The 9th International Conference on English Language Teaching (ELT) In China (ELT2020)

344 / 2019-12-16 08:36:51

Teacher researchers and leaders in an institutional research community of practice

teacher research,leadership practices

Foreign Language Teacher Development > Foreign Language Teacher Development

Teacher research produces great benefits for language teacher continuing professional development (Sanchez & Borg 2015). While a consensus has been reached that a supportive institutional research culture plays an important role in facilitating teacher research engagement, scarce attention has been directed at the role of leadership in cultivating a favourable research community within the institution, where the teachers live and grow professionally. By adopting a narrative approach, this study explored a leader’s efforts and challenges in his endeavours to promote research engagement in the institutional research community of practice from both the perspectives of “the leading” and “the led”. The data was collected via interviews with one institutional leader and one teacher, reflective journals by the teacher about her research activities, public documents and field notes of observation. The narrative analysis configured into two stories detailing the motivations, decisions, actions, challenges, and achievements of both “the leading” and “the led” experiences. Based on the findings and discussions, recommendations are suggested that will foster a conducive environment for teacher research-focused academic development.