Knowledge foundations for research-engaged language teachers : part 1

Abstract

This article is the first of a three-part series that examines some of the key concepts and approaches that teachers positioning themselves as research-engaged language teaching professionals might find it useful to be familiar with. Research engagement involves either digesting published research or else conducting a study in one’s school. Part 1 is meant to enable language teachers to consider the core underpinnings on which the research edifice is constructed. These consist of the ontological and epistemological assumptions that inform a study, the research paradigm that researchers adopt when conducting a study, the axiological dimension that informs their research, and how their position within the study is scrutinised via reflexivity.