Lunching and talking: An attempt at teacher collaboration and reflection at KMUTT
It is undeniable that the outbreak of Covid-19 has placed most, if not all, Thai EFL teachers in an extremely uncomfortable situation. While the pandemic may have slowly faded, its legacy still lurks behind the pedagogical practice and policy making in a lot of Thai educational institutes. At King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, online classes continue to be regarded as a practical, convenient and above all, 'safe' mode of learning. The safety net of online teaching, nevertheless, comes with an expensive price for EFL teachers at the university who have lost touch with not only their students but also their work colleagues. To tackle the issue, a series of lunch talk was organized from December 2022- February 2023 to encourage the faculty to discuss, reflect and share their research ideas, anxiety and self-development goals. The topics ranged from casual conversations such as favorite books to serious discussions on professional development, research collaboration and teaching techniques. A total of 22 teaching staff at the Department of Language Studies were then interviewed to mainly see if they had benefited from attending the talks. Findings showed a variety of opinions and interestingly two-thirds of the participants did not find attending the talks useful or impactful. Further inquiry into teachers’ expectations regarding collaboration should therefore be made to ensure the long-term benefits.
