Promoting teacher autonomy through university–school collaborative action research

Abstract

Over the past few decades, the pursuit of teachers-as-researchers has become an ideal for developing teacher autonomy to which many in the world of curriculum development and language teacher education try to promote (Benson, 2001). Nevertheless, research into how teachers learn to do research has been scarce, and there are pressing needs for research-based accounts of how teachers gain their professional autonomy through research (Borg, 2009). This article reports on a collaborative action research project carried out by a group of university researchers with a group of senior secondary school English teachers in an attempt to promote teacher autonomy in the Chinese context. It first introduces the background and rationale for the project. Then it describes the project along with the research questions and data collection methods. Based on the analysis of the data obtained, the article looks into the processes that teachers go through in learning to do research and examines the impact the project has on the participating teachers. Then it further discusses issues related to such collaboration and concludes with the conditions that are essential for effective university–school collaborations.