Arab Educational Information Network

The present, dual-focused descriptive-interpretive study purports itself to investigate the attitudes of the middle school teachers of English in the aftermath of the implementation of new school reforms that aim to introduce a new, interdisciplinary approach (viz., Competency-Based Approach) as a medium of instruction. This research evolves from and revolves around a prevailing assertion: namely, that is the teaching-learning process has a firm attitudinal footing. Differently stated, the aim of the study is to explore teachers’ attitudes and the extent to which these may affect their engagement in the teaching-learning process. It should be noted that teachers’ attitudes, beliefs, cognition, emotions, and values appear to be customarily underexplored so much so that psychological aspects are assumed to be ancillary at best or non-existent at worst. The answers provided in the questionnaires (three in all), which are the linchpin of our investigation along with the unstructured interviews, sit well with the hypothetical framework, which is formulated as follows: If we rethink teacher education and training, improve teachers’ socio-professional conditions, and involve teachers in decision making, we will significantly reduce teachers’ negative attitudes. The targeted population of this study is the middle school teachers of English in the Region of Biskra of which seventy (70) teachers responded to the questionnaires and the unstructured interviews. The findings of the investigation disclose that the middle school teachers of English have developed negative attitudes toward four (04) major challenges: the management-related challenges, contextual-related challenges, teaching profession-related challenges, and working relationships-related challenges. Management-related challenges, which include teacher education and training programs, textbook design and writing, and organization of pedagogic activities, have affected teachers’ unfavorable attitudes toward their very existence and roles in the teaching-learning process. Contextual challenges, such as old facilities, busy schedules, and especially class size, have sparked a record number of teachers’ flurry grievances and negative attitudes. Teaching-related challenges (i.e., the teachability of the self-contained textbooks) have proved to frustrate teachers’ attempt to attain the set objectives. As for the working relationships-related challenges, teachers seem to have developed unfavorable attitudes vis-à-vis the tense relations with other stakeholders (mainly inspectors and male students), limited prospects for promotion, and pecuniary incentives. (Author’s abstract)