Conference Programme

Teacher professional development is often treated as an individual activity, but teacher learning can be significantly shaped by interaction with colleagues. This talk examines collaborative professional development: sustained strategies through which teachers learn together and from one another. Drawing on social models of teacher learning, it argues that collaboration can extend the scope, depth and durability of professional development by enabling teachers to share expertise, examine practice collectively, test ideas in context and strengthen professional agency. The discussion highlights collaborative strategies and the conditions that support them, as well as recurring practical and organisational challenges. It also considers how teachers and educational leaders can establish productive conditions and evaluate collaborative initiatives. The central argument is that collaboration adds value when it is sustained, purposeful and closely connected to teachers’ work. Under these conditions, learning with colleagues can generate forms of understanding and change that are difficult to achieve through individual professional development alone.

In today’s language classrooms, adopting pedagogical approaches and methods that are firmly grounded in research is more imperative than ever. At the same time, Applied Linguistics research must remain responsive to the evolving needs and realities of classrooms. This dynamic relationship between research and practice provides the central perspective for this presentation. The session will primarily explore key characteristics emerging from my research in various domains, including bilingual and biliteracy development, language skills development and instruction, language teacher education and professional development, emergency distance education, and early English language learning and teaching across contexts, with insights that may inform and inspire EFL teacher-researchers. It will also introduce resources that can help strengthen and sustain connections between research and practice in language education. An interactive component will invite participants to reflect on their own interests, needs, and experiences, and to consider how more research or practice might be meaningfully integrated into their work.

The purpose of this presentation is threefold. First, I will discuss the relationship between research and practice on the one hand and other determining institutions involved in education, on the other. I will also argue that research and practice are often (if not always) under the influence of institutions that manage the nature of the dialogue between research and practice. Second, I will explain how practice chases research and sometimes within a long distance. To illustrate, I will take two theoretical frameworks and discuss the challenges we all face through moving from theory to practice. Third, I will discuss the necessity of coordination and cooperation among all stakeholders. Otherwise, any institution in the cycle, no matter how advanced and up to date it is, will most likely fail in closing the gap between research and practice.