Is top-down CLIL justified? A grounded theory exploration of secondary school Science teachers’ experiences

ABSTRACT

The research reported in this paper explored secondary Science teachers’ experiences in a large-scale and top-down CLIL initiative where schools and teachers had little agency in implementing educational change. Through a grounded theory approach, analysis of data suggests that teachers’ insufficient English language proficiency and the lack of agency were major challenges for participating teachers. Findings indicate that teachers were not aware of CLIL pedagogy, and did not believe that under the existing conditions, a subject can be taught through English. Struggling to save face in the obscure situation, teachers sought support from students. Although they were not ready to lose authority and control over the teaching process, they had to relinquish some of their power to students due to their superior English language skills.

KEYWORDS:

• Top-down CLIL
• Science teachers’ experiences
• teachers’ English languageproficiency
• partnership with students
• CLIL teacher training
• Grounded theory study‌

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. Denise Egea and Dr. Bridget Goodman for their valuable feedback on the manuscript of the paper, and all teachers who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Mentors were training specialists from a private educational center in Kazakhstan which received a state order from the MoES to provide language and CLIL training for in-service teachers. Mentors predominantly had background in teaching English and no training in sciences.

2 TVET system in Kazakhstan has not shifted to English medium instruction yet.

3 Kazakhstani primary and secondary curriculum has been enhanced and modernized to meet requirements of a European model of 12-year schooling. The updated school curriculum strives to develop students’ functional literacy, their critical thinking, and to take a more student-centred approach.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Nazarbayev University.

Notes on contributors

Laura Karabassova

Laura Karabassova is a postdoctoral scholar at Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education. Her research spans both school and higher education levels in Kazakhstan, and she has over six years of extensive experience in the implementation of trilingual education in Kazakhstan: she has worked as a trilingual education specialist (NIS network), ministry task force member, in-service teacher professional development program administrator, CLIL trainer and researcher. Laura was a key member of the first large-scale state-funded research project in Kazakhstan which focused on the implementation of trilingual education in 19 universities and 35 schools.