English Language Teachers’ Perceptions and Experiences of Conferences

Abstract

Conferences around the world have been attended by thousands of ELT
professionals each year and such activities are supposed to make a positive
contribution to these individuals’ professional development and work. In
Myanmar, very little is known in an ELT context regarding how teachers
perceive these experiences as contributing to their sense of professionalism.
The purpose of this research was to report this knowledge gap and to
examine teachers’ perceptions and experiences of ELT conferences as a
means to determine the role which conferences play in professionalism.
Based on the literature, a practice-based perceptual definition of
professionalism was accepted and operationalized in this study as relating
to the concepts of Continuing Professional Development (CPD),
Community, and Professional Identity. In the questionnaire survey, one

hundred and seventy-six teachers attending face-to-face conferences
participated and the data were analyzed through content analysis. The results
suggested that conferences had a treasured contribution to make to English
teachers’ sense of professionalism because they offered a rich source of
CPD, provided a stout sense of community, and helped develop their
professional uniqueness. This led to the acknowledgment of the special role
which teaching associations play in conferences and advice on how, through
their agency, the conference experience can be maximized.
Recommendations were made for future studies, including the suggestion
that online conferences will be added to the research plan. In fact,
conferences are a traditional indicator of activity within a field and of the
obligation of individuals to their own practice and the sphere in which they
operate.