Foreword : research literacy : supporting teacher research in English language teaching : special supplement II

Abstract

This is the second Special Supplement on supporting teacher research through the development of research literacy. As I mentioned in my foreword to the first Supplement, teacher research is commonly defined as research that classroom practitioners conduct in a systematic fashion in their own context with the purpose of forming a better understanding of their practices. However, as argued by some of the contributors to these two Supplements, teacher research can be considered broader than that. This is partly due to the view that for teachers to be convinced of the role of research in their professional identity, they might need to be encouraged to consider some of the practices they regularly engage in as reifying and fostering a highly democratic conception of research.