Changing Research Cultures
I have just returned from Islamabad where since last May I have been (face to face and on-line) facilitating teacher research with a group of teachers of English working in college and universities from around Pakistan. A report of the closing ceremony was published today here. While this report rightly emphasizes the importance of the project (which was supported by the Pakistan Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the British Council Pakistan) its emphasis on academic research obscures the most innovative feature of this initiative: that the teachers were doing research in their own contexts not for academic purposes but in order to develop a deeper understanding of their teaching and their students. …