Writing and publishing for inclusive practitioner research: Local practices and wider issues

Abstract

We are three members of a Special Interest Group (SIG) of teachers in Japan that has long been committed to writing and publishing for inclusive practitioner research about learner development. In the last several years, we have worked together with others on initiating, promoting, and sustaining the Learner Development Journal (LDJ), a new journal of practitioner research (PR) that explores different issues and themes to do with learner development. In this article, we initially consider the relationships between PR, writing, and publishing. Because PR differs fundamentally from academic research, writing about PR entails not only a rejection of traditional forms of academic writing, but also a quest for different forms of writing that prioritize the practitioner’s voice and experience, and include the voices and experiences of learners. We then re-examine the evolving practices and processes of the LDJ and reflect on how PR writing has developed in our local context so that practitioner-researchers can write about their practices and inquiries in alternative, practitioner-friendly ways. We conclude with a proposal for the importance of personalized, reflective writing for PR before raising some of the broader, unresolved questions we continue to face in writing about and publishing inclusive practitioner research.