All in the same boat? : insights from a boys' secondary school in the new college system

Abstract

This dissertation captures snapshots of life in a boys' secondary school in one of the first State Colleges in Malta five years after its inception. The aims of this study were twofold: at the macro level, we endeavoured to investigate the administration of the reformed secondary school, and at the micro level, the teaching and learning of English. Moreover, in a bid to triangulate the findings, we conducted semi-structured interviews with the School Management Team and teachers of English, a student survey, and observations of English lessons and the school environment. We argue that the issue of the school's large size poses difficulties and challenges in terms of workload, responsibilities, communication barriers and student indiscipline for both the School Management Team and teachers of English. Although the school's learning environment has proven to be beneficial for students, the school's logistics impinges on classroom practice. Teachers and students favour setting for ability grouping, but teaching three levels simultaneously is challenging for teachers of English and Basic Skills courses prove to be the most exigent. Classroom activities, use of L1 and L2, students' attitudes to learning English and challenging behaviour differ in higher and lower sets, and ultimately affect teachers' job satisfaction and motivation. Conversely, students in all sets find English lessons interesting and linguistically appropriate though not entirely challenging for all. Our dissertation reveals that staff and students at St James College Boys Secondary are all in the same boat, experiencing the reform's implementation in similar ways.