Regenerating the teacher in a reflective space: rethinking the capstone experience at the graduate level

ABSTRACT

Capstone experiences function as a process in which students consolidate knowledge and skills throughout their degree programme and apply this understanding towards real-world contexts. This process is most often understood, in undergraduate programmes, as a transformation of identity, moving from “student” to “professional”. However, for English teaching students at the graduate level, capstone experiences deepen existing professional knowledge and expertise. This process of self-assessment and reflection on teaching can transform and regenerate these experienced English language teachers and their teaching practices. Aiming to explore the value of graduate level capstone experiences in just these regenerative and transformative processes, this study employs a symbolic interactionist framework in analysing data collected from semi-structured interviews utilising a narrative frame approach with a group of experienced Japanese English teachers who have recently completed graduate capstones and returned to their teaching roles. Perceiving capstone experiences as objects through which these graduate students view their developing professional identities, the findings reveal that the reflective space afforded to students through the capstone enabled the students to discern a junction between theoretical principles from graduate courses and practical application. A discussion centring on the implications of graduate capstone experiences for teachers is given.

KEYWORDS:

• Capstone experience
• reflective space
• symbolic interactionism

Ethics statement

All participants indicated to the researcher a willingness to participate in this research project, and appropriate ethical protocols were observed according to University policy.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mark Fraser

Mark Fraser teaches in both undergraduate and postgraduate courses, specialising in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). His main research interests include critical reflection, professional identity, and self-study in teacher education.

Anthony Wotring

Anthony Wotring is currently a PhD student at the University of Wollongong. Previously a language instructor at South Korea’s Kyungpook National, he is interested in dialogic teaching practices in EFL contexts.