The Development of a Reflective Language Teacher in Russia: From an Apprenticeship to a Dialogic Partnership

Expectations and philosophies for reflective practice overlap in many ways but are also influenced by local teaching contexts. This chapter argues that context is crucial in whether reflection works for quality provision in language education. This argument and ensuing recommendations are based on first-hand experience of teacher trainers in Russia. Recent studies have revealed that reflective practice has been neglected due to the overuse of an applied science model, which still often overrides international teaching innovations in many contexts in Russia. Educational policies are changing in Russia now due to the internationalization of higher education to comply with the requirements of the Bologna system. This chapter explains how the reflective practice component in the form of post-lesson feedback and lesson evaluation is embedded in a recurring training course for secondary school English language teachers in a university in the Asian part of Russia. It is demonstrated how a specific post-lesson self-evaluation template is used, and the impact of various tasks on boosting teachers’ reflective capacity is analyzed. How teachers’ perceptions of reflective practice change is demonstrated, as well as why and how they become more independent and confident in reflecting on classroom events. Later in the training, the teachers reflect on their lessons dialogically with their trainers rather than continuing to follow a hierarchical relationship, which is the case when they start the course. The chapter concludes with a broader analysis of the strengths of the Russian context and its challenges and suggests particular ways of incorporating reflective practice into teacher education programmes.