Reflections of Brazilian English language teacher educators: a discourse analysis of introspective and collaborative approaches to professional awareness

Conforming to the idea that reflective practice (RP) should be based on the premises of social learning, the present study relies heavily on the power of collaboration to provide support for more introspective forms of reflection. In this way, using a data-led approach and combining written and spoken forms of reflection, the study explores the discourses of a community of six experienced English language teacher educators at a public university in the state of Bahia, Brazil. A focus on more experienced professionals complements studies of teacher development, generally focussing on student or novice teachers or comparing stages of development. In the present study, the educators engage in a non-longitudinal bottom-up process of RP, consisting of three stages of written self-evaluation of teaching practice, supported by a) self-observation through video-recording; b) peer observation feedback; and c) a group discussion. The educators’ written reflections are analysed in conjunction with the spoken discourse from each phase, through discourse analysis with support from corpus linguistics, allowing the investigation of linguistic features and pragmatic strategies within the interactions. The analysis reveals that better-grounded understandings of practice are linked to understandings of self and these processes are influenced by commitment and willingness to reflect, the nature of the interactions, as well as resistance to awareness raising.