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20230718T083020230718T1130Europe/Amsterdam[SYMP04] AILA ReN - Contexts for Inclusive Practitioner Research: aiming for social cohesion in a globalised world.Hybrid Session (onsite/online)AILA 2023 - 20th Anniversary Congress Lyon Editioncellule.congres@ens-lyon.fr
Introducing in-service teachers to Practitioner Research online: A case study from Pakistan
Oral Presentation[SYMP04] AILA ReN - Contexts for Inclusive Practitioner Research: aiming for social cohesion in a globalised world.08:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/18 06:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/18 09:30:00 UTC
The argument is written in English and therefore a summary is not applicable here.
Practitioner enquiry (PE) is a well-established approach to professional learning and development that can improve the teachers' educational practice (Hanks, 2019). As Guerriero (2017) mentions, in many countries practitioners are expected to be informed about pedagogical research in order to contribute to diverse classrooms. This is often difficult not only due to contextual constraints (Edwards and Ellis, 2019) but also because teachers work in contexts where standardisation limits their autonomy (Mockler and Casey, 2015).
This paper will report on a study that examines the experiences and perceptions of 22 PE in-service teachers (PTs) based in Pakistan who completed an online module on developing a small-scale practitioner enquiry as part of their online professional graduate programme in education (iPGCE) programme offered by a Scottish institution. The PE PTs worked with a teacher educator who also conducted this study, to gain additional support in designing an appropriate intervention. The practitioner enquiry was included in the curriculum to develop the PTs' research skills and empower them to engage with theory and explore their own practice. The study also focused on exploring the benefits of their engagement in PE and the local constraints and challenges they encountered. A questionnaire and group interviews – conducted at the end of the small-scale enquiry module were used to generate data along with an analysis of research outputs produced in the setting. The findings revealed that the practitioner enquiry promoted greater collaboration between the PTs as they worked together to develop their shared understanding of the teaching and learning process. The practitioner enquiry also facilitated the PTs' critical engagement with pedagogical research, enhanced their pedagogic knowledge and nurtured their professional identity. It was also found that engaging teachers in PR can create positive changes in their school because critical reflection supports the practitioners' professional understanding of the processes of teaching and learning.
References
Edwards, E., & Ellis, N. J. (2020). Action research remodelled in a competitive, profit-oriented sector: Teachers' and managers' perspectives. Educational Action Research, 28(3), 480–496.
Guerriero, S. 2017. "Teachers' Pedagogical Knowledge: What It Is and How It Functions." In Pedagogical Knowledge and the Changing Nature of the Teaching Profession, edited by S. Guerriero, 99-118. Paris: OECD Publishing.
Hanks, J. (2019). From research-as-practice to exploratory practice-as-research in language teaching and beyond. State-of-the-art article. Language Teaching, 52(2), 143–187.
Mockler, N., & A. Casey. 2015. "(In)sights from 40 Years of Practitioner Action Research in Education: Perspectives from the US, UK and Australia". In Practitioner Research in Early Childhood: International Issues and Perspectives, edited by L. Newman, L and C Woodrow, 122–135. London: Sage.
Inclusivity, Diversity and Interculturality: considering contexts for practitioner research.
Oral Presentation[SYMP04] AILA ReN - Contexts for Inclusive Practitioner Research: aiming for social cohesion in a globalised world.08:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/18 06:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/18 09:30:00 UTC
This talk aims to probe issues raised when language learners, teachers and teacher educators conduct fully inclusive practitioner research in applied linguistics. The themes of inclusivity, diversity and interculturality will be explored through the lens of exploratory practice. I examine the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on cultures of practitioner research, research and pedagogy, and suggest ways of building strong connections for mutual development.
Practitioner research is an apparently simple idea, which in fact raises complex issues of inclusivity, diversity and interculturality for applied linguistics. The field has hitherto tended to divide itself into 'researchers' and 'practitioners' (ie teachers and teacher educators), each with its own cultures, beliefs and behaviours. Yet as teachers (and teacher educators and learners) are increasingly encouraged to engage in researching their own contexts, identities shift and grow, roles are exchanged, and cultural boundaries are blurred. I ask: Who should be included as a researcher? How does the field encourage diversity of experience in researching language education? What are the (hidden) cultures of research and pedagogy that require attention? In this talk, I discuss the ways in which practitioner research as a profoundly contextual movement (Zeichner & Noffke, 2001) contributes to social cohesion in a globalized world. I examine the ways in which practitioners (teachers, teacher educators, and, crucially, learners) can be included as insightful researchers of their own practice (Allwright & Hanks, 2009; Hanks 2017) in different educational institutions, in different parts of the world. Learners, teachers, teacher educators are gaining confidence in exploring praxis, but this brings ethical, methodological and epistemological questions to bear (for example, questions about naming/pseudonymising; ways of doing-being pedagogical research; beliefs about who does what in research and pedagogy). The COVID-19 pandemic brought such issues to the fore, as pedagogy and research were increasingly 'owned' by practitioners themselves. Communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998), many of which already existed, found ways to connect globally as well as locally (Rio de Janeiro Exploratory Practice Group, 2021). The pivot to online working in 2020 brought many challenges as well as benefits in terms of international connections, bringing different interpretations of inclusivity, diversity and interculturality. I conclude by arguing that our educational contexts may shape classroom inquiry, but this 'shaping' is dynamic and ever-changing: diverse participants bring different cultural expectations, and including a range of viewpoints, interacting inter-culturally, aids social cohesion in our globalized world.
References Allwright, D. & Hanks, J. (2009). The Developing Language Learner: An introduction to Exploratory Practice. Palgrave Macmillan. Hanks, J. (2017). Exploratory Practice in Language Teaching: Puzzling about principles and practices. Palgrave Macmillan. Kato, Y. & Hanks, J. (2021). Learner-initiated exploratory practice: Revisiting curiosity. ELT Journal, https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccab039 Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated Learning: Legitmate peripheral participation. Cambridge University Press. Rio de Janeiro Exploratory Practice Group. (2021). Why seek to understand life in the classroom? Experiences of the Exploratory Practice group. Available at http://www.puc-rio.br/ensinopesq/ccg/licenciaturas/download/ebook_why_seek%20to_understand_life_in_the_classroom_2021.pdf Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press. Zeichner, K. M., & Noffke, S. E. (2001). Practitioner research. In V. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (4th ed., pp. 298–330). American Educational Research Association.
Presenters Judith Hanks Associate Professor, University Of Leeds
Contextualising action research at micro, meso and macro levels: Enablers, benefits and constraints
Oral Presentation[SYMP04] AILA ReN - Contexts for Inclusive Practitioner Research: aiming for social cohesion in a globalised world.08:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/18 06:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/18 09:30:00 UTC
Practitioner research is highly contextualised, being located in the immediate educational and other communities within which participants live and work. Within a community, the potential exists for multiple players, individually or collectively, to carry out research on issues considered important for the betterment of themselves and others. One way of considering contexts for practitioner research is to think about them ecologically, as consisting of several levels or systems – micro, meso and macro – which interact with each other. We take an ecological view of context based on ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), which emphasises the inter-relatedness of activities happening at each level. Different elements of the ecology affect each other, and a balance within the system will help to support and sustain the learning that can occur through practitioner research.
While we acknowledge numerous ways of conducting studies within the rubric of practitioner research, our focus in this talk is on action research, the area of practitioner research where we have worked most. Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2007) suggest that action research "can be undertaken by the individual teacher, a group of teachers working co-operatively within one school, or a teacher or teachers working alongside a researcher or researchers in a sustained relationship" (p.297). These contexts reflect the different ecological levels: micro (individual), meso (groups within a school) and macro (networks or communities in the broader educational environment). In our recent book, (Burns, Edwards & Ellis, 2022), we advocate the engagement of the whole institution in action research as far as possible, always on a voluntary basis, and/or engagement across institutions, networks and communities. We propose that such a way of thinking about contexts enhances cohesion among practitioner researchers and creates a sense of choice, opportunity and inclusion. Potentially, where educational issues and concerns are common, or even universal, it also provides opportunities for connection beyond national and regional boundaries with other practitioner researchers.
In this talk, we analyse some of the features of the micro, meso and macro levels of context that can affect practitioner research experiences. We look at 'enablers', which are certain factors that will make it easier for practitioners to do action research, for example working with a mentor, critical friend or academic partner, developing an institutional climate of trust and enquiry, or giving teachers collective authority over the research agenda. We also examine the benefits and challenges of conducting action research at each of the ecological levels, drawing on the literature as well as our own research and experiences of setting up action research projects and programs in Australia. Our aim is to provide both theoretical and practical illustrations of ecological systems theory as it relates to contexts.
References
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Harvard University Press.
Burns, A., Edwards, E. & Ellis, N. J. (2022). Sustaining action research: A Practical guide for institutional engagement. Routledge.
Cohen, L., Manion, L. & Morrison, K. (2007). Research methods in education (6th ed.). Routledge.
Presenters Emily Edwards Senior Lecturer, University Of Technology Sydney
Disentangling different contexts and stakeholders’ perspectives on practitioner research
Oral Presentation[SYMP04] AILA ReN - Contexts for Inclusive Practitioner Research: aiming for social cohesion in a globalised world.08:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/18 06:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/18 09:30:00 UTC
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While academic debates on the importance of pedagogical-research context(s) abound (e.g., Ushioda, 2009), and despite the well-documented scholarship which points to the inclusivity and diversity of practitioner research (Hanks, 2019), there is a need to unpack the various perspectives which different agents with varying positionalities may have on the practice and utility of practitioner research. This enhanced understanding of the nature, use, and ramifications of practitioner research will strengthen our ability to better understand and, if need be, improve our teaching, learning, and research realities. I will begin with a reference to Ortega (2005) who made a compelling argument for researchers to orient our investigations towards learners' and teachers' practical needs. More than 15 years later, discourses continue to reiterate the necessity of a stronger teaching-research nexus (McKinley, 2019) and a more dialogic synergy between academic research and pedagogical praxis (Rose, 2019). Against this backdrop, I will explore the often-cited statements that language teachers have no interest in research, least of all a desire to conduct 'their own' practitioner research. I will draw on a project about mentoring pre-service teachers to do practitioner research in a challenging context in Southern Argentina. I will advance the argument that teachers who may initially display all the symptoms of disengagement with research can indeed see the benefits of empirical work if this is made relevant to and reflective of their classroom realities. In particular, this study examined the experience of mentoring a group of primary and secondary school student-teachers completing a teacher preparation programme that included a course on teacher research. Despite their initial hesitation about language education research that, to them, seemed unable to help them 'become teachers', these student-teachers engaged in several classroom research projects. In the end, they revealed various benefits from this experience including, inter alia, an identity transformation from student-teachers to teachers who felt part of a wider international community of practitioners, and the development of a reflective attitude towards their own teaching. These practitioner views may chime or contrast with scholars' and academic mentors' perspectives. This paper will therefore analyse this case study of practitioner research from the perspectives and positionalities of the teaching practitioners and academic mentors. I will finally reiterate that practitioner research may reconcile the disconnect between research and praxis by prioritizing teachers' and learners' needs, through valuing their life capitals (Consoli, 2022) and, ultimately, yield direct implications for language pedagogy.
Consoli, S. (2022). Life capital: An epistemic and methodological lens for TESOL research. TESOL Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3154 Hanks, J. (2019). From research-as-practice to exploratory practice-as-research in language teaching and beyond. Language Teaching, 52(2), 143-187. McKinley, J. (2019). Evolving the TESOL teaching-research nexus. TESOL Quarterly, 53(3), 875–884. Ortega, L. (2005). For what and for whom is our research? The ethical as transformative lens in instructed SLA. Modern Language Journal, 89(3), 427–443. Rose, H. (2019). Dismantling the ivory tower in TESOL: A renewed call for teaching-informed research. TESOL Quarterly, 53 (3), 875–884. Ushioda, E. (2009) A person-in-context relational view of emergent motivation, self andidentity. In Z. Dörnyei and E. Ushioda (eds) Motivation, Language Identity and theL2 Self (pp. 215–228). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Carrying out fully inclusive research: contemporary Exploratory Practice insights to research (and classroom practice)
Oral Presentation[SYMP04] AILA ReN - Contexts for Inclusive Practitioner Research: aiming for social cohesion in a globalised world.08:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/18 06:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/18 09:30:00 UTC
Permeating nuances of the areas of language teaching-learning and of initial and continuing teacher education (Hanks, 2017; Miller; Cunha; Allwright, 2020; Rio de Janeiro Exploratory Practice Group, 2021), Exploratory Practice has also carried out researches in partnerships that include students with teachers, peer teachers, teachers with coordinators, among others (Côrtes, 2017; Maciel, 2021; Nunes, 2022). Such theoretical and methodological insertions have motivated us to seek for new understandings about where Exploratory Practice studies come from and to which directions they go in teaching, research and teacher education. As exploratory practitioners ourselves, we conducted researches permeated by stories (Bastos; Biar, 2015), which we analyzed with the framework of narrative studies (De Fina, 2015). Having dialogued with teachers-researchers about what Exploratory Practice represents to their practices and having investigated with (school) student-practitioners the effects of more inclusive school practices, we analyzed such data through an interpretive paradigm within qualitative research in Social Sciences. Also, we support our reflections with Contemporary Applied Linguistics (Moita Lopes, 2006), which permits us to look at discourse as a social practice with ethical dimensions. As a result, it was possible to understand that Exploratory Practice has shown itself to be a promising path for more ethical (school and) research practices. Critical and sensitive to the context and to the emotions of the people involved in it, Exploratory Practice has proven itself to be an open and safe space for a multitude of questions, which are asked and investigated in increasingly more collaborative ways.
Bibliography
Bastos, L. C.; Biar, L. A. (2015). Análise de narrativa e práticas de entendimento da vida social. D.E.L.T.A., 31-especial, p. 97-126.
Côrtes, T. C. R. (2017). "Eu acho que só seguro a onda por causa do afeto": A Linguística Aplicada e as percepções do sofrimento de um grupo de professores da rede privada de ensino. Dissertação de mestrado – Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Departamento de Letras, 154 f.
De Fina, A. Narrative and identities. (2015). De Fina, A.; Georgakopoulou, A. (Eds.). The handbook of narrative analysis. John Wiley & Sons, p. 351-368.
Hanks, J. (2017). Exploratory Practice in language teaching: puzzling about principles and practices. Palgrave Macmillan.
Maciel, B. S. A. (2021). Quando "todo mundo aprende com todo mundo": nos encontros, oportunidades de formação mútua. Tese de Doutorado. Rio de Janeiro: Departamento de Letras, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, 260 f.
Miller, I. K.; Cunha, M. I. A.; Allwright, D. (2020) Teachers as practitioners of learning: the lens of Exploratory Practice. Educational Action Research, n. p.
Moita Lopes, L. P. (2006). Por uma linguística aplicada indisciplinar. São Paulo: Parábola Editorial.
Nunes, D. F. C. (2022). De onde viemos, para onde iremos: conversas sobre a Prática Exploratória e sua ecologia de saberes. Tese de Doutorado. Rio de Janeiro: Departamento de Letras, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, 149 f.
Rio de Janeiro Exploratory Practice Group. (2021). Why seek to understand life in the classroom? Experiences of the Exploratory Practice group.
Eliciting puzzles from language learners in inclusive practitioner research: A design research approach
Oral Presentation[SYMP04] AILA ReN - Contexts for Inclusive Practitioner Research: aiming for social cohesion in a globalised world.08:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/18 06:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/18 09:30:00 UTC
Language learners are key agents in inclusive practitioner research (Allwright & Hanks, 2009). We need to listen to and acknowledge their voices, which are often unheard, or only heard through researchers, if we intend to achieve social cohesion in language pedagogy. However, little is still known about eliciting their voices through their own puzzles, or questions, that drive their curiosity-based exploration of practice (Hanks, 2017). As few learners are accustomed to being asked to "produce" questions in classrooms, they often struggle to articulate their puzzles (Kato & Hanks, 2021). This may be especially true in East Asia, where the prevailing norm of classroom silence continues to attract academic interest (e.g., King & Harumi, 2020). As a practitioner-researcher, I have adopted an educational design research approach (McKenney & Reeves, 2019) over the past five years, in the context of Japanese tertiary education. Evidence from the analysis of learner-generated posters, questionnaires, and interviews has accumulated to inform the development of both "mature interventions and theoretical understandings" (ibid, p. 86) in inclusive practitioner research. In this presentation, I will share a few design principles that emerged, which could help learners find engaging puzzles. First, puzzles are often hidden or embedded in practice, and thus, learners need to be given opportunities to discover them in order to reflect on how they learned the language. A sample activity called "English and me" will be introduced. Second, learners need some guidance with "puzzling formats" (e.g., why-questions) that facilitate the generation of their curiosity-based puzzles. Puzzling formats such as I- and we-puzzles (Kato, 2022) as well as why-questions, as contrasted with how- or what-questions, are useful in assisting learners in incubating, generating, and reflecting on their puzzles. Learner-initiated puzzles based on these principles (e.g., "Why do I continue to learn English even though I have no idea what the purpose of it is?") are likely to be different from research questions typically formulated by researchers (see Mohebbi & Coombe, 2021). These puzzles have the potential to provide new knowledge in the field of language pedagogy. I believe that practitioner research conducted in local contexts, including this study conducted in Japan, needs to be shared with people in wider contexts for mutual development and the empowerment of practitioners in the field.
List of indicative references Allwright, D. & Hanks, J. (2009). The developing language learner: An introduction to Exploratory Practice. Palgrave Macmillan. Hanks, J. (2017). Exploratory Practice in language teaching: Puzzling about principles and practices. Palgrave Macmillan. Kato, Y. (2022). The puzzling format in Exploratory Practice: The comparison of the 'I-puzzle' and the 'we-puzzle' [Manuscript submitted for publication]. Chubu University. Kato, Y., & Hanks, J. (2021). Learner-initiated exploratory practice: Revisiting curiosity. ELT Journal. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccab039 King, J., & Harumi, S. (Eds.). (2020). East Asian perspectives on silence in English language education. Multilingual Matters. McKenney, S., & Reeves, T. C. (2019). Conducting educational design research (2nd ed.). Routledge. Mohebbi, H., & Coombe, C. (2021). Research questions in language education and applied linguistics. Springer.
Presenters Yoshitaka Kato Associate Professor, Chubu University
Judith Hanks
Emily Edwards
Diego Fernandes Coelho Nunes
Thelma Christina Ribeiro Côrtes
Yoshitaka Kato
