Teachers as Transformative Intellectuals in Post-conflict Reconciliation: A Study of Sri Lankan Language Teachers' Identities, Experiences and Perceptions
Keywords: post-conflict
reconciliation
second language teacher education
social cohesion
Sri Lanka
teacher identity

The UNDP (2005) notes the twentieth century as one of the bloodiest in human history. It has been defined by wars between countries and regions, as well as conflicts within countries. As members of the global community, it is hard for educators not to encounter the effects of violence and war in different forms in local and professional contexts. Set against the aftermath of one of the longest civil wars in recent times, this study explores what three Sri Lankan teacher education programs in the National Colleges of Education (NCOE) are doing to prepare prospective English language teachers to teach in a time of post-conflict reconciliation. This qualitative study was conducted in three teacher education programs in the Western, Central and Northern Provinces of Sri Lanka and includes the voices and perceptions of culturally and linguistically diverse teacher candidates and teacher educators. Most of the war zone was located in northern Sri Lanka. In particular, this study focuses on teacher candidates' identities, their experiences within the program and with diversity, their understanding of diversity as well as their roles and responsibilities when teaching socially and culturally diverse learners. This qualitative research inquiry utilizes a blend of narrative and case study methodologies, and includes a variety of traditional data sources such as semi-structured face-to-face interviews, formal and informal observations, and document analysis, as well as non-traditional methods such as picture descriptions, identity portraits and mind maps generated by the teacher candidates. The research is informed primarily by a group of focal participants comprised of 12 teacher candidates (4 from each program). Their voices are complemented by a peripheral group of 16 teacher candidates and 9 teacher educators from the three teacher education programs, thus providing a rich understanding of how Sri Lankan English language teachers experience the process of becoming teachers. An integrated conceptual framework based on notions of pedagogical orientations (Cummins, 2009; Miller and Seller, 1990; Miller, 2007, 2010) support the analysis of teacher candidates' diverse perspectives and experiences relevant to curricular practices in their teacher education program. Additional concepts and theories are considered to allow for a more textured understanding of the prospective teachers' identities, the nature of their experiences in the program and their perceptions of their own roles as future teachers. These include post-structuralist identity theory (Clarke, 2009; Norton Pierce, 1995; Norton, 2000), social justice teacher education (Cochran-Smith, 2004; Zeichner, 2009, 2011) and culturally relevant pedagogy (Gay, 2000, 2002). The findings of the study highlight the promise of language teacher education programs to create conditions for teacher candidates to become transformative intellectuals (Giroux, 1985) in the larger post-conflict reconciliation process underway in Sri Lanka.