throughout the history and another one for almost everyone. The latter seems to be more suggested in schools. Craft (2001 46) states that she has developed a concept of little c creativity (LCC) explaining Little c creativity is distinctive from high creativity, which I take to mean the extradonarily creativity of the genius, High creativity I take to have certain characteristics, such as innovationnovelty, excellence, recognition..and a break with the past understandings and perspectives. Similarly, Boden (1990 2) makes a distintion between psychologicalcreativity and historicalcreativity (P-creativity and H-creativity, for short). Historiometric studies are suggested to be the sole way is to understand the historical genius (Simonton, 1997). However, this topic is beyond the scope of current research.
Previous studies provide three main components of creativity. These are the individual person, the domain that can be profession or job, and the filed i.e. the socio-cultural side of the profession (developed by Csikszentmihalyi as cited in Feldman Csikszentmihalyi and Gardner, 1994 xv). Another four main components of creativity discussed in the previous studies are process product, person and environment (Fryer 1996, also see Runco1997 Craft, 2001 Rhodes, 1961).
Creative process is seen as a unique and novel problem solving activity (Fryer, 1996 11). Craft (2000 33) presented a creativity circle for process preparation-letting go- germination- assimilation-completion (bring fruition of the idea which involves the capacity to receive as well as to creative) - and preparation. In economics, it is seen that creative process required flexibility and diversity for organisational development to take place (Nystrm, 1979). Number of stages, in that concern, is named for the creative process preparation, incubation, illumination (insight), and verification (ibid 39).
Creative products are known to be both new and valuable (reported in Fryer 199611). In comparing creativity to lateral thinking, De Bono (1970 11) states, whereas creativity is too often only the description of a result, lateral thinking is the description of a processcreativity involves aesthetic sensibility, emotional resonance and a gift for expression.
Creative person is said to have the nature of making or recognising valuable innovations (reported in Fryer 1996 11). Some of the features, which are associated with creative people in the literature (Project 1000 in the UK), are achievement motivation by a need for order need for curiosity self-assertion Less conventional self-discipline independent and autonomous Constructive criticism Self actualization and self-realisation (Fryer, 1996 29).
As for teachers in specific, there are top ten items for teachers whose attitude towards creativity is positive. Examples of these items are wish to deepen the understanding of pupils about the world believe that all teachers can be creative and value pupils free expression (Fryer, 1996 55)
Finally, there is the environment of creativity it is mostly stressed on the context in which creativity is generated and the way it will be responded to or received. This leads to discussing the role of culture in forming and valuing creativity in a given society.
3.6 Culture and creativity
The differences between cultures seem to be deeply rooted, historically situated and philosophically connected. This is because in the west, it was viewed that in the ancient Eastern thinking, the principal purpose is practical. For instance, ancient Egyptians knew mathematics to build pyramids, temples and other architectural units. They had the knowledge of chemistry for embalmment and paint and perfumes making. It is said that the theoretical principles behind all of these were never revealed. In the Eastern thinking, religious beliefs and thoughts of eternity, principles were central to their thinking as they did not separate philosophy and religion (Emam et. al. 2001 14). On the other hand, the goal of Greek philosophical thinking is to seek knowledge for its own sake (ibid).
3.6.1 Culture and language
It is important to take culture into consideration when studying creativity in Language learning. This is because it is agreed by most scholars that language is the carrier of cultures and traditions. Similarly, the attitude to creativity in language learning and teaching can be attached to the cultural traditions and conceptions in any given society.
Creativity is reacted to differently in different societies which may be a reflection of a cultural understandings and conventions. In the TESOL and educational context in general, it is important to know the cultural dimension (and the political one which was discussed in the background of Kuwaiti educational system and its encouragement for creativity and innovation). Cultural aspects are important because Culture is concerned with established ideas. Education is concerned with communicating those established ideas. Both are concerned with improving ideas by bringing them up to date (De Bono, 1970 90) and that is why creativity is welcomed in accordance with what socio-cultural conventions (or at least, in the case of Kuwait). There are many definitions for the term culture, one comprehensive definition of culture -which included the macro (large society) and micro (institutional classroom) (Holliday, 1994) -- can be found in the following viewing culture as
This is a system of implicit and explicit ideas that underlies and gives meaning to behaviours in society. These ideas are related To political, economic, religious, and kinship relations, events, interactions, and institutions, to values to conceptions of the world to theories of knowledge and to procedures for understanding and interpreting (Ochs, 1987 305)
Although creativity used to be treated as a universal phenomenon which is related to human mind, more recently a more socio-cultural approaches are called for (Craft, Jeffrey, Leibling, 2001). The origin of the research on creativity is of psychological nature during the 1950s and in the 1980s and 1990s social psychological framework dominated in this field of research (ibid). Some consider that cultural blindness does not serve nurturing of creativity research at schools (Craft, 2006 346, also see Faulkner et. al. 2006). Discussing the role of the culture in creativity, Fryer (1996 11) explains, The reciprocal relationship between culture and creativity is such that a creative product is not really an invention unless it is socially accepted.
Some writers describe societies in terms of collectivism and individualism, This dimension refers to the extent to which people identify as members of group rather than as independent separate entities and have group rather than individual goals (FitzGerald, 2003 23). Claxton et al. (2008 169) thinks creativity in schools is both individualistic and collective. They also assert the importance of the awareness of the local context of creativity in education in order to promote it. Traditions and culture is usually describes as predictable and conventional. However, one of the themes that have been repeatedly mentioned in creativity research is the idea of being unconventional and having the desire to change and take risks. For instance, there is an opposition of lateral thinking (associated with creativity) and vertical thinking which is traditional according to De Bono (1970 11).
The idea that nothing can be produced from scratch can be related to religious beliefs or to rationalisation as Boden (1990 11) points out If we take seriously the dictionary-definition of creation, to bring into being or form out of nothing, creativity seems not to only unintelligible but strictly impossible. The meaning of creativity is reported to be moved from the link to divinity and religious to more various modernised understanding of the word as a production, invention or re-production etc. (Pope, 2005).
Similarly, creative activities are so unique that even within one country (UK), that it is hard to generalise a result of one study to other cases This means that in practice it is very difficult to compare or contrast one Creative Partnership region against another (Sefton-Green, 2007 6).
Furthermore, even in two cultures, which may seem similar to many English language learners, there are differences in the way that they perceive creativity and creative persons. In project 1000 on British teachers, What is really surprising is that 70 per cent of the teachers believe that creativity is a rare gift , while in the States it is seen as possible in all individuals to develop since WW2 ( Fryer, 1998 13). Furthermore, the contrast between the different cultures reactions can be sharper with the example of how the idea of democracy in was strongly rejected in China and how the same idea is seen as normal and even old in the United States (Sternberg, 2006 1).
Moreover, Craft (2006 88) also reports examples of how culturally situated the creativity concept is. Questionnaires were used to compare white participants from Australia whom she considered representative of liberal individualist and Chinese from Singapore whom she used to represent Eastern Confucianism. She describes the Australian results as representatives of individualist as being independent, separate from the group, using direct ways of expressing feelings and opinions, and having individual behaviour. By contrast, collectivist socialisation involves interdependency, being part and parcel of social group, compliance with in-group, and conforming behaviour (ibid 89). In another study, Craft (2000) compares between teacher in England and Spain and notices that both sponsor creativity in their classroom to some extent and in some forms. In spite of that, one Spanish teacher once mentioned that creativity is not for the school environment.
In a study of the implicit theories of parents and teachers from India and the United States by using adjectives of creativity and desirability, using multiple analyses of variance (MANOVA), it was concluded that there is a significant differences between participants from India and those from the United States for intellectual and attitudinal clusters. This indicates that implicit theories are affected by cultural traditions and expectations according to Runco Johnson (2002).
More recently, the very idea of individualistic creativity is questioned by the proposal that all creativity is developed only from collaborative efforts.
Collaboration
John-Steiner (2000 3) makes it clear that even though the western beliefs have always been associated with individualism, it is apparent that there is not a pure individual artistic formation. This belief implies that viewing creativity as a social collaboration would help better underhand creativitys processes and outcomes Littleton Miell (2004 1)
Micro-culture
Moving to a more micro culture, here are many who believe that It would be nave to think that there are no difficulties faced by teachers when they try to set up increased opportunities for creativity (Beetlestone, 1998 98). This issue forms a challenge for the creative teacher. Creative teachers need to study the cultures values and expectations for Teachers can be extremely innovative, but if such innovation is not relevant, then they may have the morality of their teaching questioned (Woods, 1995 2). Some suggest that this can be dealt by listening to other teachers and educators. Some criticism can be constructive as well (ibid). Examples of factors considered as hindering creativity mentioned in the literature are environmental constraints proscribed home activities, quick work at school assessment methods peer pressure distinction between work and play (Fryer, 1996 99-114, also see Wood, 2007).
In the current investigation, creativity in ELT teaching is studied from the perspectives of Kuwaiti student teachers. This is interesting to know if the social culture, or institutional culture, or other factors may emerge from the data. These have a big role in shaping views of creative teachers. The participants educational culture as student teachers is useful to investigate. In some Kuwaiti studies (see section 2) teachers weakness or lack of competence are linked to their teachers preparation. The lack of the preparation in case the teacher is like holding Art degree instead of holding a degree in education. However, it is wondered if the teachers preparation courses and programmes are really effective in making creativity one of their priorities. This should be part of their teaching process that can be inculcated to them at the start of their career and training itself. This might be linked to teachers belief that is discussed later in this study.
Key insights
Different fields and reseach have tackled creativity and its use in different terms and elements of creativity.
There are three phases of the development of creativity. The first phase identifies it as something that comes from a power that is beyond the human. In the second phase human was more appreciated as the one responsible for creativity and had been tested closely. The third phase treated creativity as a context-bound phenomenon.
By the end of 20th Century, the universal perception of the creativity started to be replaced with the perception that creativity is socially and culturally positioned phenomenon.
Psychoanalytical approach is based on the idea that creativity arises from the tension between conscious reality and unconscious drives. The inner drives have been given much importance in this.
Cognitive approaches seeks to understand the mental representations and processes underlying creative thought (Sternberg Lubart, 1999 7).
A psychometric approach is influenced by the cognitive research and work on developing creative thinking tests.
Torrance is known to provide valuable suggestions for creative learning including respecting questions, imaginative ideas, students ideas, providing non-evaluated practice, and linking between cause and sequence to evaluate students instead of telling them that they are wrong (Gowan, 1967 80-1).
The Humanistic approach, more or less, came as a reaction to the deterministic views of the psychoanalytic approaches to creativity research.
Maslow (1962) distinguishes between special talents creativeness, which imply high abilities in special field with relatively independence of mental health and self-actualisation creativeness.
Rogers suggested that self-actualisation brings motivation in an evaluation-free environment.
According to Al-Nwaiem (2006)s results, this learner-centeredness is favoured by ELT primary teachers, but is viewed as contradictory to the actual teaching practices like Reflective practitioner Critical theory and Post-structural.
Social personality approach is parallel with the cognitive but they do not complete each other.
The methods used in this approach to reach conclusions are correlation studies on high and low creativity.
Personal traits that are associated with creativity are independence, confidence, complexity, aesthetic orientation and risk taking.
Three main components important for creativity intrinsic motivation, domain relevant knowledge, creative skills.
The individual used cognitive processes, personality traits and motivation to expand information from the domain the domain transmits creativity by culturally defined symbols, and the field consists of those who influence the domain.
There have been various views regarding creativity. Runco (1999) has linked tension and stress with creativity.
Pragmatic approaches linked creativity with the lateral thinking and thinking out of the box.
Early 21st century perceives creativity as complex, collective, culturally situated. It is also seen that in this century, creativity should be characterised rather than measured (Craft, 2007b).
According to Fritz (2008) the outcomes obtained from the grounded theory approach are largely free from bias. This is because the researcher does not depend on preconceived ideas. This theory allows researcher to begin the research with an open mind.
All the data used in Grounded theory can be sourced from primary and secondary sources (Fritz 2008). This allows more flexibility in terms of selecting the sources of data and type of data.
According to the observations of Giroux, (1992) and Hall (1997) a strong relationship exists between culture and language. The factors that complement among these two aspects could be functional and mutual. The role of language teacher becomes challenging as he acts as a change agent.
However the complexity of the teachers who are not native speaker of language is not less. The language teacher can also show affection and make close relations with his student to facilitate accepting the target language. Collaboration can take place in the school environment between language teachers to form a healthier culture for the creative language teaching.
Technology is an effective means to facilitate learning process and developing ones skills. This requires introduction with technology and a facilitator. The facilitator can support learning process of language study through technology.
Motivation is a factor that leads to creativity, but others see that creative impact can improve motivation and self-esteem for both teachers and learners (Sefton-Green, 2007).
Creativity involves close relationships with the student inside and outside the classroom to make them engage more with learning (Fischman et. al., 2006 392).
There are several other characteristics like curiosity, resilience, experimenting, attentiveness, thoughtfulness, and environmnet-setting are considered as creativitys habits and dispositions (Claxton et. al., 2006).
Indeterminate and empathetic is considered crucial for teachers to be creative, but that few training and professional development seriously consider those elements (Trotman, 2008)
Teachers learn from other cultures and learners also may get to be tolerance and respecting of diversity in the other language teaching process.
Play and imagination are mentioned as a connecting tools for childrens creativity (Egan et. al., 1988).
Imagination is perceived as a vital element in some studies and facilitating the ability to see the world differently.
The notion of wisdom has been discussed for teacher creativity for a person prepared for the school life as well as the outside world (Craft et. al 2008).
There are some other aspects like wisdom, ones belief and inner theory, actions and activities are linked with commitment. Commitment is considered as one of the vital aspects of a creative teacher.
Two different studies have given different components of the creativity. Csikszentmihalyi finds the individual person, the domain that can be profession or job, and the filed i.e. the socio-cultural side of the profession to be three main components of the creativity. Some authors supported the idea of four main components of creativity. These are process product, person and environment.
Creativity has been considered as unique and novel problem solving process by Fryer (1996).
Creative process required flexibility and diversity for organisational development to take place (Nystrm, 1979).
Creative products are known to be both new and valuable. Creative person is said to have the nature of making or recognising valuable innovations (Fryer, 1996).
There are top ten items for teachers whose attitude towards creativity is positive. There is the environment of creativity it is mostly stressed on the context in which creativity is generated.
Creativity is reacted to differently in different societies which may be a reflection of a cultural understandings and conventions.
Claxton et al. (2008) thinks creativity in schools is both individualistic and collective.
Creativity is adopted by teachers across the world in various forms. Craft (2000) compares between teacher in England and Spain and notices that both sponsor creativity in their classroom to some extent and in some forms.
John-Steiner (2000 3) makes it clear that even though the western beliefs have always been associated with individualism, it is apparent that there is not a pure individual artistic formation.
Moving to a more micro culture, here are many who believe that It would be nave to think that there are no difficulties faced by teachers when they try to set up increased opportunities for creativity (Beetlestone, 1998).
Chapter 4 Creativity and Education
4. Creativity and teaching
This chapter tackles general aspects of creativity in teaching and creativity in language teaching in particular. It is noticed that creativity can be refused or welcomed in the educational field according to how it is perceived. The following sections discuss the limitations experienced by those who are more likely to refuse the idea of creativity in education. The positive sides are used to support the views of creativitys adherents.
4.1 Limitations of creativity in education
In the creativity in education sector, there are two types of people i.e. one who strongly opposes the idea of creativity and the other who cannot see education without creativity. It has been noticed that those who are against creativity in education criticise it for three main reasons first its link to imagination, associated with disobedience and is unruly (Lucas 2001 38). Secondly, the fact that creativity needs to prove its effectiveness on childrens attainment and developments. There is the call for the importance of using it within the contextual framework and the value system of a given time and place. Cropley (1997) also discusses the concern of the parents and teachers about the creativity and the contrasting views of perceiving creative behaviour as unruly, careless behaviour or seeing the rules themselves unnecessary for the development of a child. Then it is clarified that creativity is needed for all children and not only for those who will be famously creative, coming to be valued above knowledge and above technique (De Bono, 1970 11).
It has been suggested that there are four main limitations to creativity in education. First, the limitations of terminology, of what creativity is meant by different persons in the educational filed. Then there is the conflict between policy and practice as both encouragement to be creative and curricula constraints are surrounded by the teacher. Furthermore, there is the issue of whether creativity is subject-specific or relevant across the curriculum (art and music or also for English and math learning). Finally, the last constraint is centrally-controlled pedagogy that determines the content and strategy of teachers pedagogy. Furthermore, cultural, environmental and ethical levels of the limitations are suggested to be considered (Craft, 2003).
As for the definition issue, it is seen that the tentativeness and vagueness of creativity can be problematic for the practicality and functionality of creativity for decision-makers and teachers. This is because there have to be a common definition known for all. For example in the UK although there are clear key recommendations which indicate that
The importance of creative and cultural education should be explicitly recognized and provided for in schools policies for the whole curriculum and in government policy
Teachers and other professionals should be trained to use methods and materials that facilitate the development of young peoples creative abilities and cultural understanding
There should be partnerships between schools and outside agencies to provide the kinds of creative and cultural education that young people need and deserve (Faulkner et. al., 2006 191-2).
Despite of these clear and declared nationwide To date, , guidance has yet to be developed on how practitioners can recognize and document key processes and outcomes identified as characteristic of childrens creative learning(ibid195). Some prospective teachers tend to prefer relevant rather than unique answers from their students (Beghetto, 2007). This could mean that the meaning and role of creativity needs to be discovered, or that because of the curriculum burden, teachers do not have time to let students express themselves in a various and unexpected way. This reinforces the need to know the meaning and preferences of creativity according to future English language teachers in Kuwait.
The view that creativity is not exclusively connected to art and that it is relevant across curriculum is gaining more support (e.g. NACCCE report, craft (2000), Beetlestone (1998) as mentioned in (Craft Jeffery 2004 40), also see Craft (2003)). In TESOL, creativity and innovation seemingly are welcomed concepts.
4.2 Creativitys supporters
In contrast there are those who strongly encourage creativity think that Teaching creatively can improve the quality of education, make learning more meaningful and open up more exciting ways of approaching the curriculum( Beetlestone , 1998 1). Fryer (19961) encourages creativity so strongly that she believes that it is essential for survival, and others conclude that it is benign and central to the teaching and learning arrangement (Craft, 2003a 144). It is evidence that principals prioritise creativity and innovation over many other elements when looking for the best EFL teacher (Sullivan, 2004).
Many of the adherents of creativity view its role for the whole personality of the learner. For instance, it was suggested basic principles for fostering creativity.involve, not only intellectual, but also personal, motivational, emotional, and social aspects of creativity. Cropley (1997 107). Moreover, All around human beings (school-world needs balance) need for creativity in future and for the market and a more positive social and personal attitude are seen by creativity supporters as rationales why teachers should be resilient when it comes to supporting creativity at schools (Beetlestone 1998 142-3 Pope 2005 19 Craft et. al., 2008). Fryer (1996 5) agrees with the importance of creativity for preparing the children for the future market and jobs and views that global issues increase the need of creativity as unfamiliar situations can be faced more often in the globalised world.
In an attempt to find a balance between the freedom that comes with creativity and constraints of the school learning it is remarked the freedom of creative thought is not the absence of constraints, but their imaginativeyet disciplineddevelopmentWhat educators must try to do is to nurture the knowledge without killing the creativity (Boden, 2001 102). However, Weisberg (1999 249) values knowledge but to a certain extent and points out that we do not need special theories to explain creative thinkingwe simply need complete theory of thinking.
There are many studies that tackle creativity and innovation in education. Many of these, focuses on the creative child or on fostering creativity in a child. As a consequence, it becomes important to distinguish between teaching creatively, teaching for creativity, and creative learning. This can be done by using relevance, ownership, control and innovation as the characteristics of creativity although all of these may be interconnected (e.g. Jeffrey Craft, 2004).
Gale (2001 103) asserts the role of creativity in the live of teachers to be trained and reflective after the post compulsory education. Educators creativity is mostly related with openness, releasing the unconscious, self-esteem and vision, working with others with some professional autonomy and relationship (Craft, 2002 174-6). For the teacher to be creative or a foster of creativity, teachers belief may play an essential role in shaping the visions and understandings of what creativity is and the extent to which it may be applied in the pedagogic process (see belief section).
4.4 Creativity and innovation (EFL)
It is noticed that the within the ELT and TESOL research, the words innovation and creativity are sometimes used interchangeably. One definition of innovation, which seems similar to creativity, is reported in Hayes (1997 1)
An innovation in a second language teaching program is an informed change in an underlying philosophy of language teachinglearning, brought about by direct experience, research findings, or other means, resulting in an adaptation of pedagogic practices such that instruction is better able to promote language learning as it has come to be understood.
Furthermore, in an attempt to give a freer definition to creativity, Lucas (2001 38) also defines creativity in terms of innovation Creativity is a state of mind in which all our intelligences are working together. It involves seeing, thinking and innovating and it can be useful for all aspects of life including school. Craft (2001 46) thinks that creativity involved innovation, novelty andoriginality. Feldman (200879) adds that creativity and innovativeness seems to be synonyms in business contexts. However, some see innovation as radical, discontinuous change and creativity as the ability to devise and successfully implement such changes (Nystrm, 1979 1).
The approach and perception to innovation and creativity in the English Language Teaching (ELT) varies from seeing it as a technology to an idea that underlies all aspects of teaching. In ELT, innovation has been related to technology and its role in improving the techniques and methods of teaching English.
However, an award of innovation organised by the British council was based on looking for an idea that serves that profession rather than a static method (high frequency words as a way to teach grammar) (British Council website).
Wiseman (1997 19) argues that innovation for INSET teachers can be seen in the form of treats and examples of them are books and material donations or tricks which are exemplified in the new ideas and approaches to teaching. She suggests that for the innovation in teaching to have its measurable impact, patience is needed (up to 10 years) (ibid). This might be an explanation for what goes on in TESOL and in the educational fields which witness ongoing innovations and changes that are sometimes unjustifiable (Robert and Steven 2004). It is seen that time is needed, but also understanding what the teacher thinks and needs is crucial before going on with a change. For many researchers, creative teachers start when they are being prepared in the teachers education. The lack of attention to fostering creativity in teacher education and preparation is said to be an old and notable phenomena (Davies, 2004).
On the other hand, it is seen that teachers preparation does not provide the answer to all educational challenges as there are other elements that may help (including creativity) (Sullivan, 2004). It is evidence in one study that teachers experience and individual creativity is the major basis for English language teaching instead of research and theoretical knowledge (Mooko, 2005). It is important to know the attitude and the knowledge of student teachers and see whether their views withhold a narrow or a fuller picture of the role of creativity and the way they can use it and allow their future learners to use it for English language leaning.
On the other hand, the secondforeign language use itself can be used creatively. From a World Englishes point of view, it is discovered that English can be used in a native and creative way to meet the needs of the culture and identity of the user (Zhang, 2002). This could make the study of creativity in language teachinglearning more interesting. Language is a tool of expression and communication too so it might be important to know the effect of creativity in the language usage. It is viewed that language can itself be a source of pleasure and play for youth (e.g. making jokes) (BBC). Thus, when it comes to learning and using a second or a foreign language, it is important to know the relationship between creativity and language teachinglearning.
Linguistically speaking, Brown (2001 109) suggests what used to be perceives as an error or as an effect of interlanguage should be welcomed as it could hold creativity. Errors like What this means can be valued as a sign of development. It could also be reflecting the creative system use in the learners mind.
Brown (2001) discussing world Englishes in the TESOL programs, suggested that the introduction of a new paradigm world Englishes is like introducing innovation into a setting. He reports Roger (1983) studied the affecting variables in the innovation. The variables perceived to be attributing to innovation is compatibility of old and new ideas relative advantage of the new idea complexity as too complex ideas are not adopted readiness to try, and observation and familiarity with the ideas (ibid 109). Furthermore, Brown adds that there is indigestion in the theoretical, structural, and substantive understanding in the World Englishes (WE) TESOL programs. This indicates the vitality of training programs. Another recommendation by Brown (2001) is that the schemata of both student and instructor should be close, thus identifying the paradigm that the teacher will work upon is of vital importance.
Discussing the views and implications of the WE, he comments International students in TESOL programs may sometimes possess low self-esteem regarding their own language proficiency (Brown, 2001 112). The low self-esteem can be the opposite creative feature of the learner resembled in self-confidence and high self-esteem.
On the same topic Marquee (2001 125) tackles and includes the main key words for suggested framework and a criterion for analysis. In order to illustrate what issues are relevant to understanding diffusion-of-innovations perspective on language teaching, innovation has been analyzed in terms of Coopers (1989) questions Who adopts what, where, when, why, and how.
There are some empirical studies conducted for the creativity studies. Some of these studies are included in the next section.
4.5 Example of Empirical Creativity Studies
Art providers and UK schools
Creative Partnership (2007) worked with schools and creativity providers to introduce creativity to some of the UK schools. Their report reflected the impact of creativity on the school from the perspectives of the teachers, head-teachers, students and even the creativity providers. This means that creativity providers are the different types of artists who work with both teacher and students. This helps in turning the childrens imagination into reality, like designing a play ground with a sculptor and others.
In one of the schools, the head-teacher comments that the process of introducing creativity was important in that it encouraged play which develops the childs communication, social, speaking and listening skills, imagination and creativity. He also added that he welcomes the Creative Partnership initiative because he felt that the curriculum had been squeezed recently and that the spark needed to come back to learning. In that case-study, the children were reported to have a better self-esteem and a self-expectation after speaking up and describe how they wanted their playground to be so that the teacher and sculpture get inspired. Both teachers and creativity providers commented that the learning process has been a two way process. Another impact is that teachers started to be more holistic and integrated in their teaching (Creative Partnership 2).
Another case study was done in a school which was considered as perfect in its achievement according to the Ofsted (2002). This indicates that the attainment at schools is not necessarily as a result or comes with creativity, as this school was perfect in it but still aspired to be have a more creative teaching and learning Nineteen interviews were done. The plan that they had to work with the creativity program is to dedicate the morning time for core subjects (maths, English and science) and the remaining time in the afternoon was spent for the creative activities. One of the challenges reported is that the creative activities work and panning came at the top of intensive workloads on teachers.
From the two cases studies, it is noticed that although creative activities have positive effect on the childrens self-esteem, but the existence of an additional party (the creativity provider) may make the work harder and the using their help may not be available in all contexts.
Creative Partnership (2006) mentioned that they supported schools to be more creative by developing a systematic approach to monitor clearly indentified achievement, defining different stages of creative development and keeping track of the progress of impact of the targeted intervention. A meta-analysis of the body of work done by creative partnership indicated that they were successful in certain areas including reflecting on the process of creativity with aspirations to make changes in the delivery of the creative impact, using both qualitative and quantitative analysis, illustrating some materials, establishing some conceptual understanding and others. (Parker (2007) reporting the meta-analysis by Selfon-Green).
As for the results which is considered crucial to schools and parents (the attainment) it was found out that the impact of Creative Partnership was significant within the one school. Moreover, the OFSTED (the Office for Standards in Education, Childrens Services and Skills)noted improvement in the writing and speaking in majority of schools as well as, an ability to improvise, take risks, show resilience, and collaborate with others. (Creative-Partnership, This much we know, Creative Partership approach and impact, 2007 5).
However, When compared with national data, the analysis of young peoples progress showed no evidence of an impact of attending Creative Partnership activities at key stage 2 or key stage 4 and very small positive impact at key stage 3 (Eames, Benton, Sharp, Kendall, 2006 11).
It is seen that the official will always be observed as the creativity project is time, effort and economically consuming Creative Partnership has invested heavily in the UK creative economy (almost 20m per annum) (Owen, Naylor, Clayton, Owens, 2006 13).
Songs
As for the use of music and songs, one example can be seen in a recent study which explores how advanced learners can make order out of chaos by transcribing and misinterpreting song lyrics because of their lack of knowledge in the target language (Smith, 2003).
3.6.2 Identity
Wenger (1998 272), who believes that learning should re-shape the identity of the individual, suggests a design for imagination use in education. He suggests orientation (locating ourselves) reflection (looking at ourselves and our situation with new eyes.(ibid 274) and exploration (which involves refusing to receive things as they are and to reinvent the self in a step to reinvent the world (ibid)). In an attempt to develop a living theory of what it means to be creative, Spiro (2008) examined her different self in her different creative roles as a writer, an educator, a manager and as a researcher. She also suggests that a change will occur in the learner and in what she is learning if deep learning occurs.
If the identity matter to be linked to English language teachinglearning, then there is a large debate in the literature about the position of the secondforeign language and the culture that accompanies it in comparison to the learners first language and culture.
In a language classroom, the idea of learning a new language and culture and changing the identity accordingly is received differently in the literature. Some think it is necessary as for the language to be taught properly teachers should believe in the importance of the language she is teaching also for a language to be acquired learners need to be able to digest it and use it autonomously in their lives. Others propose that it implies form of colonialism, as prioritising the English language and viewing its superiorities in their mentalities over other languages which is even witnessed in the term TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) (for instance Pennycook, 2003). Nonetheless, Others think that it is inevitable to some extent and that there should be a balance in this matter without feeling guilty out of the fear of cultural imperialism (Barrow, 1990 3). It is suggested that Any programme of teaching involves behaving in ways that may shape values and beliefs (ibid). In addition Valdes (1990 20) agrees with that confirming There is no way to avoid teaching culture when teaching language as it starts even with the teaching of the way to greet in the target language. Also the importance of the schema of the target language to understand its meaning is emphasized (ibid 28).
Showing the importance of identity in creativity, Moran John-Steiner (20041) explained that identity is the ultimate act of creativity, and that for creativity it is important to change the way we look at ourselves.
4.3 Teachers belief
In a literature review, Borg (2003a) suggests a collective term for this field of research and emphasized on its importance by trying to approve with the opinion that says that each teacher can build and use hisher own unique teaching method(s) according to hisher cognition and context. While he believes that teachers cognition include the thinking, knowledge and belief, others may see cognition as the beliefs, feelings and understanding (Andrews, 2003). Borg (2003a) amongst many others believes that teachers are the decision makers in the classroom. They make the choices according to personalised, contextualised and practical networks of knowledge thoughts and beliefs. Thus teachers personality, context and practice are the topic of many studies that seeks to understand teachers motifs and actions. It is seen that teachers have belief about all aspects of their profession.
One study investigated the role of practical knowledge (personal theory according to Breens term) in interactive decision making using teaching autobiographies, interviews, observation and methods of eliciting introspective data by videotape. It was concluded that almost half of the decisions were influenced by the practical knowledge of the teacher (Tsang, 2004).
Some studies show that there is no significant association between cognition and level of knowledge about the subject matter. However it was indicated that there is a general pattern in teachers cognition about subject matter and a pattern of association between teachers cognitions about subject matter and their perceived pedagogical practice (Andrew, 2003).
The context of the primary stage in a non-native speaking schools are said to be needed in the future studies (Borg 2003a). Because the context is an ever-changing factor in teachers life, teachers reflection is a valuable process for both teachers themselves and educational research to get a deeper understanding of the teachers and teaching (Borg, 2003b)
For example issues like motives of entering the ELT, career progression, beliefs about teaching and the wider socio-educational context of teaching English was tackled in a study (using in depth interviews) that attempted to view such issues without the pre-described context of the western studies (focusing on the context of high schools in Sri Lanka) (Hayes, 2005).
Kumaravadivelu (2003) is one of those who believe that each teacher should use hisher unique English language teaching situation to accomplish success. He discussed the concept of method and argues that it is a colonial one as it implies a construct of marginaliosation. This indicates that amore innovativecreative appeocah is required to be adopted by teacher in their classrooms. He refers to methods such as grammar-translation, audiolingual and communicative as methods that are conceptualized by theorits, not those that are actialized by teachers in their classrooms. Each of these methods is considered to have a particular set of theoretical principles and a particular set of classroom techniques (ibid 540). By this argument, he points out what goes on in the classroom is not neccesarily a reflection of an overall method which is guided by a theory. Therefore, it is suggested that postmethod should replace method and the later is seen as a construct of marginality (ibid 541). Postmethod has parameters such as partcularity that has to do with the context of English language teaching. This is about the relation between theory and practice. The personal theory and posibility parameter implies empowering the classroom participant to use the English language according to their vision and values (ibid 544). The postmethod approach can be an inderect call for creativity in teaching.
Hinkel (2006) indicates that TESOL is one of the fields that has witnessed. It is expected to witness regularly changing views on the ideals of teachinglearning. He points out that some factors for refusing the methods, bottom-up and top-down skills emphasis, appearance of innovative English knowledge and integrated language learning skills. Studies from various sources of data suggest that teachers interest in methods is linked to the teaching context and not the teachers thinking (Bell, 2007).
It is important for decision-makers to listen to student teachers views and expectations to know cooperate in finding a basis for change and development in the future. This is because teachers ideologies and philosophies of the kind of teachers they want to be and for their aspirations make a difference in the way they accept and deal with imposed changes (Sikes, 1992). This view agrees with the idea that teachers development framework should consider harmonising teachers interest with those of the institutional stake (Little, 1992). The same recommendation applies to the TESOL projects and curriculum, as planners need to consider the classroom teachers for any change and adjustment to be more affective (Wedell, 2004).
Educational and professional biographies are reported to shape the teachers understanding of language, pedagogy, and learners (Borg, 2003b). For example in a study attempting to investigate the pre-service teachers principals, a reform for the teacher education course design with strong recommendation of considering the personal history and its influence on an individuals thinking about teaching, interpersonal communication and leadership are recommended. The study was based on personal construct interview and analyses of participant stories. These were used to attain the beliefs (Bodycott Walker, 2001). Written biography, metaphor and personal construct interview were used in a study which revealed that pre-service language enters the profession with well-developed mental construct of the ideal teacher (Bodycott, 1997). Furthermore, the role of prior knowledge in learning to teach and the role of the social and institutional context were studied as a factor affecting the teachers knowledge and the way teachers learn to teach (Freeman, 2002).
Key Insights
Creativity has been first its link to imagination, associated with disobedience and is unruly (Lucas 2001).
Cropley (1997) also discusses the concern of the parents and teachers about the creativity and the contrasting views of perceiving creative behaviour as unruly, careless behaviour or seeing the rules themselves unnecessary for the development of a child.
The preference of teachers also varies from creative to non creative teachers. Creative teachers look for unique answers and encourage students for the same. Contrary to that, non creative teachers prefer relevant or dictated answers.
Fryer (19961) encourages creativity so strongly that she believes that it is essential for survival, and others conclude that it is benign and central to the teaching and learning arrangement (Craft, 2003a)
Many of the adherents of creativity view its role for the whole personality of the learner.
This is recognised that there needs to have a balance between freedom, creativity and constraints of the school learning environment.
It is important to distinguish between teaching creatively, teaching for creativity, and creative learning which can be achieved by proper use of relevance, ownership, control and innovation as the characteristics of creativity or the combinations of all.
Craft (2002) argue that educators creativity is mostly related with openness, releasing the unconscious, self-esteem and vision, working with others with some professional autonomy and relationship.
Craft (2001 46) thinks that creativity involved innovation, novelty andoriginality. Feldman (200879) adds that creativity and innovativeness seems to be synonyms in business contexts.
English Language Teaching (ELT) varies from its approach for the use of technology as an idea that underlies all aspects of teaching. This should be combined with the perception of innovation and creativity of the ELT.
Wiseman elaborates the innovation in teaching as measurable impact which requires patience.
The lack of attention to fostering creativity in teacher education and preparation is said to be an old and notable phenomena (Davies, 2004).
One of the studies revealed that teachers experience and individual creativity is the major basis for English language teaching instead of research and theoretical knowledge (Mooko, 2005).
Language is a tool of expression and communication too so it might be important to know the effect of creativity in the language usage.
The world of creativity in linguistic studies accepts those aspects of conversations that had been regarded as errors in the past (Brown, 2001).
Creative Partnership (2007) worked with schools and creativity providers to introduce creativity to some of the UK schools. Their report reflected the impact of creativity on the school from the perspectives of the teachers, head-teachers, students and even the creativity providers.
Many of the studies focused on fostering creativity or encouraging creativity of the students in the past.
Creativity enables two way learning process between teacher and students.
This is argued in this section that even though creative activities have positive effect on the childrens self-esteem, but the existence of an additional party (the creativity provider) may make the work harder and the using their help may not be available in all contexts.
A meta-analysis of the body of work done by creative partnership indicated that they were successful in certain areas including reflecting on the process of creativity with aspirations to make changes in the delivery of the creative impact, using both qualitative and quantitative analysis, illustrating some materials, establishing some conceptual understanding and others.
Music and songs are regarded as effective tool of enhancing creativity.
Spiro (2008) examined her different self in her different creative roles as a writer, an educator, a manager and as a researcher. She also suggests that a change will occur in the learner and in what she is learning if deep learning occurs. This deep learning can be enabled through creativity.
Prioritising the English language and viewing its superiorities in their mentalities over other languages which is even witnessed in the term TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) (for instance Pennycook, 2003).
According to Andrew (2003) there is a general pattern in teachers cognition about subject matter and a pattern of association between teachers cognitions about subject matter and their perceived pedagogical practice.
Hinkel (2006) stressed on various aspects of TESOL. He regarded it as one of the fields that has witnessed. It is expected to witness regularly changing views on the ideals of teachinglearning. He points out that some factors for refusing the methods, bottom-up and top-down skills emphasis, appearance of innovative English knowledge and integrated language learning skills.
Borg (2003b) analysed various studies and concluded that to shape the teachers understanding of language, pedagogy, and learners.
Written biography, metaphor and personal construct interview were used in a study which revealed that pre-service language enters the profession with well-developed mental construct of the ideal teacher (Bodycott, 1997).
Chapter 5 METHODOLOGY CHAPTER
Research methodology
5. 1 Introduction
In this chapter the main theoretical and philosophical bases has been explained. The ontology, epistemology and methodology of the research are highlighted. Grounded theory is introduced and the process of grounded theory is presented. The sampling, use of knowledge and literature review is explained in this chapter. The two primary methods of data collection interviews and observation have been described in this section. The methods of data analysis such as grounded theory interrelated stages and metaphor analysis are clarified. The issue of rigour is explained. The pilot study is explained.
5.2 Philosophical concepts
It is important to distinguish between some important philosophical concepts regarding the theoretical framework of any work. Some of these key concepts are the ontology, epistemology and methodology. It is important for these concepts to be suitable to the researchers understandings on one hand. This is to be coherent to the research purposes and aim on other. There have been many definitions in the literature for these conceptual frameworks. These terms are explained for the purposes of the current study.
Ontology is the way the researcher views the nature of knowledge and its status (Silverman, 2005). This can be described as a world view of a person. This research is based on an approach where ontologically assumes that there is no absolute, single, or predetermined truth at the end of the investigation. The diversity in interpretations is accepted. The research is rather resulting in a context-related useful and original contribution to knowledge. This can be negotiable and further developed. In the light of this framework, one can say that there is multiple realities and that questioning is the key to better understanding (see for example, Merriam, 19984 Laverty, 200313). This ontology has been chosen as the nature and aim of the research requires that. The idea of creativity is never final and confirmed.
Epistemology is second main key concept that underwrites the framework of this research. The epistemology of the work can explain the position of the researcher in relation to what heshe is trying to know or research into (Laverty, 200312). The epistemological approach is based on that the researcher of this study would close relation with the research participants, data, and interpretation of results during and after the investigation. This close position of researcher to the participants perceptions and ideas assisted her in coming up with deeper understanding and fruitful findings. This is of great importance in the qualitative work (Scott Usher, 1999 2). The research is of subjective nature as participants and their contributions as well as the researchers thoughts and reflections will help form the deeper understanding, and concluding ideas.
As an example of how the epistemological underpinning affects the methods, some practical details of the methods are explained. These provide an effect of the epistemological basis. The interviews have resulted in different thoughts and views.
Research Process
The close relationships in first interviews are important for the participants to be elaborative and providing rich data with dense details and ideas. This has been very significant for the researcher to share visions and beliefs of respondents regarding creativity in language teaching and its significance in education. At the opening stages, the researcher has been less argumentative and more supportive for participants to be elaborate and to produce as many ideas as possible. The prior experience and background of the researcher have helped her in developing the understanding of the expressions and challenges faced by the respondents. Respondents were at different stage of career and were facing different level of challenges with language teaching. The researcher had the experience of being English language teacher in a primary school. This helped researcher to develop association with the respondents and understand the challenges. Respondents required an understanding tone to explain their thoughts clearly and frankly. Additionally, a more natural environment has been useful during the observation for events to be stress-free and as natural as possible. The participants were given flexibility in terms of time to meet the researcherinterviewer. Researcher felt that a more reflective role is required for the reflection times. After the observations, it was important to check on understanding and raise awareness where ever it was possible and required. Ideas, perceptions and conclusions were discussed with the participants. Therefore, the relationship between the researcher and the participants could be flexible and take different shapes and roles to suit the purpose. However, in all cases a relaxed atmosphere was needed. Researcher was successful in attaining an equal researcher-participants status needed for this research.
Furthermore, the role of the participants and the researcher was central in the interpretations. The researchers comparisons and thoughts have formed the concluding ideas and thoughts.
This epistemological assumption would naturally have an impact on the methodology of the research. The methodology could be described as the fundamental strategy. This has helped in arranging the plan and procedures of the research actions (Crotty, 20033). It is thought that the nature of the topic of research is subjective in nature. This is because the phenomenon o f creativity can be viewed differently in different fields, contexts and cultures. There relative vagueness in the term makes it hard to claim that this personteacher is creative or not. Although a better vision got to be held by teachers for their own belief and practice of teaching creatively. This is one element researcher tried to investigate in this study. The idea of creativity is somehow like the concept of beauty and as they say beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. People know it and seek it but it is hard to define it and give it clear cut standards and descriptions for anyone to follow. There is almost no right or wrong examples when it comes to creativity, or creative language teaching. This depends on how the person sees it or the teacher sees that its creative. This is particularly important as there are no governmental programs to emphasise such a topic. It is sensed that current theories may not fully serve the context and field of study, Grounded theory is the suitable for this research in this context.
Grounded theory provides a plan and technique to be open to as many ideas as possible. It helps in deepening the understanding, producing explanations and defining in a form of a theorymodel. The second reason of deploying grounded theory is that this fits the purpose of current research. This is due to the fact that this method allows including to process any information the researcher faces as data. Rich data can be held and a fuller engagement with the thinking, collecting, connecting and concluding recursive processes throughout the research.
It has been noted that sole reliance on subjectivity in the interpretive work could be cause failure in the educational research (Pring, 2004 32). This is one of the rationales needed for techniques that grounded theory (GT) can offer. The next section provides a brief overlook on the approach of grounded theory.
5. 3 Grounded theory overview
It is suitable to discuss the type of status of theory that the grounded theory approach would propose under the umbrella of multiple reality ontological assumption. There are two types of theories that can result from grounded theory (GT) i.e. formal and substantive. The formal theories are more generalizations. It can be said across variable contexts and situations. On the other hand, the substantive theory is more limited to certain contexts and fewer generalizations can be made to other different contexts.
In general way, Grounded Theory is an approach to research that aims to develop a theory based on the data collected. This is one major feature of it. This has little or no pre-determined conceptual and theoretical pursuing (Wimpenny Gass, 2000 1486 Cutcliffe, 2000 1476 Chiovitti Piran, 2003 428). Unlike the traditional research approaches, GT ends with a theory rather than beginning with one to test or verify it.
None the less, the two types of theory that emerge from the grounded theory are formal and the substantive type of theories with certain distinctive features. The former is less common and imply that the theory can be applicable under a wider range of situations. However the substantive theory is more focused on one particular situational context (Strauss Corbin 1990). Glaser and Strauss (Jeon, 2004 252) point out that the theory resulting from comparative analysis is a theory that welcomes future development and not a perfect and complete one.
There are some researchers and academicians who argue that Grounded Theory is not a theory but a research model. However the other stream of thought believes that the difference in the theory and model is based on the philosophical basis. Theory has deeper philosophical bases and model is for explaining a structure of applicable steps for a definite purpose. This study is based on a grounded theory approach, wherein researcher is trying to develop a new theorymodel for the language education within the context of Kuwait.
Differentiating between the level of and type of outcomes or theories is useful to specify the claims for transferability and applicability across ranges of contexts. However, it is believed that even the most grand theories cannot be final and firmly transferable in any context. Modesty is seen as a vital feature in any researcher for herhim to be open to knowledge and to accept the development of the knowledge she claims. It is fruitful for the knowledge to be modest and sustain that the results is up for the future studies to confirm the level of theorymodel.
There are many reasons why a researcher had chosen GT approach. One of the major reason if is to develop a theory. Other reasons for selecting GT approach and the specific nature of research questions that can be answered in the best way through this approach and there are only few numbers of studies on the same topic and concern. It is seen that the current theories on creativity may provide limited explanation for creativity of TESOL in a context such as Kuwait. This is not a topic that is rich in theories. This approach allows limiting and omitting to rich additions and unexplored sides with respect to the interest of the topic. This is a new context for the study and testing existing theories in such context would be challenging. Developing a theory-regardless of its status- can help better understand the phenomena and cover different relevant aspects of the same.
The founders of GT Glaser and Strauss (1967) recognised the importance of the qualitative paradigm in the social sciences research (the topic of their study was to investigate dying in hospitals). However, they were also aware of the pitfalls of the qualitative paradigm in comparison with the quantitative paradigm in terms of the strength of systematic procedures and results. Thus, they came up with systematic processes in research which mainly involve constant comparison to formulate a theory. There was also an aspiration to apply this substantive theory from the people in the context of the study to a more general contexts and nations (Wimpenny Gass, 2000 1486). Therefore, one of their goals was to legitimize organised qualitative research (Mills, Bonner Francis 2006 9).
Although, symbolic interaction is the main theoretical tradition that Grounded theory (GT) belongs to, other theoretical approaches with various epistemological and ontological underpinnings are accepted when adopting GT (Mills, Bonner Francis, 2006). The question arises regarding the special aspects of GT implementation and the thing that raises lots of debate at the same time it can be used in more than one way (Chiovitti Pirann, 2003 428).
There was a famous split between the founders of GT. Glaser, for example, has claimed that Strauss deviated from the original method and supports spontaneous emergence of theory rather than forcing it. Strauss supports a step-by-step approach of a sequence of procedures. It is clear while others see this as too prescriptive and restrictive. Nonetheless, both appreciate role of the researchers sights and reflection in the process of developing a theory. Researchers can either choose one or take what fits herhis research from both of the founders. Many see that grounded theory usage is not about being guided by a cookbook to strictly follow rather it encourages flexibility and reflection when choosing the type and style of methods (Jeon (2004 255).
GT emphasizes on accurately understanding of what is going on. This focuses on developing a theory for the development of the discipline. This appreciates the dynamics of the nature of the experience. The vital role of individuals in forming the lived world, awareness of the complexity of life, common factors in conditions, meaning and actions are the important aspects of Grounded theory (Strauss Corbin 1990).
5.3.1 Grounded theory processes
In this research, no one prescribed research approach has been followed. Rather, there was a search for useful processes that help the researcher to reach purposes as well as using appropriate methods of data collection and analysis. Strauss and Corbin have provided the foundation to start the research process. There have been additional readings on empirical research. The articles that have employed GT as a research methodology was of great use too. To understand it better, researcher explored different aspects, determined research steps and the participants. The research moved towards the Strauss approach of supporting spontaneous emergence of theory along with modifications. There has been very few word-by-word coding. This has been used in a limited manner because of the complexity of meanings. There was more of a line-to-line coding. The significant wordings used by the participants were betters explained using metaphor analysis. Metaphors happened to occur naturally but not densely. Therefore, metaphor analysis was also employed in a specified manner that has been discussed in a different section.
In order to explain further, one of the steps undertaken for the analysis has been explained below.
Researcher has explained each of the steps and their use in the current study. Researcher has also highlighted the deviation from the research and reasons for the same. Eaves (2001 658) explaining the analytical steps assures that the GT steps are recursive rather than linear.
Line by line coding using participants words (codes are devices to compile and organise data).
This step was applied at the first phase of the research. The word by word coding was not done in this scenario. This is relatively unclear for this case and for some cases it did not make sense to do word by word coding.
Underlining key words, and then writing them in a margin of the script
This step was useful, particularly when those words were expressive or metaphors are used. This was helpful to analyse those metaphor during the coding and categorisation.
Making a list of all in-vivo codes to capture a main idea
(MARTIN) A qualitative test analysis software package used to code and organize.
In this case, this has done manually. Each code was put in a separate Word document file. This word file was named for the constant comparison process.
Reducing code phrases by grouping similar code phrases.
During the later stage of the research, reduction of the code phrases took place.
Turn group of similar code phrases into a cluster, and then reduced into meta-clusters with labels
At this stage, the similar code phrases were turn into clusters. These clusters were reduced to the meta-clusters with unique labels.
Reduce these labels into concepts
The unique labels were turned into concepts and reduced further.
Grouping concepts into categories, Categories are classifications of concepts, and are discovered when codes are compared against one another and pertains to a similar phenomenon.
Those steps were recursive and categories were constantly compared and updated.
Constant comparison method to search for similarities and relationships amongst codes and categories.
Identifying subcategories
The subcategories were identified on the basis of the similarities and relationship amongst codes and categories.
Linking categories to allow conceptual order This was done by asking questions about relationships in the data (constant comparison) or by testing hunches against the data (Corbin 1986) Another way that this was done was by using the literature to outline and compare relationships among the categories (Charmaz 1983).
This is an important step of linking of the categories. The conceptual order was maintained. The literature outline was considered at this phase.
Locating core categories which are the storyline or theme of data (she suggests that there can be more than one)
Core category leads to basic social psychological process and basic social process.
Those were the most critical steps of the research data collection and analysis. It was hard to stop as even when writing up, new comparison would rise and modifications to the categorisations seemed necessary.
Comparisons were with participants direct definition of creativity and with their other views and indirect definitions. This includes the comparisons of educational backgrounds, years of experience, positions, and nationalities of the participants.
11. Generating mini-theory from core categories.
This is other step towards creating new theories of the study.
12. Explanatory frameworks lead to the delivery of substantive theory or model.
These steps are explained in more details in the next line. However, before handling each step individually, it is important understand how recursive and simultaneous are these steps. One can barely separate these steps and draw lines between them.
Data collection
During the data collection and constant comparison the researcher was able to find patterns and relationships (Eaves, 2001 655). The codes and after the codes, categories have been emerged. These are meaningful and readily applicable to explain the data under study (Cutcliffe, 2000 1477). It is one of the major assumptions in GT that the data collection and data analyses occur simultaneously. This is the reason memo writing was done throughout the research. Parts of one memo were written using the note writing in the word document. Furthermore, the generation of theory takes place during the actual research. This approach requires rich, solid data, as well as proper and clear data analysis. The most common methods of data gathering in GT is field research and interviews and the type of sampling is theoretical sampling which is not predetermined and is guides and is guided by emerging categories.
Constant comparison is seen as a central and critical method in GT which maintains the theoretical sensitivity throughout the research process by comparing and asking questions. The constant comparative method is very essential that it can change and lead the research questions (Jeon, 2004 253). The point of this is to deepen the researchers understanding of the data in-order to come up with an explanatory and predictive substantive theory. The process of constant asking and comparing adds to the credibility or trustworthiness of the social theory especially that the social theory in GT is a developing rather than final one according to Jeon (2004 252).
Cutcliffe (2000 1476) also comments that in constant comparative analysis (first proposed by Glaser Strauss 1967) the data collection and analysis take place concurrently and each item in the data is to be compared to the rest of the data
Simultaneously with this comparative analysis, the process of coding takes place. Coding is a type of content analysis to catch the essential ideas in the dense of the data (Strauss Corbin, 1998) Coding help locating the building blocks for analysis and is very important as it could define the emerging theory. Coding is also said that it is the first turning point from raw data into a coherent and strong theory. Codes with common theme are called concepts. The groups of concepts are called categories. It is from these concepts and categories that a theory emerges. Basically, coding has two phases, open coding (substantive, initial) and theoretical coding (selective, focused) (Jeon, 2004 253).
During the open coding the researcher fractures data line by line, in order to explore all possible aspects of issues and ideas in the data, and to develop descriptive codes as labels for the meanings of the issues and ideas (Jeon, 2004 253) (some even think that it is a word-to-word analysis that is needed or micro-analysis as suggested by Strauss and Corbin (1998)). So in this phase of coding the researcher is very open to all the possible meanings that can explain and deepen the understanding of the data. As for theoretical coding which comes in a cyclical direction with the open coding, the researcher starts to organize and notice the outstanding codes that can formulate a larger category.
Data from the coding process is used to conceptualize and form categories. A Core category (or more than one) is looked for as it is related to other categories when generating a theory which provide explanation for behavioural patterns and their dimensions (Jeon, 2004 253).
As for theory generating, Cutcliffe (2000 1476) points out that The theory induced is conceptually dense (Strauss Corbin 1994), that is theory with many conceptual relationships, and these relationships are embedded in a context of descriptive and conceptual writing.
Another on-going process in the grounded theory method is the memo writing. Memo writing is especially important as it help the researcher to become aware of hisher analytical thinking as well as reflecting ideas to build the theory (Jeon, 2004 253). It is also strengthens the rigour of the research.
Mills, Bonner Francis (2006 12) comment on the role of memo writing and its significance in the reflection (especially from their constructivist grounded theory approach) as it provides an opportunity to remember, question, analyse and make meaning about the time spent with participants and the data that were generated together
The theoretical world that we attempt to reconstruct is being constantly rewritten in our memos to reflect both participants stories and our own making of meaning.
It is pointed out that the researcher has several selves one of which must be passionate about the research interest, thus attention must be paid not to be fully controlled by pre-established ideas. The researcher and hisher thoughts, values, beliefs and history may help co-construct the meaning and thus these thoughts and historical influences must be overtly presented in the memo writing process. One style of memos is to separate between the data and its descriptions (ibid 12).
Memos are written throughout the data analysis to
(a) interpret in-vivo material, (b) articulate metaphors, (c) examine the relationships among code categories, (d) explain major code categories, (e) explore methodological issues and (f) generate theory (Eaves, 2001 659).
5. 4 Sampling in grounded theory
Choosing the adequate sample is highly essential as it is has a direct impact on achieving the research aims and questions as well as on rigour (reliability, validity) (Jeon 2004 251).
There has been an emphasis that the first sample is hard to define. Some proposed that purposeful sampling may occur in the early stages of collection data. Another issue of sampling is the choice of wide or narrow sample. It is seen that the choice is determined by the level of theory the substantive theory requires focus on a group and a narrow sample, while the more general the theory is the more wide and varied the sample should be (Cutcliffe, 2000).
The sample choice is so central in GT that it determines what the research investigates the literature, the research questions, and the number of participants (Chiovitti Piran (2003 428).
In grounded theory, theoretical sampling techniques are employed. Theoretical sampling can be defined as the sample that is determined by emerging categories which can lead to selecting this theoretical sampling which is seen best to answer the research interest, and help theoretical elaboration. The choice of sample can be through collecting data, coding, analyzing while keeping in mind the ultimate goal of theory emergence (Jeon 2004 251). This method of selecting a sample has been repeatedly compared to purposeful sampling in the literature. One of the major differences between theoretical sampling and purposeful sampling is the fact that the latter is predetermined, while in theoretical sampling the aim is to sample those people most likely to have sufficient knowledge and experience related to the topic of the study the adequacy of the theory depends not only on the amount of data but also on the quality of the data and data analysis (ibid).
5.4.1 The sample of the study
At first researcher had a great deal of thought of how to choose a theoretical sample for a subject matter like creativity in English language teaching. Researcher was involve in constant thinking about the question of respondent who would be able to answer the questions, has an experience in creativity, the type of rationale researcher would use to pick up a criterion for choosing participants.
Since creativity is not an idea that can easily be captured. Neither other parties would actually know what it is in real life. Researcher thought that there are no better experts than the English language teachers themselves. Researcher wanted to the views and conceptions of creativity in the field of English Language teachers was the main aim to understand. Thus the decision was in the favour of conducting in-depth interviews in the fields of the respondents which are schools. This ideologically launches from the idea that the teachers voice is a priority in educational research and practice.
There are few studies dedicated in Kuwait for the creativity topic in language teaching at schools. The decision to choose primary stage is based on the fact that it is the first stage where English language is taught. The second reason for choosing teachers working on the primary stage is based on the thought that childhood is where imagination and creativity are at the highest levels. Teachers are suppose to support the creativity as well as have more space for being creative themselves as educators. However, the limitation of choosing this level comes from the fact that the learning at the higher stages of English and the starting of English is different.
All the participants of this study are female English teachers at primary level. This is due to the fact that local law of Kuwaiti Ministry of Education clearly states that all primary teachers and administrative staff should be ladies. Islam is the state religion. All the political, social and other processes have influence of Islam. In such scenario, the gender separation can be justified. However, on the other hand, it is always arguing that no issue of disparity should come when it comes to learning and education.
Stages of sampling
This section comprise of the stages of sampling on the basis of a theoretical sample. The theoretical sample should be dependent on the developed codes and categories. These are explained in this section.
The first interviews were almost of convenience. However, these were special as the data taken were dense. The participant teachers had unique and different opinions even though they were from the same school. The observation in this stage was also the most important one. It was the same lesson from the level of thought that gave them more space of creativity. Next, the code of relationships and the constant mentioning of the positive role of the senior teacher made it interesting to interview the senior teacher in the same school.
This first phase provided researcher with an opportunity to compare the data within the same context. This also helped in developing bases of the next five interviews. The next five interviews were conducted with the aim of making it as varied as possible. This helped to verify, contrast and compare the data. This was also a good chance to check if new codes and categories would rise.
It is clear in the previous sections that interview is one of the most common methods used in GT. The next section provides the details on how a GT interview can be done.
The issue of the relationship between the senior teach and five interviewed teachers was raised. These five teachers were from different educational areas, years of experience and different educational background. The senior teacher was the link between the teachers and between the different decision makers. This provided a different approach of reaching the senior teachers of other schools. The ethical appropriateness also came into existence when most teachers expressed their negative relation with their senior teachers. It was good to interview them as they are in the middle place. Some were new senior teachers. This is the reason they can express their thought on creativity as teachers as well as one type of decision makers as well as the link with other decision makers. The other decision makers are school managers, supervisors, and the ministry. In the case of launch of a new decision, the senior teacher is chosen to meet. They are the ones who are getting the training courses for these new decisions.
It was experienced later that the selection of senior teacher as a theoretical sample had been the most valuable aspects of this study. These teachers have an important role when it comes to providing the definitions and views on the creativity ideas. It is also the aim of the research to reach a definition of creativity in the English language teaching from the teachers point of view and the researchers thoughts and readings.
On use of own previous knowledge
As for the knowledge use, Cutcliffe (2000 1480) proposes to deny a researcher who is using grounded theory access to this knowledge and to restrict the creativity necessary to utilize it, is likely to limit the depth of understanding of the phenomenon and impose unnecessary, rigid structures..
As a teacher, researcher has significant experience of the same aspects.
The current research
The step of choosing one or more of the established theoretical approaches of creativity to adopt for ones study requires lots of time and reflection. It is felt that because of the nature and uniqueness of the topic of creativity in English language learning (in a context where English is treated as a Foreign or second language) a grounded theory was a useful choice. However, it is important to announce the biases and preconceptions (resembled in the theories read) that the researcher may have during the time of preparing for the research topic and the literature review in order to start with the grounded theory approach. Nonetheless, literature review can sometimes be treated as part of data as in the Grounded Theory approach any useful material for the purposes of the study can be included in the data (Strauss Corbin, 1998). Thus, some informed literature may not weaken the grounded theory.
First of all, being in the educational field, researchers in general are encouraged to follow qualitative thought. Accordingly, the following preconceptions were thought about. The main creativity theories currently adopted by most scholars (especially in the UK) belong to Humanistic, social personality, and confluential approaches to research on creativity. It is agreed that the creativity phenomenon is context-related and not universal. In fewer cases now-a-days (usually in American studies) a cognitive and psychoanalytic approaches are adopted. Although, there is a preconception that the more humanistic views can serve the educational field, but it is noticed that from the writings on and conferences on the topic of creativity in general, cognitive and psychoanalytic ideas are heavily used. Therefore, there are possibilities that the participants in Kuwait may still feel that the cognitivepsychoanalytical approaches are more suitable for the foreign language learning and teaching outcomes.
It is useful to show how the researchers insights and views have affected the investigation for credibility. There should be attempts to limit the effect of this views though a post comment interview sheet (or memo writing), personal journal, and monitoring how the literature review was employed (Chiovitti and Piran, 2003 431).
Furthermore, the researcher has pre-conceptualised ideas about what creativity might mean in the TESOL area which are various and the possible creative contributions from teachers are numerous and mentioned directly or embedded in the literature. A Foreign language teacher can be creative if she has some features such as risk-taking and confidence (to teach by her principles and according to her learners situation). The teacher can creatively design a course for his student follow a post-method approach which also required on-going creativity and extending the learners awareness of the culture of both first and target cultures in the TESOL. The language teacher can also be show affection and make close relations with his student to facilitate accepting the target language. In the school environment, Collaboration can take place between language teachers to form a healthier culture. This healthier culture can facilitate creative language teaching.
Collaborative work between English language teachers and other subjects teachers can help to come up with creative courses, songs, plays and other interesting activities that may help students to develop their skills. There is various ways technology and media can help in improving the learning process and incorporating creativity into the same. Teachers can be part of the development of creative software for the use of educative purposes. These can provide a platform to be used as a forum for teachers to communicate their experiences and ideas with other educators. The use of different form of art and literature in a new, fruitful way can be creative. The English language teacher can develop a creative idea to teach a certain skill or a novel way to make children use the language. It is known that sometimes educators in the field are the best theorist. The creative ideas of educators can contribute to the language learning and it can continue to develop progressively. Their views about the whole debate about the ownership of English, how they identify themselves and their perception of the native vs. Non-native English language can affect the way they teach creatively, and how they deal with childrens errors and the extent to which they encourage them to use the language freely and play with the word or not. These ideas are based on the principle that the teachers role and perceptions matter, and that explicit emphasis on creativity is healthy in the area of TESOL and can improve and overcome many of the current weaknesses in the language learning in the context of the study.
However, from the Grounded Theory point of view, these preliminary ideas of what creativity might mean in TESOL area should not be viewed as final answers or as a suggestions to guide participants towards a certain answer in mind. This is because the points mentioned earlier can be different from what the data may tell. Thus the literature covered which has mentioned in more details next can be regarded as part of the professional knowledge to help better understand the phenomenon of creativity (Strauss Corbin, 1998). Before the actual data collection and analysis, the previous views were noted down.
Literature review usage
Literature review has been the source of debate in GT. Some suggest that it should be delayed altogether whereas others think that it should be divided into phases. Mostly the first ones are either introductory that helps to understand the concepts, or as part of data collection is the less studied phenomena. It is suggested that research questions should be considered. The level of theory as well in order to know when to introduce the second body of literature should be done with respect to the research question. Literature in the beginning should be lightly read for clarity of concepts (Cutcliffe, 2000 1480). Strauss Corbin (1998) saw the use of literature as a basis of professional knowledge and referred to it as literature sensitivity. The fact that conclusions drawn are grounded in actual data helps to minimise the risk of bias. They also stress that grounded theory makes the researcher engage with the topic that she can make use of any data she faces during the research. This is irrespective of whether it is formal or informal, including newspapers, videos and literature review as a source to make the researcher better understands the needed concepts.
5.5 Interviews
Interviews are known to be one of the effective methods used in grounded theory tradition. Although it is not the exclusive path for a researcher to reach herhis conclusions and develop a growing theory, any data experiences in life is useful for the understanding and conclusions.
The relationship between the researcher and the participants is highly significant in GT. It is mentioned that although in the history of GT this relationship was not clarified, but in Strauss and Corbin the interplay is seen as a key aspect in when dealing the data. It is also believed that density of knowledge and meaning emergence comes from the give-and-take process that takes place between the two parties of the interviews. Context and subjectivity is present in the interviewing process and is seen as a positive side of the interview. It is stressed that the authority must be equally distributed between the interviewer and the interviewee, and the hierarchy that the traditional interviewing may suggest must be cancelled. A more humane and relaxed atmosphere must be provided. Some of the suggested strategies to achieve this equal relationship are scheduling interviews at a time and location of the participants choice, using a relatively flexible and unstructured approach to questioning so that participants assume more power over the direction of the conversation, sharing the researchers understanding of the key issues arising and assuming an open stance towards the participant, as well as sharing personal details and answering questions asked both during the interview and afterwards (Mills, Bonner Francis, 2006 11).
Formal and informal interviews are the main two types of interviews. The formal interview can be structured and unstructured. The informal interviews are more commonly used in the qualitative studies. In considering unstructured interviews, the researcher tends to follow the outstanding points and views of the respondents even though there can be some general guiding lines to cover the investigated theme. Following the flow of the interviewees ideas and concepts will give a good direction for the subsequent interviews and for the theoretical sampling (Wimpenny Gass, 2000 1487).
Others even prefer employing various styles of an informal interview for the needed flexibility required at the grounded theory research stages. It has been noticed in the literature that both formal and informal interviews may be used in the grounded theory research depending on the purpose and process of the study. Although there are differences in the literature in the level of structure and types and questioning that can be used in a GT interview. There is almost a consensus that an in-depth interview is recommended. Questioning approach can sometimes be hard to define. For example, the choice between asking for personal experience and description and between the theoretical developments can be difficult even in GT. This is due to the fact that the researcher tends to start openly and then undertakes refinements until she reaches a theory emergence stage.
Researcher has used the open ended questions such as asking about the participants descriptions of ones account and experience with the expectations that it would lead for the field to unfold. Sometimes, it is even suggested to avoid direct questions on the topic of the research. The direct question can be replaced with an explanation of general ideas and beliefs in the field. Gradually, the interview questions should move towards elaborating questions. It should be designed to elaborate on the first phase interviews and ongoing analysis which influences theoretical sampling. A new category can appear and make it necessary for the interview to be an open-ended conversation again. This makes it clear that it is not a linear and straightforward process (Strauss Corbin, 1990).
The open-ended questions are useful only in the beginning of the research or the beginning of a new code investigation. In the subsequent stages of the research The interview in grounded theory may thus be less open and more structured than the interview in phenomenology (Wimpenny Gass, 2000 1489). Transcript and analysis should be immediately appear and influence next interviews guide and sampling after interviews for codes and categories. Transcript can be on one side and the categories on the other side of the paper. Each code can have a name, each category can have a file and new codes can be added to it.
The language of the interview was left to the choice of the participants. Interestingly, most participants used Arabic only while some used code switching between the two languages. There were rarely any respondent who used English only throughout the interview.
Some suggest keeping two questions in mind, to stay in focus with what one is looking for What is happening in the data and What action does each particular happening, incident, event or idea represent (Strauss Corbin 1990)
More details of the interviews and the shifts in the use of form and style of interview has been presented in a different chapter and included in the appendix section.
5.6 Observation
Observation is another method that is widely used in grounded theory research. It enables the researcher to witness dense details of the actual life of participants and a clear image of the context can be lived from the lenses of the researcher as well. Although it is hard to have a check-list for what exactly to look for in the current research, but observations were a useful for a chance to see some elements which appear in the codes of each participant.
At first, interviews took place before the observation, but then it was decided that interviews should only take place after the observation to get as genuine and authentic contexts as possible. The reason for this was the fact that interviews can cause pressure on the teacher to prove what she has mentioned and turn it into action in the next lesson. It can be directing the way the teacher teaches, uses material and even the way she treats the learners. It is also known that how things happened can have countless reasons, but it is mostly limited by the researchers lenses as well as reflections with teachers in the interviews.
Some researchers would prefer for the observed lessons to be somehow directed. The current research moves from the idea that all teachers can be creative in their own ways, thus no direction or guidance is given.
Field notes included almost every detail of what was going on, and descriptions of how thing, people and behaviour looked like. However, the more observations done the more comparisons could be included in the field notes. Thus it was decided that one of the most interesting ones to present in the body of this research. These were of three teachers from the same school, teaching the same lesson to the same stage. This gave a better opportunity to compare data.
Observations can be saved through the use of videos, photography, or tape recorders. In this study, field notes are used to for ethical issues concerning the identities of the children and the teachers in the classroom. What guides the researcher is mostly the research topic. Mostly, physical setting, participants behavior and communications are the factors to observe and recorded. Fieldnotes included both descriptive and reflective information of the aspects being observed. Descriptive notes were mostly for setting, and reflective fieldnotes were for the actions. Directs quotes were written most of the time. Information of the time, place and participants is kept. Number individual sets of field notes if there would be follow-up observations at this site. Small paragraphs were used to separate between notes, actions, descriptions and reflections (internet).
5.7 Metaphor analysis
This is used as a secondary method to analyse data, as majorly the GT processes are used. Metaphor analysis is almost embedded in the stages of data analysis and interpretations as its occurrence happened naturally.
Traditionally, metaphor is a term that is associated with poetic language, as In literature, metaphor is one of the major tropes, or figures of speech, creating poetic affect through language that brings together ideas and images in unexpected conjunctions (Cameron, 2003 2). Nonetheless, more recently the use of metaphor became a feature of everyday speech and is no longer exclusive to poets (ibid). Cameron (2003) points out that the there are terms that can be used during the analysis such as focus. This refers to the vehicle term, the frametenor which is the rest of the phrase against which the vehicle appears incongruous (ibid 11). There can always be pre-determined conceptual metaphor in each society which the society members helped building (p. 240). It was useful to include metaphor analysis as the relationship between language and thought is instead a two-way interaction within a single complex system (Cameron Deignan, 2006 674). Participants used both local famous sayings and metaphors naturally and without the direction of the researcher, so studying those expressions is necessary to interpret the thoughts which are reflected in the specific language usage. The usage usually reflected either emotional or cultural meanings. In many cases the expressions used requires the local knowledge and the cultural background which the researcher shared with the participants. Nonetheless, in some case there were many metaphors to express how they understood creativity which has similar meanings across cultures and languages such as Arabic and English (this is out of the scope of the current study, but it is a growing research interest in TESOL field).
With each use of metaphor in the body of analysis, the researcher highlighted the metaphor and explained its use and contributions to understand the thoughts and ideas of participants.
5.8 Rigour
The terminology and definition of issues like reliability and validity have been controversial particularly in the qualitative research tradition. Glaser and Strauss are reported to encourage rigour through credibility, plausibility and trustworthiness. Some of the significantly important processes are theoretical sampling as explained in the previous sections and writing memos. The writing memos has been done informally both in a separate word document file and within the data coding word documents using notes and reflections in the English and the Arabic language. The Arabic language is the mother language of the researcher. The constant comparison is believed to support accuracy and diversity, and the theoretical sampling facilitates generalization of theory. Thus, details of methods of data collection, coding, analyzing, presenting are important for the rigour considerations (Jeon, 2004).
Even though terms like credibility seems to be avoided by some qualitative researchers and GT researchers in specific, it can be seen as a tool to know how truthful the description of the phenomenon is. The term that is usually used for credibility in a qualitative tradition is trustworthiness (Chiovitti Piran, 2003 430).
Chiovitti Piran (2003 430, table 1) proposed that following processes to enhance the trustworthiness and rigour of a grounded theory (GT) research. The following information is from their table.
Most of the following points have been used in the current research to ensure rigour of the research. Some of these have been already mentioned and justifies in the methodology chapter.
Standards of rigour Suggested methods of research practice
Credibility
1. Let participants guide the inquiry process.
2. Check the theoretical construction generated against participants meanings of the phenomenon (almost like reflection)
3. Use participants actual words in the theory.
4. Articulate the researchers personal views and insights about the phenomenon...
(a) Post comment interview sheets used as a tool
(b) A personal journal
(c) Monitoring how the literature was used.
Auditability (consistency)
5. Specify the criteria built into the researchers thinking
6. Specify how and why participants in the study were selected. (Wimpenny Gass (2000 1491) also report that rigour in an interview in GT and phenomenology can be achieved through evidence of interviewee being spontaneous, and the balance of time divided between the parties of the interview.
Fittingness
7. Delineate the scope of the research in terms of the sample, setting, and the level of the theory generated
8. Describe how the literature relates to each category which emerged in the theory.
So the literature review is useful to secure rigour in spite of its controversial stages in GT tradition. After discussing the codes and categories of the current research, it would be useful to compare them to the literature again as, For transferability, focusing on similarities between the findings of GT and those of previous theories in the literature can help to be as a proof for the likelihood of the results to be applicable to other contexts (ibid 433).
5.9 Ethical issues
Bera recommended that educational researchers have responsibility to participants, sponsors and community of educational researchers (BERA, 2004). The researcher has taken all of these ethical recommendations into consideration. For example, Wellington (2000 55) maintains that a research could be unethical if the design mistreats group access is unethical analysis is unfair names are revealed or the recommendations are unfair.
It is seen that a researcher who studies in a UK university, but undertakes the study in hisher home country has a double ethical responsibility. On one hand, one must follow the university ethical agreements and on the other hand, one must consider any unique or specific requirements in the local society that would be dealt with. It is assumed that there would not be huge conflicts between the two. The researcher would have to seek to choose whatever suits the participants at the time of the study and would try to reduce any type of harm as the importance of getting acquainted with the micro and the macro-culture is known to come up with the most appropriate methodology in teaching (see Holliday, 1994). Thus, knowing cultural and even the personal preferences are vital in the research methods as well. This could raise the question of whether or not research ethics are universal (Chilisa, 2005 675).
Privacy
Informed consent is needed with participants informing them that participation is voluntary and that they have the right to withdraw whenever they want to. The purpose of the study was declared and participants will be informed that their contributions will be used by the researcher only and that it will be done for academic purposes only and that there is no right or wrong with regard to their opinions and ideas. The participants had prior notice of the researcher, and the timing of the interviewsobservations were chosen by the participants, and the access were only to those who welcomes participating as no pressure needed to be done. The nature of the information that is needed from the interviews is unlikely to be highly sensitive or personal.
Anonymity
Furthermore, to protect privacy, all names will be removed or altered from the beginning. However, the researcher might keep a record of the writers names in a file in case it is needed to interview the same participant again. In addition, the identities of the school teachers and the schools will be protected and the names of the disciplines will be used instead for example.
Confidentiality
All the information and data is and will be kept for academic purposes only. Participants were also reminded that their views on the topic do not affect their evaluation on any form. Accordingly participants will not be harmed because they are very unlikely to be described as being less than others, as there is no right and wrong answers to the research questions (Cohen et al, 2000).
5. 10 Piloting the study
Three primary school teachers volunteered to participate in a phone interviews. All of which contributed with an in-depth views and thoughts. Accordingly were included and interpreted as part of the research main data. It was a primary school for girls in Al-Aasmah educational area. The first teacher was a Kuwaiti teacher teaching for the first year. The second teacher was an Egyptian teacher with eight years of experience. And the third volunteer was also an Egyptian teacher who worked secondary school during the first years of experience in Egypt, then moved to teaching children in a Kuwaiti primary stage. All the ideas and coded taken from the interviews data will be discussed in the following in the finding and discussion chapter.
From the data taken from the interview pilot, it was felt that teachers can have quite unique contribution to the insights and ideas of creativity in ELT. This is irrespective of the fact that they shared similar grounding such as nationalities and institute (same school).
It was also found out that the narrower the questions were the lesser details were given. Whereas the more broad the questions were the more elaboration and ideas are produced. Therefore, it was seen that it was best to keep the interviews open-ended especially at the beginning to produce as many deep and rich ideas as possible. Then in the later stage from the same interview questions linking their ideas to creativity phenomena was checked and reflected upon with them. Also in the subsequent interviews more precise questions are chosen according to the preceding codes and categories from interpreted interviews.
Furthermore, it was noticed that the more relaxed the atmosphere of the interview was the more details were given. This tells that at some points in the beginning of the data collection stage, a more listening role is embraced on the side of the researcher. Teachers felt that they had a lot to say when they were given the chance to speak their minds. They needed a supporting and agreeing tone of voice when interacting and dialoguing. One teacher even offered two sessions of her time at school, even within her crowded schedule, because she felt the importance of her position and contributions to what I was looking for.
Open-ended questions naturally required producing new questions for each participants respond within the big umbrella of creativity in ELT topic. Even in the event where it sounded that the participant was off point, it was realized then that it all falls into what creativity means in their minds and practice.
The timing of the interview depended on the availability of the participants and the break times they had. Two of them gave me the time of one period, and one spoke with me for almost 92 minutes during two separate hours (second of which were characterized with prepared yet very important information on many level, although the teacher spent the time in between the two session teaching. A recording device was used, and transcriptions happened right after the interviews which is important to start reflecting and coding etc. which will help guide subsequent interviews and observations.
At the end of the sessions, the three of the volunteering participants agreed that I am welcomed to come and see then in person when arriving to Kuwait after taking the permission of the school manager and the senior teacher of the English department. They gave me examples in their answers to how they are possibly creative by themselves and with my re-checking at some replies. Generally speaking, the three of which considered themselves creative at least in some aspects and the two teachers from Egypt thought that not all teacher can or are creative and gave some example of why this is the case (which will be discussed later). It seemed that teachers really enjoyed their time off the duty time to reflect and speak out to a person they felt was neutral yet of some authority as a researcher.
The codes and categories obtained from the first three interviews and the subsequent interviews have been discussed and explained next in the results and discussion chapter.
Key aspects
This chapter provided detailed information on how the research has been conducted, philosophical background and other aspects.
Ontology is the way the researcher views the nature of knowledge and its status (Silverman, 2005). The diversity in interpretations is accepted.
The epistemological approach is based on that the researcher of this study would close relation with the research participants, data, and interpretation of results during and after the investigation.
Respondents were at different stage of career and were facing different level of challenges with language teaching.
This epistemological assumption would naturally have an impact on the methodology of the research. The methodology could be described as the fundamental strategy.
Grounded theory is of two types. The formal theories are more generalizations and across variable contexts and situations. The substantive theory is more limited to certain contexts and fewer generalizations can be made to other different contexts.
GT ends with a theory rather than beginning with one to test or verify it. None the less, the two types of theory that emerge from the grounded theory are formal and the substantive type of theories with certain distinctive features.
Grounded Theory has deeper philosophical bases and model is for explaining a structure of applicable steps for a definite purpose. This study is based on a grounded theory approach, wherein researcher is trying to develop a new theorymodel for the language education within the context of Kuwait.
There are many reasons why a researcher had chosen GT approach. One of the major reason if is to develop a theory. It is seen that the current theories on creativity may provide limited explanation for creativity of TESOL in a context such as Kuwait.
Other reasons for selecting GT approach and the specific nature of research questions that can be answered in the best way through this approach and there are only few numbers of studies on the same topic and concern. One of their goals was to legitimize organised qualitative research.
GT emphasizes on accurately understanding of what is going on. This focuses on developing a theory for the development of the discipline.
The analytical approach adopted by the researcher (Eaves, 2001) has deviation from the actual research phase activities. The word by word coding was not done in this scenario. Metaphor analysis was done to identify coding and categorisation. Comparisons were with participants direct definition of creativity and with their other views and indirect definitions. This includes the comparisons of educational backgrounds, years of experience, positions, and nationalities of the participants.
During the data collection and constant comparison the researcher was able to find patterns and relationships. The codes and after the codes, categories have been emerged. Constant comparison is seen as a central and critical method in GT which maintains the theoretical sensitivity throughout the research process by comparing and asking questions.
Coding help locating the building blocks for analysis and is very important as it could define the emerging theory. Coding is also said that it is the first turning point from raw data into a coherent and strong theory.
Data from the coding process is used to conceptualize and form categories. Memo writing is especially important as it help the researcher to become aware of hisher analytical thinking as well as reflecting ideas to build the theory.
The researcher and hisher thoughts, values, beliefs and history may help co-construct the meaning and thus these thoughts and historical influences must be overtly presented in the memo writing process.
According to Cutcliffe (2000) it is seen that the choice is determined by the level of theory the substantive theory requires focus on a group and a narrow sample whereas for the general theory more wide and varied sample is required.
Theoretical sampling can be defined as the sample that is determined by emerging categories which can lead to selecting this theoretical sampling which is seen best to answer the research interest, and help theoretical elaboration.
Researcher was involve in constant thinking about the question of respondent who would be able to answer the questions, has an experience in creativity, the type of rationale researcher would use to pick up a criterion for choosing participants.
Researcher thought that there are no better experts than the English language teachers themselves. Researcher wanted to the views and conceptions of creativity in the field of English Language teachers was the main aim to understand.
The decision to choose primary stage is based on the fact that it is the first stage where English language is taught. The second reason for choosing teachers working on the primary stage is based on the thought that childhood is where imagination and creativity are at the highest levels.
The first interviews were almost of convenience. However, these were special as the data taken were dense. The participant teachers had unique and different opinions even though they were from the same school. The observation in this stage was also the most important one. It was the same lesson from the level of thought that gave them more space of creativity.
The first phase provided researcher with an opportunity to compare the data within the same context. The next five interviews were conducted with the aim of making it as varied as possible. The issue of the relationship between the senior teach and five interviewed teachers was raised. These five teachers were from different educational areas, years of experience and different educational background. It was experienced later that the selection of senior teacher as a theoretical sample had been the most valuable aspects of this study
The English language teacher can develop a creative idea to teach a certain skill or a novel way to make children use the language. It is known that sometimes educators in the field are the best theorist. The creative ideas of educators can contribute to the language learning and it can continue to develop progressively. In such scenario it was important to understand the perspectives of English being foreign language among teachers.
Chapter six Results
The participants
It is one feature of GT that the stages of data gathering and analysis are recurrent and cyclical. This made it difficult to separate between the results and discussion chapters. This chapter will mainly show descriptive and in some cases interpretive information on participants concepts and views.
6.1 Participants
Introduction
In this section, the participants and the management of the interview are discussed in detail. The sequence of presenting them is almost the same as the sequence of interviewing them. The participants have been given alternative names when needed in order to keep them anonymous and to remain their views and identities as confidential as possible. The participants introduction is for the purpose of data comparison. The grounded theory research the concepts and not the individuals are the target. Introducing the participants is also useful to provide and explain some contextual information mentioned by participants. Moreover, it tells how the interview construct were gradually developed and built throughout the research steps depending on coding and categorisation. The first five are from the same school (4 teachers and one senior teacher), and the first 3 interviews were originally used for piloting the study. These interviews were carried out by telephone for the better reach and participation. However, face-to-face interviews allow capturing the untold data like expressions, involvement and others However the telephonic interviews are quick and hassle free. It does not require taking the prior appointments. Once the respondent picks her phone up, the researcher needs to inform her regarding the study and take her consent to move further for collecting data. The responses were collected in the Arabic language only. The researcher recorded it and translated it afterwards. .
Participant 1
The first participant was a Kuwaiti primary stage teacher. The school she teaches in was in Al-Aasmah educational area. She is almost 22 years old. At the time of the interview the number of years of experience was more than a year of her teacher training course. She was still a student. She teaches the first and the fifth grade in a girls primary school and finds it harder to teach the younger ones. The age group of the students at this stage was between four to eleven years old.
Being the first to be interviewed, the interviewer guide with her was the most structured for the first stage. In light with the grounded theory, it was a hard task. There was no direction from the literature that could be heavily laid. At the same time there had to be a start somewhere. The researcher started with the informal and open end questions regarding the reason of her choice of career, the needs of improving, the definition of creativity and its examples, the examples from her experience and training course.
She sounded enthusiastic and was asking more about what she was researching and the sponsoring institute etc. The respondent showed her gratitude for getting selected for this study. Researcher developed a good rapport with the respondent. The structure of the interview was very informal and in the process of informing about the research project, scope, reasons and taking consent of the respondent, she threw number of questions for her clarifications. Respondent also commented that she like interviewing researcher more as she finds her area of study very interesting and new to her. This shows the signs of related tone in the respondent
1. This was for the benefit of the research as the researcher-researched status was equalised as much as possible. In some of the direct questions on creativity, respondent wanted to know researchers point of views and thoughts as well. Researcher had a two way dialogue with her. Once her opinion was collected, researcher elaborated her own points to clarify her doubts or share her experiences. Interestingly, researcher was able to accept that this resulted in impressing the prospective participants to participate in research further. The researchers feels that the learning stage of the teacher has made her more curious about various aspects of teaching and how creativity can be incorporated in her areas of teaching. The conversation allowed bringing more equal status of sharing of experience between the two.
As for her education, she mentioned that she is a graduate from the College of Basic Education (CBE) which belongs to the Public Authority of Applied education and training (PAAET). She was taught and trained to be a teacher of English in the primary stage. The PAAET is known to be the second institution which provides education courses and bachelor degrees in English language teaching along with the college of education in Kuwait University. One of the major differences between these two institutions is that the PAAET is more specialised for the primary stage. This is important to mention here that in Kuwait University there are separate programmes for each stage.
She is one of the few participants who used English during most of the interview time. She mentioned that the main reason why she has chosen her career as an English language teacher was her love for the English language. In her own statement,
I love teaching, especially in English. I love the language.
Also she summarises the importance in any language in the world in the matter of getting the message across and that is one basis in her learning the English language as well as teaching it to her students. She even suggested that there should be a day where all the staff members including teachers from other departments as well as the student should speak English only as a practice day. She views that England is a good place to learn the language from and that she like the British accent.
Additionally she mentioned her love for children and that her dream was to be a teacher of English in the primary stage. In spite of that, she wanted to challenge this love which as she describes caused her many troubles from the students being too noisy and disobedient in an annoying and distracting way.
Being newly graduate, she showed good awareness of the curriculum and contributed in mentioning the importance of the awareness of the methodologies in a national level. Although she was talking with impressing confidence and accuracy in her language, she pointed out that the creativity in the teacher should be in the extra area where the teacher is free to teach the way she sees appropriate for her students needs.
She was also very optimistic and enthusiastic, unlike most of the other participants. She mentioned loving the curriculum and she mentioned the importance of not giving up when getting no results from the teacher (resilience).
She plans to continue her studies and gain a Master degree in curriculum design as this issue is of great interest to her. She demanded clearer vision of how one can teach and was a little bit confused when asked directly about her definition of what creativity meant to her. She was one of those who paused for a period when hearing that question. At first her answer was somehow partial mentioning the worksheet as an example of being creative in English language teaching. She was also a bit hesitant and using the hedging word maybe more than once
Maybe the worksheets the way that you present the language,
Maybe that you use the materials
Maybe. Thats it
Nonetheless, as the discussion developed she started to give more profound image of how she perceived creativity in her field and saw the phenomena as a full package. She believed that all English language teachers can be creative in some way stating I believe that everyone has a special side and special things that he has inside himself. But maybe he has not got the chance to show this entire thing that he has, but at the end hes going to do what he is capable of. She also said that she trusts herself when it comes to the question of whether she considers herself creative or not, she also emphasized the value of confidence in any creative teacher. Her confidence was clear in trying to present her opinions with evidence, and was sometimes not comfortable when asked about issues she had want to contribute to, such as other creative teachers she attended and role of cooperation in creativity. As a matter of fact, this uneasiness influenced researcher to change the structure of her interviews in a latter stage from a structured to a more open and semi-structured interviews.
She like to use the internet with an open and critical eye in order to choose from what most of language teachers see as the optimal resource (from Cambridge University for example). She mentions that religion and culture is to be taken into consideration when it comes to such material selection (e.g. it is ok to use a pig as character, but not as a role-model or a symbol which is culturally an-expected). She also highlighted that her relationship with the senior teacher was very good and that the senior teacher is a wow.
She says that in she used to love teaching more before the real experience current year as in the training course when she was a student teacher she only taught three days a week. After being a teacher formally she thinks that it is harder than she ever thought. She still likes teaching, but as a new teacher she thought that she was very lenient with her students and that when she moves to a new school by next year she would change her strategy of treating the students. She wants more strictness and less smiling with the students. When researcher asked her more about that, she mentioned that the relationship would be based on a famous saying in Arabic which means that she would try to keep a sting between her as a teacher and her students, as if they pull she would let go a bit, and if they let go she would push a bit to keep the string linking them as it is.
Participant 2
The next participant was from Egypt with experience of 8 years in English language teaching. The questions for this interview were similar to that of the previous participant, except that in this one more questions were produced as the participant initiated and elaborated in some issues.
The interview took almost 90 minutes in two sessions on the insistence and request of the participants, although her very first answers did not sound very lively, but it seems that he topic interested her a lot. Also she felt empowered and wanted to seize the chance to speak her mind in a rather confident, almost lecture like rich contribution. The participants used Arabic for a while and then switched to English during most of the interview time.
She was a teacher from Egypt, and her age was 30 years old. She is married and a mother of a two years old son. Her motherhood matters to her a one of the things that makes her want to keep going was the fear of God and the love of her son. She has been a teacher for 8 years, three of which in secondary schools and five of which were in a primary stage. As for her academic degree she has a bachelor degree in English and pre-master diploma. She was seriously intending to get her masters degree from Canada as she said that she has been preparing her paper with her husband and two children for immigration.
She used the metaphor lost a lot.
Being a teacher in two stages, she thinks that both have their demands but stressed that the primary stage is more demanding and needs more energy from the teacher herself as she is the only one researching for ideas and material.
She suggests that IQ tests should classify students and that this happens in Egypt. She also thinks that it is rare to find a creative student because of the parents desire for them to memorise lessons only and that this is a problem that most Arab countries face and not Kuwait only.
She thinks that parents have a big role and that the diversity of levels also is a burden on the teacher. She mentions that there are sharp varieties in levels within the one classroom. She mentioned that she has a class of 21 girls, and that eight of them are excellent. As for the weak-achievers she mentioned that the load of the curriculum do not leave a time for enough remedial classes.
At the same time part of her definition for the successful and creative language teacher is the attention for the weak student before the high achiever.
Whether she considers herself creative or not was linked to her desire to improve in preparation to immigration to Canada This is why I should improve and know other methods of teaching, because I am not going to stay here.
She is only of the participant who had deep and various definitions of creativity and creative teachers including being an explorer, confident, use of language, material and information background etc. (which will be interpreted and discussed later).
Participant 2 The language, the material, the confident, the background. You must be up to date, there is now something called communicative grammar, teacher should know that we can ask a question without using a question word. The child coming from an American or British school knows that, but the teacher in public schools doesnt so she tells him that this is wrong and he will believe her as a teacher.
She considers that the best source to learn the English language from us the native-speaker who is from Britain, as native speakers from the US for example uses slang more often. She thinks that the background knowledge presented in herhis language is very important in for her to be a creative language teacher.
However she thinks that the curriculum is killer for the background information of the teacher as there will be little time to read of use the language intensively especially in the primary stage. She is one of the few participants who mentioned these elements and maybe this is due to her experience of teaching in the secondary stage for the first years of her teaching experience. She concluded that in the primary stage the teacher can be more creative method wise, while in the secondary stage the teacher can be more creative language-wise.
It is also special about this interview that respondent mentioned cultural side of creativity, language teaching and learning.
She mentions the language use and how important it is to be sensitive to difference
Participant 2 there are gradual ways for requests give me, can you give me, could you give me, may you give me, might you give me so to explain this you have to point to the second culture. In Arabic its different. In greeting, Hi can be impolite if you say it to someone who does not know you they cant accept that its impolite, so I have to teach student that about that about the second culture. Also there are meanings that are in the Arabic language that is connected to the culture and religion.
In the second session of the interview, researcher was asking about the importance of creativity in Kuwait, and her answer was that the diversity of nationalities in it makes it important for language teachers to be creative. She gave an example which she saw as a result of lack of creativity where she witnessed a Kuwaiti boy talking to a Pilipino cashier mixing the English and the Arabic words to make an order in MacDonald. She thinks that this is due to killing the language when teachers ask learners to learn the language just to pass the exams.
She also expressed the way she perceives the Kuwaiti society as girls want to get married and the boys want to join the army which is somehow a misconception which she later corrected by mentioning that the number of girls exceed the number of boys in all educational stages.
This can show that even though there are mixed nations living in Kuwait, little did they communicate in a level which makes the non-Kuwaitis understand the culture completely and accurately. They share work places and with Kuwaitis, they are co-workers but very few are friends outside the workplace. Also for their children, they mostly prefer private (language) school rather than public schools and some explicitly express their view that the teaching in the public schools is weak and would not help the student in case heshe moved back to her country. Generally speaking, non-Kuwaitis are not provided free schooling unless their parents are teachers in any educational institute in Kuwait other professions have to enrol their children in private schools.
Codes Participant 3
The next participant has a long experience both in Kuwait and in home country Egypt.
This interview was third one that was used for piloting the study. The participant was 40 years old from Egypt. She has been teaching since 1992. She taught almost 12 years in Egypt in an elementary and secondary school. However, when she moved to teach in Kuwait she taught and in the primary stage. The participant preferred using Arabic during most of the interview time.
It was a coincidence that the teacher at the time of the interview had just received a complaint from one of the parents about being too strict with the girls and the social worker spoke to her on the behalf of the parents. This issue make her centralise her answers and topics, which researcher wanted to stop, however when letting her go with the flow of her emotions she started bringing lively examples of how she teaches and then related that to creativity in her defence of how much she cares about the students and how creative she is as a teacher. This interview also indicated that letting the interview be lead by the flow of the interviewees emotions and ideas is beneficial especially in the first stage of interviewing.
She has four children and she also has a teenager who she was discussing how hard it is to deal with children when they want their independence and seek a little distance especially when he is with friends. She was laughing when she was discussing the transformation of her children and how every stage in her childrens life teacher her new skill in nurturing and supporting them.
She defined herself as a sociable and outgoing person. For this very reason she had chosen to teach the English language. She said that she likes to deal with different types of people. Even when she was in a secondary school back in Egypt she volunteered during the summer vacation to teach kids in a rural town I taught everything, I love change.I I have chosen English because I love the language and learning English would enable me to travel abroad, I have always wanted to move. And this happened to me with my one and a half year scholarship to Scotland in 2003 where I practiced the language and with me working here in Kuwait. So she is grateful to the English language as if it was the road through which she can fulfil her dreams of being a person who travels, learns and teaches.
She thinks that listening is a skill that not only teaches the skill on listening but it also help the child speak better as well, so it strengthens all skills. This to her can apply for adults too as she is strongly with the idea that learning is not just to write in the exam English learning should be used and practiced. This is way she feels that there is a need of more showrooms in Kuwait as moving material is important including data show, CDs etc.
This proves that learning and being faces with different experience and age group can change her belief of what the best tool is. Coming from a background of a teacher of adults and teenagers in Egypt, it was hard to for her when she first arrived as a childrens teacher in Kuwait to deal with the various and lively materials which was needed for this age group. But after view years of experience, she believes in the importance of such materials and tools and even spends her personal time and money to search for new and useful material when possible.
Being that social and outgoing person, she thinks that the lack of communication with parents is a big problem. She wants constant and direct contact with them to discuss the students level as well as many other problems. Therefore, it was a big disappointment to her that she was receiving formal complaints on papers (in the social workers office) without prior face-to-face meetings with the complaining parents.
She took the chance to left this out of her chest, although she new I have to authority over the parents or the social worker etc. She justified he strictness in the classroom to the fact that she wanted an organised classroom. In addition, to be able to teach and give all what she has been preparing for them, she required their full attention. I need organisation because English language needs that, I cant spoil them.
she said that she wanted to speak to the parents and make them what was wrong as well as the great effort she puts up to the classroom. Then she started giving examples and almost portrayed in her words how she used different forms of settings and styles to serve the subject she is teaching and tries to simplify what might be look too complex and confusing in the curriculum, it is not just what is written in the book....the curriculum can be dry and abstract but I try to change it. She likes to present units in a fun way with role playing and presentations, I let them talk. She even welcomed researcher and invited her to attend one of her classes whenever researcher could.
She said that this made her feel low to enter the classroom, but she dealt with that with her forgiving nature.
She says that she forgets everything once she is with the children in the classroom as they are the age of my youngest son.
These first three piloting interviews provided lots of common codes. These are discussed in a different section of this study.
Participant 4
This following participant is one the participant who preferred to speak in Arabic throughout the interview. Unlike, the first three teachers, she openly explained that she better expresses herself in Arabic.
It was a face-to-face interview and it took about 50 minutes and then she had to teach.
She is 30 years old and at the time of the interview she has been teaching English in the primary stage for 8 years in girls schools, seven of which were in the current school. She has spent seven years in the current school and only one year which was her first in another area.
Interestingly, she was educated and trained in the college of education from Kuwait University to teach the in term to educate the secondary schools. However she has been chosen to teach in the primary stage. She is not the only one which chose to teach in a level and to an age group which differs from what she was prepared and educated. She is also from a different education background than the other participants presented in this paper.
Initially she was nervous at first and even wanted to know the questions before the actual interview. The researcher then tried to make the interview more relaxed in saying that she is there to learn and investigate and there is no such thing as wrong answer. It was then getting easier once she started talking and explaining her views and her needs as a teacher.
Like the first two teachers she was expressing that the pressure of the curriculum along with the lack of understanding and communication with the parents was forming a serious problems for her. Her dreams was just to be a teacher without the loads of other administrative tasks that were increasingly added to the teachers schedule and responsibility. She says that all of these tasks such as supervising during break time and taking classes when their main teacher is absent is taking all their energy and attention, then there will be little focus and energy for their main role as teachers.
She says that she is one of the most committed teachers in the school. She also mentioned that she was not absent last year for even one day. In spite, of that she barely finished the lessons.
She mentioned one important point about the curriculum which is the lack of research and piloting done on the new changes and curriculum before making formal decisions that it is to be taught nationwide in Kuwait.
She frankly mentioned that this physical and psychological tension is affecting her drive and motivation. She said that used to love teaching more when she was a student teacher, but now in real teaching she feels bored and demotivated and says that there is a very limited space for creativity in her mind and schedule, she is committed to the teachers guide and her preparation which she would be asked about step by step in case she has a visitor who would evaluate she whether the senior teacher, the school manger or the supervisor. Still she says that the biggest and first thing that motivates her in the school is the senior teacher and how brilliant she is in comforting them and in being a good friend with them and that without her teaching would be almost impossible. Then there is the love of children and seeing them learning is her best price.
She also committed like the second and third participant on the special needs student at school who require specialist. The holidays, the lack of parents help are also things that double the pressure on her as a teacher. The new decision which implies that the children in the first three years in the primary stage do not repeat the year even if they are too weak worsens the situation in her view.
She feels that learning English in Kuwait is essential and encourages students to pay attention to every detail they face in the street which is written or mentioned in English language.
After the first four interviews, it was clear that the senior teacher was highlighted by the 4 interviews as a positive side with special abilities to be a friend as well as a senior teach who will partly be writing their annual reports. Thus it was thought that an interview with her is important.
Participant 5 Senior Teacher
The first senior teacher to be interviewed was of the age of 42. The total years of experience were twelve. First she was at home for 8 years after graduation from college of arts-Kuwait University then she started to teach. She felt that she needed to be with her own children when she was at college. Therefore she needed this time to be with them.
After starting work, she reflects that being a working mom is better than being a stay-at-home mom especially that all her children are at school now, she leaves and comes back home at similar times like them. She remembers that staying at home eventually made her feel a bit lazy and that going to work and teach made her feel more productive both at home and at school. It gave her the feeling of discipline and commitment along with the fact that she knew what her children might be going to at schools. She has children who are in secondary stage and she also has a daughter at the current school. She was even introduced to researcher when researcher was at the school when the girl came to ask about other member of staff.
She mentioned that all her children are good at English. She also feels that her students are good at other subjects without her help. She seems to be very proud of that. She feels that English is very important. She is the only participant who had a different opinion when it comes to the involvement of parents to their children all the time. She wants Arabic to be used at home. English needs to be used at school and any academic place. She believed that moms who talk to their children in English publically are just showing off their abilities in the language. She also stresses that English schools and nurseries are wanted and preferred by parents more than ever. Its only English, English, English that parents looked for even at the expense of other school subjects.
At the same time she confirms that the weakness in the English learning in public schools (where English is taught a separate subject) is due to the factor of fear of the language itself. The reason for this fear is adult themselves, teachers from other departments although received their university education mainly in English have fear from its use as they think that they dont master it. They even refuse to engage in activities with the English departments when the make programmes on school level for morning programmes or in events like Ramadan etc.
For children she thinks that there are barriers in all levels of schools. In the last year of school (year 12) rarely you hear of a student who says that English is an easy subject, even those who are excellent in all subject find English hard.
For the small children to speak in English is highly prestigious by younger generations of parents, but other than that there is a great fear of the language. This conflict was discussed, as how come there is the motive and desire to learn the language whether for prestigious reasons or for the need of it in universities and colleges. Yet there are endless complaints of how difficult and weak the English language learning is in Kuwait.
She says, like many other teacher that they are not listened too and execution of decisions by decision makers happen before thorough study in the field and the results and reaction to this. Many reflections and opinions are taken, but not taken into consideration. Each authority throws the ball in the field of those less authorative than them.
There are teachers who try to correct and compensate for what goes wrong in the curriculum and feel guilty otherwise, and others who are careless and just do as they are told without adding their touches (their creativity).
She also talked about differences between learning abilities and social problems. She explained further that there is a need for psychiatrist as well as activating the needs of social workers. On the other hand, she says that even when there is a problem that is out of ones hand someone can do something about it. I sometimes try to educate the teachers in staff meeting even on matters of learning disabilities and dyslexia, none the less she fears to go further with that as her information is limited and taken from her little research on the internet I just try to inform them on the principles.
She says that many choose to teach in the primary stage thinking. It is the easiest stage to teach, even though it is a critical stage. She also feels that what ever happens, at the end of the day the teacher is always held responsible for all trouble. She highlights the victimisation of the teachers in these processes. Teachers are held responsible for the decisions they have not even taken. She has a lot in common with other teachers when it comes to resources as the native-speaker is the best ones.
She mentioned the importance of training courses especially before and during making big changes in the curriculum. In spite of the fact that she attended training courses, she felt that those were not useful by English trainers because they knew nothing about the curriculum. Yet they were requested by the ministry of education to organise training courses on it. She still feels that they should make training courses. She mentioned that British Council, and even was thinking of proposing the idea of suggesting them visit to public schools for teachers to make use of their language and accents.
She reflected on how important it is to have training courses in the field, and remembers her first day she started to teach. She recalled it in the following manner
I entered the classroom in a shock I taught and developed myself. No one taught me. I knew no materials then I self educated myself and became better
This is because she was a student in the college of arts (English language and literature) and had no idea how to teach. Little to no help was given, she was self-taught. Thus up to this date, when ever a new teacher comes, she as a senior teacher maker sure that she is giving them lots of time to guide them and organise a schedule of fellow teachers visit.
As for her relation with English language teachers, she is responsible to evaluate. This was the major reason fro interviewing her. She mentioned that there is a balance. She is the friendliest and yet finishes all her duties and works before any other strict senior teacher in the school and even in the educational area. One reason for her friendly strategy in treating teachers is that she always puts herself in the place of the teacher. She says that she does not restrict teachers from doing anything unless it is harmful, and work. She does not ask teacher to do anything that is not useful. Other might stop teachers from taking leaves and oblige them to finish work just to prove that she is the one in control. She always puts in mind that teachers are also human beings who have other responsibilities like home children and husbands.
She says that because she is too nice with the teachers, the last thing they want to do is to let her down when she asks them to do anything. On the contrary, they do it happily and willingly but in the way and timing that suited them and the deadline. This is believes that this is a social intelligence that each one with authority should have. At the same time she reflected on the parents who always complain and want absolutely no authority to be given to the teacher over their child.
She feels that she has lots of ideas and suggestions such
If they love the teaching they will be good enough, I wish I can be a minister (laugh)
Another aspect she shed light on is the fact that teachers do not read she always encourages them to read but there are not enough books in the library and not until next year that all teachers can have access to the internet at school. At home they are too exhausted and busy to read the stress make them read less. However, she insisted that reading is one her passions and she enjoys reading a lot.
After studying the codes and categories of the first five interviews, it became important to ensure that the next participants are from different backgrounds and schools to make sure that the codes and observations were not merely linked to the context of a single school. It was a step further to verify the codes. This also helped to see if there are new ones which can help guide the following set of participants and interviews.
At this stage, researcher was also seeking flow of ideas and open ended questions. However researcher felt that she should start to slightly direct the dialogue to the code and category she was looking for. At the same time researcher also wanted to allow new ones to emerge from the same.
Participant 6
The next participant was from different educational area in Kuwait (Mubarak AlKhabeer). She is Kuwaiti, 24 years old she is divorced after a short marriage when she was at college. After divorce, she felt that her certificate would be her weapon as it would financially secure her. She says that the hard work in teaching sometimes makes her forget the pain she got from being a divorcee. Writing Arabic poems is one of her favourite hobbies. She has two years teaching experience and the current one was her third. She was second participant who is not qualified from an educational college but from the college of art. Like one of the previous respondent, the senior teacher from AL-Aasah, she expressed her shock especially that she is still considered new in the teaching field.
She teaches in a boys school. Also she preferred to be interviewed in Arabic, as she was very emotional about her situation and how un-understanding their senior teacher is.
She thinks that the teachers are suffering because of the mistakes which come from those who are sitting on their chairs and making laws and plans that are worthless they might be sleepy at the time of launching their ideas.
She is teaching year one and two who are very active especially since it is boys school which is known to be harder to teach in because they are more active than girls. Lack of appreciation was her issue during the interview. The tiredness and stress was getting her as she feels that she has constant headaches and when she was first appointed she used to have constant fever and exhaustion symptoms.
Researcher asked her about the reason behind her choice to be a teacher
Frankly speaking I was not planning to be a teacher, but after a deep thinking I found out that there was more positive than negative things in teaching. I still seek information and consultation from any other more experiences teacher, even though the educational colleges teachers encourage me and tell me that sometimes their college do not add anything except the final semester where you get to really teach.
One major problem that she faces when she became a teacher is that she is evaluated upon what she does outside the classroom rather than how she performs inside the classroom. when we were interviewed before to be accepted as teachers they never told us that we will be reporters, writers, actresses and music composers and lastly and lastly teachers. Activities and programmed outside the classroom was required more than when she does in the classroom and how she does it.
Paper work and test preparation was too much. She thinks that supervisions have unreasonable decisions. There are also lacks in the teaching staff. You dont even have a thanking word, their hearts have no mercy.
She objects the idea of taking the children from the PE, music and art periods to undertake remedies for English language difficulties. They did not think before asking us to do that, there periods that the children enjoy the most, if we take them they will have English...There decisions are ill and in a critical situation.
We cant find time to eat breakfast. She mentioned that so do many others that is because there is not a formal break time for teachers and workers in Kuwait. Respondent says that is something making her to have more patience is that she wants to be a good person.
As for her relationship with the senior teacher and the school manager, she thinks that they do not understand and cannot believe that they were teachers or even educators at one stage of their lives.
She believes that they cannot be creative because of the constant hard work on all levels we are not machines. Her relationship with colleges is much better as they share the same problems and pressure. She sees that she is self-taught with the help if her colleagues.
The senior teacher working with the respondent is different than the previous untrained respondent. This senior teacher is the reason why respondent 6 is devastated and sometimes feels like quitting. She believes that a good senior teacher is a fair and friendly. Senior teacher is the one who should have the quality and ability to nicely communicate with others. She also needs to do the paper work that she is responsible help and seek help from teachers only when needed. Love and respect normally makes people want to work, we need a family-like environment, and its a human nature. She experienced that only during the first semester of teaching, before the change of the senior teacher.
When she was asked about what she does about being under pressure and unappreciated by her senior teacher, she said that this makes her want to do just what is basically required and nothing more. It even drove her to be somehow careless even about her evaluation report. I just do what my consciousness tells me, nothing more.
She mentioned that loved teaching, she even feels very enthusiastic before work and have an abdominal pain just like a child who is about to do something important. I come to school to be faced with lack of appreciation a smile would be very good, I cant understand what they will lose if they smile. Then I do not feel like coming to school at all also likes children. She asks her to teach four periods in a row. I wish I can forget it all.
Participant 7
The next participant is 26 years old. She is the female teacher in a primary school for boys in Al-Fawarania educational Area. She very dedicated to her teaching and its details. She likes to discuss every single detail in the English language teaching. She has three years of experience. This year she was chosen to teach the first and the third year.
Although she was afraid to teach the first grade, she is very happy about them and enjoyed teaching and felt creative with them although when she leaves their classroom she feels she has just finished a marathon. Last year she taught the year three which is very controversial and almost all teachers I met always complained about it. One description which caught my attention was that the year there became mind field, everyone is afraid to come close to it. Any teacher who was not chosen to teach this year was considered lucky mainly because the gap between the simple year two and the complex year three.
Most teachers agree that year one and two give the teacher a space to be creative but is hard to control pupils in them. They think that it these two years are full of activities and songs that are fun o teach and learn. As for year four and five they are easier to teach but the creative parts of it is not clear. However, year three always needed more improvement. The choice of the grade that the teachers teach is mostly decided by senior teachers and assistant managers of schools and it is rarely the decision of the teacher herself.
Although she was very friendly with children, she was also talking about the control and class management which was the common thing which was mentioned by most participating teachers when it comes to the treatment of the children. She is a person who always feels like giving, advising and helping colleagues.
As for her choice of the language (whether Arabic or English) during the interview her answer was
Its good to speak English, but sometimes you need to explain things more accurately so you use Arabic to be clearer.
She believed that students in private schools speak better English due to the loads of homework and worksheets (she gave the example of her year two niece who can easily pass the year five public school test). However, she explains that teachers even in public schools should be using English language most of the time and that Arabic can be used only for emergencies.
She started talking about her love for the year two although they were active and they are extra active since it is a boys school. However, what was special about her opinion on this first year of the primary school is that they are likedough which can be shaped into whatever the teacher wanted them to be like. She expressed her love to this young stage saying they are so nice, you feel like eating them.
In spite of her flaring excitement about teaching and children she still finds some work tasks as useless and make them live the distraction. She says that students, teachers as well as parents as distracted and their ideas are lost. Also a common description of this school year between participants was takhabut.
Year one tests children mainly on body parts, alphabet, family members, talking about a picture, true or false or numbering a story events. Activities are known as light ones between teachers.
Supervisions idea of remedy lessons at the expense of arts and PE lessons is seen useless and exhausting for both teachers and students. However, she mentions that the PE and music supervisor objected and no more PE lesson can turn into English ones anymore. She thinks that the step of taking the children from these lessons has made no progress and is by no mean encouraging creativity.
New changes are stories and values which sound great but most are complaining, including her even though she seemed to enjoy her time more than others.
Participant 8
The following participant also was one of the enthusiastic teachers.
The teacher is a teacher in a boys primary stage. She was qualified to teach in secondary school, but when she finished she was chosen to teach in the primary stage as a result of the lack of human resources there.
She was pleased about this choice and thought that primary stage is better for her. She has four years of experience.
She thinks that the administrative work is almost the basis of the school managers evaluation to any teacher. And she hates that, she hates moving around the school and organising pupils during the break time. She adds that she has a friend from Syria who mentions that teachers there only teach and mark the exam papers, and the rest of the work even the report writing is not part of the teachers responsibilities.
She does her best to get an excellent report results, and she also thinks it is a good feeling for the salary to increase even if it was only fifteen Kuwaiti dinars (almost 30 pounds).
She takes care of the appearance of her classroom as well as anything she presents in the presence if the senior teacher, manager or supervisor. She also thinks that to be creative, it is good to celebrate the teacher formally as in the teachers day etc.
She encourages all teachers to design all their teaching aids and stressed that they are simple, cheap and effective in catching the students attention and showed lots of the charts and work of her own.
She mentioned the vital role of her relation with her senior teacher in encouraging her and giving her a fresh feeling and desire to give.
Participant 9
The next teacher works in Hawally educational area and she has an educational background in college.
She talked about her personal life when asked to introduce herself. She has a 3 and a half year old girl who goes to nursery and a 7 year old boy who likes Jacky Chan and she thinks it is a great idea to divide the class into groups after the name of the kids favourite characters.
She is in the general relation committee in the school so she knows all the important national and international dates. Part of her plan is to be a senior teacher in the near future. So the majority are either aspiring to be senior teachers, and some are planning to obtain a masters degree.
She thinks that the absence of the teacher is a major negative thing that any teacher can do. Not only student will be affected, but the whole school including the teacher herself as she will have to take additional classes and the senior teacher will have to reschedule to replace her during the absence days, and the whole school will hate to deal with her.
As for the pressure on the teachers she thinks that the school secretary is responsible as half of the administrative duties are supposed to performed by them.
She is very calm and that she thinks made her close to the school manager and makes other teacher uncomfortable talking about everything with her thinking that she would tell the school manager
She focused a lot on the role of homework in encouraging student in independent work, try to finish the curriculum in time, help useful time use, parent-child bond. They are mainly written, memorial, reading, activity and long term assignment.
She also spoke about the role of the senior teacher. She thinks the senior teacher must defend the teachers in her department, treat them as a sister. Not to let anyone hurt them or overload work, and she should be patient and bear with them.
In the summer vacation she is planning to develop a programme for low achievers that is well studied.
She spoke openly about the administration in her school and mentioned that they are cooperative. She mentions that she refuses to be treated unfairly and that she always does something about it. As for her relations with her colleagues, she likes them a lot but if she sees things that do not please her, she prefers leaving the place than telling on her colleague.
She thinks also that the teachers should be a friend not an enemy to the pupil she hates those who are always screaming and being nervous in the classroom as this can demotivate the learner. She also criticises those who do not like to participate in activities outside the classroom and cannot make the right decisions in the right time.
Participant 10
The next participant is actually a student teacher who is doing her last practical training course before graduating and becoming a teacher formally. She is from Kuwait University, unlike most of the other Kuwaiti teachers who were from the college of basic education. She works in a Girls school in Hawally educational area. She teacher third grade although everyone seems to admit that it is difficult.
She also used personal information to introduce herself as she has been newly engages, preparing for her wedding and is in her final courses in college.
Exchanging ideas with her experienced colleagues is extremely important to her (she constantly asks questions). It is also noticeable that when she seeks help on finding ideas she insists on getting creative ideas from colleagues as well as any source (such as the internet) to help her stand out as a new teacher in the presence of the school manager and the supervisor. She thinks that workshops are important for her to collect ideas and be more creative.
She mentions that at the beginning it was very confusing to her and she could not teach the workbook for instance even though the senior teacher taught half of her lesson to show her how to teach. Nonetheless, by now she mentions that she is gaining confidence gradually to produce and introduce her own ideas to other teachers in her school (such as the whispering game, acting verbs).
The following teacher also works in a girls school, but in Al-Alhmady educational area. She is 32 years old. She taught 6 years in secondary schools, and 3 years in primary school.
One of her favorite hobbies is cooking. One of her dreams is to get a masters degree from the Open University in Kuwait. She wishes to get married and has a girl one day.
She thinks that people should not be working to please their Boss but rather to please themselves and to do than according to what God wants us to do in the best way we can possibly do. That is why she thinks that authority people should not form a pressure on those who are less authoritative than them.
She already passes the conditions and interviews to be a senior teacher for next year but doe not know what to expect and where her new school will be as it is a must for any one upgraded to be moved from her current school. She is more resilient than others. She never thought of leaving the teaching profession.
She points out that the second year in the primary stage is nice and give space for creativity, unlike the third grade which was exhausting for her last year and required additional classes (she also complained about the gap between the second and the third grade).
She thinks it is creative that she does not use the teacher, and that the teacher can be clever enough to overcome any limitation in the curriculum herself.
Being a candidate to be a senior teacher herself next year, she spoke about the importance of the role of senior teacher for the success of any department.
She is also against being too strict with the students as the teacher should be satisfied with what she is doing.
6.3 Senior teachers
The reason behind choosing senior teachers to be the next participants is the fact that decisions and decision makers were repeatedly reported to be obstructing teachers creative space, or as a motivating factor in case the senior teacher had a positive relation with her teachers. Senior teachers are seen as the connectors between teachers and decision makers plus being teachers themselves. Additionally, teachers have frequently expresses the importance of the good relationship with the supervisor. For example, the first four participants said that their senior teacher is a helping factor. Most of the subsequent five mentioned that their senior teachers are either suppressing creative ideas or potentials or are not facilitating it by performing their role optimally.
Participant 11
She is the senior teacher from Hawally educational area in a girls school. She says that some people always complain, but they dont complain when they receive their salaries.
She has not an expert in her money management especially when she receives 3 salaries for the three months of the summer vacation she lends two of them and makes sure she receives each with a new month so that she does not spend them all at once.
Her children in a private bilingual school and she thinks its way better than the public schools, Children are having fun there Translated.
When asked about her relation with the teachers in her department, she mentioned the type of advice she usually give to any teacher to pave the way to creativity.
She sees that the teacher should be organise and encourage the student to tidy up so that she does not waste the time of the lesson on tidying up etc. She thinks that the school manager also takes these issues into consideration when evaluating a teacher. She also suggests grouping and naming the groups as well as a leader for this group to elicit answers and catch attention. Moreover, she mentions that she always advice teachers to use the English language and help students using them practically for everyday use in the classroom such as requests of water and toilets.
As a senior teacher she explains that she knows what supervisors expect from teachers which are spreading the attention on all levels and on all girls and encouraging pupil-pupil interaction instead of teachers lecturing.
She also sees that the movement of the teacher is important for her creativity. She gave and example of introducing a letter and how essential the body movement is for the understanding of the pupils of how to write for example. Tracing the letter in the air energetically can make the learners learn faster, she thinks.
Participant 12
The next senior teacher is from Al-Aasmah educational area in a boys primary school. One of her hobbies is watching American movies and series which she prefers with Arabic subtitles. She also likes to learn more on Photoshop and other computer software.
She thinks that the load of work and the rapid pace which are required to keep up with give her head-ache. She hates that changes are taking place constantly and without a rationale. She always feels exhausted.
She likes to treat her teachers in a special ways and one of her ways to encourage them is to give them thanking certificates at the end of the school year.
As for her views and understanding of creativity, she said that she prepared a general meeting on multiple intelligences in the computer lab of the school. The meeting was full of useful discussions and data show was employed. She also undertook a test for the teachers, senior teachers and school managers who attended.
This can show that the psychoanalytical approach of creativity is still highly appreciated and believed in by teachers.
Participant 13
The next senior teacher does not complain a lot but when it comes to decision like extending the school year she thinks it is unfair especially that the weather temperature can be up to 50 degrees in summer.
She thinks that the features of the best senior teacher is the one which does not accept to put other through experiences which she personally hate going through. Also it is important to be a true role model in her manners and commitment. She sees that it is necessary to be open minded and that creativity involved new ideas in the field, designed by those who are in the field as this can enable the teacher to work on the needs of her students.
As for her relation with the teachers in her department, she thinks it is a must to be friendly and understanding. She says that she never asks them to do work that she should do such as paper works and files. She even helps those preparing exams and tests and shares many responsibilities with them. She believes that the English department in the school is the most hardworking one.
She even pointed out that there are days were she does not go to bed for two days in a row and in those moments she thought of changing her career.
The next senior teacher has only seven years of experience. She works in a boys school in Al-Farwania educational area. Thinks that presents for the school manager is useless unless the ministry knows about them.
She thinks that teacher should stop complaining and start acting, we always through the blame on the decision makers while we can do a lot. Why always wait for a miracle to happen
She thinks that confidence is important in each teacher and can make one successful even if she had not have any educational courses in teaching.
She plans to change her school for next year for a brand new one.
She sees that the curriculum costs millions and it was such a waste of money as she thinks it is hard to fix it. It should be ready to be taught, instead, teachers are doing their best without any noticeable improvement. She uses the image of an outfit which should be tailored to fit the person not to design it loose or tight so that the person has extra work on it.
The children are not happy with the curriculum, she mentions and the characters of the book do not interest the children at all. Also the development of levels is not as smooth as in the Arabic lessons for example.
She thinks that there are creative teachers and there are careless teachers as well, and the curriculum did not do fair to any group.
She expressed her disappointment and lack of hope with the new changes for the coming school year and mentioned that their voice have not been listened to long time ago.
Participant 14
She is a senior teacher from Mubarak Al-Kabeer educational area. She loves reading on topics of self development how to develop yourself and strengthen your character. To her creativity is to deliver the knowledge with the easiest and fastest way. Games and songs outside the curriculum play a critical role for any creative teacher.
She thinks that the reading lessons and the remedial lessons are taking lots of energy from the teacher and she expresses her understanding of how hardworking the teachers are and how much effort they pay. She even plans to take action by telling the teachers to write a list of the negative sides of the remedial lessons so that she gives them to the school manager who will send it to the supervision.
However, she showed her disappointment as every year there is a questionnaire on the gap between year two and three, but nobody listens. However, as for the general changes for next year she was pleased with them and hopes that will work effectively.
She says that her son would not have made it last year without her full help in explaining, practicing and supporting homework writing.
She mentions that she likes to be fair as a senior teacher so that she pleases her conscious and religious satisfaction.
As a creative senior teacher she says that she uses the internet sources to make staff meetings and she shows one on the topic of a good teacher, one on lesson plan and even on creativity which she has quoted from the internet.
Observation
Observation A
This observation took place of April 2009 in the third period (almost 9 pm). It was in a girls primary school and the teacher was an Egyptian English language teacher (female teacher). The length of the period is 45 minutes.
Class Settings
There was a whiteboard and next to the whiteboard is a closet at the corner. There were 2 big windows to the on one side of the classroom. Opposite of the whiteboard were four half-circle shaped desks with different colours (and the shape and colour were provided by the ministry of education). There were one green desk, one red desk and 2 yellow desks, and 3 to 5 pupils are sharing the same desk. There were around 21 pupils in this classroom. There was a chair and table for the teacher in front of the whiteboard facing the pupils.
Teaching Aids
The teaching aids which were brought by the teacher are a zoo model, flash cards and a wall chart (the last two provided by the ministry of education), overhead projector, and her teachers preparation and pupils book.
From here onwards in this study teacher is referred to as T and the pupils is referred as P.
Teaching process
After greetings, the teacher starts by writing a question down on the whiteboard. Two pupils are picked up by the teacher to help each other writing the answer with correct spelling etc. There was some assistance from the teacher to them both.
The teacher then asked one student, student says I dont know in Arabic, and the teacher encouraged by saying there is no such thing as I dont know (in Arabic)
T instructs two girls to write (pupils can write on their own most of the time)
Two girls write down the right answer and they are applauded.
T who wants to play (Smiling)
Picks one
Hanouf jump (The pupil jumps), then
T what is she doing all pupils she is jumping,
T what animal jumps And points at the animals wall chart
(To emphasize zoo animals and present continuous tense)
T in a strict tone, be polite, put your hands on desk and dont say teacher (pupils usually raise their hands and call teacher to be picked up for participation in the lesson)
P teacher
T Again teacher dont say teacher (teacher is smiling)
T What animal is brown (In Arabic I want those at the back who are sleeping to answer)
P Bee,
T Which animal can sing
P No one answers
T I want someone to sing to me even in Arabic (Girls start to chat and laugh, dont be shy)
P One pupil is picked up by teacher and girls next to her encourage her come on, but she does not sing.
(When no one sung, the teacher tries to find the direct translation into Arabic)
T What does sing mean in Arabic
P JFJ
T Which animal is brown and can sing
P A bird
T Open your books page 26, and silent please
Let us go back to the lesson.
(They open and it is the same picture another teacher used overhead projector.)
All look at the book with the zoo animals picture
T What is the giraffe doing
P (Does not know)
T To let her know that it is standing, the teacher asks the pupil to sit and stand and she does, then
T So is the giraffe standing of sitting
P Standing
T ok, so tell me a full sentence.
P The giraffe is standing.
(The pupils are very active, attentive and the teacher is close and smiling most of the time, pupils seem to be treating the teacher without the traditional barrier of teacher-student relationship)
The teacher makes some jokes, one pupil stand up for answering and the girl next to her answer before her, so the teacher tells the standing girl to do the same thing next time)
Teacher is stressing the use of ing (the present continuous tense), while presenting animals and their descriptions.
T lets play
Asks each desk of 3-4 girls to number their groups from 1-4
The teacher then directs the groups.
T Group 1 choose an animal
Group 1 picks one and asks group 2 to describe it
Then group 2 choose one another animal and asks group 3 to describe it
Group 3 answers then choose another animal to ask group 4 to describe it.
(Group interaction is noticed).
The next activity is re-ordering on the board.
The teacher writes down Jump- is a rabbit. A girl comes and tries to re-order
(The board is lined for words to be written between 4 lines)
(T silent (addressing the rest of the pupils), p (still look comfortable, but does not answer
T I will give you 10 marks if you answer me, what is wrong with her sentence (in Arabic)
(The bell rings and the girl start to prepare to leave for the PE lesson before the English language teacher stops talking). The teacher laughs and tells them that it is ok to leave but that they should wait a bit more next time.
Observation (B) This observation was in a government girls primary school, in the English language lesson.
It was in 20th of April, 2009 at the 6th period. The teacher is a Kuwaiti female teacher.
Researcher entered the class room. It was few minutes after which the teacher has entered as she requested some time for her to set the whiteboard and the desks and table for her lesson.
There is a closet almost in each classroom to store the books and notebooks that the student does not need and accordingly make their bags lighter in weight as a result of a ministry decision.
Also the tables are half-circle shaped and is designed for group of 3-5 pupils to share it.
There are 4 tables, thus the number of the girls is almost 23. There is a large white board, overhead projector, flash cards, wall chart and a desk for the teacher and her preparation book.
The teacher starts with making lines to write sentences on the board and writes some sentences.
There was some greeting where all girls stand up and respond by saying good morning teacher.
Researcher sat at the back of the classroom and tried not to distract the attention of the pupils or the teacher.
The teacher (T) wrote a sentence for pupils (p) to read it.
T who can read
P its got a big mouth (Then the teacher asks more pupils to read the same sentence).
T who has a big mouth (It seems that the topic of animals has been introduced in previous lessons).
P lion had a big mouth. (Then this is repeated by rest of the pupils).
T (another sentence is written by the teacher, then she asks) who can read
P A camel has got four legs (the girl was applauded, one girl did not answer so she was asked to remain standing until she listens to other pupils reading correctly- then the whole class repeated with the teacher raising her voice when reading the sentence) (it is a norm for studentspupils to stand up when answering or talking to the teacher).
Next activity
T we have missing letters (the teacher puts some animal flashcards with pictures and underneath them is the name of each animal)
A pupil comes forward to the board, teacher helps her to write small letter and reminds her that the letter D is to be written differently in capital letter.
Then the Teacher asks a pupil to come to the board and point at an animal flash card and then ask the rest of the class to make them either say yes it is, or no it isnt. For example a pupil would point at a cats picture and ask is it a bird the rest would answer no, it isnt, then she would keep doing this until she says is it a cat, and they reply with yes, it is
Pupils seemed to enjoy this as they were all they were smiling.
The teacher asks 6 students to come forward, they line up facing the rest of the pupils and each one is given a picture of an animal.
The first pupil is asked by the teacher. T describe your animal. Then teacher elicit descriptions by further questions like what it is and what colour is it, what does it do etc.
Pupils were holding pictures of and describing the following animals bird, monkey, sheep, giraffe, horse, and an elephant.
Almost all pupils are attentive and teacher thanks them
There was one time that the pupil made a mistake and the teacher repeats it in way to show the pupil that her answer is wrong)
Then, the Teacher holds flash cards with words and picture on it, writes it down and makes girls spell and repeat.
What is the tiger doing (Points to the pictures sleeping) The tiger is eating now (to emphasize present continuous)
(One pupil opens her book, and does not look at what all pupil do (gets distracted by it, the teacher tells her close your book)
Then teacher switches off lights, to use the overhead projector (she shows them a picture of a zoo animals together and each is engaged in doing something, this picture is from the pupils book, but the teacher made it a transparency.
T what are these animals
Picks up pupils to mention animals names and describe what each is doing. So it seems that the aim was animals, yesno questions and answers, has got and present continuous tense. Generally speaking, the girls are keen to participate, and they all raise their hand and call the teacher teacher repeatedly until she picks someone up.
Observation (C)
Physical Setting of the class was similar to the Observation (B). This class took place during seventh period.
Teacher had used the similar materials for teaching. This class consisted of the special needs that required special care and encouragement. Teacher had used the model more often. The lesson starts with greetings.
The teacher instructs pupils to organise the desks so that equal spaces separate between desks. She used writing on board, overhead and writing.
Activity
Who has got
Lion has got
Pointing at the zoo models what is it doing It is ...ing
Play, a lion role play.
Special needs enjoyed and did well. Sharp but with special needs she gave special care and encouragement. The pupils were a little less active.
Comparative Analysis
The three observations were conducted on different days and different timeperiod. The teachers observed were different in their educational background. The class room setting was slightly different from each other. The way these teachers have dealt with the similar topic was different. Student participation and reaction to the student responses were somehow different in each of the cases. The detailed comparative analysis is as followed
1. Physical setting
The physical setting for the observation A was different from B and C. The tables and desks were half circle shaped with different colours and shapes on it. The colours used were yellow, green and red. The number of students in the class was 21. Chair and table was there for the teacher. The class consisted of a whiteboard and closet. In the observation B and C, half semi-circle shaped tables could incorporate 3-5 pupils at the time.
2. Activities.
There was a use of Zoo model, flash cards, a chart by the teacher, overhead projector, teacher preparation book and pupils book in the observation A. The tables were half-circle shaped in the observation B and C. In the B and C, large white board, overhead projector, flash cards, wall chart and a desk for the teacher and her preparation book were there. The class started with the exchange of greetings of teacher to the students in the Observation A whereas in B teacher took her time to set the class for teaching with writing some lines on the whiteboard and after this process some greetings were exchanged. Activities of the Observation A are more interactive than the activities of the next two observations.
In the observation B, the teacher involvement was not from the start. In this activity, different aspects of animals were used for teaching pupils actions and words and involve in the interactivity. All the teaching aids have been used interactively. This included missing letters using flashcards with pictures and name of animal. The animals used with the flash cards were bird, monkey, sheep, giraffe, horse, and an elephant. Students participated in the activities.
In the observation C, special needs of the students have been taken care. This was more towards understanding the activities of the animals by asking questions like what are they doing.
3. Human and Social Environment.
This deals with the way in which human beings interact within the environment. This includes patterns of interactions, frequency of interactions, direction of communication patterns and decision-making patterns. In the first observation (A) the teacher has maintained the interactivity with the students from the starting of the class. However in the case of observation B, the interactivity with the students took some time after entering the class but after than the overall environment was interactive. However, in the case of C, it was clear that the interactivity is maintained with the students of special needs.
4. Formal interactions.
Teachers have maintained formal relationship with the students within the class. They were interactive, helpful and friendly. At the same time, they have maintained the discipline within the class by making sure that all the students are involved in the activities.
5. Informal interactions and unplanned activities.
There were little or no informal interactions and unplanned activities. There were no such activities noticed in the class. In the observation A the last activity left uncompleted. However, the teacher accepted that cordially and understood that pupils are enthusiastic about the class.
6. Nonverbal communication.
Teachers have maintained the non verbal communication within the class by smiling and appreciating the teachers.
7. Observing what does not happen.
There can be some more activities in the case of observation B and C. The time and resource management in the Observation A was the highest as compared to the remaining two observations. There were more activities that could have been added to the observation B and C.
Chapter seven Discussion
7. Introduction
The method of presenting the results for discussion was done by presenting the participants individual views and thoughts, or by presenting the ideas that are concluded from the data collection altogether. It was intended to present each participant with their ideas, however on the basis of the grounded theory method, ideas and categories are prioritised the most (Strauss Corbin, 1998 Cutcliffe, 2000). This means that the data presented is category based rather than individuals based. The important point one is looking for is the idea. Thus codes and categories with their ideas are better choices to be presented to capture the meaning and ideas of creativity in TESOL in the context of the study to answer the questions of the research. Nonetheless, appreciating the role of the persons individual account brief introductions of participants backgrounds are presented in the previous chapter.
Quotes from participants have been used. Analysis was based on constant comparisons metaphor analysis. This was explained in the methodology chapter. Also subsequently the use of the literature and personal thought has been employed for deeper conclusions.
7.1 Clarity
One of the most important aspects was not as repeatedly appearing as the other aspects has been the aspect of clarity. Only few participants openly discussed this as an issue related to creativity. Nonetheless, it is felt that this was very important and is embedded in what most of the participants expressed when they were not directly talking about creativity. This was present in some of the participants directly. This respondent was the one wanted a clear language teaching methodology explained by the ministry of education on national level. Moreover, one senior teacher mentioned that teachers do not read and do not have the right opportunities to do so. They feel that this was one of the most confusing year for them mostly because of the supervision guidelines and directions, another on did not read, also the load of work makes every one confused and shattered including teachers, children and even parent, they feel that they do not know how to teach some activities, on the other hand they feel that the supervisor and head teacher do not know on what basis they are evaluating teachers. They also feel physically and literally lost looking for places to do additional duties like supporting weak achievers and reading as there are not specialised pre-designed rooms for them.
7.1.1 Discussion of clarity ideas
Participant teachers mention that the decision makers and the people who are traditionally higher in the job hierarchy are not being clear enough in what they want. Changes happen without strong rationales. Changes happen on the level of English language curriculum, the teachers guide, the methods used to deal with low-achievers are all taking place with little or no participation or agreement on the part of the teachers who are executing all of those changes and procedures. This can strongly relate to what has been highlighted in the literature of TESOL and English language teaching about the pendulum and the reason why there is a succession of methodology after the other. One reason is the lack of stable theory that belongs to TESOL as a separate field. The lack of connection and the mere opposition between one methodology and the other, and more recently the idea that there should not from the first place- be a unified methodology defined by those other than the teacher herself depending on her teaching context etc are some other reasons.
The fact that the teachers always complain of loss, confusion and the need of guidance and direction can indicate that they have little space in time, energy and thought to be creative and independent in their teaching preparation, activities and treatment. Teachers need to have time to think and be creative. Therefore it can be inferred that teachers independence and creativity in teaching are interlinked issues. It was clear in the literature review section as well that some kind of freedom and flexibility helps in being creative in the field. The respondents have also mentioned their helplessness to be creative due to the fact that they have been given additional responsibilities. They mentioned various reasons for the lack of clarity. The lack of clarity of the policies and curriculum has been mentioned by almost all the respondents.
It is seen clarity should come from the outside as well as from within. Teachers should have basic guidelines as the purpose of learning and the learning ends are not totally their decisions. There are governmental plans that they should work to in accordance with. However, it is thought that those guidelines and plans regarding the teaching English language should be co-designed by the teachers they should have a real chance to participate in that. Giving that the use of technical resources that is growing (such as the internet) there would not be any excuse to exclude teachers and make meetings only with senior teachers and supervisors or a small numbers of them. All teachers have their say on an internet webpage specially made for such purposes.
This would be a better option than face to face meetings. It can take place on a smaller range as well. Decisions and actions would make more sense if they think about it, prepare for it, discuss it with others, pilot it and reflect upon it.
To solve this, one should sit with oneself, reflect and discuss what is really wanted. Decision makers should think why they are teaching English, for what purposes and ends, and what plan they would suggest for teachers to follow. They should know why there are loads of demands, and whether there is a shortcut that can be suggested by teachers before teaching, or by trusting their abilities. Once the meaning of clarity is clear, let them make update them to achieve the goals. The teachers should also be stable, they should have clear image of what is wanted from them as well as what they want, and how these two can meet for the sake of valuable learning experience for teachers, students and even parents.
7.1.2 Clarity direct quotes
A Kuwaiti English language teacher in her first year experience points out
You know the methodology that we follow should be clear. For example we have a curriculum and we have a teachers guide, but it only offers steps for the lesson, but it does not offer a methodology or a method.
I could be using the communicative method, while someone else chooses to teach the grammar-translation directly, you know.
As an educational institute in Kuwait, it should use as we say a specific methodology, you know, English teaching.
That what we hope to get, a clear image regarding teachers teaching and giving for the students.
Thats it.
She is one of the participants who openly spoke about the need for a common methodology set by the ministry of education. One senior teacher justifies the lack of clear visions teachers are suffering from to the lack of reading
Teachers dont read, teacher in the library should have her own books for language and methods of teaching....Very few books...And they dont have time for the net, I like reading
...The stress makes them read less.
Here she thinks that reading is a source to enlighten teachers and a way that can make them updated. At the same time she is not blaming them, instead she thinks that they are provided with few books in the school library for them to read, and more work which will leave them with little or no time to read.
Another teacher who sees that clearness is an issue in teachers creativity is a teacher who thinks that decisions and supervision is to blame.
If there is a meaning to what confusion (stumbling) is, it is our situation this year translated. Then she gives examples of why there is such confusion i.e. lacks in teaching staff, strange decisions, sleeping supervision, and whole thing is just eye-blinding.
The metaphor of sleeping is common to describe carelessness and incompetence. It is seen that if the teacher sees the supervisors and decision makers as careless and incompetence, then it is likely that automatically she would feel estranged from their suggestions and decisions. This also raises the issue of the sense of belonging and cooperation that are associated with creative environment in the literature.
The metaphor of eye-blinding in Kuwait means that the person is physically and psychologically suffering a lot from someone or something. This again show that the more the person is busy thinking of his suffering the less energy she would have to be creative.
Another reason for the lack of clarity teachers lived was the work duties and load.
One teacher explained that introducing story reading for first grade required special preparation, activities, contests, worksheets.
All of those are an efforts that such a waste of time, frankly speaking...what a stumbling we are living...they are confusing students, teachers and parents...May Allah help....all those supporting-classes, tests, reading classes and all that stuff distracts the ideas and upsets one, this year is so stumbling....this year they exhausted us because of adding new stuff from now and then translated
Then commenting on the supervisor whom she thinks should take a bigger role in clarifying ideas, she says that he visited each teacher just for ten minutes. She thinks that there is no use and it is better not to be evaluated by them anymore. A student teacher spoke about her uncertainty and the confusion on not knowing how to present the workbook activity for example
Researcher What can make you more creative as a teacher
Participant I have to be clear on what I am doing.
R Can you explain that with an example, please
P Yes, the other day I did not know the senior teacher was going to attend the classroom where I was teaching, I was presenting the workbook and I did not know what to do or what was required from me. She explained a bit, but I still did not know what to do...had I have clear idea of what to do I would have been more creative
Some teachers suggested that meetings in the ministry, as well as workshops are very useful and are full of useful practical ideas on what is really needed sometimes.
Another opinion which justified why it is hard to have clearness is that
Every one says they want to fix the curriculum but believe they will not change a think since everyone will stick to his personal opinion. Any modification will have seventy defects. English language teachers will teach life skills. We are the once who daily face the field, students, and parents and decision makers are making their philosophical decisions from their desks based on nothing
The metaphor fix means that the curriculum is seen as a broken thing that is far from being applicable and useful. Also there is a usual description in Kuwait seventy defects which almost self-explanatory, it is exaggerating the amount of defects and imperfections that the curriculum has. Also the term philosophical is used in a sarcastic way in Kuwait (and lots of participants have been sarcastic when it comes to describing their situation with the decision-makers and the work load. They think that the decisions are being philosophised but they have meaning-less status in the teachers beliefs.
If teachers know for sure that what they are teaching is full of mistakes and that it is inevitable that unknown changes would come without their prior knowledge then this would worsen how clear they are on what they are doing and why. This may distract their attention to creative teaching.
Another sarcastic comment on the supervision is
The supervision is a birthday with a missing newborn, its really loss. This is a well known expression in the Arabic (Egyptian) which also expressed distraction, confusion and loss.
7.2 Freedom
The category of freedom is interrelated with the category of freedom. To some extent clarity can contribute in making the teachers gain more freedom or autonomy. If they are clear on their goals and methods, they would be freer to be the teachers they want themselves to be. They are the ones who should be deciding on the goals and methods for each classroom and even for each new day. If decisions and visions come from within, the picture would be much clearer.
It is not an easy task to be self-directed when there are lists of people who would literally watch their work, especially in sensitive stages like the one they are going through. It is sensitive because during transitional stages people focus more, there is a new book, new curriculum, new guidelines that are constantly changing and being updated. Thus the way those changed are executed in real life needs to be carefully watched.
Limitations to ones freedom is a constraint, and constraints can make people less creative, other say that it can make one more creative. It is usually said to make the person less creative and busier with details of the pressure laid upon one. Nonetheless, there is a thought which implies that the need is the mother of invention. The harder the life can be the more challenging and change initiating the person can be.
It is very possible that in both cases creativity can be found, but may differ in shape and purpose. Creativity when one is free and have full autonomy can be on developing and discovering new methods and goals others than the one currently existing. Creativity when one is limited can be more like an adaptability tool to use what is available in a creative way to make the best of their situation, new methods and self-theories may also appear.
Freedom was perceived differently by different participants. Here is some what they had to say on that issue. Almost all teachers and senior teachers interviewed spoke of the work load as a distracting as well as limiting their choices on what to do. Their time at school (and even at home when they have time for work) is almost completely scheduled by the senior teacher who takes the duties from the supervision who concludes their decisions from the meetings with those who are responsible from the curriculum in the ministry of education. Thus they have little space in time and schedule to prepare teach or treat the students, each other in meetings etc. Although it seems that controlled, each school and teacher still had their character and were distinct in a number of aspects from the way they printwrite the preparations, to the way they treat their students, to the way they address their pressures and even talk with each other.
The Kuwaiti year, teaching in her first year of experienced had a lot to say about freedom. She explicitly mentioned it many times on the level of curriculum. Here are some comments of a participant,
.....to do as she want but for the students what they actually need, you know, not what the curriculum need. Actually some students maybe need more development in reading, ok, but the curriculum does not give them what they really in need for. I mean you know what, its up to the teacher, ok, Ill give them what the curriculum wants them to learn but. Actually at the end, its up to the teacher to determine what they need and what they are not in need for. This is what I seek, really
When the participant was asked if she had this freedom or was very restricted, she responded that it is not too much. She further elaborates,
Cause the curriculum takes most of the time,.. it does not help you to get more what they need.... I mean the students themselves . Thats it, it is the freedom.
Once you have the freedom to do what you want, ok, then youre going to be more creative, its up to your class, its up to yourself as teacher to give student what they actually need for, and actually what they want to do, or want to learn. Thats it.
An Egyptian teacher (with 12 years of experience, six of which in Kuwaiti primary schools) thought that it is very important to give her trust and let her manage the classroom the way she thought appropriate. She did not want constant interventions from the school or the parents. She says that every detail of how she manages the classroom and treats the girls is for a purpose which is to be creative and give them all what she has been preparing for. She says that teaching and preparation is always in her mind where ever she goes even when she is out with her family, so she does not want to waste that by directing her on what to do in the classroom although she welcomes and demands more parent-teacher discussions and meetings.
Another teacher, from Egypt, commented on freedom and what it meant to her. She mentioned that the availability of materials is enabling her to be more freedom, but again it is the burden of the extra work as they describe it.
as a teacher, I can use the data show any time I want. I can let the student see things. The only limitations are the other demands for exam, for preparation, for worksheet, free-reading, weak-pupil follows up.
Although this teacher complained about work demands, one thing which was a source of comfort and
creativity in her current school was her relation with other teachers and with the senior teacher. The next issue to be discussed is the issue of relation and how can encourage creativity or suppress it when it is negative.
7.3 Relationships
There are two main types of relations that the participants mostly discussed. Their relation with other teachers, senior teachers, and those who guide them and second is their relations with their students.
When it comes with their relation with the senior teachers or with the colleagues it is almost a factor that can motivate or de-motivate the teacher in her creativity. The relation can be seen as a form of co-operation also as mentioned in the literature. This co-operation is good in that it encourages and motivates them in a family-like environment. But one notice is that overreliance on each other especially when it comes to new teachers is what should be discussed as teaching and teaching methods (materials) should not be a heritage that is copied and inherited in a manner of one-size fits all.
Another side of the relation is the teachers relation with the students. Although almost every single one of the teachers and senior teachers met confirmed how important they need to be close to the student, nonetheless also they all mentioned that they needed to control the students. This can mean that they are so stressed that they cannot enjoy the dynamic nature of the childrens characteristics and because of the demands of those who would evaluate her and wanting her to always make them more quiet. Creativity should be louder than this.
There have been the discussion on psychological and social state of some girls and the role of the social worker and how those students are being a hardship for the teacher and are victims themselves. Here, one can say that affection is somewhat missing and should have its space in the decision makers minds.
7.3.1 Examples of relationship
One participant was a good example of how a teacher starts off by being extra friendly and welcomes all the forms of feelings and ideas expressions of her student and then turns into planning to be a more serious one. She seeks a balance.
The metaphor of the string means she wants to stay friendly but need to make more rules for the girls not to be chaotic. This reminds one of what came earlier in the literature where the mess can be one of the negative sides that some educators fear.
to me, I like the curriculum, I like it. Especially the fifth grade, ok. It has a space to be more creative, it has a room to give them something more extra, ok what they really need for, ok. And even the first grade, but in the first grade there is a problem of control in the classroom. There is lots of time, just a lot of it for the student just to say sit down, go there...all the time just to say to the student sit down. Thats it.
The same participant just thinks that she is better with an older age group. This also shed light on how they are prepared at college as well as the choice of level choice of the teachers. Mostly senior teachers are the ones who decide which classes the teacher is teaching for a year a head.
Another teacher who agrees is the immigrating Egyptian teacher
R is it easier to teach in the secondary or in primary stage
P each stage has it demands,
but in secondary school students are matured that one only lectures, and tasks can be given to students to do their own research in internet. In primary schools the only one researching is the teacher except in the fifth grade.
In primary schools you have to be gradual.
So the older they student is the lesser effort the teacher will have to give.
The following is the example of the code of cooperation.
because maybe my colleagues, senior teacher, the principal, the administration, they are really understandable, they just even if you want to have a sick leave because you are sick, ok there is no problem to have sick leave easily. And there they understand you as a teacher and as a person at the same time, as a human you know, you have some needs also. They can understand you, and also at the same time, they give you not freedom, just a little freedom to do what you want, specially the senior teacher. She gives us freedom to do what we need. Ok and what we want our children to learn, or our students to learn.
.... for example youve got me and theres other two teacher whos teaching fifth grade, then we gather together and we decide which story that were going to present to them on this day and this day.
Her cooperation and relation in this participants case and many others are seen as a strong factor. As seen the recent literature. The creative work is usually done cooperatively even in the works which traditionally has been considered as individualistic. Nevertheless, it is seen that there is a need for an individualistic space.
There is Uniqueness in her creativity which can be affected. This is why getting too indulged in cooperation along with the work burden and the decision makers suggestions, the teachers unique character and contributions whether in ideas or methods can be lost (or hidden) in the midst of all of that.
The next teacher is an Egyptian teacher who is planning to immigrate tells that the teacher should be careful enough to know the creative sides in their students. Researcher asked participant if she has ability to know the sides of creativity in each individual student since the number of students in the classroom is small and if it is the stress of work taking her away from that. The respondent pointed out that
P The stress is there, but by time you can know.
R So experience and time help.
P Yes. And as a teacher you dont just lecture. You assess, and the basis of this assessment is on the spoken language, so you must observe. You should notice like when you ask a girl to read she might just be learning it by heart.
Or there is a girl who is always distracted, she cant concentrate. If you dont pay attention, you well see that her level will get worse. You can find a girl who you know that she is excellent, and then suddenly you notice that her attainment has weakened a lot. So the class is all about explaining, observing and motivating.
If you cant find the reason behind the low achievement, you should ask and investigate until you know why. For example, I have a student who was very excellent and attentive, then suddenly she started to lose focus in the classroom. I talked to her mother, and the mother then also noticed the lack of concentration. I contacted the mum again as there was no improvement, I asked about any social or psychological problems and there was none. So I advised the mum to go to a doctors check, it could be physical, then the doctor discovered that she has ear problems which also affected her eyes and caused her headache and no way she can concentrate. So if we did not observe and diagnose she would suffer from medical as well as educational worsening.
As I told you, you must be an observer, teacher, dominator, lecturer, and evaluator and guider, thats the teacher, the GOOD teacher the one who I can call creative. A creative teacher must give information, observe, be a guider, evaluate, and help. Other than that, the teacher will only be teaching for test.
The last statement explains how respondent uses metaphor to explain the teachers roles and responsibilities.
Speaking of the importance of teacher-student relation, she went on to explain the environment at school which implies the teacher-head teacher-senior teacher relations.
R ok, so generally speaking, do you feel that the school environment enhances creativity and encourage you to be creative, and what about your relationship with you colleagues and the administration.
P I have been in three schools before in Kuwait, and this is the forth one, and it is the first time that I fell psychologically comfortable. Everything is available anytime.
R and what about the social side
P as for the social side, the school is one family, they are very easy to deal with which I did not find elsewhere, and the materials are also available, photocopying, data show, computers etc.
R you mentioned earlier something about integrating English with other school subjects, so is there any cooperation between you for the benefit of English language learning this time
P we mostly cooperate in the materials with the science teacher, animals planets etc.
R so is there an organizing where you will be teaching the same topic at the same time
P the downfall is that they introduce planets after us. And we mentioned in one questionnaire last year that we teach planer in February while they learn it in science in April, so we suggested that this unit should be delayed after April. But this was not done. In the fifth grade I introduce Dixon house in Failaka early in the year while they learn this in the history and social studies after that. Also in the third grade I introduced the touristic places in Kuwait like Kuwait Towers too early and before other subjects. So this is a difficulty.
R so, dont the students enjoy learning all of that
P when they get the idea they enjoy it, and its a difficulty for the teacher to give the idea, for example when I first introduced that the earth goes around the son they were amazed they didnt know. So youll either show them a movie or will have to explain that in Arabic and her you lost the concept of English.
R does the plays, role-playing and singing that goes on in the classroom benefits the learners, and are they creative procedures and productive
P they are in that they teach pupil-pupil cooperation, also this happens in group work and discussions. This also teaches self-correction and peer-correction. The problem is that this sometimes is applied in the wrong way and causes noise.
The design of the seats is also not helping, it is always in a sea-horse and the ones in the edges will be less cooperating.
Other participant was Egyptian teacher 12 years of experience. She spoke of relations and personality sides discussing different angles. She introduced her character which is social and people loving, outgoing and dynamic.
P choose English I am a social person and like to deal with different people. Even when I was in a secondary school I volunteered to teach kids in the summer time as I was in a rural town, I taught everything. I love change
Being that active character she says that she is misunderstood by parents due to lack of contact and communication
R what are the challenges and problems that you face as a teacher
P away from the curriculum, the lack of communication with the parents and I have just come from a complaint in the social workers office from one of the parents.
I like the classroom to be clean and organized, and if I let the children do what they want I wont get that. I need organization because English language needs that, I cant spoil them.
The parent should listen to her daughter only she should listen to me as well so that I can explain her problem, what ever the complaint is I need face to face communication. I dont like it when the mother makes a complaint to the school without contacting me. The student can complain because she is covering her weakness, this student is weak. The complaint says that I was strict and rough with her.
How am I going to enter the class now, I dont feel good.
Another teacher also agrees on the idea that parents want their children to pass the exams and make no contact with the teacher throughout the year. A senior teacher also mentions that the parents are so strict and do not allow any form of seriousness between the teacher and the child, they want the teacher to be funny all the time and no type of punishment is accepted.
One teacher suggested preparing conferences and inviting parents to have an opportunity to discuss issues with them using colourful inviting cards.
Relationship with senior teacher
One teacher who had a less than good relationship with the senior teacher mentions a list of the characteristics of the creative senior teacher including her treatment, her written work, her organisation as well as being fair to others. The creative teacher is the one who manages to create a family-like environment. The first school approached by the researcher has the senior who had very good understanding with the teachers. She has been sole source of motivation.
The senior teacher in that school commented on the reason for her motivation to be creative and understanding with the teachers is the fact that she remembers being in their position one day. It is the creative senior teacher who can be lenient, flexible and at the same time gets her teachers to get the work done in time. It is the relationship that makes them feel embarrassed not to do their duties perfectly.
As for her requirements of the written preparation, she prefers them hand-written, but at the same time accepts the printed ones. Her rationale for the preference of the handwritten ones is the idea that it is more likely to be updated writing develops ideas, while the printed ones can be printed a week ahead for example. On the other hand, she shows trust for the teachers as she knows how they act.
Relation with the pupils
Although most participants agrees that they love children and enjoy dealing with them, they almost also agree on the control and balance code where the teacher can make children laugh but there should always be a limit to that so that they do not lose their attention to the context of the lesson and waste the time.
It is thought that the pressure put on the teacher to finish the curriculum gives her little time to laugh and play more with the children in the classroom. Even if the lesson is designed to be a play or a game, there was a sense of seriousness, and the time limit did not give the teacher the space to play the game the way children would really enjoy it (from some of the observed lessons).
Most teachers also have their preferences when it comes to the age of the students, some prefers younger ones such as year one, others prefer year four and five. Some even prefer to teach boys, while most of them prefer to teach girls as they are less active. These preferences are either because of the features of the children, or the features of the curriculum. That is because they always point out that there are stages which allow creativity more than others.
Relation and affection was one of the aspects that helped motivate teachers a lot. The aspect of motivation is interrelated with many aspects including relationships with colleges and students.
7. 4 Motivation
Moving to the motivation category is integrated with the relation category to a very large extent. Nevertheless, there are other factors that the participants discussed openly or indirectly which have been explored in this section.
Participants mentioned their students achievements, smile, the others appreciation, being a mother and fear of God as the main motivation factors when it comes to relations. They spoke a lot about the burden and the hard nature of their career and how the increasingly multiplying task is literally making them lost and forget the purpose of concept of what they are doing.
Another motivating factor is the love of profession and the sociable nature of the teacher, and the love of English as a language. Surprisingly enough, the fact of admire or the language may not play a large role in their motivation. It is known and mentioned several times in the interviews that English language teaching is one of the prestigious jobs and people usually perceive them as intelligent along with those who work in the computer field. Also the parents find learning the English language as a very important and useful thing for their children. So although all have the goal of learning the language and they know how critical it is in their lives and in the future of the childrens life, this does not motivate the teachers to be more creative nor does it shape a motivation for better learning on the part of the learners. However this aspect of finding is out of the focus area of this study. The status of the language is prestigious within the society. There are chances that the status of language also makes it difficult to incorporate creativity in this. The perception and status of language among respondent becomes important aspect. However this is also beyond the scope of the current study.
Additionally, even when everyone admires the language, it is yet seen as a mystery and a difficult to learn and master even by some of the teachers themselves. During the interview most of them spoke Arabic, or used code switching between the two languages.
The factor of the language and how it is perceived has been discussed later. The following section focuses more on motivation (and de-motivation). All of the above would be better explained, discussed, and understood with examples of some of the interview extracts which would be presented next.
7.4.1 Motivation and learners achievement (Fulfillment)
Some teachers pointed out that if they felt and saw their learners improved. In order to achieve better results that would automatically make them feel better and want to go on. The desire of the teachers is to generate new ideas even in the midst of the work loads. Student learning is the motivation for many teachers. One example is mentioned in the words of an Egyptian teacher
R what do motivate you to be more creative
P when you pay an effort you expect to receive achievements from the students, even if it just one. This is the reward and motivation, my reward is the pupil. If no one responds, then the technique is wrong, you should look and will find, especially in the BBC site methodologies and games.
R do you use them sometimes
P yes, you dont say whatever, and you might be hearing a lot.
R What makes you so concerned about the students level, what motivates you
P the fear of God, and to be a mother. You know that God is watching, and you know that if you are careless your child can face the same treatment.
Here she introduced the idea of being a mother (which is an affectionate relation) and the fact that being religious encourages her to be more productive and accurate as much as she can in whatever she is responsible of.
The next one is also repeating almost the same ideas .
When discussing the role of decision makers and how they can motivate or demotivate teachers, one teacher points out that the teacher also has a role and should do their best.
Those who do their best at work will be blessed, even us as teachers should think of God when we work and teach, our conscious should be satisfied
Metaphor conscious satisfied
As for how she handles any hardship she faces with the supervisions and those who evaluate her, she explains that one should be calm and not to be disappointed too soon. If you see consider the problem as a big one, it will be bigger, but if you simplify it will be small. This is a famous old saying in Arabic (metaphor), its meaning is almost similar to the law of attraction. She also used another metaphor I leave everything behind me, I consider myself the most important thing in the world
This means that being resilient, optimistic and appreciation of self is a motivating factor for teachers to be both giving and creative.
As for what makes her go on and be optimistic and loving creativity in her work she says that when she sees the effect of her effort of her students she forgets all the weariness and rigidness of work. I always make myself patient and think that suffering never laststranslated.
She stressed the importance of being devoted to work as the religion encourages one to be so. Then there is the reward of seeing the result of her effort being reflected in the learners levels.
Furthermore, she mentioned a unique factor in motivation which is when one cares about herhis self as a fact that works as a shield to any criticism or bad relation with any boss.
I think that one motivating factor which was mentioned indirectly as a cause of motivation to be creative is ambition and the desire to develop oneself. This is seen more in participants who had goals to be either senior teachers or to go on researching in their fields by doing their masters for example.
It is known that GROWTH is one human need, and by developing oneself this can be at least partially fulfilled. This development can take different forms, but no matter what the form is, it is always linked to clarity, to what one wants and visualises for hisher life to be.
Another participant also mentioned the love of work and profession, this related to the idea of fulfilment too. To be creative, you have to love your work, teaching and the educational field, I always keep strong and seek to be the best. Frankly speaking, one of the best moment I live is when I see the effect of my work on my childrentranslated (most teacher refer to their pupils as their children which could be reflecting that bond and responsibility they have towards their students).
7.5 Creativity restriction (demotivation)
There are many factors that can restrict English language teachers creativity. Yet, the major ones in this research are the negative relationships and the burden of the work load. Many of the respondents mentioned that their senior teacher has been uncooperative and not supportive. It was evident from the statement of one of the senior teachers that senior teachers tend to give their paper works and responsibilities to the teachers. This increases the work load and responsibility of the teachers. At some of the stances, respondents have mentioned that senior teachers do not facilitate the implementation of creative ideas or support them.
Another unsatisfied teacher who blames the senior teacher for restricting her from being a creative teacher explained, I cant believe that they were one teachers or educators basically, we have to chance to be creative in the middle of the continuous exhaustion. Do they think that we are machines that do not get tired May God help us .
7.5.1 Negative relationships
Any negative relation with the learners, parents, colleges and senior teacher, school manager, supervisor played a role in demotivation participant teachers and drawing their attention from creativity in teaching. This led to loss of interest in creative ideas.
It is noticed that this affected the new teachers the most and those who did not come from an educational background and expected support during the first years of their career.
One new teacher reflected how negative her relation is with the supervision by describing them in the following way there is a lack of teaching staff and the supervision is asleep. Asleep is usually a metaphor used to explain laziness and carelessness and lack of clear vision.
The lack of appreciation is one of the major demotivation issues. One participant pointed out that all what they need is a word of thanks. Decision makers are making decisions behind their desks without studying they treat a wrong decision (remedial classes) with another wrong decision (taking the children from the PE and art classes)
To one new teacher, the best senior teacher is active and cooperating, fair, nice attitude, friendly, talks to teachers, directs, does her role in files and so on. If the senior teacher is like this then teachers will automatically love to work and bear with circumstances. She mentions that it is her nature to be comfortable in the place where love and respect is exchanges between people it is a human nature, she adds. There is nothing better than the family, classy environment, because really colleagues at school are your family whom you see more than your real family. The united, cooperative departments are the best. The good senior teacher always leaves a clear and beautiful finger prints.
For Halima the situation is different. Being a graduate from the college of arts with no teaching background, she mentioned that she taught herself how to teach with the help of colleagues, but the senior teacher was less cooperative.
The senior teacher to her caused the department to be divided. She was very depressed because of her relation with the senior teacher.
I am at a stage where I am very depressed, I will give myself a chance to pull myself together until next semester, and if senior teacher did not change her war, I am seriously considering changing my profession.
She broke my aspiration with her words, and starting from next semester my symbol will be work to satisfy you are conscious only, I will not take extra work and I dont care about my report
We are human, we get tired and depressed fast and look for encouragement and confidence, but no one listens translated.
Lack of appreciation has been expressed by gestures by teachers that are seen by them as extras. They think that these should be met with recognition, appreciation or at least a word of thanks. One participant participated in a national competition (story writing), and when she did not win this was very disappointing.
Another demotivational factor that is related to the relation is the relationship with parents (or lack of communication and understanding between teachers and parents)
It is not the school, they are flexible. Its the parents they dont worry as long as their child will succeed in the first three years. So they dont care and dont cooperate, so by the time they are in the fourth grade they will be too weak, they have accumulated weakness. If she does not know the alphabet, how can I teach her.
Here the teacher was referring to a decision that was relatively new in the Kuwaiti ministry of education. The children in their first three years do not repeat the year in case they fail, whereas before a child can repeat the year even if she is in year one. This can tell that some parents are used to look at examinations results as the ultimate goal, and once they guarantee it. They become somehow less of a hardworking and communicating parents.
As for the role or the negative relation with students in restricting teachers creativity one participant commented.
I always use stickers, and the boys are very active. Can you believe that I have to spend ten minutes in cleaning and organising the classroom.
This again shows that formalities and time limit of the classroom makes teaching less enjoyable and creative. This participant used two metaphors here which will be explained next.
We run we run which means we are always facing time pressure.
Blue disasters an expression usually used by Egyptians which means a serious trouble they are facing. Additionally, when it comes to the relation with the students and the way they are managing how they treat them and focus on creativity, one teacher adds that academic and psychological diversity they say that are handling without the intensive help of a professional expert in the school,
Also the sharp variety where I have half of the class excellent and half low-achievers, nothing in between.
There should be special classes for each. I accept variety in the levels if there are gradual and balanced excellent, medium, and low-achiever.
Researcher when asked the number of students in the classroom, participant replied 21. Out of these twenty one, eight of them are excellent you can imagine. Participant raises the question about remedies and states that the load of the curriculum does not give you a chance.
Some solutions come late. I get accumulative weakness in the students. For example, I am asked to improve the low achievers, so they remove the special need students from the class. I have some girls who are retarded and other with psychological problems and have files in the psychiatric clinics, how can I deal with her I might tell her something that negatively affect her. They should either be put in a separate classrooms, or provide people specialized in their cases. I dont know anything about them, and then they ask why they dont improve.
It is believed that use of the word retarded was not offensive as maybe the teacher at that time had less vocabulary mastering or does not know how offensive the connotation of this word is, what she really means and was clear from the rest of the interview is a girl with special needs.
Another participant who supports this code is the senior teacher in the first school who paid lots of effort and attention to try and solve the issue of the special needs students.
What some teachers and decision makers are missing is that they are trying to improve low-achievers and make files for them without the appropriate diagnoses. Some of those cases are special needs who need special care from a specialist which language teachers can hardly offer.
In the society it is hard for any parent to accept the fact that his child needs a special care, they just refuse to hear that, they refuse to put their child in a special need school the culture refute that idea. Parents just want to see their children have good marks.
If it is to the social circumstances, then the teacher may have a role, there is a difference between learning problem and learning disability and the latter is too hard for the language teacher to deal with.
We have a social worker who just calls parents and plays a very minor role, and there are no psychologists in our school unlike some other schools.
I feel sorry for those girls, some are dyslectic, and they can get worse if they did not get help in the right timing. In one of the staff meeting I tried to make a difference and did a small research for the teachers about dyslectic learners, but I am not a specialist I can only give introductions
Moreover, another agreeing participant is a teacher (with three years experience) who explains that only when it is too late that the teacher discovers the social problems of the learner.
I need the help of the social worker, sometimes I see an excellent student who suddenly becomes careless, then after while I discover that his parents were going through divorce. I should have been informed long time ago to provide more understanding...they question us about the childs mark at the end whereas they should have searched for the reasons earlier. This shows that she cares a lot about her relation with he students.
Everything is on the head of the teacher, a metaphor which means that they have to do tasks which they are not prepared to, nor fits their definition of what a teacher is or does.
Then there is the relationship with time or experience as most of teacher explained how they changed from being students to being teachers which usually had negative effects such as boredom.
One teacher (with one year experience) suggested the significance of training courses and how unrealistic they were during college years, which created a shock when the teacher practices real and full teaching. This teacher also changed her attitudes with children and tries to make a balance as she thinks that in the first year of her teaching she was rather lenient and needs to be serious sometimes.
Many of the teachers who did not have educational certificates nor enough training courses when accepted to be teacher explained that they are victims especially that some senior teacher do not show any support or understanding
There should be awareness that the primary stage demands more than alphabet knowledge, it is to do with a giving role that the teacher should accept, love and be creative in.
Some were frank enough to say that they hated teaching after practicing it.
Also those participants who moved from being qualified to teach in a secondary school, or actually taught in secondary school before moving to a primary school also required smoother transfer to know better the environment and culture of teaching children.
There is one teacher who will be a senior teacher next year, and she already sees the change in her views and how serious the new role is.
7.5.2 Demotivation (work load)
This code is very popular that almost all participants directed their discussions towards it.
Curriculum and time pressure played a role in demotivation of creativity
Motivation has been hanged, its over. It is too much less time because of holidays, little cooperation with parents and many things that is out of the teachers hand. I am under pressure as I know that someone above me will be checking on me and I will be making pressure on patents and nothing is done about this...I even have a pupil who is a special need child. translated
The expression hanged means killing .Here the time pressure as well as the curriculum is very stressed as the cause of demotivation. This participant was frank enough to say that she turned from a much exited student teacher to a disappointed absolutely demotivated teacher.
Additional wok
In answering a question about what they need as teachers to be creative one teacher explained as a teacher I wish I can be a teacher only, other tasks like monitoring during break times and putting results in the computer is taking all my energy. I am not being creative I mean this additional work attrition to my energy. I am on my feet all day long, I dont feel happy
Another teacher who agrees on the part that the load and the way the curriculum is being handled is wrong, but she one of the very few, who think that the curriculum itself is a success got to say the following
Curriculum is amazing. But this is administrational rather than teaching responsibilities. I feel that they do not belong to the teacher, because it is obvious from the name teacher as a teacher you just have to teach.
Here the definition of what a teacher and what she does is conflicted between the teachers and the administration in most schools. They always complain that they are shattered among the duties. Also another teacher who thinks that the additions like reading classes in by itself a positive touch but also throws the blame on (relation) parents.
R Ok, you spoke earlier about the curriculum and we have heard a lot of complaints on it, and the various changes and additions that have been introduced accordingly. Do talk to me about it and the role of creativity in dealing with it.
P The curriculum is fine, but its application is wrong.
R So you agree on its approach and idea.
P Yes, the curriculum provides communication approach, providing background information, and integration between language and other school subjects such as history, math and science.
The problem is in the methods of evaluation and application
Reading is good, but its application is wrong.
R why is it that the student in the fourth grade, you say that has accumulated weakness does the curriculum play a role in that
p it is not the curriculum, it is the carelessness of the parents and the measurements of testing where the student in the first three years do not repeat the year.
Then work load will be explained with examples and the fact that they are not belong listened to
I have files for the weak students, the excellent students, files for the activities, the morning program file an you imagine the load. You also teach and improve the weak girls and you mark the books and notebooks. The teacher is lost, the teacher is lost.
R do you feel that these files are useful
P I keep on writing, writing, writing and I submit my opinion on the weak sides of the curriculum.
R do you get corrections and responses for that.
P nothing.
R so whats the use of these files and reports, is it pointless
P we tell our recommendations and correction, and we suggest changes on the timing of the teaching units. Then we receive changes but none of our suggestions have been works on, then why was I asked from the first place
R I have heard that there have been changes in the curriculum, especially the third grade.
P Can you believe that will change it again
R so there is a problem, you are not being listened to
P we are not being listened to, we wanted recommended that reading and writing should start from the first grade, but this was not done.
R so whose responsibility is it
P it has nothing to do with supervision, it is the responsibility of educational curriculum research and development. As a researcher and the one responsible for developing the curriculum, I send them the downsides and their role is to study that and change and give remedies.
R so they are getting your feedbacks without employing them on the development of the curriculum, they give solutions that they think is right but it isnt.
With the work load one teacher says that the repetitive boring work is to be added to the caused that restricts her from being creative. When asked about the obstacles of creativity, one senior teacher stated
Our problem is that they dont listen to us, they throw the ball into our side of the field. The teacher is such a poor thing however there are teachers who feel guilty if they do not teach well while others dont bother they rush in their teaching and move on
Metaphor throw the ball into our side of the field throw the blame on teachers.
This means that the teacher is always judged by many sides including educators, the administration in the school, supervisors and parents. They will be seen as the cause of the failure or success of any change or new action introduces by those other than the teacher herself.
One teacher (2 years) who is a Gradate from a non-educational college (college of Arts) mentions that she is has fatigue because of the worksheets, exam preparation, additional classes, and lack of appreciation. The weekend for her is not enough to refresh her energy and sleep enough. This is all because of the strange decisions of the well-respected supervisors adds the teacher sarcastically. She only wishes she could be rewarded for her hard work in the afterlife as she is convinced that appreciation is missed in her life.
She is also sarcastic in listing her duties and the pressure she is facing because of it.
I know that most teachers have high blood pressure by now. It is very simple so why do we complain, we should take it easy. We only have to plan for reading classes, prepare for remedial lessons which is additional, teach in the classroom, mark the notebooks, give the students starts and smiley faces, laugh, supervise during the break times, prepare lessons as well as workshops outside the school, exchange visits with colleagues, prepare for the rap up and the value presenting, we also should take work home to mark tests and exams, and we must live a happy life and never complain. Also remember that retirement is after twenty years, and the maternity years dont count. So we should take it easy and keep our blood pressure stable
In her sarcasm it seems that she was really unsatisfied with the tasks she was given and the definition of a teacher that she pictures that in her mind when she was in college is drastically different than the one she was living now.
Another teacher even discussed her desire to leave teaching because in most days she was on her feet from 730 to 1235 without breakfast. But she always thought to herself that it was only months until summer vacation.
So her attention was just to finish and start in vacation even when it is too early for vacations.
A senior teacher thought that the teacher should be given a chance to prove herself and her creativeness away from the administrative work. They do not have time for creativity, they just think of lesson preparation.
As for relation and cooperation with parents, she thought that she did not care about that she only focus on improving the students level independently without the help of the parents as most can not do anything about it even if they know that she was weak. She thought that this could be explained because of the general fear of the language difficulty in spite of its prestigious status.
7. 6 Curriculum and Teaching Aids
The curriculum, material and teaching aid category could be related to demotivation and at the same time it was considered a form of creativity for the language teaching.
As for the pressure that the pupil could have because of the new curriculum, a senior teacher mentioned that pupils in the fourth and third grade can have up to 5 pupils books life skills, handwriting book, workbook, pupils book, reading books and that is only for the English language subject. Of course the other subjects could also give them more than one pupils book but not as much as that.
Each of these pupils book needs special and separate written preparation from the teacher.
We have suggested that teaching values should not be separated, it should be part of the lessons, and that there should be cutting in the amount of lessons and reading...Our problem is that they do not study the decision, they just surprise us by applying it.
Other participant finds field trips necessary for a teacher to be creative in English language teaching however they are not available to the teacher all the time. Teachers feel short handed when it comes to having the realia and the field trips that can make them present the language and present it more creatively. One teacher says that it takes too many procedures for her to be allowed to take the children in a field trip that she will be moving to the next lesson by then.
Participants also see that the year of teaching matters as year one and two are simple and you can get creative in it a lot they have games and lots of sides where you can be creative in. However most agrees that year three does not fit with the level year two prepared the children to be in. The amount of vocabulary is big and abstract (14 a lesson) and the learners need to master all the four skills plus the cursive handwriting, punctuation and the grammar. One participating teacher mentioned that it is hard for learners to grasp the meaning of words without them being supported with pictures, otherwise they will forget it right away, she gave the example of afternoon and show which she had to translate into Arabic for the girls to understand them. I feel that year three is nice but difficult, but it is very jammed.
Here it is demotivation them to be more creative when the level of what they are presenting is unrealistic or too hard for the learners.
When I asked about the responsible persons, she said that the supervisors are not the main decision-makers. However, they do not listen all the time. In year three the teachers responded in questionnaires for the ministry of education that there are some units that should be deleted, and all what was done is deleting a unit and adding a harder one which did not help.
About their roles as teachers with their senior teacher, one teacher said that they are doing their best to add valuable steps in the curriculum but they cannot change it all. This can tell that there are spaces for creativity no matter how restricted and stressed they are. For example, in year one the teachers guide suggested that only pre-writing and pre-reading should be presented, and not the alphabet or any readingwriting should be done. Yet, in year two pupils should be reading short sentences right from the first lessons. Therefore, the supervision insisted that teachers are not allowed to teach reading and writing they gradually agreed after noticing that the children benefited from that.
This shows that if teachers do study well what is needed they can still do it in their own way, in spite of the resistance. Their belief in the importance of what they are doing and the clear purpose and relations with their students make them achieve steps that seem hard to be done at first.
This also reminds one of what was discussed in the literature review. On the other hand, it comes to the fact that creativity mainly means bringing something new and of valueusefulness. The value means is questioned. The value or the benefit can be questioned especially at the beginning, a change or a new step can always be met with refusal and resistance. This can be applied at society level norms are usually put as a standard to what is valuable. In more educational and scientific fields what is planned and proven and decided upon are usually valuable in those societies and resisting that can be seen as a change without value. Valuable changes need time for it to be proven so, and for those in the society to digest it, accept it and apply it. Nonetheless, if change does not prove its success that can be the risk as time and results would be sacrificed. This makes it hard for creative, but if what is presented is well studied and comes from their belief that what they are adding is useful according to their close relation and belonging to their field and students, then creativity can be introduced without great fear of risk. The curriculum itself years ago was seen as a pure failure, now five years later many accept it, some are still suggesting some changes, and some still belief of its lack of usefulness.
Newly presented task for English language teachers is free reading classes, almost all of the participants agreed that this is a hard and useless step especially from those in year one and two for their belief that this is not responsible and that children at that age are not prepares to read.
R Do you think that reading is a positive step on the long run if reading is more encourages in general and the culture value of reading is back in Kuwait instead of video games etc.
P Believe me, I give my year three learners books, one student would look at the pictures below the words and would ask wondering shall I colour it She does not even know that it is for reading, can you imagine. I can say that free reading is possible for year four and five, but before that it is too hard.
She thinks most decisions are hard to be dealt with as there are little studies and piloting done before applying those decisions
They didnt examine the experiment first in some schools they just do it at school.
Another points mentioned by participants about how negative the effect of the curriculum is can be summarised in the following points from various participant
Year two and three do not encourage reading or writing, it is crowded for no reason.
It does not fit the needs and levels of the learners, no does it interest them (the outfit does not fit metaphor)
The gap in levels between year two and three. In year two it is two simple, whereas in year three it is demanding for the level of a student who was not prepared for it in the previous year.
Starts with concepts that were not explained in Arabic and science lessons (lack of coordination)
Too many tasks, lessons, activities, vocabulary in one lesson, as well as the additional ones.
Material can be seen as a positive one when it is about giving the teacher the space to borrow and develop teaching aids that suits their classes and learners. Curriculum constraint mentioned by one teacher
Year three is killing us it became a mine field which everyone fears coming close to.
This metaphor expressed what goes in the mind of most of the teachers interviewed for this study. She makes fun of one of the songs which is called fire, her students say that it is like a horror movie, so it is not what they enjoy. For the curriculum in general, most agree that the teachers abilities and additions are important for its success, whether the stage is simple or hard. A participant mentions that the second year curriculum and says that it is simple in the first term and them gets harder and huger in the second one. Therefore, the teacher needs to be gradual, as topics like food, polite question, and animals are presented in the first semester thus she has to gradually increase the difficulty to prepare for the second term.
She suggests varieties of activities and games as a creative way to make students less bored or the amount of work to be known by heart as the attention span of the children was no more than ten minutes. She thinks that activities that involved running and movements such as race is best for boys especially the younger ones. There are also games like touch the picture, what am I, in the zoom and in the restaurant. Realia is a recommended way to present vocabulary.
As her main source to make her know what to focus on is (study box) at the beginning of the pupils book which include vocabulary and grammar. It is very important for her to pay attention on the fourth and fifth grade in those sides as they will have unified exams and their failure means repeating the school year. Mental preparation is important even a week a head, but they are not allowed to do that in the English department as daily and class by class written lesson preparation is required.
Reading classes is a burden as more requirements are added without reducing any of the previous ones. In her school they use the computer labsEnglish club (which will be in all schools by next year) and the data show, while in other schools they read in the library or the same classroom. They prepare for the reading class just like they do with the normal one with objectives, procedures and it has activities and worksheets which take hours of preparation (such as questions on the characters and the setting etc.). The choice of stories is made by meetings in each school. They suggested Pinocchio for year four or five, and stories like the snowman, the shapes, the clown, a little seed, and Sarahs pony for year one. All of the year one stories is provided in a CD.
She thinks that the purpose is for children to know how to read, some will learn fast other will need more creativity like joining them in groups for peers encouragement. For year one and two it is mostly a one word story. She says that it is also up for the teacher to make the difference and make them read other than the reading classes, each day she would write the names of the students and teachers they know and make them try to read it, or simple words like cat, bat etc. (for year onetwo).
One reading class in the English club she presented the story the clown which is a one word story. She divided the class into groups one would count the shoes, another to colour the picture, and the last one to match. All of those activities are prepared and designed by the teacher as she sees them as creative steps to attract the students I broke the routine
Meta-analysis to say that she is doing something to stop boredom.
Work stress
there are lots of hard work, they want creativity in the morning programmes at least 3 parts, scenes, games, competitions, handouts, songs and rhymes that suits the values presented as well as offering sweet and coffee in the administration office translated.
Creative ideas can be to present small and capital letter and play the song of the alphabet. Make a group of students hold the capital letter while other pick up the small letter from a basket and match it to the student holding the same letter in capital.
Student teacher
Always asks for ideas from colleges and internet, she was looking for ideas the pearl diver lesson in unit 12 of year three. She thinks that creative ideas can be borrowed. She was also preparing for the value of honesty and asked for ideas for handouts and play scenes etc.
She used transparencies and thinks it is nice and attractive teaching aid.
It was hard for her to present workbook, that when the senior teacher came to check on her she asked her to show her how to do this. When she wanted to complete what the senior teacher started she did not know what to do.
Some participants see that teacher is the one who adds to the curriculum. One makes a joke We tend to make changes and fabricate for the goof well of our children. So even though the curriculum has some limitations, some still see chances of being creative in it to improve it.
The last year three was very horrible to teach, there are gaps that only the creative teacher can fill. Year three had to be presented with additional classes. The problem is that they left year two with whiteness.
One teacher explains with examples In year two reads only simple words cat, hat. Then in year three all of a sudden, the pupil should order sentences and do reading comprehension. who are we lying at. For me I used to prepare year two for the more advanced level in year three, and thank God all say that my pupils are able to answer exercise only year three can know. They have free reading and they understand it. So it is all up to the teacher.
A senior teacher explains her role towards the teacher. She says that she always gives tips to make things clear for the teachers. For example, to teach letters, girls should listen to the sound of the letter, then they show it to the pupil and give examples of words which start with this letter. Then face the white board and trace the letter on the air and the girls practice that. Then the teacher brings a white card lines with four lines to write the letter for the class and explain up down while writing the letter. Then the teacher should choose a girl to come to the board and write the letter down. Then each girl should show you how she writes it in a small card of her. This way you are practicing four skills and this can be done in the wrap up. Also modelling dough can be used to shape the letter.
Another senior teacher thinks that exams are a barrier and small changes will be done, they will be like the worksheets.
Remedial classes
Another senior teacher who have sympathy and appreciation for teachers effort explains The teachers are very exhausted running after the pupils from the art and PE classes to give them extra lessons, I wish I can help make them focus more on their main lessons. (unlike another senior who sees extra lessons as a must).
A senior teacher clarifies how she tries to make changes. I asked my teachers to write the negative points of the remedial classes and I will give it to the head teacher to send it to supervisions. They should either give us good decisions, or let us take care of our work
Each year we send them the negative pints of the year three and explain that there is a large gap between year three and two, but unfortunately you can not call the dead. My son will go to year three next year and I already started teaching him and let him be familiar with it, otherwise he will be lost.
About the last changes for next year, she attended a meeting. The changes are in year one, two and three. Year four and five will witness changes the following year.
Year one
Pupils book will have an index and a new column for the new words in each unit.
Reading will be presented through speech bubbles such as Hello Im Ali..this is my sister Haya.
Each unit will have the box for words and the grammar at the top of the page.
Ask and answer lessons will be added.
There will be labels for each group of vocabulary words.
More picture dictionary will be added.
As for the exercise book
More trace and copy exercise for letters, words, and sentences.
It is seen that real formal change has happened even though these suggestions were rejected when first suggested by teachers five years ago (introducing reading and writing to pave the way for the next year curriculum)
Changes for Year 2
The colour of the word will change from blue and black into black only.
Like year one their will be boxes for new words and vocabulary in the unit
More speech bubbles
The old book had 42 words, and the new one will have 144 words
New songs for food and animals
There will be a box for the student to write the date in the exercise book.
Year 3
There will be fewer purposes in the teachers guide
Less speech bubbles
Only four characters will be presented in a lesson
They will replace some lessons like read and repeat to be read and discuss
There will be an extra activity section.
Handwriting book
In the first semester, it will not be cursive but just to practice nice handwriting, second semester will introduce cursive.
Teaching aids
Tapes will be replaced by CDs, and each teacher will have a CD player
New wall charts
Transparencies will be provided for the first lesson of the each unit
(so changes proved that where there is will there is way, year one and two harder and year three less difficult to smooth the transfer.
Material as a requirement for creative teaching
Some participants think that materials and teaching aids are an important aspect to support their creative teaching.
For example if youre teaching about animals, we may be forgetting to bring our own material, the resource bank will be available for us to teach this.
Is the idea of the resource bank yours
No, when we visit the private schools, you find a section in the classroom which has the alphabet, pictures and flashcards for any subject you present for the students. You know, that what we hope to have and we which it becomes reality.
What she meant by private schools are the schools which teach in the medium of English whether British, American, Indian, Pakistani, and Pilipino schools. English and American schools are much appreciated and considered prestigious along with the bilingual schools which are known for their expensive fees. Thus, borrowing from their ideas and methods is like borrowing of the second language speaker.
In English teaching borrowing is an inevitable step, as the language is not originally theirs. Thus, it seems that some teachers see that the one package that should be taken all together from the native sources. This package consists of language itself, its teaching methods, its pronunciations, its culture, and its ideas. Partial borrowing can add positive diversity and will enrich the pedagogic experience of both teachers and learners. However, complete borrowing without an attempt to adjust or add anything to suit the learners abilities and contribute can give the English language teaching its unstable nature. Most of educators and researchers want a unified methodologies and treatment of language which can not be achieved and this causes change after change. If only broad lines are defined and details left to teachers creativity, then this will help making the ELT more stable in general although each teacher can have herhis own way of using and teaching the language.
Another source some teachers can use is the internet
P actually, actually the internet is, nowadays is just a resource for us teachers, but not just to download any worksheet and then print it out and gives it to the students, because some worksheets you cant give it immediately to the students because it does not suit them. Ok, so I do look up in the internet and surf to see some worksheet and to see some materials and flash cards, but at the end I make my own worksheets that suits the students needs and the students ability and their own culture
Songs
In year four the songs are very nice and can be used for the whole unit. But in year five, I had to take some songs from Barney (show) and make a cassette and it turns out to be nice and appropriate and children enjoy it and learn it by heart.
There are lots of activities that can be done for warming up at the beginning of the lesson. For example you can spread the vocabulary words of the unit and make children hold flash cards of words, only the ones holding the words written on the board will run and stick it underneath it.
Workbook
I make them practice by activities, I bring pictures of characters and play who am I (Different presentation than hawally 4) I can play who am I by describing one of the pupils in the class and the rest would be guessing who he is. That will make the workbook be more creative and lively. Then they open their books, write the date and let them read the questions and guess answers, discuss answers together and then let them write it both on board and in their books.
Use the overhead projector, without it will be very hard form them to follow up (same as hawally 4).
Presenting values
To be creative you can do something different every day, such as play scenes, competitions, what would you do in the following situations and so on.
For morning programmes
You can make a very huge box and make a pupil hide inside, the pupil will present information about her character and ask who am I. This is to present jobs like doctor, dentist, teacher etc.
She presents prices for some students, let them wear w crown and a robe and brings hellion balloons and let them go to make a show.
As for the curriculum itself one participant says
ok, yeah I did not teach the last curriculum, ok but the new one I like it, ok. I think it give us a room to be more creative in teaching it..I like it so much.
Another teacher uses materials as a tool to develop skills (listening improve others skills), and to simplify difficult lessons.
R What are your needs for the improvement of English language teaching in Kuwait
P Language labs, because when the child listens he is not only listening but he will learn how to speak better as well. So it strengthens all the skills. Even with the adults, listening is a problem as the impression is that the aim is to learn English just to write for the exam. English learning should be used and practiced.
Materials are available, data show, CDs etc, wall charts and cards. So moving material is important.
R what are the stages that you taught in Kuwait
P I have taught all grades first to fifth in the primary stage. And there is no such thing as a difficult stage, even if its difficult I can simplify it. I like the 1st 2nd and 5th grade, with the 3rd and 4th grade, I try to use the material to make it easy. However, I hate to teach the 3rd grade and dont like to teach it again, it is unorganised, and even after the changes take place, it is still too long. Second grade is organized and fine.
Four years experienced (Hawally) enjoys making her materials while others prefer to buy a ready made ones.
I always design materials which are simple but at the same time make my classroom a new one. For example I always make a trophy for the beauty and organisation of the classroom. The head teacher was impressed as well as the supervisortranslated.
I work in a boys school, and you have to put boys between brackets because you know it is really hard for me to keep the classroom the way it is without them making a mess
Even though they are made by the teachers, but the ideas behind them seem to be inspired by some private schools.
To motivate learners, she hangs a crown shaped chart with the childrens photos on. The boy with the more good behaviour and marks will get to be honoured at the end of the week. It is a crown, although in the local culture in the Kuwaiti and Gulf countries, kings and princes do not wear crowns. However, the children respond to this motivating chart really well, she explains.
About choice, she says that she admires preparing teaching aids for her classes and that if she prepares for a year and she is assigned to teach in another one then that will be disappointing for her and her efforts will be wasted. For example, she loves to teach in the second grade and prepared every thing like cards, procures, charts but the senior teacher did not agree for her to teach the second grade.
When preparing for a cultural week, the senior teacher wanted to invite a speaker guest about troubles in reading, while she was looking for inviting the first Kuwaiti climber for pupils in year five as that will make them more existed.
It seems that she is copying what the decision makers are doing to the teachers, they let them fill questionnaires to get their feedback but at the end they are not really take their suggestions into
consideration.
Teacher showed me that the best way for students to learn punctuation for example is by listening to a song about it which she borrowed from the internet (for instance, by singing that the period is a traffic cop etc.). Also to encourage students on good handwriting she uses a song from the internet (for instance, it is wise to be organized).
K 4 boys Hawally, mentioned that one her creative ideas in using material is to use a modeling dough or colored sand, or even a huge water paint sheet for the class to co work on. For instance, to introduce lessons for example bring the fours colors of the Kuwaiti flag and let the boys have fun with it, or she would let the student form the flag by using their finger prints in with the hand colors on a big sheet.
Everyday teaching less creative learners
For the workbook classes, and because she has 27 pupil in this class, she uses the overhead projector if I really want them to focus with me translated. First, she gives introductions on the questions style beforehand. For example, when she has to introduce numbering sentences, she starts numbering the first one then she tells the students to do this exercise on the white board. She would give those two minutes to guess the answer working in pairs, one can ask and the other answer. Then teacher will discuss answers with the rest of the class and write it on the white board, and they open their books and the copy them. So she tried to encourage them to elicit answers and guess, but at the end she gave them the model answer for them to copy.
Also when it comes to exam preparation she thought it is a bit hard and had to print out notes for the two books of the two semesters for the parents to prepare their children. These exams are unified exams which come from the ministry and neither the teachers nor the students have any idea about the questions. This is recent in Kuwait as before it was only monthly exams and assessments.
Therefore, it is clear that this teacher sees creativity implemented in materials as she used music, art, and her preparation of teaching aids. Other teacher showed less interest in that, and paid more attention on the relation with the student and encourages them to talk more and express their opinions using the language as much as possible.
One of the major constant comparison processes is that I will compare my conclusions of what creativity in language teaching is to the direct definition of creativity by participants. Then will make a general conclusion for the research.
After studying the codes and categories, and before further discussions and conclusions it is important to see how they talked about creativity directly. This is to compare the meanings I made to the mentioned they directly mentioned, thus direct quotes are needed where available.
The next table summarises some of definitions of creativity mentioned by participants
Table 1 Codes for creativity definitions
Creativity DefinitionImportant statement from Participant CodesI think that creativity is when you be creative in something out of nothing, you know
To teach what fits needs of reading and writing. Creation of abnormal worksheets.Yah, actually for example to me what I use to do I have, I like to create more worksheets. Thats what Im really, I find myself in this one. Worksheets make more extra worksheets. I am not the one who can say that it is creative, ok, but that what I hear from other colleagues, senior teacher, sometimes they say that it is abnormal, the worksheets that I used do.Personal View, Assertion, extra work All children learn in a good way, clear
A creative teacher, I believe is a teacher who can get out of the classroom and he is confident of what he taught his students, and also at the same time he gets out of the classroom every child at the class or every student has got the language, ok, in a good way ok, mmm. In a good way and also at the same time. What we can say. Clear.Personal View, Confidence, encouragement to the student, Freedom to decide on what to teach, not curriculum
I believe that everyone has a special side, and special things that he has inside himself. But maybe he has not got the chance to show all these things that has, but at the end hes going to do what he capable of. We can say that every teacher is creative.Every teacher is creativeCreativity is integrated one package language and methods
Creativity is about the language and the method. Its something integrated, all things in just one package. You go inside the class, ok you give the students all what you have, ok. Maybe they might get it, maybe not, ok. But your job is to teach, ok, If they get it, thats good, if they not, ok try more, try more, try more till they get it.Creativity IntegratedAdditional elaborationWhat I mean is, teaching methodology should be specified. But the issue of me offering my students some reading and writing is an extra thing. You know, it is only a small side where you give the student the freedom to be creative. That is what I meantSpecified methodology,
Extra thing,
Freedom to be creative
It is interesting to see that she sees that creativity should be peripheral, small and extra. This teacher sees that teaching methodology should be unified, thus all teachers would be doing and giving the same content and if there is a chance they can be creative and each teacher can do what they see is needed for their learners and situations. When researcher discussed with this respondent whether she needs more space for creativity, she explained that she needs to teach her children reading and writing more than what the curriculum and the pupil book are suggesting. This should only be done as an extra.
This can be explained as the priority in the minds of the participants is already listed and that she feels more responsible to do what is required nation-wide for the eructation and her touches which is based on her assessment of what the children need should only be done when the ready-made procedure is done. She even requires a clear and united methodology which is good because she seeks clarity and awareness, but she thinks that she should not be part of deciding on that methodology. It could be lack of confidence, or it is simply her need to be taught first since it is her first year in teaching.
Table 2 Definition of Creativity and other aspects
Definition of Creativity and other aspectsAdditional CommentCodeCreativity in English language teaching means discuss and let child think and talk, brainstorming and concrete materials for primary unlike sections.In English the most important things are
Discussion let children speak, raise their awareness. Students should try to think.
Brain storming for introducing difficult
Employ materials in primary stage idea to be presented in a concrete, seen ways unlike in secondary school.Discussion
Employ materialCreativity depends on teacher and pupil environment.we are all teachers, but to be creative teachers is a little bit difficult to find
-creativity depends on the teacher, environment and pupil.Creativity difficult to find,
Creativity depends on teacher, pupil and environmentCreativity is rare due to parents interest on grades or success only.to have a creative pupil here is nearly not found because parents just want their children to succeed, so only memorizing is emphasized, not only in Kuwait but in the Arab worldParents not supportive for creativityIQ to CategoriesIn some schools the classes are classified on the basis of the measures of IQ tests results. The teaching methodology in the class is different, teachers are differ and more field trips. This step can be applied at national level as it has been done in the Egypt. IQ test to categorize the students beginning from the first year in secondary until the last year of it, there are classes for low achievers and other for high achievers. The student should undertake the IQ test annually. This will provide flexibility where the low achievement student can progress and change the category.IQ tests to classify class, different methodologies for different IQ levels
There are different aspects of the creativity has been explored through the interactions with teachers. When teachers were asked about the levels of creative teachers, the response indicated that teachers are categorized in the similar manner that students are categorized. There are levels, just as when one can have excellent and creative kid and at the same time there can be low achiever. There are creative teacher and lets say normal teachers. There are teachers who just enter teach whats in the book and prepares for the exam. These teachers are not creative and limit to finishing the syllabus. There can be worst teachers as well, who need to be forced to work. The level of self motivation and interest is usually down in this kind of teachers.
One respondent have mentioned that her interest in moving to a developed country is backed by the idea that she can be more creative for master there. The same teacher when asked if she considers her creative responded,
I try to. Because I am looking for improvement, I am going to have a masters degree and I am going to immigrate to Canada. This is why I should improve and know other methods of teaching, because I am not going to stay here.
Views CodesCreative personThe creative teacher is the one who exploit everything around him. Sometime you find a ball and change it in a face. This is what to be creative, to use a normal thing to change it to a better thing to be used in his teaching. He uses what is available.Creativeexploit everything ball-faceKnowledge of art and computer, InvolvementThere are creative teachers who remain creative throughout their life. They have the ability to change the overall environment of the class. The characters of the always creative teacher are different. With everything around them, they can teach their students. The teacher one of the respondents described almost had 7 years of experience. She used everything and turns it into a teaching aid. She knows how to draw, use the computer, and make transparency.Creativity depends on teachersLanguage, material, confidence, background, aspects of creativity in ELT The language, material, confident and the background of a teacher are very important aspects. A creative teacher keeps her up to date. There are certain new concepts like communicative grammar, teachers should know that. One can ask a question without using a question word. The child coming from an American or British school knows that, but the teacher in public schools dont so she tells him that this is wrong and he will believe her as a teacher. For teachers being up to date is importantAspects of creative TeacherTeachers dont know different aspects of the communicative grammar because they only use the language with Indians and Pilipino. So they need to read and listen to English, in order to be a good, creative teacher and up to date teacher.Teachers level of awareness for the language, creative teachers need to be up to dateSelf correctionTeachers need to use and present language creatively. In order to do that, they need to allow student ask a question, explain that statement. Question can have a different intonation. The challenge is to ask is it right and get students to figure it out. Then she can self-correct. This can be started from the year two. Children can learn to dictate a sentence and it goes on improving them.Self correction and use of the language from teachers are essentialEncouragementStudents need to be encouraged. This within the class can result from motivation and appreciation for their efforts rather than goals.Encouragement focused on efforts not goals for studentFocus on allA successful teacher will be creative enough to involve all the students in the teaching and learning process. A successful teacher knows how to teach low achievers more that excellent and creative student, help low achievers to do better and the creative to be more creative. This teacher wills not focus only on the excellent group which is easier.Teacher should focus on all the students rather than low achievers or high achievers aloneDiversity of cultureCreativity is essential in the whole world. World is changing in every second and creativity allows keeping pace with the changing world. Religion and cultural aspects should be considered before thinking about any new and creative idea. The diverse background of students makes it necessary for teachers to ensure that no religious or cultural sentiments are hurt. Diversity of the culture Language matters, and materialCreativity is very important in comparison to the competence in and mastering the language. The teacher can be creative in making a student develop a teaching material, but the question arises if she is creative in her teachings. If she is not, it is difficult for her to teach. If child is not familiar to the object, material or reference around which the lesson is designed, this will increase the complexity of the student. Spoon-feeding for the exam is something that takes place mostly. Parents objection come from any change in the teaching patterns. They are more concerned about the exams and marks than learning.
The reason why Arab dont know English, it is because the teachers are killing the language by telling the student that you learn the language just for the exam.Familiarity of the students with the objectssubject used in creative idea should be taken care of Experiences treat, new languageNew teachers can be more creative in the content and language experiences teachers are more creative in the treatment of student. These teachers are flexible and ready to learn more that the experienced teachers.Level of creativity high among the new teachers, flexible and ready to learnFamily and creativityEducated parents help their wards to develop as a creative person. On the other hand spoiled children can not be creative. Family can be involved
Table 3 Culture, diversity and Creativity
ViewsCodes DiversityIt is important because there is diversity in the nationalities. You will have to speak English in the shops and restaurants I always make a discussion with my student about that. There was a funny incident where I heard a child making an order from MacDonald and the one who sells is Pilipino, the child said F (J big Mac with everything, without ,(F
(code switching) I want big Mac with everything but cheese .
So we should let them know that they need it and like it.
Diversity integral to Kuwaiti societyCULTUREThe culture also matters if the military jobs are available, and girls know that they will get married one day, this will make them less attentive. Parents should not accept less than high marks and significant jobs like a doctor. The parents who are concerned would be a doctor in a university or a businessman.
You notice that most students end up in military, or just finish the secondary and intermediate studies. But for the girls, you can notice that they are studying more than boys do, and the family and area matters in Kuwait. But this will change, with the lack of money
This is what I wanted to mention, it is not necessary for parents to be rich to be encouraging their kids to be a better persons. , when the time comes where the person knows that that he can join the military forces, or he can not study abroad, then the person will have to learn and work harder to complete studiesCulture, availability of alternative options like job in military for boys and getting married for girls,
Lack of attention, interest, money or focus by familyFamilyParents should specify the creative side of children as young as possible. Develop dont oppress, like computer not just game, broke maybe discovering.
There is link between the attainment of the student and his creativity.
There can be an excellent student in mark with no general background information. So the creative, excellent student is better than the excellent student.
There is a mistake that we fall in as Arabs, which is that you know that your son creative yet you cant specify in what field. Second of all, if you know what your son is creative in, you dont know how to foster his creativity. He will learn by experience which is wrong. We have methodologies and ways to improve the childs creativity, the childs creativity appears from a very, very young age, like two or three 3.
For instance, the child can be creative in computers, support him with something that in computers, but not just computer games. Do not limit his creativity in games only. Then there is a child who breaks a toy, you can guess that he is hyperactive or aggressive but he might be discovering, so bring him toys which enhances exploration and discovery, and each time he solves the puzzle bring him a higher level. However, if I stop bringing him another toy just because he broke his toy then I will be destroying his creativity. Family oppression hinders creativity of child, family ignorant for the childs creativity
Table 4 Factors impacting teaching of English (Teaching and class)
ViewCodesTeachers employs English in the childs interestGoing back to teaching, as a teacher in the classroom you might find a student who loves science, my role as an English language teacher is to bring her resources on her field of interest in English if not a resource then I can bring her an experiment explained in English. Or I can explain the procedures of a puzzle assembly in English. By doing that I have exploited her creativity, taught the language and gave background information. I provided variety to support her creativity.Students interest to be center of creative idea, creativity of the child should be supported,Simplify, fun lessonsWhy would they say that when I always try to simplify the subject and topics and play with them in the class. I present units in a fun waySimple ideas adding fun to the learning processLet student talk and make conversations, not just bookOne teacher shared her experience that one unit with role playing others with presentations she lets them talk. One would take the sun character, another one would be the earth so she will be using the language and information.
She tries to make student add to the conversation, not just what is written in the book, to make it more personal. For example, trees usefulness so I make a scene on that where a conversation takes place between two students on that information.
That all takes her effort to put the entire unit and present it in a scene, and this takes place everyday. The curriculum can be dry and abstract but she tries to change it. To achieve that she needs to have calm and a clean classroom, no way she can accept other than that. So she starts rushing them and making them to collect their rubbish. This is her nature to speak loud. She received complaint for this behavior that she feels, is intrusion of parents in her job. Interactive, involving all the studentsCurriculumThe teaching guide does not tell about how to design an acting scene. One teacher stated that she does it on her own. She makes the students play in the second stage. Even in the classroom, she gets ideas coming and she starts applying those ideas. She starts to write her ideas in the summer holiday so that she does not to lose it. Teaching guide does not provide creative spacePreparation for the implementation of ideaIdea production and application takes time but the preparation for the same does not take much of time. Calm environment, creation of new tool or method to teach is the primary requirement for implementing new ideas. Ideation requires time, clam environmentCreativity in English teaching in KuwaitThis was expressed in the interviews that the creativity has been promoted or held back in different schools based on the kind of senior teachers or management is available. In some schools teachers had full support in the form of freedom, availability of resources and overall facilitation of creative ideas wherein some other schools, teachers felt much suppressed due to unfavorable work environment, senior teachers and management. They were involved in lots of administrative work that was leaving with no time to explore and think about new things. The curriculum as such has little space for creativity. However a creative teacher finds her way out of the teachers guide to renew and create plays and do her own research and homework. Support of senior or management vital for any creative ideaRelation Creativity for the student is to give them the opportunity to participate and talk. The teacher dealing with students with special needs stated that a special need girl was known by the whole school that she would not be able to do anything. But the teacher was too friendly with here, in the break times the student came to her hold her arms and asked to walk together as they both were fat. The teacher encouraged her. This student now participates actively in the class. Even her language requires lots of improvements but she tried and teacher appreciates her and encourages her by making others applaud for her. Teacher has developed special affection with this student and got her participation in the class activities. Teacher can build relationships with childrenCreativity is not the same in all ages, countries and others.Researcher found in the interviews that the creativity is not the same in all ages, countries and others. Egyptian teachers have felt that there are differences of the way students are taught in Egypt and Kuwait. She commented,
I tend to forget what I suffered from once I enter the class they are at the age of my youngest son.
By the way creativity is not the same in all stages, in Egypt in secondary school it was another story I taught boys and girls and I communicated with them to get their attentionDiversity in the level of creativity
Table 5 Concepts and Codes
Concepts
CodesTeachers perspectivesTeachers are not provided with required freedom and confidence, Teacher should focus on all the students rather than low achievers or high achievers alone
Teaching guide does not provide creative space
Ideation requires time, clam environment
Teacher can build relationships with children
Simple ideas adding fun to the learning processStudent perspectives, freedom and confidenceFamiliarity of the students with the objectssubject used in creative idea should be taken care of, Encouragement focused on efforts not goals for student
Students interest to be center of creative idea, creativity of the child should be supported,
Interactive, involving all the studentsTeachers training and education backgroundFor teachers being up to date is important, Teachers level of awareness for the language, creative teachers need to be up to date, Self correction and use of the language from teachers are essential, Level of creativity high among the new teachers, flexible and ready to learnPerceived extra work loadTeachers are given administrative and other work as an addition to teaching responsibilitiesSupport from senior teacherSupport of senior or management vital for any creative ideaTeachers Evaluation processTeachers evaluation process based on other works or relationship with evaluators rather than the teaching job alonePerception of understanding among the policy makersTeachers perceive that their voices are left unheard and concerns unnoticed, the policies and changes are imposed on them rather than making them feel part of teach. Understanding of the training is not considered Perception regarding curriculum design, methodology and training program Specified methodology, no space for creativity, curriculum complex and sometimes changes are frequentPerception of creativityExtra efforts, Every teacher is creative, Creativity Integrated, Freedom to be creative, Creativity depends on teachers, creativity allows exploitation, Family, Society and culture Family can be involved, Diversity integral to Kuwaiti society, Culture, availability of alternative options like job in military for boys and getting married for girls, Lack of attention, interest, money or focus by family
Family oppression hinders creativity of child, family ignorant for the childs creativity, Diversity in the level of creativity
Table 6 Categories and Concepts
ConceptCategories
Teachers perspectivesTeachers clarity of creativity, freedom, motivationTeachers training and education backgroundPerception of understanding among the policy makersPerception of creativityPerception regarding curriculum design, methodology and training programTeachers Evaluation processMotivation and creativity restrictions, Relationships and curriculumPerceived extra work loadSupport from senior teacherFamily, Society and culture RelationshipsStudent perspectives, freedom and confidence
Table 7 Various Factors contributing to Creativity
English Teaching AspectsTechnology Aspects and use of Teaching aidsCurriculum and ManagementPresent vocabulary in non-traditional way
Mental preparation
Lively presentation and connection the lesson to everyday life
All pupils participation
Child encouragement
Encouraging children confident and independence
Teachers Confidence
Creating new ideas
Original thinking
Adaptation
Open minded
Understanding childrens age and psychological needs
Class management
Delivering information in easiest and fastest way
Games
Teacher aid making outside curriculum
Songs outside curriculum
Use of internet in order to get new creative ideas
Use of internet for sharing ideas with the teachers and staff with same or higher experience
Use of internet to know the updates on the English teaching methods
Use of computer and technology to design new creative ideas
Use for connectivity
Model lesson making
Culture week
Successful staff meeting
There is creativity to empress each side
For supervisor written preparation and sticking to it, spreading attention on all children are what matters ,
For manager confidence, control, organisation, expensive morning programs are what she looks for in a teacher.
For the child mental preparation is needed from the teacher.
Multiple intelligence (tests for teachers and staff)
Adjusting the (size) of the curriculum
Listening to the teacher and his opinions and design (as a senior teacher)
Table 8 Limitations and Barriers of Creativity
Limitations from child and childs backgroundLimitation from TeachersLimitations from Senior teachers, management and MinistryParental involvement nil or high in obstructing wayLack of involvement, interest and initiatives At any stage of curriculum development, teachers involvement is not considered the way it should be.Childs state of mind and psychological conditionLack of problem solving behaviourThe training imparted is usually not effective enough to help teachers understand the changes of the curriculum.Childs fear for English as a foreign languageNegative and complaining attitudeThe evaluation of teachers is based on personal preferences, extra work they do rather than their teaching work.Family environment does not inculcate positive attitude about the studies or English Work overload, additional unrelated responsibility from teaching, Lack of collectiveness in voices raisedTeachers are overloaded with more work than their teaching jobsEnglish has high prestige, but it is not preferred for conversation within the family or society. Lack of adequate training and support material.Complaints are neglected leading to dissatisfaction among the teachers
Figure 1 Concepts to Category
SHAPE MERGEFORMAT
Chapter 8 Conclusion
This chapter consist of summary from the research background, creativity, creativity and education sections, findings and discussion chapter. At the end of the chapter the conclusive remarks are added.
The teaching any literature is challenging task. With the time and location the changes can be seen in language. Particularly to the spoken language the changes are more evident. The same language English is spoken in different ways in UK, USA, Australia, India or China. The change comes is the result of various influence on the language and the way people speak their local language.
Different studies in the past and present has contributed to develop an understanding the growth of the language. The emphasis on the English language and teaching of English language has also been a focus of studies till date. There are various reasons for the growth of the language like academic, political, business related and others. Various authors have noticed that the growth of learning of English language is persistent across the globe (Crystal 1997, McArthur, 2002). This is irrespective of the fact if the country is native English speaking and other countries. English has been part of main medium of instructions and it can be taught as a separate subject altogether. In either case, it becomes important to study the language. The understanding of the other subject will get limited if the student does not know the language of instructions. Governments are paying more attention to English language teaching. The unprecedented spread of English throughout the world has been due to pressures from the academic, cultural, political and business areas (Kaufman and Crandall, 2002). English has become language of communication for the global businesses. The need of the workforce with knowledge of English is very necessary. It is very important to have formal knowledge of English for the higher and professional studies. This becomes evident that knowledge of English is mandatory for an individual to grow in the present global world.
There have been various studies conducted to understand the use of language. There are different changes and development studies by different authors. According to Kachru (2005166), the world is redefining its relationship with the English language use and is witnessing more developments and evolutions of English language teaching. The need for creativity in the English language teaching has been identified in various studies. There is need to create more space for the creativity in the teaching of the English language. This is considered to be more productive in a way that would fit in different contexts of the unified methods and styles. The diversity aspects existing in different country, school and individuals can be handled effectively (Kachru, 2005).
The lack of flexibility and reflectivity of the teaching and learning of the language is one of the main reasons for the same. The English teaching requires creativity in the methods of teaching. There is a need to incorporate flexibility in teaching model. This may help in developing a universal model that is applicable to all international contexts.
The TESOL teachers face more constraints than any other subjects and fields due to various reasons. One of the reasons is the limited flexibility available to the other teachers at the local levels. The teachers of other subjects are usually not as constrained as English language teachers. The textbooks of other subjects are locally designed. These are also connected to international methodologies. For TESOL the norm for teachers is that they have to be obliged to the local and international moves of the language teaching. This leaves English language teacher with very less space to be creative. They do not have clarity of teaching methods used in ready-made language teaching. There have been different views associated with the English language teaching. According to Bernat Gvozdenko (2005) the general notion regarding English language is related to the ownership of the English language. Teachers role is not limited to the teaching but also it becomes important to recognise individual needs and help students with the learning of language. Kleiman (2008) has argued on the role of creativity in the education sector. This becomes challenging for the teacher to identify individual needs and be creative in their teaching due to lack of flexibility and creativity. There are various reasons that are creating barriers for the teachers to be more creative and flexible. The work loads, pressure of additional work, individual factors of teachers are some of these limiting factors.
Within TESOL the concept of creativity has been identified to be beneficial different ways. This research is an effort in the direction of understanding different aspects of creativity in TESOL. The study allowed exploring various aspects of the creativity in TESOL within the context of Kuwait. This area received limited studies. The role of creativity in teaching of English language is very important, but this received very little research attention within the Kuwaiti context. The researcher tried to fill this gap of the previous study through this research. The efforts ahs been directed to find the relevance and importance of creativity in education. The expected outcome from this study is development of a theory or model. This has been an effort that would facilitate the teaching process of English language teachers.
It is understood from the literature review and creativity section that creativity in English language teaching is a topic that needs to be addressed in the current study. This study has been done from the perspectives of the teachers in Kuwait. Teachers are the ones who would actually work for the policies and programs developed by the ministry and authority. This is important to know what understanding and perceptions teachers have regarding creativity in English education. In general, research in the area of creativity has been very limited in the past. The existing literature reveals that there are even fewer studies dedicated in contexts like the primary stage teachers in Kuwait.
Creativity is related to tentativeness. This introduces different dilemma to creativity in teaching. This is recognised as a fact that most decision-makers in many countries (including the State of Kuwait) are increasingly encouraging teachers to be creative. However, the working definition and meaning of creativity to those teachers may not be clearly comprehended. There have been different reasons for the same. Some academicians and researchers have found that teachers are not trained appropriately whereas others have argued on the lack of interest from the teachers. Davies (2004) has noticed the similar situation in the UK. This creates a problematic situation for decision makers and English language teachers. The gap between the actions taken from the decision makers and the decisions needed at the teachers level leads to unpleasant situations for the students, teachers and failures of the policy or program created. English language teachers are supposed to be creative and foster creativity. However creativity can be taken for granted at the teachers level. The issue of the criteria in evaluating the endeavours of creativity is not clear to teachers. The currently set criteria for teaching evaluation are inadequate to identify the very nature of creativity that implies more freedom for teachersstudents to produce and explore ideas and others.
This study is based on the assumption that social and cultural contexts of Kuwait welcomes and imbibes creativity. This study is an effort to understand teachers perspectives of creativity in the English language teaching. The study was based on this assumption that understanding of gaps in the current English teaching methodologies should be worth investigating to develop better framework for English language education. The setting of criteria for the evaluation of creativity of teachers in a particular field requires understanding of different aspects of creativity, lacunas in the current English teaching methods, teachers perspectives and challenges in teaching students in Kuwait. This is also important to understand what teachers perceive for the current system of evaluation of creativity in English education. This study has been conducted in order to find out the factors that motivate teachers to be creative and its significance in TESOL. The factors contributing to lack of motivation, dissatisfaction and gap in the understanding of expectations helps in developing the essential grounds for observing, measuring and evaluating creativity. Creativity research is also linked with economy, science, psychology, and education. It is generally associated with imagination, play, art and similar aspects in the educational field. There are certain limitations to study the role of creativity on TESOL heavily. This is a subjective study. Quantifying the effectiveness of creativity is always complex. Research conducted in the area of understanding English language teaching and learning has been from different angles, perspective and contexts.
Many researchers tried and handled one angle of the English language teaching to explore it further for the next level of understanding. English is a vast language. There are various facets of English teaching and learning. This particular study has been an effort to find out the use of creativity, role of creativity, use of language, teachers perception, teaching methods and activities to others. Researcher conducted literature research and tried to explore various aspects of the studies conducted in the past. This helped researcher to realise that TESOL needs a broader view. This helped in realising that the approach of studying creativity of English language should be based on lesser fixed solutions. Researchers experience has also helped her in evaluating the research methods and research needs. A previous experience of being teacher has led researcher to think about teachers voices. Based on the idea of giving teachers their voice, researcher has defined the general scope to be creativity in TESOL for this study. This combines the knowledge from existing literature, ministry of education strategies in Kuwait as well as the data collected from teaching experiences and ideas of the respondents. Researcher has explored the understanding of creativity among the teachers and the facilitating or suppressing creativity. This is the reason that the main participants of this study are teachers of English language teaching for the primary stage.
Creativity in this study has been seen as a special research concerns. There are very few studies in the past that have touched or explored the creativity aspects of the English language study in the past. This is an original research. This research has intertwined different special areas of interests. The literature review section and creativity section of this study provided valuable insights on creativity in teaching. This study has been an effort to fill that gap within the Kuwaiti context. The significance of the study is high as it explored different opportunities to improve overall teaching and learning process for the English language in the Kuwaiti context.
There are six major aims of the governmental programme of Ministry of Education of Kuwait (Official Website, Ministry of Education Kuwait, 2007-2010). The first aim of the government is related with the participation in achieving the communication with the current era. This is based on the requirements of freedom of thought and adaptation with the changes in a manner that does not conflict with the unique culture of the society. There are three programmes recommended to achieve this aim. These are teachers and students creative thinking, supporting language and IT learning, and socio-cultural communication amongst generation.
The recommendations are developed with respect to the way creativity has been adopted in the Ministry of Education. Understanding the role and requirement of English language, Government gives particular focus to English subject language. Kuwaiti Ministry of Education is also focusing on encouraging innovative thinking and freedom of thought. The ministry of education in the State of Kuwait encourages learning foreign languages and computer usage. The ministry is focusing on developing individuals to cope with the challenges of globalization age without abandoning the uniqueness of the local culture (The Kuwaiti Ministry of Education).
This makes it clear that government is also focusing on the innovation and creativity in education. However, there are no specific details given for the focus of government on the English language. Ministry of Education is the highest authority in the education sector in Kuwait. This is the reason that creativity needs to be encouraged from this level. This can have better impact on the education system. There has been limited research done in various educational subjects including English in Kuwait. The lack of knowledge and proficiency in English language might have significant impact on the growth and progress of industry and society. In order to keep pace with the globalisation, government has to improve teaching and learning in this field of TESOL.
Justification of methodology
The research methodology is based on the theoretical and philosophical bases. Grounded Theory has been introduced in for this study. This research is based on an approach where ontologically assumes that there is no absolute, single, or predetermined truth at the end of the investigation. The diversity in interpretations is accepted. The research is rather resulting in a context-related useful and original contribution to knowledge. This can be negotiable and further developed. There are different authors who have explored various aspects of ontological studies like Merriam (1998) and Lavetry (2003).
The second theoretical concept used in this study is epistemology. This concept underwrites the framework of this research. The epistemological approach is based on that the researcher of this study would close relation with the research participants, data, and interpretation of results during and after the investigation. This close position of researcher to the participants perceptions and ideas assisted her in coming up with deeper understanding and fruitful findings. This is of great importance in the qualitative work (Scott Usher, 1999). The interviews conducted by the researcher have followed this theoretical concept wherein researcher has made the conversation friendly and comfortable for the participant. There is no definite answer of the questions asked in this research. These are the views collected by the researcher. Researcher simply asked questions and let the participant go with the flow of her thoughts. This helped in getting views of individual participants.
Finally, it was realised that the Grounded theory is the most suitable for this research in this context as this could help in developing deeper understanding, providing explanations and defining in the form of theory or model. The purpose of the current research could have been suitably treated by this approach only.
As discussed in the research methodology section GT is suitable to discuss the type of status of theory that the grounded theory approach would propose under the umbrella of multiple reality ontological assumption. Formal and substantive are two types of theories that can result from grounded theory (GT). The formal theories are more generalizations. It can be said across variable contexts and situations. On the other hand, the substantive theory is more limited to certain contexts and fewer generalizations can be made to other different contexts.
Grounded theory helps in developing new theory based on the data collected. This research allowed collecting data that can help in developing substantive theory in the given situational context of Kuwait education. Grounded theory offers a research model which is flexible enough to fit in all research scenarios. As discussed in the literature review section, this theory has deeper philosophical bases and model is for explaining a structure of applicable steps for a definite purpose. This is the requirement for the current research. This theory allowed in developing new theory. It is seen that the current theories on creativity may provide limited explanation for creativity of TESOL in a context such as Kuwait. The metaphor analysis allowed getting useful insights of the motives and views of the teachers. The GT data collection includes the field research and interviews. Interviews and observations have been the research tools for this study. This was done in a specified manner. The analytical approach used in the study was based on Eaves (2001) analytical steps of GT. This approach allowed in analysing the statements of the participants line by line. Data was collected and constantly analysed and compared with each other. This allowed researcher creating codes, categories and meanings of the collected data. Data is analysed with the coding wherein essential ideas has been identified during the data analysis process. These codes are than categorised in common themes. This is called concepts. Theory emerges out of the categories. Categories are the groups of concepts. Therefore it can be said that codes are the building blocks of any theory. This study aimed at creating a theory and this has been proven to be the justifiable approach. Behavioural patterns and dimensions were compared in this process. The memo analysis allowed in explaining the code categories and the interrelationship existing in the same. These also helped in articulating metaphors and explore methodological issues.
The research has been based on the face to face interview with the teachers and senior teachers. They are the people working directly with the students and implementing any program or policies. The repercussion of any program, good or bad is faced by people working at the ground level. They are the teachers here. The interview with teachers revealed various aspects of teaching challenges, activities, methods used by them, role of technology in their professional lives and others. This also helped in understanding the role of relationships within the teaching context. The study with teachers helped researcher understanding the role of senior teacher in facilitating creativity. Researcher realised that they are the important link for understanding different aspects of creativity for the English language teachers. This also helped researcher to realise the need of the observation for the research process.
The research questions of the current study aimed at understanding the elements of English language teaching within the context of Kuwait. The second research question explored the significance of English language teaching in Kuwait at the primary stage with the help of the understanding developed through the first question. This is evident from the literature review section that it is important to understand the perception of the teachers. This has been helpful in determining the readiness of the teachers for the creativity. There are various factors that influence creativity of teaching process. These factors can be motivating or restricting factors. Understanding of these factors would be helpful in designing program. This can also help the material designers to develop their designs in such a manner that would encourage creativity and minimize the factors suppressing creativity.
This is evident from the literature review section that education is considered important and necessary provisions have been created for the same. The Article 40 of the Kuwait constitution recognises the significance of education in the Kuwaiti constitution. It clearly states that education is right of each Kuwaiti and it is responsibility of the State to eliminate illiteracy. Constitution provides compulsory and free education for every Kuwaiti at the preliminary stages of education. The physical, moral and mental development of the youth is important aspect, where the State should devote its particular care.
However, the illiteracy rate in Kuwait is 6.28 for Kuwaitis and 6.33 for the total population. This is significantly good with respect to the various countries across the world. There have been changes incorporated times to time to deal with the challenges of providing education in Kuwait. The traditional values and norms have a great influence on the education system in Kuwait. There is a gender separation law that separates male and female student from the starting of their education process. The gender separation is extended to the teachers as well. Only male teachers are allowed to teach male student and vice versa female teachers are allowed to teach female students and both the students at the primary level.
The State of Kuwait encourages freedom of thought and use of innovative thinking. This is the reason the State of Kuwait also encourages learning foreign languages and computer usage to cope with the globalization age without abandoning the uniqueness of the local culture (the Kuwaiti ministry of education). English taught as a separate subject along with the seven subjects at the primary stage. Each subject requires specialised teacher. In the past, students were taught English four times a week. According to the recent changes, this is taught five times a week. This means that English is taught every day in the school. This approach of the Ministry of Education has been criticised by some writers and educationist. In particular to the way English language is taught in the primary schools, the Kuwait education ministry has been criticised for its approach. The studies revealed that teachers were not effectively trained and motivated. Other common justification for the weakness is that teachers without a degree in education from the accredited organisations have been employed. The reason for the employing teachers without degree was to fulfil the gap of demand and supply of English departments (Al-Mutawa, 1997 AlAhmad, 2000 Syed, 2003 Al-Sahel, 2005 and Al-Nwaiem, 2006). Al-Mutawa, (1997) have argured on the teachers competence. Chairs has also argued the competence in EFL teacher. The teachers who are not trained and do not have the required background would have problems in teaching. In such case, the use of creativity becomes questionable. Sullivan (2004) argues that creativity is valued more than competence by pricipals in other studies with different background than the language. Some researchers found out that language teaching relies on a teachers experience and individual creativity (Mooko, 2005). This is assumed that teachers formal, academic and professional training and preparation is seen vital for their performance. However, a study evaluating this preparation in Kuwait University suggested that improving the teachers preparation and better cooperation between the college of education courses and the current curriculum are more important aspects than the traditional aspects alone (AlAhmad, 2000). The same has been emphasied on the Kuwait university website i.e. student teachers are trained to serve society and accomplish comprehensive development. It is also mentioned that creative supervision is provided for student teachers (Kuwait university).
Al-Nwaiem (2006) has discussed about the new series developed with the cooperation of the Ministry of Education and the Longman Company. This series adopted structural and communicative approach to meet the needs of the students. Nevertheless, this proved less than the levels of expectations in its evaluation after five years. The need of understanding the perspectives of student teachers has been explored and discussed in the chapter 2. The importance of the same can not be ignored when it comes to understanding the role of creativity in education.
According to Syed (2003) creativity is vital in the studies conducted in the Gulf area. The study conducted by Syed concluded that students relied on note learning and memorization rather than developing understanding of the topic studied. This hinders the process of innovativeness and prevents students to think about new aspects and issues of different sphere of their lives. Syed further stresses on this on the basis of rapid societal changes are witnessed in the recent past. This supports the role of creativity. It is noticed in the literature that creativity provides a tool for coping with changes required not only in the Gulf region but in all counties including the UK and the US (Craft 2003, 2008).
The cultural differences and traditional approach governs the education sector in the Kuwait or Arab countries. Creativity is linked with the particular IQ levels in the Kuwait and Arab countries. The psychometric theories are the base for the creative studies in Kuwait and other Arab countries. The relevance of the study is clear from this aspect as this would help in clearing out this notion. In a recent conference in Kuwait, one of the speakers covered the topic creativity (as an embedded one). The speaker Al-Jinaee (2009) spoke about the biological structure of brain i.e. hemispheres of the brain and the left and right side of the brain and its functioning. He linked this to the action, behaviour and learning. He emphasised that there is a social side in the learning process that teachers, trainers and parents should take into consideration. The paper irrespective of psychoanalytic nature presented and reflected ideas of a social, personal and humanistic nature. This means that formal studies on this issue would raise awareness on the other sides of creativity. This is expected to be better suited to the nature of Kuwaiti context.
It was concluded in chapter two on the background study that the creativity and innovation are interrelated concepts. These two are associated with development. These are essential aspects of the growth and development in different areas of life. This is important to know the perceptions of the teachers regarding themselves, teaching process, training process, current programs and other related issues. This is mentioned in this section that research on creativity in teaching English has been very limited, particularly when it is compared with other subjects. This aspect has been elaborated in the literature review section as well. This is clear from this section that it would be important to start with the teachers in the primary stage and know their perceptions of creativity in the English language teaching.
The chapter three started with the fact that there has been very limited study on the creativity. Various authors like Stemberg (2006), Sawyer et al (2003) and others emphasised on the position of creativity in the existing research studies. It is seen by many writers as a very vital phenomenon in many fields. The lack of consensus on the importance, role and utilisation of creativity on different areas of study makes the issue more challenging. There is no single definition for creativity in education. Different fields and studies have different definition of creativity. The creativity section consists of main theories and approaches and explained various ways of people and theorists dealt with creativity throughout the history. Historically, it is noticed that there are three main phases to how creativity had been approached. The first phase was where people thought of creativity as something that comes from a power that is beyond the human. This theory considered human as a channel or source through which creativity can resemble. The second phase was when the human was more appreciated as the one responsible for creativity and had been tested closely. In the third phase creativity got treated as a context-bound phenomenon. This was different than the universal phenomenon.
According to the studies of Craft (2002, 2007a) creativity was a source of inspiration and motivation in various traditions like Greek, Judaic, Christian and Islamic traditions. Different philosopher and thinkers mentioned different sources of motivation for them. Creativity has been incorporated in various forms in different areas arts and architecture to the language and communication.
The 19th century was the era of change that started from Europe. The psychological explorations flourished by the end of the 19th century that was leading research trend in the creativity area. The creativity was not considered exclusive art after late 20th century. It became part of life, necessity of life. This was accepted as a concept appropriate for almost any field and domain in the life.
The first approach discussed in the creativity section is Psychoanalytic approach. This approach is considered as one of the most popular approaches of the twentieth century. Freud sought that only sad people are the ones who have daydreams. This is essential to the creative process in order to ovoid pain (Barguest, 2007). It is seen that the view which imply that tension can produce creativity can be linked to the role of environment. Further, how some people believe that hardships generate success and creativity, while others stress the healthy and encouraging environment surrounded by the person provides the climate for the ultimate creative processproduct.
The cognitive approaches developed in response to the psychoanalytical approach. This approach allowed development of the understanding of mental representations to the process underlying creative thought. This provided problem solving approach to the creative studies and approach and formed logical constructs for the same.
The third approach discussed was psychometric approach. This approach similar to cognitive approach was highly influenced by its preceding approach. This can be assumed to be extension of cognitive approach by providing tools for accessing creativity tests. Guildford proposed fluency of ideas, flexibility and originality as factors in creativity. Guildford challenged that there can be creative children with IQ less than 130 in different areas and proposed the multiple intelligence for identifying creativity in different areas like linguistic, special musical, logical, bodily, social, intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences. Different academicians and professionals adopted the ideas of Guildford like Hudson (1968), Torrance (1967) and others. Different debates and discussion proved that this approach allowed developing a better understanding of the human mind, personality, learning, creative thinking and overall intelligence.
Torrance has provided valuable insights on the role of creative learning. The role of creative learning with respect to questions, imaginative ideas, students ideas, providing non-evaluated practice, and linking between cause and sequence to evaluate students instead of telling them that they are wrong was further emphasised by Gowan (1967 80-1). Torrance (1967 214) also focused on inculcating creativity among children. Torrance recommends that children should be provided with materials which enrich imagination as children are naturally story tellers and poets, and can compose charmingly and excitingly, if encouraged to do so.
Humanistic approach considered psychoanalytic approaches to creativity research. The major contributor to this was Maslow who provided different levels of need that helps an individual to get motivated to move from one phase to other phase of life. Demos Gowan (1967 2) argued that the Maslows hierarchy of needs is applicable in the field of creativity as well where the mental health of an individual and self actualisation creativeness is interlinked with the personality. Davis (1999) also thinks that self-actualisation is needed for creativity, and identified some barriers of creativity like habits and learning, rules and traditions, cultural blocks, emotional blocks, research barriers and the idea squelchers. Maslow categorises creativity into two major types i.e. primary creativity and secondary creativity. Primary creativity is the one which is related to being unconstrained, unconscious and inspired this type of creativity can be found in all people according to him. Secondary thinking is associated with creativity achievement in science and arts and requires more effort and influence from the past (Ochse, 1989 Cunliffe, 2008). Creativity is considered to be a source of motivation and a result of motivation by various authors in the humanistic approach (Ochse, 1989 Cunliffe, 2008, Sternberg Lubart, 1999).
The next approach is social personality approach. This approach considered parallel to the cognitive approach. The factors like personality, motivation and socio-cultural environment form the basic sources of creativity for this particular approach. Personal traits that are associated with creativity are independence, confidence, complexity, aesthetic orientation and risk taking. In the response to this approach the Confluence approach was developed. There are number of authors adopted this approach such as Amabile, Csikzentmihalye, Gardner, Lubart, Perkins, Sternberg and Weisberg. The important factors for this approach expanded for creativity. Motivation, domain relevant knowledge and creative skills are the main components of this approach. Complex, independent, assertive and dominant are the four types of original people described by Barron (1967). The submissive personality is not the original personality. Similar to the approaches of Pluto and Freud, this approach supported the idea that pain and stress could lead towards creativity.
On the other hand the pragmatic approaches developed during 20th century had thinkers like De Bono who supported creativity as an activity of thinking out of the box or thinking anew idea all together. De Bono worked on lateral thinking and brainstorming. There are various other thinkers supporting this approach as mentioned in the section. According to Craft (2007b) the early 21st century perceived creativity as complex, collective and culturally situated.
There are different researches conducted for understanding the role of creativity in different areas than language. Grounded theory is a useful choice for the understanding of the nature, creativity and uniqueness of the English language learning. Grounded theory approach relies on the qualitative study. Therefore useful material from literature review can be used as data for the Grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967, Strauss Corbin, 1998)
According to Fritz (2008) the outcomes obtained from the grounded theory approach are largely free from bias. This is because the researcher does not depend on preconceived ideas. This theory allows researcher to begin the research with an open mind. This theory permits investigator to conduct the study and analyzes all the collected information without having formulated a prior hypothesis. All the data used in the study can be sourced from primary and secondary sources (Fritz 2008).
The main creativity theories currently adopted by most scholars from UK and US differs from each other. In the UK creative theories belong to Humanistic, social personality, and confluent approaches to research on creativity. On the other hand, in the American Studies cognitive and psychoanalytic approaches are adopted in the present scenarios.
The researcher looked at different perspectives of creativeness in TESOL for the teaching of a foreign language that is English. Different creative approaches can be developed with the collaborative school environments, with joint classes, focusing more on the practical aspects of the language, removing the barriers of learning, creating healthier environment and others can be part of the teaching language.
According to the observations of Giroux, (1992) and Hall (1997) a strong relationship exists between culture and language. The factors that complement among these two aspects could be functional and mutual. Brown (1991) argued that there is more need of activities and encouragement to the students so that they explore the language further. According to him, the role of students should be extended to be creators of language rather than passive recipients of it. The active participation of students in the learning process can change it from a passive act. A creative teacher may transform students from passive receivers to the active participants.
Nevertheless, teachers are looking at different sources of information. In such scenario, the role of internet and technology becomes very important. Technology is in the form today that it has brought revolution in the world of communication. Internet is an effective means to facilitate learning process. This also helps in developing ones skills. Internet can be used as a link between teacher and students, teacher and teacher, teacher and supervisor, management and many others. Internet requires introduction with technology and a facilitator. The facilitator facilitates and supports learning process of language study through technology. Technology adds to the offers of traditional means. There are various ways technology can be used in creative and innovative ways by using the attributes like interactivity, sound and images and others. Online teaching is possible. The language can get benefits in phonics and punctuations, elocution, enhancing the vocabulary and sense of grammar and other aspects of languages. One of such example is the CALL e-dictionaries used in Saudi Arabia in L2 English learning.
In the previous sections the use of different form of art and literature has been accessed. It has been argued that teacher can utilise creative ideas and can use it skilfully to inculcate creativity in the child. Child can improve language skills significantly with the support from the teacher. Teacher is the implementer, source of inspiration, role model and the one responsible for the learning of student. It is said that teachers are the best theorist for educational studies. They are in touch with the practical problems and challenges. English is a foreign language in Kuwait. There is certain level of prestige associated with the language. However the use of language is very limited in the common conversation. Students do not have environment supporting English outside the class. This becomes challenging for the teacher to use the forty five minutes class in such a manner that it is easy for the students to learn and recall the language. The level of involvement from the teachers needs to be high. The question of the ownership of the language arises. This required understanding of the way teachers identify themselves and their perception of the native vs. Non-native English language can affect their creativity in the teaching process. The other aspect is the way teachers deal with childrens errors and the extent to which they encourage them to use the language freely and play with the word or not.
These ideas are based on the principle that the teachers role and perceptions matter. There is an explicit emphasis on creativity. This is considered healthy in the area of TESOL. It can improve and overcome many of the current weaknesses in the language learning in the context of the study. However, from the Grounded Theory point of view, these preliminary ideas of what creativity might mean in TESOL area should not be viewed as final answers or as a suggestions to guide participants towards a certain answer in mind. It was assumed in the initial studies of this paper that the points mentioned so far can be different from the data of the current study. The teaching and creativity has been explored from different perspectives in the literature review section. Strauss Corbin (1998) stated that there is a need to study the part of the professional knowledge to help better understand the phenomenon of creativity.
Creativity is defined as a constructs of new tools, outcomes and embodiment of knowledge by Knight (2002). Jones Wyse (2004) have defined creativity as fixed entity of the judgement of people. However, all the definitions have been provided by the decision makers or academicians. The grounded theory allows teachers coming up with their own definition of creativity. Sundgren (2005) has stated that motivation is the key factor for studying the creativity at the organisational level. There have been various studies that helped in understanding role of motivational aspects in creativity. Motivation is considered as one of the important factors leading to creativity. This aspect has direct relationship with self esteem of teachers and learners (Creative-Partnership,20071,14 Sefton-Green2007 4). Egan et. al., (198888) stated that play and imagination are connecting tools for childrens creativity. Previous studies indicated that imagination has been perceived as positive and negative sides of creativity. At the same time, the notion of wisdom has been discussed for teacher creativity for a person prepared for the school life as well as the outside world (Craft et. al 2008). Some of the authors have argued that to be wise is somehow to be creative, but not all creativity is wise, considering wisdom as being successful in balancing the interest (ibid5).
Csikszentmihalyi (as cited by Gardner, 1994) has described three main components of the creativity. These components are individual person, the domain that can be profession or job, and the filed i.e. the socio-cultural side of the profession. The individual can be self motivated or encouraged to use the creativity in the profession. Some professions offer more creativity than the others, whereas others can be monotonous and routine jobs. Teaching is one of the professions that give liberty of using the creativity within the class.
Students being fast learners add to the creative learning process. On the other hand, various academicians have described process, product, person and environment to be the part of creativity (Fryer 1996, also see Runco1997 Craft, 2001 Rhodes, 1961). Creativity is a vast topic to explore even within the education context.
Creative process is the problem solving activity. This is considered to be unique and novel. The need of flexibility and diversity is considered as requirement of the organisational development under economics and behavioural studies. The creative products are new and valuable end products that are result of the lateral thinking. This can be full of aesthetic sensibility, emotional resonance and expressions (Du Bono, 1970). Fryer (1996) defines creative person as the one with nature of making valuable and recognizable changes. Fryer states that the teachers with creative bent of mind will have positive attitude towards creativity in their top ten behavioural attributes. The environment of creativity stresses on the context of the creativity. The social and cultural setting that allows creativity is the part of environment.
There are various aspects of different cultures that encouraged creativity. To invent something new and different and the issue of prestige and fame associated to it have encouraged people from different walks of life to be creative. The Egyptian, Chinese, Japanese and various other cultures are known for their creativity. History of almost all the country across the world is filled with different examples of creativeness from science, arts, culture, dress, printing, philosophy and other knowledge fields. Culture can be supportive or restrictive in the language learning. In the TESOL and educational context in general, it is important to know the cultural dimension. Culture and tradition are highly important aspects of the Arabian countries. Similarly, in the education system, the TESOL and educational context are important to study with respect to cultural dimension. Du Bono (1970) has emphasised on the idea of culture in education with respect to the communication of ideas. The culture can be studied in the macro and micro levels of the society. Ochs (1987) has mentioned different elements of culture that can have influence on the culture and education process like political, economic, religious, and kinship relations, events, interactions, and institutions, to values to conceptions of the world to theories of knowledge and to procedures for understanding and interpreting (Ochs, 1987 305). The creative products must be socially accepted and this is possible with the coherence of creativity with the culture (Fryer, 1996). According to Claxton et al. (2008 169), the creativity in schools is both individualistic and collective. Traditions and culture is usually describes as predictable and conventional. However, one of the themes that have been repeatedly mentioned in creativity research is the idea of being unconventional and having the desire to change and take risks.
According to Boden (1990), this is the religious belief that nothing can be produced from the scratch. However, the creativity is considered to be a process of bringing out something from nothing. Generalisation of creativity and its study within a given context is very challenging due to the disparity of the cultures and situational contexts. Fryer (1998) argues that the perception of creativity changes according to the culture. Fryer mentions the study conducted on British teachers on creativity that revealed seventy percent of the teachers believe creativity to be a rare gift. Craft (2006) studied the relationship of culture with the concept of creativity on the basis of study on the participants of Australia, England and Spain and found various differences. Opposite to the western beliefs and approaches, the countries of Gulf represent collective and collaborative cultural environment where extended families and generations live together. The collective thought and decision making processes become important in this scenario.
This study has been an investigative approach for understanding creativity in ELT teaching. The study has been conducted in the context of Kuwaiti teachers. The location for the study was Kuwait. This study allowed understanding different perspectives from the teachers point of views in the areas like social culture, or institutional culture, or other factors. This study helped in understanding the role in shaping views of creative teachers. The participants educational culture as student teachers is useful to investigate. The literature review section explored some Kuwaiti studies on teachers weakness or lack of competence. These aspects were linked to their teachers preparation. The study helped in exploring these aspects to the further level of understanding. The lack of the preparation in case the teacher is like holding Art degree instead of holding a degree in education. However, it was wondered if the teachers preparation courses and programmes are really effective in terms of creativity. One of the aspects to study and explore was the place of creativity among the teachers training and preparation programs. This should be part of their teaching process that can be inculcated to them at the start of their career and training itself. There are various aspects of the teaching, training, policies and programs and others have been discussed by the participants.
Creativity in education sector is influenced by number of factors. The first of these factors are the acceptance of creativity among people. On one hand, some strongly opposes the idea of creativity and on the other hand some cannot see education without creativity. Lucas (200138) elaborated the reasons of criticising creativity in education sector. According to Lucas it has three main reasons first its link to imagination associated with disobedience and is unruly (Lucas 2001 38). Secondly, the fact that creativity needs to prove its effectiveness on childrens attainment and developments. There is the call for the importance of using it within the contextual framework and the value system of a given time and place. In the views of Cropley (1997) the concern of the parents and teachers about the creativity and the contrasting views of perceiving creative behaviour as unruly, careless behaviour or seeing the rules themselves unnecessary for the development of a child.
There are four main limitations for creativity identified in education i.e. limitations of terminology, conflict between policy and practice, relevance of creativity with subject and curriculum and centrally controlled pedagogy. Craft (2003) has identified cultural, environmental and ethical levels of limitations to creativity in education. As for the definition issue, it is seen that the tentativeness and vagueness of creativity can be problematic for the practicality and functionality of creativity for decision-makers and teachers.
The creative learning as mentioned by Faulkner et al (2006) and Beghetto (2007) are based on the learners and teachers perspectives. Some teachers prefer predefined answers for their questions that suppresses creativity among the students whereas teachers burdened with the curriculum, do not have time to be creative and innovative. The academicians and educationist who prefer creativity support it with various arguments like they see it as a tool of improving the quality of education, opening new and interesting approach to the curriculum (Beetlestone, 1998), feel as it is essential for survival (Fryer, 1996) and central to the teaching and learning arrangement (Craft, 2003a). Sullivan (2004) states that there is certain evidence that principals prioritise the teachers on the basis of creativity and innovations for the best EFL teacher.
Some researcher has studied the role of creativity on the learners (Cropley, 1997). Cropley argued that this has significant impact on the intellectual, personal, motivational, emotional, and social aspects of the learners. On the other hand, academicians like Beetlestone (1998 142-3) Pope (2005 19) Craft et al., (2008) have emphasised that the positive attitude towards the creativity makes teachers ready and flexible for it. Fryer also supports the idea that creativity is important for the development and growth of children as per the changing requirements of the job market. Boden (2001102) stresses on the nurturing knowledge without ignoring creativity among the learners.
According to Jeffrey Craft (2004) the creativity can be studied at three levels in the education process i.e. teaching creatively, teaching for creativity, and creative learning. In order to distinguish these three, the characteristics of creativity i.e. relevance, ownership, control and innovation are utilised. These factors are interconnected with each other.
Similarly, Gale (2001 103) identifies the role of creativity in the live of teachers to be trained and reflective after the post compulsory education. Educators creativity is mostly related with openness, releasing the unconscious, self-esteem and vision, working with others with some professional autonomy and relationship (Craft, 2002 174-6).
The approach and perception to innovation and creativity in the English Language Teaching (ELT) varies from seeing it as a technology to an idea that underlies all aspects of teaching. In ELT, innovation has been related to technology and its role in improving the techniques and methods of teaching English.
Sullivan (2004) argues that teachers preparation does not provide answer to all educational challenges. There are different elements of education along with the creativity that can be helpful in dealing with the educational challenges. The study of Mooko (2005) has been ice breaking as the findings revealed that the teachers experience and individual creativity is the major basis for English language teaching instead of research and theoretical knowledge. Zhang (2002) explains the characteristics of English language that allows it to be transforming in the creative ways with respect to the requirements of the natives. Brown (2001) emphasises on the low self-esteem of the international students for their language proficiency.
The first empirical study was based on Creative Partnership (2007) in UK schools. They worked as creativity providers to introduce creativity to some of the UK schools. Their report reflected the impact of creativity on the school from the perspectives of the teachers, head-teachers, students and even the creativity providers. There are various benefits reported by this study from the development of the childs communication skills, social, speaking, listening, imagination and creativity skills as well as development of self esteem among the students.
Researcher has decided on the research methodology on the basis of the research objectives, literature review and different aspects studied and understood by the creativity section. This was clear that this study needs development of new theory in order to address the needs, shortcomings and problems of the existing level of problems in using creativity in English language study. The research methodology section started with distinguishing important philosophical concepts regarding theoretical framework for the study. The key concepts studied and discussed under this section were ontology, epistemology and methodology. In order to understand and explore these concepts, researcher explored various aspects of the same. These theoretical concepts have been defined in different ways. As described by Silverman (2005), the ontological concepts allows researcher viewing the nature of knowledge and its status. This can be described as a world view of a person. This research is based on an approach that ontologically assumes there is no absolute, single, or predetermined truth at the end of the investigation. Therefore this study accepts the diversity in interpretations. This is needed for the current study. This allows getting different view points, different insights of various aspects of teaching English in the given context. The research resulted in a context-related useful and original contribution to knowledge.
The research methodology has been influenced by the epistemological assumption. The various notions of knowledge like truth, belief and justification were the natural aspects to study and understand in the process. Methodology presents the fundamental strategy of conducting a research. This helped in arranging the plan and procedures of the research actions (Crotty, 20033). This is clear that the nature of the topic of research is subjective. This is because the phenomenon of creativity is viewed differently in different fields, contexts and cultures. The relative vagueness in the term makes it hard to claim about the creative nature of the person.
The research process also helped researcher to get a better perceptive of the opinion held by teachers for their own belief and practice of teaching creatively. This is one element researcher tried to investigate in this study. This is hard to define and describe the creativity. The term is so subjective that people know it, seek it but can not define it. This is very difficult to give it clear cut standards and descriptions for anyone to follow. Since there is almost no right or wrong examples when it comes to creativity, or creative language teaching, conducting a research on such issue becomes increasingly challenging for the researcher. For the participant also, this is very difficult to determine if their approach or method is creative or not. Some teachers used different objects from the class and surroundings to teach help student learn. This can be different from the other teachers or the methodology described. But the teacher has not had considered herself to be creative. It can be concluded that creativity depends on how the person sees it or the teacher perceives it. In the Kuwaiti education programs, there is no emphasising on this process at the ground level. It is sensed that current theories may not fully serve the context and field of study. This makes Grounded theory the most suitable for this research in the given context. Grounded theory provides a plan and technique to be open to as many ideas as possible. It helps in deepening the understanding, producing explanations and defining in a form of a theorymodel. The second reason of deploying grounded theory is that this fits the purpose of current research. This is due to the fact that this method allows including to process any information the researcher faces as data. Rich data can be held and a fuller engagement with the thinking, collecting, connecting and concluding recursive processes throughout the research.
The assumption of multiple realty of the ontological approach has been considered under the grounded theory. Ontological approach helps in understanding the form and nature of the reality. This study explored the reality of creativity in the natural settings and Kuwaiti context. This was part of the grounded theory approach. At the same time epistemological questions allowed researcher to establish the relationship with the participant and their knowledge of creativity. Ontological assumptions on one hand helped in understanding the cause effect relations behind social reality. Epistemological assumption allowed researching without the influence of the researcher. The observation was based on this assumption.
Researcher has studied various aspects of the grounded theory from the types of theories to the philosophical bases of the same. This theory is of two types, formal and substantive. The formal theory allows generalisation of the research across different contexts and situations whereas substantive theory is limited to certain contexts. There have been various discussions on the issue that grounded theory is model or theory. There is a difference of the streams of thoughts. There are some researchers and academicians who argue that Grounded Theory is not a theory but a research model. On the other hand, other stream of thought believes that the difference in the theory and model is based on the philosophical basis. Theory has deeper philosophical bases and model is for explaining a structure of applicable steps for a definite purpose. This study is based on a grounded theory approach.
The reason of adopting GT approach has been the objective of development of a theory in the Kuwaiti context of English language teaching. This specified nature of the research questions has been also one of the reasons of selecting GT approach. GT approach allows researcher in developing new theories and concepts that explains human behaviour. In the current topic of research has received very limited studies in the past. It is seen that the current theories on creativity may provide limited explanation as creativity for TESOL in a context such as Kuwait. This is not a topic that is rich in theories. This approach allows limiting and omitting to rich additions and unexplored sides with respect to the interest of the topic. This is a new context for the study and testing existing theories in such context would be challenging. Developing a theory-regardless of its status- can help better understand the phenomena and cover different relevant aspects of the same.
From the literature review and own understanding of the education system and process in Kuwait, researcher was clear that this requires qualitative study with the close relationship of the participants. The idea was to get elaborative and rich data with dense details and ideas. During the initial three interviews, researcher understood that there is a need to include more participants from the senior teacher levels. All the teachers studied under the pilot study, mentioned the role of senior teacher in providing them guidance, facilitating or restricting creativity and their role as a link between decision makers and teachers. This was very significant for the researcher to share visions and beliefs of respondents regarding creativity in language teaching and its significance in education. The researcher had been less argumentative and more supportive for participants to be elaborate and to produce as many ideas as possible at the opening stages of the interviews. The prior experience and background of the researcher has helped her in developing the understanding of the expressions and challenges faced by the respondents. It was clear from the responses that the respondents were at different stage of career and were facing different level of challenges in the teaching process. The personal lives of the respondents were not untouched with their profession as many of them had given examples of their personal life and challenge in order to emphasise on their views or explain their points. The researcher had the experience of being English language teacher in a primary school. This helped researcher to develop association with the respondents and understand the challenges. Researcher was able to empathise with their situation. Researcher had the tone of understanding that respondents needed to explain their thoughts clearly and frankly. For the research, researcher had given participants flexibility of time to reach her. Researcher felt that a more reflective role is required for the reflection times. Researcher also conducted observations that helped her understanding the way lessons have been taught in the class. After the observations, it was important to check on understanding and raise awareness where ever it was possible and required. Ideas, perceptions and conclusions were discussed with the participants. Therefore, the relationship between the researcher and the participants could be flexible and take different shapes and roles to suit the purpose. However, in all cases a relaxed atmosphere was needed. Researcher was successful in attaining an equal researcher-participants status needed for this research. Furthermore, the role of the participants and the researcher was central in the interpretations. The researchers comparisons and thoughts have formed the concluding ideas and thoughts.
Researcher conducted observations in order to understand the teaching process for the English language in Kuwait primary schools. Researcher took permission to sit in the classes of primary section in order to conduct her observations regarding the way lessons are taught in the class. Researcher studied the classroom settings, use of the teaching aids, interactivity, students involvement and creativeness of the teaching process. The formal and informal communication aspects have been studied in this process.
The four stages of the GT theory analysis consists of codes, concepts, categories and theory. The codes help in identifying the key points of the data gathered. The codes of the similar contents are grouped together under a concept. Similar concepts are grouped in categories and these categories together to form a theory that explains the research subject. This study has been the based on the qualitative data. Researcher explored different aspects, determined research steps and the participants. The research moved towards the Strauss approach of supporting spontaneous emergence of theory along with modifications. There has been very few word-by-word coding. This has been used in a limited manner because of the complexity of meanings. There was more of a line-to-line coding. The significant wordings used by the participants were betters explained using metaphor analysis. Metaphors happened to occur naturally but not densely. The research started with Line by line coding using participants words. These codes are devices to compile and organise data. This was the first step was of the first phase of the research. In this research word by word coding was not done. This is due to the reason that word by word coding was unclear and in some cases it did not make sense. However the line by line coding was done on the basis of some key words. These key words were underlined and written on the margin of the script. This step was useful, especially when those words were expressive or metaphors which were helpful to analyse those metaphor during the coding and categorisation.
The second step allowed making a list of all in-vivo codes to capture a main idea. Usually a qualitative test analysis software package (MARTIN) is used to code and organize. However in this case, this has been done manually, each code was put in a separate Word document file and each word file was named for the constant comparison process. In the third step the researcher reduced code phrases by grouping similar code phrases. This was done along with the data collection process. This step was followed by turning group of similar code phrases into a cluster. These clusters were reduced into meta-clusters with labels. These labels were further reduced these labels into concepts. Grouping concepts into categories is described as Categories are classifications of concepts, and are discovered when codes are compared against one another and pertains to a similar phenomenon. Those steps were recursive and categories were constantly compared and updated. The Constant comparison method helped to search for similarities and relationships amongst codes and categories. This was followed by identifying subcategories and linking categories to allow conceptual order This was done by asking questions about relationships in the data (constant comparison) or by testing hunches against the data (Corbin 1986) Another way that this was done was by using the literature to outline and compare relationships among the categories (Charmaz 1983). The locating core categories with storyline them of data was the next step. These core categories led to the development of basic social psychological process and basic social process.
Observation is another method that is widely used in grounded theory research. It enables the researcher to witness dense details of the actual life of participants and a clear image of the context can be lived from the lenses of the researcher as well. Although it is hard to have a check-list for what exactly to look for in the current research, but observations were a useful for a chance to see some elements which appear in the codes of each participant.
At first, interviews took place before the observation, but then it was decided that interviews should only take place after the observation to get as genuine and authentic contexts as possible. This is because interviews can cause pressure on the teacher to prove what she has mentioned and turns it into action in the next lesson. It can be directing the way the teacher teaches, uses material and even the way she treats the learners. It is also known that how things happened can have countless reasons, but it is mostly limited by the researchers lenses as well as reflections with teachers in the interviews.
The terminology and definition of issues like reliability and validity have been controversial particularly in the qualitative research tradition. Glaser and Strauss are reported to encourage rigour through credibility, plausibility and trustworthiness. Some of the significantly important processes are theoretical sampling as explained in the previous sections and writing memos.
Details of methods of data collection, coding, analyzing, presenting are important for the rigour considerations (Jeon, 2004).
The term that is usually used for credibility in a qualitative tradition is trustworthiness (Chiovitti Piran, 2003 430).
Credibility comes from the participation of the respondents in the inquiry process. The theoretical construction and participants meaning of phenomenon is studied. The actual word used by the participants during the data collection has been compared for the theory. Researchers views and insights regarding the phenomenon have been considered. The study included the post comment interview sheets as a tool. The personal journal was maintained to monitor the use of literature. The consistency of the study was determined by the audibility of the information like specifying the researchers thinking process, sampling techniques and the spontaneous responses generated and balance of time among the parties in the interview process. The researcher ensured that the scope is delineated in terms of sample, setting and the level of theory. There is effort to relate the literature with each category that emerged in theory. Researcher has a benefit of being from Kuwait that ensures the knowledge and understanding of cultural and religious aspects. Researcher had been studying in UK that provides sound background for the study. In nut shell, researcher hold an important position due to the awareness of the tradition, ethical, religious and political aspects of the society as well as the understanding of the ethical concerns of the requirement of the study. Researcher could incorporate the issues like personal preferences to the study and chose whatever is suited at the time of study for the respondents. Hence, on the ethical ground, the researcher has followed ethical agreements of the local society and university agreements. The informed consent of the participants was taken in the study. The voluntary participation ensured this. The participants were informed regarding the scope and purpose of study, role of their participation, use of data collected from them for this study only and others. The informed consent, anonymity and confidentiality has helped researcher maintaining the privacy of the respondents.
It was also found out that the narrower the questions, the lesser details were given. Whereas the more broad the questions were the more elaboration and ideas are produced. Therefore, it was seen that it was best to keep the interviews open-ended especially at the beginning to produce as many deep and rich ideas as possible. Open-ended questions naturally required producing new questions for each participants respond within the big umbrella of creativity in ELT topic. Even in the event where it sounded that the participant was off point, it was realized then that it all falls into what creativity means in their minds and practice.
Results
Summary of the findings
Participant 1
21 year old, Training teacher, Graduate from CBE under PAAET English
Very positive and attached to the language, not just verbally but also she had instilled English language in her life for communication with everyone she could.
Teaching children was her passion
Her creative suggestion was that a day in a week should be celebrated as practice day where everyone including staff and members will use English only for the conversation.
Challenges she faced was dealing with the disobedient and noisy children that distracts her and annoys her.
Good understanding and knowledge of curriculum and methodologies used at national level.
Confident and accurate use of language during conversation.
In her view, teachers should be given an extra free space or area within the curriculum to be creative as per each students need for language. Teacher should be given opportunity to design appropriate English program for her student, rather than forcing a fixed schedule and syllabus to them,
However, she could not answer the definition of creativity as comfortably as she could explain about the curriculum and her plans for Masters Degree in curriculum design.
Use of the hedging word Maybe
She emphasised on the value of confidence in teacher to be creative
Internet and technology savvy, utilising the technology to keep herself updated about the language resources like Cambridge University
Good relationship with senior teacher
She perceives herself to be lenient and overfriendly with students which she wants to change
The uneasiness developed from some of the open ended questions forced researcher to incorporate the changes in the structure of interview and move towards semi-structured interview.
Participant 2
This participant was from Egypt.
Experience of 8 years in English language teaching.
The participant used Arabic initial conversation and then switched to English during most of the interview time.
She used the metaphor lost a lot
She feels herself to be creative.
The reason behind her interest to improve and be more creative was the immigration to Canada.
This is the only of the participant who had deep and various definitions of creativity and creative teachers including being an explorer, confident, use of language, material and information background.
She believed on the up to date information from the native English speaking countries are the best source of information to learn English. However use of slang among native speakers has been highlighted.
She thinks that the background knowledge presented in herhis language is very important in for her to be a creative language teacher. However current curriculum does not give any weight to the background of knowledge and experience.
She concluded that in the primary stage the teacher can be more creative method wise, while in the secondary stage the teacher can be more creative language-wise.
She explained that Arabic language on one hand is very close to culture and religion. This makes the job of teacher challenging to teach a language that has very different cultural settings. In her views she is teaching second culture to her students.
According to her the diversity of nationalities in it makes it important for language teachers to be creative.
The perception and attitude of the teacher regarding Kuwaiti society is clear with her statement, Kuwaiti society as girls want to get married and the boys want to join the army which is somehow a misconception. The number of girls exceed the number of boys in all educational stages
Participant 3
This participant has considerably long experience of working in Kuwait and home country Egypt. This includes twelve years in Egypt at the elementary and secondary school levels and considerable amount of time on the students of the primary stage in Kuwait.
This interview was influenced by the phone call of a social worker on the behalf of the parents and girl child in the school. The phone call was for complaint and the complaint was that school is being too strict with the girls. Researcher tried her level best to avoid this issue to be centre of the answers but could not and had to let the participant go with her flow of thought.
She shared her experience of being mother and challenges of childs teacher in nurturing and supporting new skills.
She defined herself as a sociable and outgoing person. Her selection of English language to teach was associated with her definition of self. She is an active teacher who has not limited herself to the classroom teaching. She likes to explore with children, learn and teach language. The language has provided her platform for travelling which she likes a lot.
She is grateful to the English language as if it was the road through which she can fulfil her dreams of being a person who travels, learns and teaches.
She focuses on the listening skill of child and teacher and emphasise that child to speak and learn better should have better listening skills.
She stresses upon the use of English rather than just learning and devotes her personal time and efforts in searching for new things for the students
The participant has got different exposures, have taught at different levels and age groups that has changed her belief on the bets tools of learning.
The low involvement of parents in the student learning process, communication gap with teachers and lack of constant and direct contact with the parents is one of the challenges faced by the teacher. There is lack of face to face interaction and meetings before the formal complaints from the parents in the case just happened.
She justified he strictness in the classroom to the fact that she wanted an organised classroom. She says that the need to have organised format is in the class comes from the subject teaching requirements.
She felt bad about lack of parents direct and informal involvement that would have given her an opportunity to justify her points.
She used different forms of settings and styles to serve the subject she is teaching and tries to simplify what might be look too complex and confusing in the curriculum. This teacher seems to have putting effort in making the curriculum interesting.
Participant 4
She was the first participant after the piloting stage of the study. This participant was more comfortable in Arabic where she felt she can express herself better.
This was a face to face interview that lasted for 50 minutes.
She is a graduate from the Kuwait University and was trained to teach the secondary school level. Researcher made her feel more relaxed by explaining that there is no right or wrong answer. It is about her views and perception which is needed for the study.
Like the first two teachers she was expressing that the pressure of the curriculum along with the lack of understanding and communication with the parents was forming a serious problems for her.
She highlighted some more issues like the inability of school to follow a fixed schedule, in order to utilise the teachers at the maximum level some schools add administrative tasks to them or make them work on the break time for supervising or taking other classes. This creates restless and dissatisfaction among the teachers and leaves them with little or no time for thinking creatively or being innovative. New ideas require time and effort to think and these make the foundation for the creativity.
This is clear from the response that the physical and psychological tension affects the drive of motivation.
Respondent had focused on the special need students at school and emphasised that they require specialist.
Respondent 4 feels that learning English in Kuwait is essential and encourages students to pay attention to every detail they face in the street which is written or mentioned in English language.
Senior Teachers
The role of senior teacher was highlighted in the previous four respondents.
Respondent 5
She was a 42 years old senior teacher that with an experience of twelve years. She started teaching after her graduation. Eight years of the total experience is a after the graduation from the College of Arts Kuwait University.
She feels that her children provided different perspective of the life to her. She took a break from were to take care of her children. Once her kids started going to school, she felt the need for being occupied and thought again about her career. Being at home for all the time was altogether different experience for her. She felt more disciplined and committed when she started working. This also helped her being more productive in and out of the house.
She is proud of her students being good at English and other language.
However she differed with the previous respondents on her views regarding parental involvement in the education. She feels this is not required for the parents to be involved with the children all the time.
She also highlights the social phenomenon where mothers who speak in Arabic at home use English at the public places just to show off. This brings two aspects of the position of English within the society. This is associated with the prestige and image building for the people in Kuwait. Knowing English reflects good aspects of the personality of the speaker. The position of English in the society has strengthened due to the preference of the parents for the English schools and nurseries.
She stresses the fear of English within the school results from the fear of language. The lack of confidence among the teachers and professionals qualified in English language regarding the mastery over English prohibits them to use it effectively and efficiently. The involvement is less by these professionals in the special activities of the school with the English language.
On the other hand, from the perception of the respondent, students even after passing out from the schools or class 12th feel that English has not been easy subject for them.
Parents feel proud by seeing their young children speaking in English fluently.
She also points out the problem of resulting from the involvement of teachers at the decision making levels. She feels that decision making for the English language education lacks the proper study and involvement of the people who would be adopting and executing it. The reflections, opinions and considerations should have been studied and utilised for the policy making purpose. The power plays important role, where the policies flow from the higher authorities to the lower authorities. This make the whole scenario where teachers are forced to follow something they do not understand, they are not provided adequate trainings and make the scapegoat for the poor results. This reflects the authoritive approach of authorities.
However respondent 5 has been proven to be proactive in her approach where in she has solutions to the problems and she had forwarded her concerns to respective departments. She also focused on the need of a psychiatrists and activating social workers to understand the learning problems and social problems of the students and teachers in order to understand barriers of learning.
She highlighted the problem of victimisation of teachers for the decisions taken by others and holding responsible for the things they are not responsible. These have direct impact on the moral of teacher.
She, like the other respondents felt that resources in native language are better resources for the teaching process. The reason for the same has been that native speaker resources provide better chances to get associated for the students.
She insisted on the training courses and its relevance in the changing curriculum. The involvement of English language teachers has been negative as they had little idea about the curriculum. She strongly insisted that teachers should be involved in preparing the curriculum.
The awareness and level of involvement of the respondent comes from her statement that curriculum designers and decision makers should take references from the British Council and visit public schools to check the language and accent. This would help them designing appropriate curriculum with respect to the need and requirements of the subject, teachers and students.
The respondent had a very interesting experience to share regarding her first day of the job. She was neither trained nor had knowledge of any training material. She educated herself, became her own teacher and taught herself how to teach. Her first day experience made her determined of being a good senior teacher and she has been doing that by providing new teacher of her school with full guidance and direction and making sure the class visits in order to help her with the practical problems.
She has been able to perform her duties effectively even before any senior teacher in the school or educational area because of her friendly strategy and the approach wherein she puts herself at the teachers position. She does not find being strict to be the right strategy.
She also maintains the balance with the teachers. She neither forces them doing something that is not useful for the teaching nor restricts them by doing anything useful for the work. She makes the teacher responsible for their actions by giving them decision making authorities with the responsibility of the completion of task.
She does not ignore or overlook their social and family needs. This helps in creating comfortable work environment for the teachers.
She finds that her teachers make sure that her dignity and trust on them is always maintained. Her behaviour and approach makes them feel responsible. They perform their duties with high level of motivation adhere to their timeline, schedules and deadlines.
The theory of social intelligence is applicable here, where each of the teachers under the respondent has authority and responsibility and they collectively work in order to maintain the level of performance of each other. She also pointed out that parents do not feel comfortable with the idea of giving any authority to the teacher of their ward.
This respondent had number of ideas and suggestions regarding creativity in the English language. However she started with the statement that any teachers who love teaching would be good at that. She also remarked that she wish she could be minister in order to incorporate certain changes in the education system.
Other aspect she draws attention to is the reading habit of the teachers. She says once in the job teachers do not read enough books and other material to keep them updated. One of the main reasons of not involving in the active reading is the level of pressure and workload that leaves them with no time and energy to get involved in reading. She herself is bookworm and loves reading and understand the role of reading in the learning and teaching language.
Participant 6
This Kuwaiti participant was considerably new to the field with two years of experience. She is a poetess in Arabic, 24 years old, divorcee and teaching is her passion as well as source of financial security.
She is also not qualified from an educational college but from the college of art.
She is teaching in boys school and preferred her interview in Arabic as she was more comfortable in expressing in Arabic. She found her senior teacher to understanding her personal problems.
She highlighted different barriers like lack of appreciation, stress and workload leading to health problems initially. She finds it more challenging to teach boys as they are more active.
She clarifies that teaching is not the profession she had planned or selected. She eventually ended up to this after her conversations with senior and experienced teachers, evaluation of positive and negative aspects of the teaching and others.
She questioned the evaluation programs as she found that to be more concerned with her activities outside the class rather than in the class. She highlights the number of roles teacher has to perform other than her teaching role like reporters, writers, actresses and music composers and derogatively remarks that teaching becomes the last and least prioritise task for the evaluator.
She also finds that there is much supervision with unreasonable decisions which leads to unnecessary paperwork and test preparations. She also points out the gap in the demand and supply of the teaching staff.
Respondent objects the idea of taking the children out of the PE, music or arts class for the remedies for English language difficulties because children enjoy these classes.
The absence of the formal break time is also big issue of concerns as there is no time between the hectic schedule to eat or release the stress of work.
She feels that this is hard to believe that their senior teachers or school managers would have been educators in the past. This is due to lack of their understanding of the responsibility and the nature of job.
She finds herself to be self taught and trained with the support from her colleagues. She also feels that she is motivated to teach in the class but the overall environment is not friendly enough.
She highlights the environmental problem in the school due to the poor attitude and approach of the senior teacher.
She mentioned that she was asked to teach four periods on a row, her senior does not even smile, appreciation of work is rarely done and these entire factors altogether contributes to an unfriendly work environment.
Participant 7
She is also a teacher of boys primary school.
She is 24 years old, dedicated and loves English language teaching.
She has three years of experience where she started with the first grade and enjoys teaching to this level along with creative approach. She compares teaching to each of her class with the Marathon.
When she was asked about her choice of language, she promptly responded that speaking in English is always good but the native language (Arabic) is required when it comes to clarify certain specific points.
She shares her experience of the complaints she received regarding teaching.
She feels that teachers agree that the year one and two provided some creative space to the teachers. However these are the difficult standards to control children. Controlling children at four and five years is easier comparatively however there is no clarity of the creative aspects of the same.
She highlighted different aspects of different years of teaching and points out that the choice of appointing teachers is up to the senior teacher and managers. Teachers concerns are never considered.
Participant 7 highlighted her friendliness with the students along with certain level of class management and control. She expressed her good relationship with colleagues and her helping and sharing nature.
She points out the loads of homework and worksheets in the private schools leading to improving the English of the students, whereas in the public schools Arabic is used more often than English which should be vice versa.
She stresses on the importance of shaping the students of first year to be prepared for learning. She compares students of first year with dough.
She mentions the challenges and distractions of the teachers, parents and students from the ideas due to various reasons. The tests of the children are also an area that can be worked upon.
Remedy lessons at the expense of arts, PE are seen as useless and exhausting for both teachers and students by respondent 7. However she suggests that new stories and values were welcomed but received complaints later.
Participant 8
Researcher found her to be the most enthusiastic teachers with four years of experience wherein she taught the primary stage male students.
She was qualified to teach secondary school and got the opportunity to work due to the gap of human resource in the primary schools.
She is happy about her teaching job and has mentioned the things related to the additional responsibilities in terms of administrative jobs by the school managers. She finds that it is the other task than the teaching job that becomes important for the school managers to evaluate.
She has given example of Syria where teachers are responsible for just teaching and evaluation, not even reporting to the administration.
She was the first teachers among the surveyed who discussed about the overall presentation of teacher in front of students and other staff.
Her idea of being creative was not limited to the function of the teachers day. She encourages all teachers to design all their teaching aids and stressed that they are simple, cheap and effective in catching the students attention and showed lots of the charts and work of her own.
She finds her senior teacher to be very encouraging and motivating for her.
Participant 9
This participant has the education background in college. She mentioned her personal life and experience of being mother of a three and half year old daughter and seven years old boy.
From her personal experience, she feels dividing groups of children based on their favorite characters is a good way.
She held the teachers responsible for the additional class and elaborated that teachers should think before taking the leaves as their students will be affected and the other teachers will have to take their classes, this will require rescheduling of the classes.
She also mentioned the additional and administrative work which teachers get. In her view, the school secretary is responsible for the pressure on teachers because half of the administrative duties are supposed to perform by them.
She also points out the challenges of the informal relationship and politics within the school. She feels that being close to school managers makes other teachers fear that you would share others bad opinion with the manager.
She feels that the senior teachers should defend teachers working under her and guard their rights.
She has been creative in the sense of thinking out of the box for developing programs for the low achievers for the summer vacations.
She was clear about her relationship with the administration and her colleagues. She pointed out that she refuses to get treated unfairly. School administration is good and cooperative with her. For her relationship with colleagues, she avoids negative circumstances that help her in getting into arguments with her colleagues
She dislikes the screaming and being nervous in the class. She feels that teachers need to be friendly to the pupil and criticizes those teachers who do not participate in activities outside the classroom. She feels that this hinders them from the decision making processes.
Participant 10
This participant is a student teacher at her last practical training from Kuwait University.
This participant also shared her personal information as she was excited about her engagement and preparations for wedding.
She feels that ideas need to be exchanged with the experienced colleagues as they can provide better insights for that. This indicates her capability of being able to utilize resources around her.
She is a techno-savvy teacher who is utilizing the technology (internet) to keep herself updated and uploaded with new creative ideas. She has utilized this platform creatively and made her place among the colleagues, school managers and supervisors.
She also finds workshops for being good for getting new ideas and being creative.
She points out the difficulties faced by her in terms of using the work book even when half of the same was taught by the senior teacher in order to help her.
She has been more creative than the previous respondents in the use of creative ideas like using games for making the children familiar with different action words, nouns and others.
She points out the organizational issue by mentioning the high authoritative people pressurizing the low authoritative people. She also points out that people are working in order to please their bosses which should not be done. They should be working for their duties and responsibilities.
She shows flexibility and involvement in her profession. She does not want to leave her job.
She finds the role of senior teacher to be very important. This teacher is qualified for the conditions and interviews for the senior teacher for next year and is likely to get upgraded to the same and given responsibility at new school. Respondent was uncertain and unclear about the new school where she can be appointed.
She points out that the second year in the primary stage is nice and give space for creativity, unlike the third grade which was exhausting for her last year and required additional classes.
She makes it the responsibility of teacher to overcome limitations of any curriculum.
In terms of teachers behavior with students, she felt that being too strict with student is never helpful and satisfying.
Senior Teachers
Senior teachers are the link between the decision makers and implementers (teachers). In the study so far role of the senior teacher came in various ways. The support of senior teacher allows teacher more space for being creative. However in most of the cases the role of senior teacher was obstructing.
The good relationship with senior teacher allowed developing better work requirement, inculcate confidence
among the teachers and motivate them to improve their teaching skills. Good relationship with senior teacher has been a good source for help. However getting a good senior teacher is always matter of chance. Five out of the surveyed participant mentioned their senior teacher to obstructing any new ideas developed by them and suppressing their creativity in different ways. Senior teacher may not facilitate the teachers to perform their role at the optimal level.
Participant 11
The approach of senior teacher was towards the financial aspects of the teachers. She said that some people always complaint but they do not complaint when they get their salaries.
She stated that she is providing advices to her teachers in order to enhance creativity. In her view, teachers need to be more organized in terms of lesson preparation and finishing the curriculum.
She also finds that managers are not taking the teaching aspects into consideration while evaluating the performance.
She emphasizes on the practical use of language and encourages the teachers to use help the students with the everyday use of language from the smaller requests to the general conversations.
She feels that interaction with each of pupil is more important than the lecturing while teaching.
She also had some views to share regarding the creativity in the class like tracing the letter in the air energetically, introducing a letter and body movement and others.
Participant 12
This senior teacher highlighted the issues regarding the frequent changes by the decision makes which in most of the cases is without a rationale and makes her feel exhausted.
She wants to make her teachers feel appreciated for their hard work by providing thanking certificates and acknowledging their contribution.
She is a computer savvy person who wants to learn adobe Photoshop and computer software. She had taken certain initiatives in her school. One of such is the multiple intelligences in the computer lab of the school which resulted in various new ideas and discussions. The participants like teachers, senior teachers and school managers participated in this process.
This was an example of psychoanalytical approach within the school which had been appreciated by the teachers. This enhanced the teachers involvement.
Participant 13
She is the senior teacher with seven years of experience.
The complaints from this teacher was limited than the previous senior teachers. However she highlighted certain practical aspects of the extending the school year where weather temperature is not favorable and extremely hot. She insisted that it becomes unfair for the students and teachers to learn or teach in such weather.
She has a friendly approach towards her teachers and she gives importance to have an understanding with the students. She emphasizes on the fact that teachers should not be given additional responsibilities other than teaching. She also stressed that she never gives away her paper work or files to the teachers.
She points out the complaining behavior of the teachers which needed to be replaced by the actions from them. She emphasizes on the fact that teachers should find out their ways of improving performance and changing the present scenario instead of complaining.
She finds confidence is making more differences than the educational background of the teacher.
She provides consistent support for the preparation of examination preparations, preparation of test papers and provides them consistent support for improving their teaching quality.
She also points out the value of presents to the school manager and says it is useless unless Ministry knows about them.
This senior teacher came up with the interesting point which none of the previous teachers and senior teacher has pointed out. This was the wastage of government money on the fixing of curriculum. She insisted teachers involvement in incorporating noticeable improvements. She reinforces the fact that teachers should be involved in the curriculum designing and development process as they are the implementer for it. They have the practical knowledge of the issues faced in teaching student on everyday basis. This would also help in shedding the workload arising due to failures of the certain aspects of curriculum.
The current curriculum in her view is not at per with the needs and interest of the students. Characters are not interesting and lesson development levels are not smooth. These results in making the curriculum difficult for implementation for teachers and understand by the students.
She says that teachers group consists of creative and careless teachers. This type of curriculum is no good for any of them.
She herself is disappointed and lost hope in the new changes of the coming year where again the voices of teachers went unheard.
Participant 14
For participant 14 the meaning of creativity is to deliver the knowledge with the easiest and fastest way. She stresses on the use of games and songs outside the curriculum.
She finds that the current method of reading classes lessons and remedial classes are one of the obstacles in the teaching and learning processes as it takes more energy and efforts and have lesser returns.
She acknowledges the hard work of her teachers and is planning to collect negative aspects of the remedial classes from the teachers and forwarding it to school manager for further reviewing.
She also feels disappointed with the current system. As a senior teacher, her consciousness and religious satisfaction she ensures her fair role for her current responsibilities.
Internet is also a good source of information for her as it helps her making staff meetings, finding good topics for good teachers, lesson plans and more creative ways of teaching and supporting teachers.
Results from Observation
The three observations were conducted on different days and different timeperiod. The teachers observed were different in their educational background. The class room setting was slightly different from each other. The way these teachers have dealt with the similar topic was different. Student participation and reaction to the student responses were somehow different in each of the cases. In the observation A, Class setting, Teaching aids and teaching process was interesting and interacting for the students. The teaching of animals was easy to relate for the students. The pupils are very active, attentive and the teacher is close and smiling most of the time, pupils seem to be treating the teacher without the traditional barrier of teacher-student relationship). The teacher makes some jokes, one pupil stand up for answering and the girl next to her answer before her, so the teacher tells the standing girl to do the same thing next time). Teacher is stressing the use of the present continuous tense, while presenting animals and their descriptions. The teaching involved the individual and group learning. The English class was followed by the PE class that was more interesting for the students. Teacher successfully maintained the interactivity in the class from the start to the end of the class
In Observation B, teacher took some time to settle down herself but once she was set the interactivity was maintained in the class. Teacher was able to regain attention of a distracted student who tried to open her book. The theme of the class was the same and with the help of animals language and tense was being taught. There was a smooth transition from one learning level to other which students could not make out due to the interactivity.
The teachers responsibility was higher in the observation C where she had to take care of the special needs. The interactivity was maintained in this class as well.
The first research question was regarding the elements of creativity in English language teaching. Teachers perception and clarity of creativity differs from teacher to teacher. These elements are clarity of creativity, freedom, motivation, motivation and creativity restrictions, Relationships and curriculum and relationships. The second research question was regarding the role of elements of creativity in English language teaching, its significance at the primary stage of English language teaching in Kuwait. This is revealed from the study, that creativity has been considered important aspect for English language teaching. The third question was on the way teachers in Kuwait perceive creativity in their teaching of English language. Different views and perspectives of the teacher, individual thoughts and difference of opinions is clear from the research. The factors motivating creativity in the English language teaching in the primary stage in Kuwait are the support from the senior teachers and Government in the form of favourable policies and regulations. The question regarding factors restricting creativity in the English language teaching in the primary stage in Kuwait was fourth question. The fifth question was how creative are the teachers in the present scenario in teaching English language at the primary level in Kuwait. Restrictive factors have been elaborated in the form of lack of individual interests by the teachers and senior teachers as well as unfavourable work conditions.
Final conclusion
On the broader context, Ministry of Education in Kuwait has accepted the role of creativity, language and communication. This is evident from the three programs recommended to achieve the aims of freedom of thought and adaptation with the changes in the current era that does not conflict with the unique culture of the society. These are teachers and students creative thinking, supporting language and IT learning, and socio-cultural communication amongst generation. However, this is also clear that various criticism to the approaches and policies of the Ministry of Education of Kuwait. The studies pointed out problems like appointment of teachers without a degree in education, problems with compensation, lack of competence of the teachers and lack of practically feasible policies and approach.
There have been studies that indicated that the competence of the teachers is questionable particularly when they do not have required educational back and training. The recruitment of such teachers was result of meeting the shortage of supply of the teachers in the primary school. The traditional approach has been to focus more on the academic and professional training. Al Ahmad (2000) stated that the better cooperation of teachers, educational courses and curriculum along with improvement of teachers preparation should be the approach over the traditional approach of teaching. Creativity should be inculcated among teachers and students. Creativity has been considered important by different authors and educationist. Syed (2003) stressed on the problem of memorisation and not learning among the students and saw creativity as an option for helping them in learning process. Craft (2003, 2008) has mentioned that creativity provides tool for coping with changes in various countries like UK and US as well. In the Arab countries including Kuwait the creativity is linked with the people with certain IQ levels. This makes creativity to be linked to certain people in the society. It is a general notion that creative studies are based on the psychometric studies. However in the recent past there have been differences of opinion on how creativity has been seen in general in the Kuwaiti society and role of creativity within the education sector. Some researchers have also tried to explore the function of brain and its link with these two aspects of human brain (Al-Jinaee, 2009). The psychoanalytical approach has been discussed in the first part of the creativity chapter. This part included various aspects of the creativity. There have been various developments of creativity studies. The cognitive studies were developed in response of the psychoanalytical studies. Psychometric approach was similar to cognitive approach but more developed from it. Psychometric approach enabled researchers with the tools that would help accessing creativity. Guildford proposed three main factors for creativity i.e. fluency of ideas, flexibility and originality. Guildford emphasised that the creativity need not to be linked to the IQ level. There are various subjects and fields for which the needs and demands are different. The IQ level can not determine creativity in these areas. This particular aspect of creativity attracted lots of arguments and allowed deeper understanding of different aspects of human mind and creativity. Personality, learning, creative thinking and intelligence are related to human mind. Torrance (1967) has provided valuable insights in terms of imaginative ideas, questions, student ideas, non evaluated practice and helping students developing the cause and sequence for improving the creativity of learning. However the humanistic approach considered the psychoanalytical approach. Maslow, Demos and Gowan (1967), Davis (1999) and other researchers have focused on different aspects of creativity and motivations. In this approach the barriers of creativity has been identified to from different aspects of individuals life and society. Humanistic approach views creativity as a source of motivation. The social personality approach on the other hand considered different factors of personality, motivation and socio-cultural environment. Confluence approach developed as a response to social personality approach. 20th century witnessed development of different pragmatic approaches. The pioneer contributor for this approach has been De Bono. The early 21st century looked at creativity as an aspect that is complex, collective and culturally situated.
The grounded theory approach has been regarded as one of best choices to understand the nature, creativity and uniqueness of English language Glaser and Strauss (1967). This approach has been considered particularly helpful where new theories are required to be developed rather than justifying any hypothesis.
Emerging Theory
The investigation of the linking categories and connections of the categories and concepts lead to the emerging theory for creativity in English leaning within Kuwaiti context. The categories identified in the study are teachers clarity of creativity, freedom, motivation, motivation and creativity restrictions, Relationships and curriculum and relationships. The full connection of the categories and concepts has been illustrated with the help of figure in previous section. The emergent grounded theory for creativity in English within the Kuwaiti context can be summarised in the following manner
Creativity in English Language Teaching within the Kuwaiti context can be described as a function of freedom and motivation of teachers in the English teaching process that can have different perspectives depending on different teachers. This is subject to teachers level of motivation and perceived restrictions. The relationship of teacher with student, senior teachers, management and interference from the parents and family are the factors influencing the understanding and applicability of the creative ideas by the teacher. Teacher works within a broader context of educational policies, structured curriculum and programs of Ministry of education as well as the society where in different factors of above mentioned, significantly influence the creativity in teaching process.
This is clear from the study that teachers perception and clarity of creativity differs from teacher to teacher. However, source of motivation for the teachers is also different. A teacher can be self motivated, get motivated by seniors and colleagues, due to the childs need and overall society. The perception of creativity differs on each individual teacher.
The policy makers and program designers need to ensure teachers involvement in the designing process and incorporation of any change. Teachers are the one actually working on these policies and programs. The success and failures of the programs not only depends on them but also they can be a good source of information in the development process and creating a successful policy. Teachers need to have their creative space and certain level of flexibility and freedom to design and develop their own creative strategy within the class. The relationship of teachers with their seniors, managers and students impacts the creativity process. The relationship can be source of motivation or restrictive force for using creativity.
Creativity is a subjective term. Participants have responded on their views on creativity. The aspects like individuality and independent thought are expressed in the views. Creativity is regarded essential for effective teaching process.
Chapter 9 Recommendations and Limitations
The grounded theory has helped in developing a theory for the creativity in English language teaching in the Kuwaiti context. This study explored different aspects of creativity among primary teachers of English language in Kuwait. These teachers differ from each other in their educational background, demographic backgrounds, approach and views regarding creativity.
Plucker (2004) has raised the question regarding the nature of content, if it is general or content specific. This research has been specific to a context but aimed finding a general approach for creativity in English language learning. In Kuwait, the Ministry of Education has been emphasised on encouraging innovative thinking. Innovation needs to foster from early age. Government is also taking different measures to improve the quality of teaching and promote English language teaching and learning. The social acceptance of the language is limited with to the prestige factor associated to the knowledge and speaking ability of English language. The language has a long way to be accepted as a medium for the normal and day to day communication.
The recommendations for improving creativity in English language teaching of primary school within the Kuwaiti context are as followed
The Ministry of Education should make creativity part of its vision, planning and long term goals.
Ministry of Education in Kuwait has recognised the relevance of innovativeness in the education however innovativeness could not create its place on the core curriculum for the English teaching. The curriculum needs to have research and skill based content.
There should be a proper alignment of the interests of students development and progress, teachers concerns and role and government policies, programs and goals.
A well developed strategy led plan should be developed and it should be ensured that everyone related to this is involved in the strategic development process and adheres with it.
There should be proper integration of interests of the teachers and governments goal to the content.
The content should be developed in such a way that it is aligned with the interests of all the stakeholders.
There should be more focus on teachers for their training and development. The training program should be developed in the way that it fulfils the learning objectives. Teachers should be encouraged to enhance their skills by providing them opportunities of participating in the workshops. Training programs should be in the direction of developing internal and external professional development of teachers.
The creativity should be promoted from the bottom of the educational units which are primary schools.
New policies and programs should be developed with respect to the actual scenarios and challenges faced by the teachers.
There should be periodic reviews on the curriculum that can be in every four to five years gap. This gap will allow understanding of the shortcomings of the curriculum and systematic improvements should be incorporated in such a manner that it do not hamper the education and learning process for the students.
Creativity and independent thinking should be part of the curriculum designing process in order to encourage developments in different aspects of the English learning process.
The bilingual policy should be implemented where in each child is encouraged to use English similarly to the mother tongue.
Teachers should be encouraged for their creativity. Their efforts should be recognised and teachers should be allowed to submit their creative ideas wherein the best workable creative idea should be recognised and rewarded.
Teachers should be rewarded and encouraged to make the creative role model for other teachers.
This should be clarified from the top power centres that teachers should not be given any other responsibility than their teaching job. This will help teachers with getting more time to think creatively and work on creative ideas.
There should be increase in the number of institutions providing teachers training programs and preparing teachers for the English language teaching. The demands of the teacher are high, whereas there seems to have shortage of supply or funds. The limited number of human resources is leading to increasing pressure of teachers in terms of additional administrative job. The eligible person should be appointed and responsible for their work. There should be strict action towards any administrative person or senior teacher forcing teachers to do their jobs.
Teachers should be encouraged to use different technological platforms and information resources to keep them updated and well informed regarding recent developments in the field of education.
Teachers should be encouraged to use their interesting creative ideas that can help other teachers.
There should be some provision of allowing teachers for participate in regular training and development programs by facilitating resources like paid leave for participation of workshops or training programs, fare allowances, training materials and others. Teachers should have option of volunteering for the professional development programs.
There should be one dedicated portal where in teachers can share their experiences and problems. Teachers should be allowed to submit their requests and suggestions on the same.
There should be certain efforts to educate parents about the significance of creativity among children and encourage them to help their child develop creative skills.
The resources for the interactive education like use of CD, multimedia programs, computer based learning virtual classes should be encouraged for the students as well as for the teachers training programs. This helps in broadening the thinking skills, creates better understanding of the topic studied and helps in developing as per the global requirements.
Students should be encouraged to ask questions and clarify their doubts. This will help the in overcoming their mental blacks, expanding the benefits of education. At the place for working hard for marks, students should be encouraged to work hard for knowledge and developing an understanding of the subject taught.
There should be more involvement from the professionals from other areas like technology and development and other to create creative platforms for the English language teaching. This should be done with the focus of teachers inputs and suggestions.
There should be an effort to replace the habit of memorisation to the analysis and application of knowledge.
There should be review committee to work on streamlining the curriculum. This committee should consist of teachers and experienced professionals.
In the study, it was clear that teachers were not clear about the term creativity. Everyone had their own definition of creativity. However, participants linked creativity with the freedom, self expression, thinking out of the box, creating something new, autonomy and being concerned with students. The term is subjective. The term has not been defined in the curriculum itself. This makes the term vast.
Limitations
The limitations of the grounded theory are applicable to this research as well. The grounded theory has been considered to be inadequate to compare two thesis and evaluation purposes. However, in the case of present study, the expectations have been to develop a new theory and respond to research questions.
Within the study, this is clear that the participants were not from the similar educational or demographic backgrounds. There have been differences of the educational background, years of experience in the job and economic well being of the respondents. These aspects may have impact on the overall responses. These have not been considered for this study.
Researchers experience and knowledge has been important in the data collection process. However, researcher herself has been a teacher and non native English speaker. Researcher has her own views and thoughts regarding the creativity in the field of education. It is hard to say if researcher had no influence on any of the respondents during data collection process or on the data analysis. This aspect may form the validity limitation on the overall study.
The data has been continuously analysed as soon as it was collected from the respondents with the help of pen and paper. Data collected has been qualitative in nature and researcher was not using any electronic device like tape recorder or voice recording instrument. This also increases the chances of losing out some significant data.
Respondents were allowed chose their language for responding. Only one respondent had chosen to converse in English only. Rest of the respondents preferred Arabic, even though they had been teaching English. In such scenario the question arises among the significance and relevance of creativity in English among them. Teachers are not using English as a medium of conversation, even at those situations where they can do.
The data collection in the grounded theory approach is a process where data is collected until the new categories are emerged. This makes it challenging tasks. The theory development process has been complex. The data has been simultaneously analysed during the collection process as well as after the collection of data. The iterative process let researcher to identify codes and develop a theory from it.
One major limitation came from the fact that this was a time consuming process and the time was limited with researcher.
Financial aspects have been big constraint for the researcher. Due to the time and financial constraints, researcher limited her interview to fifteen participants. It can be assumed that more interviews may have contributed in different manner.
During the data analysis process as well, even though the data collection and data analysis were done simultaneously, but the chances of human error in recognising important code can not be ignored.
It was hard to know where to start and with whom to launch the search for ideas and meanings with the theoretical sampling. After a series of ideas on where and how to start, it was decided that teachers are the best ones to provide in-depth insights and ideas about their creativity. The ones who volunteer in a given school are those who had something to contribute in terms of ideas and experiences. Accordingly, these have also helped providing dense data. It helped in paying a great deal of consideration to avoiding the harm at the level of the ethicality of the research. On the other hand, volunteer participation has left the views and concerns closed for the participants who did not participate in the process. The reason for their lack of interest in creativity left untouched in this process. However, this was also beyond the scope of the study.
Further studies
This study elaborated on the issue of significance of the creativity in the English language teaching process at primary level in Kuwait. The study can be extended in finding out the creative ideas used by teachers at primary level, relevance of those in the learning process and to the existing curriculum. Research can also be extended to a different direction of analysing the curriculum of English language of primary level of other non English speaking and native English speaking countries. This comparative analysis may help in identifying the lacunas and gaps in the existing curriculum with respect to creativity.
This study was focused on the teachers perspective only. The study can be extended to the 360 degree analysis wherein all the stakeholders like students, parents, policy makers, senior teachers, managers and others are involved.
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