Teacher Trainers' Beliefs about Feedback on Teaching Practice: Negotiating the Tensions between Authoritativeness and Dialogic Space

Contradictory tensions are apparent during the feedback given to pre-service English language teachers by trainers following their practice teaching. Trainers' beliefs may serve as a resource in dealing with these conflicting tensions. Trainers' beliefs about the feedback they provide during teaching practice conferences were elicited, and feedback on teaching practice across one full course was recorded to investigate the congruence between these beliefs and the practice of giving feedback. Framed within a dialogic approach, beliefs and practice were analyzed with a specific focus on elements of authoritativeness in the feedback discourse. Findings highlight two sets of beliefs: those based closely on trainers' personal experience or "experiential beliefs", and "received beliefs": those associated with widely-accepted progressive methodologies which trainers may be under social pressure to conform to. Experiential beliefs and practice show high levels of congruence, but received beliefs, here reflecting the social desirability of low levels of authoritativeness, are more often incongruent with practice.