Integrating research into language teaching and learning: Learners and teachers as co-researchers exploring praxis

Classroom research has long been recommended as a fruitful avenue for English language teaching (ELT) in applied linguistics. Yet recognition of the value of practitioners exploring their own praxis has only recently come to the fore. In this plenary, I focus on Exploratory Practice, a form of ‘fully inclusive practitioner research’, in which learners as well as teachers are invited to integrate research and pedagogy. Drawing on studies from around the world, I spotlight the potential of learners and teachers to contribute to debates in the fields of language teaching and learning, applied linguistics and social sciences alike. This co-production between learners and teachers illuminates the nexus of research and pedagogy (praxis), providing plentiful puzzles for exploration.

“INGLÊS NA ESCOLA PÚBLICA É COMPLICADO”: ENTENDENDO NOSSAS CRENÇAS / “English classes in a public school is complicated”: understanding students’ beliefs

Resumo: Este trabalho é um recorte da minha pesquisa de mestrado e tem como objetivo principal gerar entendimentos sobre como alguns de meus alunos de uma escola estadual do Rio de Janeiro constroem discursivamente as suas crenças (BARCELOS, 2004; 2005; 2006) a respeito das aulas de inglês na escola. Para guiar esse estudo, baseio-me nos princípios da Prática Exploratória (MORAES BEZERRA, 2007; MILLER et al., 2008; ALLWRIGHT; HANKS, 2009), por buscar entendimentos sobre as crenças que influenciam o processo de ensino-aprendizagem. Além disso, busco entender as identidades que são coconstruídas (MOITA LOPES, 2002) e que emergem na interação de nossas ‘conversas exploratórias’ (MILLER, 2001; MORAES BEZERRA, 2007; NUNES, MORAES BEZERRA, 2013). Como configuração de pesquisa, fundamento-me nos pressupostos da pesquisa qualitativa, numa perspectiva ético-metodológica da Prática Exploratória, a partir do conceito de pesquisa do praticante [practitioner research] (HANKS, 2017) que se apresenta como uma grande área de pesquisa comprometida em investigar a prática dos que trabalham em contextos em que o conhecimento é construído. Durante as conversas, meus ex-alunos expõem suas crenças e emoções experienciadas no processo de ensino-aprendizagem de língua inglesa enquanto alunos. Assim, me auxiliando a construir meus entendimentos como sua professora e uma docente em formação continuada. Compreendo esse movimento como uma tentativa de ampliar os entendimentos não somente ao que se refere ao processo de ensino-aprendizagem, mas principalmente, gerar entendimentos ao que se refere às relações humanas.

The music teacher in ‘on-the-spot’ musical interactions: A practitioner research study

This practitioner research, conducted by a secondary school music teacher, deals with two complementary questions: the conceptual question how one could define the ‘artistry’ of a music teacher in the context of his teaching practice, and the empirical question in how far the music teacher’s actions can determine the quality of the musical interactions with his students. The paper elaborately describes the institutional context for this (doctoral) practitioner research study, and integrates two premises, one regarding the negative image of the school subject music, and another about the vagueness and the ongoing discussions about the required competences of a ‘good’ music teacher. The first question is dealt with in a theoretical way, resulting in a working definition for a music teacher’s ‘artistry’: ‘a music teacher’s “artistry” lies within the extent to which he can apply his musical competences in “immediate” teaching situations’. The second question is studied empirically using a set of qualitative data sources, derived from the practitioner researcher’s teaching practice, that were analysed by means of a self-developed ‘three-dimensional matrix of the music teacher’s real-time teaching actions’. This results in a set of 10 categories in which the music teacher clearly demonstrates ‘unprepared non-routinisedroutinized musical actions’.

Advancing Knowledge Creation in Education Through Tripartite Partnerships

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the work of one tripartite partnership with stakeholders to improve and strengthen novice teachers’ pedagogical designs using design based professional learning guided by the principles of knowledge building/knowledge creation. The tripartite partnership involved 450 novice teachers from an urban school division, a practitioner-research university team, and the provincial government. Drawing upon one case, this paper analyzes the ways in which the design-based professional learning mirrored the knowledge building/knowledge creation processes highlighting the ways in which teachers worked in collaborative, collective, and connected ways to progressively improve pedagogical designs for collective knowledge building. Computer supported, networked digital technologies provided a community to develop an audit trail to keep track of progressive improvements and refinements to their pedagogical designs and to support, enable, and enhance knowledge building discourse. Design-based professional learning informed by the 12 principles of knowledge building/knowledge creation provided novice teachers with a process to work collectively as a community, progressively improving and refining their pedagogical designs, identifying the role of their pedagogical designs in their students’ work, and engaging with other teachers in their respective schools.