Exploring a TESOL Teacher Education Program's Affordances and Constraints in Libya as a Co

384 Pages·2017·4.86 MB·English

Indiana University of Pennsylvania
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Theses and Dissertations (All)
Spring 5-2017
An Adaptive Methodological Inquiry: Exploring a
TESOL Teacher Education Program’s Affordances
and Constraints in Libya as a Conflict Zone
Elsherif Entisar
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Constraints in Libya as a Conflict Zone" (2017).Theses and Dissertations (All). 1489.
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AN ADAPTIVE METHODOLOGICAL INQUIRY: EXPLORING A TESOL
TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAM’S AFFORDANCES AND CONSTRAINTS
IN LIBYA AS A CONFLICT ZONE

A Dissertation
Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies and Research
in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy

Entisar Elsherif
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
May 2017
© 2017 Entisar Elsherif

All Rights Reserved
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Indiana University of Pennsylvania
School of Graduate Studies and Research
Department of English

We hereby approve the dissertation of

Entisar Elsherif

Candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

_________________ ____________________________________
Gloria Park, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English, Advisor

_________________ ____________________________________
Curt Porter, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of English

_________________ ____________________________________
Sharon K. Deckert, Ph.D.
Professor of English

ACCEPTED

_________________________________________ ____________
Randy L. Martin, Ph.D.
Dean
School of Graduate Studies and Research
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Title: An Adaptive Methodological Inquiry: Exploring a TESOL Teacher Education
Program’s Affordances and Constraints in Libya as a Conflict Zone

Author: Entisar Elsherif

Dissertation Chair: Dr. Gloria Park

Dissertation Committee Members: Dr. Curt Porter
Dr. Sharon K. Deckert

This adaptive methodological inquiry explored the affordances and constraints of
one TESOL teacher education program in Libya as a conflict zone. Data was collected
through seven documents and 33 questionnaires. Questionnaires were gathered from the
investigated program’s teacher-educators, student-teachers, and graduates, who were in-
service teachers. Interviews were not conducted because all participants who agreed to be
interviewed withdrew as a result of prolonged electrical blackouts in Libya during the
data collection period. The findings revealed that even though the participants were
positively satisfied with their program’s basic components, they showed dissatisfaction
toward a number of issues. Participants’ perceived affordances of their program included
offering teacher preparation and training courses, offering language development courses,
and offering school-based teaching practices. The program’s constraints, as perceived by
the participants, were the following: the program did not meet the Libyan ministry’s ELT
objectives; the program only had one curriculum that prepared student-teachers for three
educational levels; the program had unachieved curricular objectives; the program had
curricular deficiencies; the program relied too heavily on one form of assessment; the
program offered short teaching practice periods, the program had graduation project
challenges; the program lacked quality assurance; and the program did not offer
professional development opportunities. Findings also revealed that the participants
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regarded critical language teacher education as an effective approach for program reform
due to the current political and social chaos that is mounting in Libya. The current status
of the program shows that it does not prepare student-teachers to teach English in a
conflict zone. Thus, participants recommended implementing peace, social justice, and
environmental education into the curriculum to help raise student-teachers’ awareness
and to work towards positive change in the Libyan educational and social culture.

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DEDICATION
(1)
!ىضرت ىتح اريثك ادمح دمحلا كل مهللا
All praise is due to Allah! I thank you, my God, until you are satisfied!
(2)
To my dear mom
Who believed in the power of education,
Who always told us:
A woman with a degree is a strong and powerful woman!
(3)
To my dear dad and my dear husband
Who believed in me!
And supported me throughout my life changing experiences!
(4)
To someone who considers me “a threat”
I am a peace loving woman!
My hijab and my English language are powerful facets of my identity!
(5)
To all Libyan women who have survived Libya’s crisis,
To every marginalized and/or oppressed woman,
To women over 46,
Always believe in yourself
Nothing wrong with being ambitious
And having dreams!
Follow your dreams!
Get your dream degree!
Remember: “It is never too late to become what you might have been!*”
You can do it!

* George Eliot
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
((cid:895) دمحلا) Alhamdu Li Allah = Thanks, God
I started my Acknowledgements by thanking Allah; I want to show my gratitude
to the almighty Allah, my God. Throughout my whole life, especially during my Ph.D.,
my faith was my strength, and it pushed me forward, even during the spread of
Islamophobic rhetoric. Each time I faced the computer screen, I said prayers. These
prayers were a powerful force – a force that kept me going, especially when I felt drained
and felt like giving up.
I would not be where I am now without the support, help, and encouragement of
many people, which is why I am writing the following paragraphs. In this
Acknowledgement, I would like to express how grateful I am to a number of people, even
though I feel that all my words are not enough to say thank you.
I would like to thank my dear hubby, Elhashmi Eltkbali, for standing by me, even
when he lost the chance to pursue his studies in engineering and turned down a position
in the company where he used to work, just to give me the chance to be where I am now.
He was the shoulder on which I cried when I felt as if I couldn’t go on. He kept saying
that I would graduate each time I told him that I preferred to die before I saw myself as a
failure. He was there for me when I lost hope and took me through the rough times. He
supported me emotionally and academically, even though he had his own challenges.
My dissertation would have not been completed without the help and support of
my amazing Dissertation Chair and committee members. I would like to gratefully and
sincerely thank my wonderful advisor, Dr. Gloria Park. I still appreciate the fact that she
supported me during the dissertation proposal stage, even though I had never worked
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with her before. Dr. Park was not just an academic advisor who had helped me
throughout my dissertation journey. She was a very sympathetic and considerate person. I
will always cherish her and what I learned from her as a successful mama teacher-
scholar.
I also gratefully thank my committee members, Dr. Curt Porter, Dr. Usree
Bhattachrya, and Dr. Sharon Deckert. Thanks, Dr. Porter, for all the insightful comments,
the positive and encouraging feedback. Thank you, Dr. Bhattachrya, for all the insight
you gave me. Thank you, Dr. Deckert, for your support and for agreeing to step in as a
committee member at the end of this project. I also sincerely thank you for mentoring me
and for providing me with positive feedback and advice; I very much appreciate you and
your time.
A special thanks goes to my dear friend and colleague, Fatma Dreid. Our Viber
chats and talks filled me with lots of energy and hope. I often called her feeling like there
was a huge bag of worry and fear on my shoulders. That bag disappeared just after I
talked to her. Fatma also was a great form of support during my data collection period. I
always thanked Allah that she is my close friend because if she wasn’t there, I would not
have survived the data collection challenges. Thanks also goes to my friend and
colleague, Radia Alwerimmy. Her supportive Facebook messages and comments have
always raised my self-esteem. I am grateful for what she did to send me the program’s
approval letter on time, which made me so proud to have her in my life. I won’t forget to
thank my former boss, the former head of my English department, Dr. Shaban Dabbus.
He helped in many ways. He supported me throughout data collection for my MA, and he
did his best to help me with data collection for my dissertation as well. As my list of the
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names I would like to thank is so long that cannot be covered in three pages, thanks to all
my friends and colleagues in Libya, at IUP, and at MUM for their help throughout the
dissertation process. May God bless you all!
Another special thanks goes to all my participants, the investigated program’s
teacher-educators, student-teachers, and graduates. They did their best to provide
valuable and reliable data, even when they were living in a conflict zone and suffering
from continuous blackouts and unreliable Internet service. Thank you to one of the
student-teachers, whom I call the Super Star Salma, for helping me in many ways.
I am also sincerely thankful to Marissa McKinley and Melissa Carrion for reading
my dissertation and for doing their best to meet my dissertation deadlines. I deeply
appreciate every comment they wrote because their feedback helped me to improve my
ideas and helped in clarifying what might have seemed weird and/or unclear to my
readers.
Last but not least, I am deeply thankful to my parents, my mother-in-law, my
sisters, my sisters-in-law, my brothers and their families, and my brothers-in-law and
their families for their unconditional love and support and for their prayers. Special
thanks to my sons: Taha, Yasin, and Mokhtar, for helping me whenever I was
electronically challenged and frustrated and didn’t know what to do. Another special
thanks to my sweetheart, my only daughter, Kawtar, for the hugs and kisses that lifted me
up whenever I was down. I finish with a prayer for my dear grandma, mema Zahra
Alghanudi (يدونغلا ةرهز), and my uncle, the Libyan artist, Mohammed Elsharif ( دمحﻣ
فيرشلا), who passed away while I was here. May their souls rest in peace!

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