Preparing for Quality EFL Teachers: The Disjuncture Between Policies and Practice in The Internet Communication Technology (ICT) Use in Classroom Context

Globalization has resulted in great consequences on mobility, competition and employability. It certainly implies high expectation and demands on quality and graduate standards for employability. Pre service teacher institutions need to reform several aspects to meet the demand of this globalised world. One significant aspect of reform in EFL and more broadly is the role of technology and how globalisation presents new challenges and tasks for teachers because technology has changed the tradition of English teaching significantly. In addition, various technological alternatives have the potential to make teaching more interesting, to widen students’ knowledge about the culture of English, to create more conducive environments and to improve teaching efficiency. Many recent studies suggest that producing quality graduates of EFL Teacher Education is challenging. Also, global agencies and policies have documented the insufficient competence of graduates of English Teacher Education institutions even though some recommendations for developing quality EFL teachers have been promoted. This paper aims at disseminating the result of a Carspecken critical ethnography study focusing on the issues and inconsistency between policy and practice on the implementation of ICT in the classroom which constitutes some challenges in preparing globally competitive EFL teacher graduates in Central Java, Indonesia. Globalization theory by Appadurai is applied to explain the presence of the disjunctures between policies and practices. Following Appadurai this study argues a strong degree of disjuncture between education policies and practice in terms of ICT use. What is desired in the global, national and local institutional policies are not always implemented optimally in classroom. Policy makers need to consider this mismatch as a concern in producing quality EFL teachers. The presence of the issues on the pedagogical dimension indicates the lack of awareness of the global message by local institutions. Therefore, this paper provides meaningful insights towards the discussion of the formation of quality EFL teachers not only locally and nationally but also in the broader context of teacher preparation globally.