A tale of two discourses : university pre-service teachers' and in-service teachers' beliefs and understandings on languages teaching within the Tasmanian context

The research investigated pre-service teachers and in-service teachers' beliefs and understandings of Languages teaching in Tasmanian government primary schools. Pre-service and in-service teachers' understandings of languages teaching were identified and analysed using a range of formal, practice-orientated and experiential measures designed to ascertain pedagogical understandings, the role of Languages in a primary curriculum and the requirements for successful languages teaching. As the thesis is situated within the Tasmanian context, it provided contextual information and recommendations that had the capacity to be translated into the local learning environment. The study used both quantitative and qualitative research approaches. The main data collection methods were questionnaire and interview. The pre-service participants for this study were first year and third year undergraduate pre-service teachers from the Bachelor of Education program at the University of Tasmania in Launceston. A total of 185 students were invited to participate in the study. The majority of students was from throughout Tasmania and fell within a wide age range, with the majority between the ages of 18 -25. In-service participants were selected from government primary schools from across the state where a Languages program was in place and where the teacher had been teaching Languages for a minimum of four years. Primarily, this research began with the need to find out more about how, where and why Languages fitted into to both in-service and pre-service teachers' beliefs ‚ÄövÑvÆ to find out the extent of their investment in teaching Languages and how this investment was articulated through their beliefs about Languages and notions of teacher knowledge and teacher identity. Several matters of significance have emerged from the study that highlight the central role that knowledge plays in the construction of teacher identity and the significance of belief systems for supporting adaptive and pedagogically responsible teaching practice.