The TESOL Arabia Conference and its Role in the Professional Development of Teachers at Institutions of Higher Education in the United Arab Emirates.

Abstract

There are many reasons to pursue professional development, but perhaps one of the most importantmay be to narrow the wide chasm left behind by many teacher education programs. Freeman (1989)and Holliday (1994) have pointed out many of the difficulties associated with the transfer of knowledgeinto classroom practices, while others have directed attention to the vast kaleidoscope of culturaldiversity involved in ELT (see Larsen-Freeman, 1983; Colabucci, 2007; Govardhan, Nayar andSheorey, 1999). Consider, for a moment, what happens to a cohort of MA TESOL students uponcompletion of their teacher education programs. They scatter off to various points on the globe, each insearch of a job with their newly minted degrees. One could end up teaching at a refugee camp in ruralnorthern Thailand, with only chalk and a blackboard at their disposal, while another may end upteaching EAP in the United Arab Emirates. Given such diversity, then, how could any one teachereducation program ever prepare its students to meet such challenges?