Statistical Literacy: A Point of Contention in L2 Teacher Education

Document Type : مقالات علمی پژوهشی

Author
O. Mazandarani
Department of English Language Teaching, Aliabad Katoul Branch, Islamic Azad University, Aliabad Katoul, Iran
10.29252/LRR.14.6.13
Abstract
There has been mounting pressure on L2 academic staff to take on the role of researchers, thereby contributing to the knowledge economy in higher education. To this end, they have been required to acquire different types of literacies including digital, assessment, and feedback literacies, to name but a few. More recently, statistical literacy has been proposed as an important asset to researchers. Yet, what remains rather unnoticed and unclear is the nature and status of statistical literacy as an important dimension of literacy in teacher education, development, and appraisal research, inasmuch as the existing body of knowledge on statistical literacy is more focused on students rather than teachers. Informed by the relevant literature, this paper brings to attention academic staff’s lack of statistical literacy, as one of the possible driving forces behind their disinclination to do research and calls for further attention to L2 ـ specific statistical literacy as an appraisal tool in faculty evaluation schemes in higher education sector. The implications are discussed in the light of the literature.

Introduction

In line with the internationalisation movement in higher education coupled with the ever ـ increasing demands enjoined by policymakers has constantly brought forth unexampled pressure on university teachers to assume greater responsibility in their career. In addition to their traditional role of teaching, university teachers have found themselves cast in the role of mentor, guide, pastoral carer, counselor, and more recently teacherpreneur. Encouraged by several initiatives and pressured by external forces, university teachers have been drawn into all these new roles save one, teacher as researcher. And herein lies a concern as to whether university teachers are able to serve new responsibilities. Such a paradoxical situation continues to bring to bear mounting pressure on academics.

In the context of the competitive milieu, universities have been obsessed with acquiring more international reputation and prestige, as a consequence of which world rankings have become a major concern in higher education contexts around the world. In view of the very nature of university rankings which is more directed towards research, the burning question herein is whether university teachers are prepared and inclined to play an active role in the researcher to fulfil their knowledge production mission. In addition, as suggested by the literature, much of what is known about statistical literacy and statistics anxiety comes from research on students with little room for teachers. Although there are different reasons as to why teachers tend to shy away from involvement in research, it is widely accepted in academia that statistics is an important ingredient of research, in particular quantitative research, and it could, therefore, be possibly a source of inhibition for teacher ـ researchers. With this end in view, this paper is an attempt to situate statistical literacy in a broader domain of language teachers’ multiple literacies.


The enigmatic nature of statistical language

Statistics tends to be an important course in many academic curricula and in particular in the field of education. In the domain of applied linguistics and TESOL, statistics is also of great significance not only in BA programme, where students need to acquaint themselves with core statistical concepts introduced in testing and assessment modules, but also in masters and doctoral programmes, where students are often required to submit a compulsory dissertation/thesis to graduate. One reason for teachers' and students’ apprehension and inhibition tends to be perhaps the language of statistics which is less straightforward in humanities and social sciences, compared to other academic fields such as STEM and medical education. Such a demand for statistics education in the field of language education, has risen the need for statistically literate teachers. Nonetheless, literature has shown that statistics remains enigmatic for researchers across different academic fields.




Teacher statistical literacy

There are various definitions of statistical literacy in the literature. There is a general tendency across academic fields which treats research as a demanding task for which rarely do university teachers have the minimum specialist knowledge required to conduct research on their own. This concern tends to be aggravated in quantitative and mixed methods research, in the event that university teachers’ unawareness of statistical concepts can potentially make research a daunting experience, leading to statistics anxiety. The literature is replete with numerous studies on statistics anxiety in different academic fields. It is, therefore, not uncommon to expect academic procrastination among students whose teachers themselves are of insufficient statistical knowledge. The solution to the challenge of statistics anxiety lies with identifying and removing the underlying factors contributing to statistics anxiety. Further research, however, is needed to understand the direction of the association between statistical literacy and statistics anxiety, if any. There has long been a common stereotype in the academic world, which absolves university teachers of all responsibility for statistical data analysis in their research projects. Not only is such a mentality generally reinforced by masters and doctoral students, but it is also propagated by some academic staff. The advocates are under the impression that statistics, similar to other academic fields, is a specialty and a distinct academic discipline and hence needs to be left to those with expert knowledge of the field, i.e., statisticians. And this is why some L2 university teachers as researchers simply ask statisticians to help them with data analysis. There is an opposite view, however, which tends to hold researchers accountable for every aspect of research including data analysis.



Concluding Remarks
Informed by a constructivist dimension of learning, university teachers should be, therefore, encouraged to not only believe in, but also exercise agency, that is playing an active role in their knowledge production mission, for which they need to be both competent producers and consumers of (statistical) knowledge. They should be convinced of the indispensableness of statistical knowledge as a professional and pedagogical asset. In conclusion, this paper calls for statistical literacy appraisal as a needs analysis and professional development tool to evaluate L2 university teachers’ both knowledge of and attitude towards statistical reasoning. Minimising statistics anxiety and academic procrastination, statistical literacy would then make lecturer ـ researcher transition smooth

Keywords

Subjects

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Language Related Research
Volume 14, Issue 6 - Serial Number 78
January and February 2023
Pages 405-421