We have completed Phase One of the Enhancement Mentoring Initiative for Argentinian and Turkish Foreign Language Teachers (Smith R., Tuyan S., Bekez E. A. and Serra M., 2021) project.

It all started with a kick-off session held by our mentors in November 2023.

•There were welcome words and self-introductions.

•We shared previous experiences in mentoring and/or teacher-research.

• Participants' expectations were discussed.

• We learned about the project proposal.

• The schedule and steps to engage in project activities were arranged.

• We selected channels to exchange material/information.

• Teacher of English language teaching at the School of Foreign Languages, Hasan Kalyoncu University, Gaziantep, Türkiye.

• PhD Candidate of English Language Teaching, Çağ University, Mersin, Türkiye

• Click here for more about me

School of Foreign Languages

Laura Rodríguez- La Plata, Argentina

• Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Faculty member of the English Teacher Training and Translation programs)

• Universidad de Buenos Aires (School of Psychology)

• Escuela Secundaria Nº 12 (EFL Teacher)

• Student of Master's Program in English Language and Literature at Universidad Nacional de Córdoba

• Click here for more about me

  
  

• Synchronous work: Zoom and Whatsapp

• Asynchronous work: Padlet, Google docs.

• In each monthly meeting, we took turns as mentors and mentees.

• Conversations were based on nine specifically- designed questions with sub-questions/ prompts.

• Written reports were socialized with the other team members on Padlet.

• Debriefing took place orally, in joint sessions led by our supervisors.

What is your context?

What main problems/difficulties have you been facing professionally, and how have you overcome them?

Insights

Main challenges since the pandemic

Zekeriya

• Motivating students

• Recruiting teachers

• Dealing with the consequences of the earthquake affecting Turkey in 2023.

 Laura

• Being new at UBA (School of Psychology), becoming familiar with tasks, teaching materials, assessment procedures and bibliography.

• Students with low English proficiency at risk of losing motivation or dropping off.

• Need to "humanize" the virtual class.

• Monolingual context: not many opportunities to use L2.

Positives

Zekeriya

• Patience

• Open mind to guide teachers and work collaboratively.

• Empathy: eagerness to address students' needs in an increasingly diverse context.

• Reseach focused on student psychology.

• Interest in enhancing classroom effectiveness.

Laura

• Solid pedagogic and theoretical framework provided by head teachers.

• Personal and professional support from colleagues.

• Gradual building of annotated bibliography.

• Flexibility: openness to learn from and with students: relevance of reflecting on academic literacy

• Possibility of engaging in interdisciplinary work

During the session, we evidenced how our problems and challenges are closely tied to our local contexts. However, we concluded that our shared views on education and some aspects of the social realities in our countries are fertile ground for joint exploration.

What were the signs of your success?  

What were the reasons for your success?

Some Insights

Full commitment to our jobs since the Covid-19 period has been appreciated in our local contexts: lack of complaints, positive comments, learning outcomes.

Zekeriya

• Non-interrupted distance teaching.

• Enhancement of online teaching platforms in local context

• Progress with PhD studies.

• Research (publications, proceedings etc. ) in the ELT field

Laura

• (Secondary school) Intercultural projects with schools from other countries: India, the USA, Sierra Leone and Zambia resulted in higher student motivation to learn and communicate in English.

• Collaboration in international journals.

At university level

• Good student outcomes (evidenced by exam results and positive student feedback).

• Pursuing a Master's Degree in English Language and Literature (remote learning).

What could you do to extend your success?

Zekeriya

My special interest in addressing student diversity evidences the need to further explore my local context and develop pedagogical interventions in all groups to promote tolerance and positive attitudes.

Laura

Especially in relatively monolingual environments, digitally-mediated projects with schools/ universities overseas have the potential of enhancing students' intercultural competence. Thus, my aim is to create new bridges and offer my students the opportunity to connect with educators and students from Turkey.

• Having experienced Phase 1 of the EM project, we feel more confident in our mentor/mentee roles, and better equipped to help each other in specific ways.

• Every classroom activity is a potential research field. We will take advantage of this.

• Reading Circles: We are starting a project to incorporate Argentine and Turkish literature (short stories) in some courses. This year, we will invite students to participate as a way of enhancing language learning, intercultural competence and mutual understanding.

  
  

  Possible approach: ARC (Seburn, 2015)

  
  

  Work ahead

• Define target groups (needs analysis)

• Align the project to existing curricula

• Seek institutional support

• Establish participatory mechanisms.

• Select materials, design relevant tasks.

• Carry out the project.

  
  

  Classroom Research

• Define our research questions

  a) to examine our own teaching practices

  b) to assess the results of our pedagogical interventions.

  
  

  Collaboration

• After sharing our experience, we would like to invite colleagues to venture into further action and research .

  
  

  
  

We are also grateful to Tugce Bilgi, Ecem Eker, Paul Labandeira and Silvia Zorz for their enthusiasm and good-fellowship during our joint sessions.

We wanted to invite each other to our classes and have an online conversation with our students, but our different time zones and schedules do not allow this. Yet, we are working on alternative ways to connect our groups.