Teachers’ engagement with published research: how do teachers who read research navigate the field, what do they read, and why?

The relationship between practice and research, and between practitioners/teachers and researchers, has long been the subject of debate within ELT. Yet many claims about the relevance or irrelevance of research to teacher often seem to lack a central component – the voices and perspectives of teachers themselves. 

This project therefore sought to address this gap and uncover the reported practices and attitudes towards published research of English language teachers, working in a range of contexts around the world, who reported reading or being interested in research and research-oriented publications 

Aiming to give voice to and learn from these ‘research-interested’ teachers, it examined the role of research publications and research-oriented literature in the teachers’ professional lives. 

It asked what facilitated or created a barrier to such engagement, and additionally sought to uncover those key areas of research that the teachers saw as key priorities. It also explored how the teachers felt relevant research findings might be made more accessible within the field. 

Ultimately, therefore, the project sought to find out how, from the standpoint of those teachers who are interested in engaging with research and research-oriented publications, the often-problematic relationship between research and practice in English language teaching might start to be addressed. 

Citation: Hall, G. (2023). Teachers’ engagement with published research: how do teachers who read research navigate the field, what do they read, and why? British Council. Available online: doi.org/10.57884/B04W-E417

The report is free to download in pdf format below.

Watch a webinar by the author Graham Hall about this research.