ABSTRACT
I have been involved in English language teaching for 27 years, spending the fi rst ten teaching in schools before moving into teacher training and academia. When I was a teacher I was never really (made) aware of teacher research-an approach to professional development that empowers teachers to engage in the systematic study of their own practices. However, I have spent a good part of the last 15 years contemplating what teacher research off ers teachers and schools, and have as a result become a fervent promoter of the idea. My fervor, though, has always, I would like to think, been appropriately moderated by an awareness that for many language teachers around the world teacher research remains a challenging and not necessarily appealing professional development option. Through my research (e.g., Borg, 2013) I have tried to understand the limited take-up of teacher research and a wide range of factors have been identifi ed, such as unproductive understandings of what “teacher research” is, limited knowledge and skills for doing teacher research, adverse contextual factors that limit teachers’ ability to study their work, and a lack of mentoring to support teacher research. One additional factor that has surfaced in my research but not as powerfully as other factors is the belief (among teachers and school leaders) that research is not something that teachers do. This can be construed as an identity-related barrier, one which can exert a signifi cant infl uence on teachers: thus, even where teachers have suffi cient knowledge, skills, and understandings, if teachers do not see teacher research as part of their identity they are unlikely to engage willingly in this professional development activity. Additionally, where school leaders do not validate teacher research as an appropriate teacher activity, it is much less likely to occur. In this chapter I would like to refl ect on these attitudinal obstacles to
teacher research and work towards some suggestions for how they might be addressed and researched in language teaching settings.
