ABSTRACT
The relationship between teaching and research has been subject to increasing scrutiny over the past 15 years. Successive initiatives indicate the struggle to be clear about the purposes of teacher research, whether all teachers should engage with research, and when research is most relevant to teachers’ professional learning and development. This chapter explores what research means to the teacher and why engaging with research is a vital aspect of practitioner identity. It examines how teachers have arrived in a situation where engaging with research in some contexts can restrict teachers’ critical thinking and practice, rather than support the development of professional understanding and thoughtful action. Finally, the chapter explores possibility of asking questions that are worth asking as the basis for teacher research. It develops around quotations from key studies that have implications for teacher research. Consider these quotations and how far they apply to current practices in English teaching and teacher research in the settings teachers know.
