الملخص الإنجليزي
This qualitative study sought to understand how neoliberalism shapes the English
language students’ teaching practicum at the College of Education (CoE) at Sultan
Qaboos University (SQU). Document analysis of three public documents: CAEP
Accreditation Policies and Procedures, Handbook of Field Experiences and Student
Teaching, and Achievement Portfolio, was done and semi-structured interviews were
conducted with two high-profile stakeholders from the CoE at SQU and six female
student teachers who completed the practicum at the CoE at SQU. Critical Discourse
Analysis (CDA) was used to analyze the data taken from the documents and
interviews.
The findings revealed that both the analyzed documents and the high-profile
stakeholders emphasize and encourage standardized and evidence-based assessments,
contrasting with a more humanistic approach. The student teachers, however, reported
that the achievement portfolio, which is an evidence-based assessment tool, is
inauthentic. They confessed to fabricating its content, due to time constraints and
overwhelming demands, to attain high grades in return. They advocated for streamlined
portfolio requirements to enhance effectiveness and create space for reflection and
action research. These findings call for developing contextualized assessment tools
rather than depending on imported ready-made ones. The findings also indicate that the
student teachers expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of feedback they received
from college supervisors and cooperating teachers, which was based on standardized
assessment tools that undermine the complexity of ELT and show a lack of trust in the
intelligence and judgment of college supervisors. However, the high-profile stakeholders
praised the technical roles assigned to both college supervisors and cooperating teachers,
as outlined in the public documents, emphasizing technical excellence over holistic
teaching abilities, and the selection criteria of cooperating teachers, which the analysis
of the public document revealed to be based on quantifiable results. These findings
underscore the need to provide adequate training for supervisors and improve the
selection criteria of cooperating teachers. Additionally, while the stakeholders described
the courses of the ELT program at the CoE as well-aligned, student teachers reported
that the pre-practicum courses failed to prepare them for the practicum experience,
which indicates the potential downsides of this linear approach, and suggested more
emphasis on reflection, action research, and practical experiences.
