Obstacles to foreign language teacher educators’ research development: a phenomenological study from China

ABSTARCT

This study aimed to examine obstacles to foreign language teacher educators’ research development. Phenomenology was adopted to probe the issue from seven experienced EFL (English as a foreign language) teacher educators’ perspectives, who did not appear to be highly research-productive. Multiple sources of data were employed, including longitudinal participant observations, semi-structured individual interviews and informal conversations. It was found that the participants’ research development had long been constrained by the interplay of personal and contextual factors. Personal factors include their attitudinal resistance, academic weaknesses and work-family tensions. Contextual factors involve the managerialist approach in higher education and limited ongoing academic support at the meso and macro levels. The study suggests that teacher educators’ professional identity reconstruction and professional wellbeing should be a top agenda.

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese EFL teacher educators
• low research productivity
• contributing factors
• phenomenology

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Chinese National Social Sciences Research Grants Management Office [17BYY094].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics statement

Ethical clearance for the research has been granted from the appropriate institutional committee.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the the National Social Science Fund of China [17BYY094].

Notes on contributors

Chunmei Yan

Chunmei Yan is Professor at the School of Foreign Languages of the Central China Normal University.

Chuanjun He

Chuanjun He is Associate Professor of language education at the School of Foreign Languages of the Central China Normal University.

Lijun Zhang

Lijun Zhang is Lecturer at the School of Foreign Languages of the Central China Normal University.