Teacher-research: Agency of Practical Knowledge and Professional Development

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Abstract

Educational research has generally attracted negative criticisms for its generalisability, contextual independence and inadequacy in addressing teachers’ practical problems in their own educational settings. Moreover, as classrooms are always complicated, teachers are therefore encouraged to become active researchers of their own classrooms in order to maximize their instructional performance and provide optimal learning opportunities for their students within their particular context. To promote teachers’ self-inquiry into their own practices, this paper will first define what teacher research is, followed by the arguments for its need and significance in the teaching profession. Suggestions to help teachers become engaged into classroom inquiry are provided after difficulties commonly reported to be encountered by teacher-researchers are reviewed. This paper is expected to provide some considerable insights for classroom-teachers as well as school administrators in their search for practical, concrete and contextually-rich knowledge.

About the authors

Thi Thuy Loan Nguyen

Kalasin University

Email: thuyloancailay@gmail.com
ORCID iD: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0247-013X
Dr Dr. Nguyen Thi Thuy Loanuntertook her postgraduate studies in Canberra University, AustraliaandSuranaree University of Technology, Thailand. She is now a lecturer of Division of English, Faculty of Education, Kalasin University, Thailand. She used to be an English instructor at SEAMEO RETRAC, a trainer for Vietnamese lecturers awarded with the government scholarships for their overseas studies, and an instructor for teachers of English in Vietnam in the 2020 Project. Dr. Nguyen specializes in teacher education, written corrective feedback, genre analysis, English written discourse, second language writing instruction and research, academic writing, ESL, ESP, professional writing with genre-based approach, citations and reporting verbs. Her publications on these topics can be found in high impact international journals. She also serves as a reviewer and an editor for ESP Today Journal, The Asian EFL Journal, The Asian ESP Journal, and others. Besides, she has been a keynote and concurrent speaker at many international conferences, a judge for the International English Speech Contest for Rajabaht and ASEAN Universities, and she is sometimes invited to give special lectures for postgraduate students and lecturers in Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam.

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