Reflections on Kumaravadivelu’s Post-Method Pedagogy: Juxtaposing Perceptions and Practices

• Main Author: Abdu Al-Kadi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Asociación Mexicana de Maestros de Inglés 2020-11-01
• Series: Mextesol Journal
• Subjects: curriculum development; elt; post-method era; post-method principles (pmps)
• Online Access: http://www.mextesol.net/journal/public/files/51dbd88feabc28902391c229dc5673c8.pdf

Departing from Kumaravadivelu’s (2006) post-method principles (PMPs), this study set out to explore the relationships between teachers’ beliefs about PMPs and their teaching practices at the collegiate level in Yemen. Data were collected through a survey of perceptions of 57 university teachers during the academic year 2019-2020. Out of this initial sample, nine informants who claimed to be post-method teachers were singled out for classroom observations. Results show that the majority were less sanguine about the post-method practices, regardless of the magnitude of their teaching experiences. Besides questioning the existing practices, this paper brings to the fore some suggestions to liberate teachers from restrictions of conventional method-based teaching. Teachers are encouraged to shape and reshape their teaching relying on their own experiences to develop useful teaching ideas for their contexts. Instead of searching for a ‘best’ method to follow, they should find effective teaching strategies to enhance their teaching repertoire.