51 foundations that will ultimately shape the educational and occupational destinations of
their students” Oliver Kettley, 2010, p. 752. Research also exists supporting the view that habitus is transformative. Horvat
and Davis 2011 conducted a mixed-method study quantitative and qualitative of 57 students who took a 10-month-long YouthBuild program an educationalvocational
program for high school dropouts. The curriculum of the program was a mix of job-site experience renovating a house, classroom work, and community service. The program
also provided counseling and assistance in developing a personal growth plan. Using narrative and thematic analysis of in-depth interviews, the finding of the study revealed
that the YouthBuild program touched many aspects of students’ lives and transformed elements of their habitus. Students typically characterized their attitude on life as
pessimistic prior to joining the YouthBuild program. The program then helped them to develop greater self-esteem and self-knowledge and to improve their material
conditions, and to develop the ability to accomplish something of value, and the capacity to contribute to the welfare of others.
2.6.5 Research on Bourdieu’s sociological theory in teacher professional development
Unfortunately, little research on habitus has been done to explain teacher professional development. Employing a naturalistic inquiry method, Kang 2002
examined pre-service science teachers’ beliefs about teaching and student motivation and their development of teaching habitus throughout their student teaching programs.
Three pre-service teachers student teachers were chosen as the research participants. Interviews, classroom observation, and documents were used as the data sources. The
findings indicated that the participants initially had transmissionist beliefs about teaching and student motivation. Subsequently, the participants student teaching
experiences reinforced their naive beliefs and developed a habitus that was reproductive of the current culture of science teaching.
Although he does not use the theory of habitus, but discusses teaching in terms of teacher identity, Clarke 2008 provides an example of significant change in pre-
service teachers knowledge and beliefs as the result of participation in a four-year degree program. The change includes shifting from belief in passive, transmissionist or
instructionist models of teaching and learning memorization and rote learning, in
52 which a teacher or lecturer ‘transmits’ information to students, to a constructivist model
which attributes an active role in learning to students. Based on my review on Bourdieu’s theory of habitus, it seems that there are few
studies illustrating teachers’ pedagogic habitus. Exploring teachers’ habitus can provide information to develop their professionalism since habitus generates action. In this
sense, teachers’ practice can be seen as the product of habitus so that the theory of habitus can be used to interpret practice. Hence, my study adds to the limited scholarly
literature on the use of habitus to explain teacher professional development opportunities, in particular, with regard to teachers in Indonesia. In addition, as noted
before that Bourdieu’s concepts cannot be considered as discrete entities but rather each concept interrelates with the others; however, most studies focus more on just one
aspect of Bourdieu’s theory. In this sense, my study considers and uses Bourdieu’s notion of habitus, capital, and field together to interpret teachers’ practice. Furthermore,
some studies have been done to describe existing habitus and provided explanation of why changing habitus is difficult. Accordingly, my study explores the possibility that
the teachers can transform their pedagogic habitus through mediated self-evaluation and adds another way to explain of why and how habitus might be both reproductive and
transformative.
2.7 Summary
Three fundamental areas in this study have been reviewed in this chapter. They are teacher self-evaluation, Vygotsky’s sociocultural perspectives, and Bourdieu’s
sociocultural theory with its components of habitus, capital, field, and practice. The reviews of studies on teacher self-evaluation suggest that teachers should engage in
teacher self-evaluation regularly in order to create ongoing improvements in their practice. Unfortunately, most studies focus solely on the use of the use of a single
teacher self-evaluation instrument e.g., Lynes, 2012, Wright, 1998, and Morgan, 2000. Therefore, this study utilizes various teacher self-evaluation tools: teacher self-reflection
questions, student feedback, lesson video recording, and collegial dialogue in order to facilitate Indonesian teachers to get more comprehensive information about their
instructional practice. Based on the review of studies on
Vygotsky’s sociocultural perspectives ,
sociocultural theory functions as a useful lens to be applied in teacher professional development. Hence, this study uses sociocultural theory with its corresponding
