AYLEN FERNÁNDEZ AND ALEXIS CORA

PRACTICE II

KUMARAVADIVELU, B. Towards Post-Method Pedagogy (2001).

1. What created the need for a post-method pedagogy?
The necessity of implementing a post-method pedagogy emerges as a consequence of
recurrently articulated dissatisfaction with the limitations that two isolated concepts such
as the concept of method and the transmission model of teaching education had since
they were not working together. In this context, the L2 profession is faced with an
imperative need to construct a post method pedagogy so as to better the level of
education.
2. Explain the 3 dimension parameters.
Having in mind that the post-method pedagogy is build up as a three-dimensional system
consisting of the parameters of particularity, practicality and possibility, the author argues
that a post-method pedagogy must:

 Facilitate the advancement of a context-sensitive language education based on a

true understanding of local linguistic, socio-cultural, and political particularities;

 Rupture the reified role relationship between theorists and practitioners by

enabling teachers to construct their own theory of practice;

 Tap the socio political consciousness that participants bring with them in order to
aid their quest for identity formation and social transformation.
As it can be seen the most important point throughout this post-method pedagogy is that
not only we should introduce in our practice the political and sociocultural conflicts that
coexist in our community but also to be aware the way in which we should link them.
3. What are the advantages of a post-method pedagogy?
One idea that can fundamentally restructured second foreign language teaching and
teacher education emphasizes the need to go beyond the limitations of the concept of
method with a call to find an alternative way of designing effective teaching strategies and
another emphasizes the need to go beyond the limitations of the transmission model of
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PRACTICE II
teacher education with a call to find an alternative way of creating efficient teaching
professionals.
As a result we would be facing a greater awareness of issues such as teacher beliefs,
teachers reasoning and teacher cognition. A common thread that runs through the works
mentioned above is along-felt dissatisfaction with the concept of method as the
organizing principle for language to teaching and teacher education. These works can
therefore be seen as heralding the development of what might be called a post-method
pedagogy.
For instance, one of the benefits is that we will be able to create a mainstreamed
curriculum so that the contents we teach are relevant.
4. How does he use the term pedagogy?
He uses the term pedagogy in a broad sense than the one we may know from that side the
author includes not only issues pertaining to classroom strategies, instructional materials,
curricular objectives, and evaluation measures, but also a wide range of historical, political
and sociocultural experiences that directly or indirectly influence language to education.
Within such a broad-based definition, he visualizes a post-method pedagogy as a three-
dimensional system consisting of three pedagogic parameters: Particularity, practicality
and possibility.
With this new way of understanding the concept Kumaravadivelu is able to go beyond the
theory of the idea of pedagogy and he builds up a concept that can go all through our
lives.
5. Summarize the salient features of each parameter: particularity, practicality,
possibility.
Pedagogy of particularity is antithetical to the notion that there can be one set of
pedagogic aims and objectives realizable through one set of pedagogic principles and
procedures. It claims that a meaningful pedagogy cannot be constructed without a holistic
interpretation of particular situations and that it cannot be improved without a general
improvement of those particular situations.
Pedagogy of practicality does not pertain merely to the everyday practice of classroom
teaching. It pertains to a much larger issue that has a direct impact on the practice of
classroom teaching, namely, the relationship between theorist and practice. It aims for a
teacher-generated theory of practice; a theory of practice is conceived when there is a
union of action and thought or, more precisely, when there is action in thought and
thought in action. It is the result of what is called pedagogical thoughtfulness. In this sense
a pedagogy of practicality metamorphoses into a pedagogy of possibility.
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PRACTICE II
Pedagogy of possibility is concerned with individual identity. Language education provides
its participants with challenges and opportunities for continuant quest for subjectivity and
self-identity. In words of another author “language is the place where actual and possible
forms of social organization and their likely social and political consequences are defined
and contested”. Language teachers cannot hope to fully satisfy their pedagogic obligations
without, at the same time, satisfying their social obligations. They will be able to reconcile
these seemingly competing forces if they “achieve a deepening awareness both of the
sociocultural reality that shapes their lives and of their capacity to transform that reality.
6. What sort of dichotomy does Post-method pedagogy reject?
As the author states a post-method pedagogy is based on three dimensions, from that
point we can say that from a particularity of pedagogy, post-method pedagogy rejects the
advocacy of a predetermined set of generic principles and procedures aimed at realizing a
predetermined set of generic aims and objectives.
As a pedagogy of practicality, post-method pedagogy rejects the artificial dichotomy
between theorists who have been assigned the role of producers of knowledge and
teachers who have been assigned the role of consumers of knowledge.
As a pedagogy of possibility post-method pedagogy rejects the narrow view of language
education that confines itself to the linguistic functional elements obtained inside the
classroom.
In a broad sense what we can mention is that post-method pedagogy invites us to think
critically about the way in which we educate since it allows us to create new means of
thinking about our job as educators.

7. What elements are needed to update to a post-method pedagogy?

The essential element needed to update a post-method pedagogy is through the emphasis
on context sensitivity which demands that various participants actualize it variously to suit
various necessities. However, it should be feasible and indeed desirable to chart a broad
road map that indicates the path the actualization process might profitable take so that
we are able to consider both the means we are using and the end where we want to get.
Such a road map in terms of the anticipated roles of learners, teachers and teacher
educators invites us to use this post-method pedagogy as a demand of re-visioning their
roles aiming to what we can call post-method practitioners.
8. What role is expected from learners? What can teachers do to help them? What
can learners do to improve their learning process? What are the characteristics
of the post-method teacher?
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PRACTICE II
Having in mind the characteristics of the post-method era, Kumaravadivelu understands
learner’s role as a non-permanent role. The author puts the learner within the
frameworks of such theories as competition model, this paper attempts to verify and
substantiate the claim that the language learner does not have a particular identity.
This substantiation draws on two interrelated issues: (1) as people concerned with
language education, teachers are responsible for practice which is mediated by different
theories in the postmethod era, and (2) each theory allows for looking at the learner from
one perspective according to which only partial understanding of the learner is within
reach. Furthermore, since depending upon a particular theory, there might be an
understanding of the learner different from and sometimes even the opposite of that
formed on the basis of another theory, and because in the postmethod era are quite likely
to be subjected to opposing theories, it is concluded that the foreign language learner
does not have a particular identity.
All in all we can say that “autonomous learners deserve autonomous teachers” and “that
teacher autonomy is so central that it can be seen as defining the heart of post method
pedagogy”.

9. Do you agree with the author’s view of student-teachers? How far do you think
this restructuring is being done by teacher educators in this subject?
“One way to accomplish this restructuring is to recognize that prospective teachers
embarking on formal teacher education programs bring with them their notion of what
constitutes good teaching and what does not, largely based on their prior educational
experience as learners and, in some cases, as teachers. Their minds are anything but
atheoretical clean slates. It is therefore important to recognize their voices and their
visions.”(kumaravadivelu, 2001:24)
We do agree with kumaravadivelu’s view since we do believe that teachers construct their
“professional lives” from the experiences that they have had, i.e. We, as students, go
through different experiences and that leads us to build up a teacher identity that will be
carried out into the classroom. It can be said that if teacher educators make sure that
their students have the possibility to share their experiences throughout their formation
they will be able to construct an identity which is both critical and based on more than
one view.
Confidently, we can say that within the subject the possibility of creating a critical thinking
has been carried out. Not only because we have developed authors like Carol Read or
Leonor Corradi who give us the chance to create a humble and caring attitude towards
teaching but we have also been able to link that theory with our experiences so as to
cultivate a critical identity as future teachers.

10. How is research viewed from a post-methods perspective? What problems does it
encounter?
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PRACTICE II
Post-method pedagogy concerns research as belonging to the multiple domains of
learners, teachers and teachers educators alike. These participants engaged in the joint
accomplishment of learning/teaching operations, or to be engaged in pedagogic
exploration either individually or collaboratively such a formulation of pedagogic
exploration opens up concerns about objectivity and generalizability.
The difficult task facing pedagogic explorers is how to get ready for the kind of research
they would like to engage in. A post-method pedagogy like any other innovative practice
imposes an extraordinary degree of responsibility on all the participants, particularly the
teacher and the teacher educator. Problematizing such a pedagogy will identify some
broad concerns that may arise.
11. What is the primary challenge for teachers as posed by Diamond?
According to Diamond, the primary challenge for teachers “is to form and reform their
own pedagogical theories and relationships”, and the primary challenge for teachers
educators “is to help teachers to see themselves capable of imagining and trying
alternatives, and eventually as self-directing and self-determining”. The essentials of a
post-method pedagogic demand that both teachers and teacher educators successfully
meet their primary challenges
12. Why has the concept of Method been so important till now?
The greatest challenge the emerging post-method pedagogy imposes on the professional
community today is to rethink and recast its choice of the organizing principle for
language learning teaching and teacher education. The concept of method has long been
the prefer choice. The choice of the pedagogic parameters as an organizing principle
opens up unlimited opportunities for the emergence of post method pedagogies that can
truly serve the interests of those they are supposed to serve.
 AYLEN FERNÁNDEZ AND ALEXIS CORA

PRACTICE II
Post-method pedagogy concerns research as belonging to the multiple domains of
learners, teachers and teachers educators alike. These participants engaged in the joint
accomplishment of learning/teaching operations, or to be engaged in pedagogic
exploration either individually or collaboratively such a formulation of pedagogic
exploration opens up concerns about objectivity and generalizability.
The difficult task facing pedagogic explorers is how to get ready for the kind of research
they would like to engage in. A post-method pedagogy like any other innovative practice
imposes an extraordinary degree of responsibility on all the participants, particularly the
teacher and the teacher educator. Problematizing such a pedagogy will identify some
broad concerns that may arise.
11. What is the primary challenge for teachers as posed by Diamond?
According to Diamond, the primary challenge for teachers “is to form and reform their
own pedagogical theories and relationships”, and the primary challenge for teachers
educators “is to help teachers to see themselves capable of imagining and trying
alternatives, and eventually as self-directing and self-determining”. The essentials of a
post-method pedagogic demand that both teachers and teacher educators successfully
meet their primary challenges
12. Why has the concept of Method been so important till now?
The greatest challenge the emerging post-method pedagogy imposes on the professional
community today is to rethink and recast its choice of the organizing principle for
language learning teaching and teacher education. The concept of method has long been
the prefer choice. The choice of the pedagogic parameters as an organizing principle
opens up unlimited opportunities for the emergence of post method pedagogies that can
truly serve the interests of those they are supposed to serve.