[Edling] CFP - Global Perspectives on Building up a Culture of Research in Everyday TESOL

Thu Jul 22 19:06:16 UTC 2021

*RPC **TESOL IN FOCUS Colloquium March 2022*

*CALL FOR PROPOSALS*

*RPC Organizers*

Özgehan Uştuk, Balıkesir University, Turkey

Jessie Hutchison Curtis, Rutgers University, US

*Global perspectives on building up a culture of research in everyday TESOL*

Research in TESOL has traditionally been closely connected to teachers’
actual classroom practices, and TESOL International Association has
intended to foster this culture especially by TESOL’s* Research
Professional Council* (RPC) or its journals such as *TESOL Quarterly*
and *TESOL
Journal*. McKinley (2019), however, argued that the current research in
TESOL, in general, is mainly led by researchers and includes less and less
“classroom-based, teaching-led work done by researcher-practitioners” (p.
875). Relatedly, Rose (2019) stated that TESOL research has increasingly
become more conceptual and theoretical mostly aiming to communicate to a
researcher readership instead of TESOL practitioners.

One way to advance the culture of classroom-based and situated research
that is grounded on real-world TESOL is the greater research engagements of
practitioners. Teachers’ research engagement in TESOL has been
conceptualized variously as *exploratory practice*, (Hanks, 2017),
*teacher-research* (Nunan & Norton Peirce, 1997), and *action research* (Burns,
2010); such exploratory and teacher-led research practices have been found
to be impactful and empowering experiences (Dikilitaş & Griffiths, 2017;
Rebolledo et al., 2016).

TESOL’s Research Agenda (2014) also made it clear that reflective and
agentic TESOL practitioners are concerned both with instructional and
societal problems surrounding their everyday practices so that they are
interested in practitioner research. For various reasons, though, language
teachers experience difficulties in engaging in research as a part of their
everyday teaching practices (Dikilitaş & Griffiths, 2017). To overcome
these difficulties, Rose (2019) called for teacher and researcher
collaborations that are based on a bidirectional flow and policies that
value teacher involvement. Relatedly, McKinley (2019) proposed more
collaboration between TESOL researchers and teachers to create a
teaching-research nexus so that research in TESOL can be driven by
authentic teaching problems and realities.

In this colloquium, teachers, teacher-educators, and researchers in TESOL
from various teaching/research contexts will discuss a framework to blur
the lines between teaching and research (Rose, 2019) and build a
teaching-research nexus (Mckinley, 2019). In line with the scope of the
session, presenters will address the following issues:

·       How can language education policy foster teacher-researchers’
engagement with classroom-based research?

·       What kinds of support systems are needed by teacher-researchers in
the K-16 contexts?

·       How should teacher education programs be designed to foster TESOL
practitioner-led research?

·       How can equitable collaboration and engagement in research be
initiated and sustained between teachers, teacher-educators, and
researchers?

·       What ethical issues do teachers, teacher-educators, and researchers
need to consider when they engage in classroom-based research; how can
these issues be addressed?

·       What is the role of professional associations such as TESOL
International Association in supporting teacher-researchers?

*Format*: Plan for an in-person workshop format of one hour and forty-five
minutes (should COVID-19 conditions change, the format may be adjusted).
Following presentations (about 50 minutes) and a short break (about 10
minutes), there will be Q&A and workshopping. We look forward to receiving
abstracts of 200-250 words (excluding references) by July 31st.  Please
send abstracts, references, and presenter information using this form. If
you encounter difficulties or have questions, please contact Özgehan Uştuk,
ustukozg at msu.edu. Please note that presenters are expected to register for
the TESOL 2022 convention.

*References*

Burns, A. (2010). *Doing action research in English language teaching: A
guide for practitioners*. Routledge.

Dikilitaş, K., & Griffiths, C. (2017). *Developing language teacher
autonomy through action research*. Springer International Publishing.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50739-2

Hanks, J. (2017). *Exploratory practice in language teaching: Puzzling
about principles and practices*. Palgrave Macmillan UK.
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-45344-0

Mckinley, J. (2019). Evolving the TESOL teaching–research nexus. *TESOL
Quarterly*, *53*(3), 875–884. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.509

Nunan, D., & Norton Peirce, B. (1997). Developing standards for
teacher-research in TESOL. *TESOL Quarterly*, *31*(2), 365.
https://doi.org/10.2307/3588053

Rebolledo, P., Smith, R., & Bullock, D. (2016). Introduction. In *Champion
teachers: Stories of exploratory action research* (pp. 4–8). British
Council.

Rose, H. (2019). Dismantling the ivory tower in TESOL: A renewed call for
teaching-informed research. *TESOL Quarterly*, *53*(3), 895–905.
https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.517
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