Materials for TESOL Teacher Education in Sweden: Ensuring Sustainable Development of Pedagogical Reasoning and Reflective Practice

This chapter emphasizes the development of tenable, justifiable, and durable teaching skills for a sustainable Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) career through the inclusion of pedagogical reasoning and reflective practice in materials design. Set in Sweden, the chapter focuses on the fundamental concepts of pedagogical reasoning and reflective practice and links them to practical elements of teachers’ work, such as lesson planning and materials selection. Introducing a set of principles for TESOL education as a base, these principles are then exemplified via a set of pedagogical activities intended to prepare new teachers for classroom life, including the needs of teachers to challenge and extend the English abilities of learners while also accounting for the mixed ability groups they will encounter. The chapter also describes influential policy documents and their relation to essential practical skills needed by second language (L2) TESOL educators in Sweden with emphasis on the secondary school level. In doing so, the chapter acknowledges the integration of important aspects of learning teaching in materials creation, such as the development of teacher beliefs, incorporating one’s past experience as an L2 learner, applying abstract concepts to concrete instructional circumstances, and adapting to various teaching scenarios. The materials presented in the chapter illustrate how innovative and sustainable materials design can incorporate meaningful and authentic experiences in TESOL education, respond to a lack of concrete teaching practice in TESOL education in Sweden, and instil in student teachers a continuous drive to understand and thrive in their classrooms.