A teaching narrative: My growth as a foreign language educator through teaching diaries

PORTO, MELINA

Journal of Futher and Higher Education

Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Lugar: Kentuchy; Año: 2008 vol. 32 p. 185 - 206

0309-877X

Revista indexada en (http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjfh20#.VoFynLZ97IU):AVETRA ranking of VET and adult education journalsAustralian Education Index (AEI)Australian Research Council (ARC) Ranked Journal ListNational Database for Research into International Education (NDRI)British Education IndexEducational Research Abstracts online (ERA)Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)ERIH (European Reference Index for the Humanities, Pedagogical and Educational Research)Research into Higher Education AbstractsSCOPUS® VOCEDplusThe aim of this paper is to share my perceptions and reflections on the experience of introducing elements of autonomy in a constrained educational setting in Argentina. I recorded these perceptions in teaching diaries written weekly after each class for the academic year 2005 (over 35 weeks). These teaching diaries are part of a larger, long-term, qualitative action-research study aimed at introducing some elements of autonomy in my University-based classroom for the first time, and diary writing as a vehicle for channelling my reactions to the innovation. The teaching diaries portray my feelings, emotions, values, and beliefs and offer testimony of my professional growth as I struggled to modify my classroom practices to make my teaching more responsive to my beliefs about good pedagogy within the constraints at my University.