Page 182 - Getting of the fence

Chapter 7
teachers do not use a course book in their literature lessons but make their own teaching materials, this particular curricular heritage is often very individual. Due to factors such as tradition, showing respect towards colleagues, lack of financial means, or lack of knowledge and/or experience, these existing curricula are often adopted. An additional issue related to this is the fact that the foreign language literature curriculum can be considered ill-structured (Spiro, Feltovich, Jacobson, & Coulson, 1991). This means that there is a lack of theory and structure, a multitude of visions, and an inadequate connection between education and the learning needs of students (Witte, 2008). To summarise, trying to enrich a part of the curriculum that is not only ill-structured but also often highly personal, creates a challenge for teachers that should be considered when analysing and interpreting the results of an innovation in foreign language literature teaching through enrichment.
7.4 Limitations and directions for future research
In this thesis, we applied a range of both qualitative and quantitative research methods and instruments to access different types of information for comparing findings (methodological triangulation). Additionally, because the data was collected within different research paradigms, it included positivist as well as interpretivist theoretical perspectives (theoretical triangulation). We also obtained information from a range of participants, across settings, and over a period of several years (source triangulation). And finally, a key aspect of this thesis was the inclusion of students and teachers as co-constructors of knowledge with specific areas of expertise (investigator triangulation). Despite careful consideration of the choices we made in the data collection methods and instruments as well as analyses, several issues need to be addressed.
Even though Desimone and Stukey (2014) argue that both the Theory of Change and the Theory of Instruction need to work in order for the professional development opportunity to be sustainable, we only included the Theory of Change in this thesis. Concentrating on just one theory allowed us the opportunity to conduct an in-depth investigation into how a group of eight teachers experienced the relevance and usefulness of the Comprehensive Approach in naturalistic teaching contexts. We also argued that it is necessary to first investigate the Theory of Change before investigating the effects on student learning (sections 1.5.2 and
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