632957

research-article2016
REL0010.1177/0033688216632957RELC JournalEditorial

Editorial

RELC Journal

Introduction
2016, Vol. 47(1) 3­–4
© The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0033688216632957
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Jack C. Richards
SEAMEO RELC, Singapore

This issue of RELC Journal is devoted to second language teacher education (SLTE) and
contains a range of articles that illustrate some of the issues that are the focus of current
approaches to both research and practice in SLTE. This is a timely topic for a special
issue of RELC Journal, since in recent years a re-examination of the nature of teacher
development has been central to a rethinking of both the content and delivery of SLTE
programmes. A focus on SLTE as a field of inquiry has sought to examine the cognitive
and affective processes involved in teacher-learning as well as the ‘situated’ and the
social nature of learning. From a cognitive perspective a focus has been on how teachers
conceptualize their work and the kinds of thinking and decision-making which underlies
their practice. Rather than viewing the development of teaching skill as dependent upon
the mastery of general principles and theories that have been determined by others, the
acquisition of teaching expertise is seen to be a process which involves the teacher in
actively constructing a personal and workable theory of teaching. From a socio-cultural
perspective, teacher learning is seen to take place in a context and evolves through the
interaction and participation of the participants in that context. Teacher development is
not viewed as translating knowledge and theories into practice, but as constructing a new
identity as well as new knowledge and theory through participating in specific social
contexts and engaging in particular types of teaching activities and processes. Both cog-
nitive and sociocultural perspectives are represented in this issue.
In practical terms, an expanded view of teacher development and teacher learning has
led to a reconsideration of traditional modes of teaching in SLTE programmes, as well as
a focus on how practising teachers can continue their learning through the processes of
teaching. Teacher development, from this perspective, is less concerned with finding
more effective ways of delivering course content and more concerned with engaging
teachers in the processes of understanding their role in the contexts in which they work,
in developing a deeper understanding of themselves and their learners and in theorizing
from their practice.
The perspectives on SLTE described above are well reflected in this special issue of
the RELC Journal, which brings together a wide variety of articles that illustrate current
understanding of teacher learning in language teaching. In the first article, Martha
Pennington and I explore the role identity plays in teacher development, the factors that
influence the development of teacher identity and how identity shapes teacher thinking
4 RELC Journal 47(1)

as well as classroom practice. In the article that follows, Gary Barkhuizen further devel-
ops our understanding of the nature and importance of identity in SLTE, focusing on the
relationship between language, identity and power. He also demonstrates the role of nar-
rative inquiry in investigating the nature and role of teacher identity.
In the next article Margaret Gleeson examines the role of teacher beliefs and the extent
to which beliefs facilitate or hinder the acceptance of change in a setting where content
and ELS teachers work together to facilitate content learning. Her study illustrates the
difficulty of achieving changes in teacher beliefs when they are the result not of pedagogi-
cal content knowledge but are derived primarily from classroom experience. Changes in
practices are also discussed in the two articles that follow, particularly the extent to which
teachers’ practices change as the result of teacher education courses. John Macalister
describes the impact of studying outside of one’s home country on teachers’ beliefs and
practices, particularly time spent abroad as part of a pre-service teacher education course.
He concludes that context plays a primary role in shaping teachers’ beliefs and practices.
His article also demonstrates the difficulty of researching issues of this kind. In the fol-
lowing article by Rita Silver and Jesse Png, a collaborative project between university
teachers and primary school teachers is the focus, and highlights the fact that if an innova-
tion is to succeed at the school level (in this case the adoption of new strategies for teach-
ing reading) professional support is needed by both university mentors, colleagues at the
school level, as well as time for the innovation to be adopted.
The following article explores an issue that to date has been little discussed in the
SLTE literature – the notion of authentic leadership. Vincent Greenier and George
Whitehead elucidate the nature and characteristics of authentic leadership and argue that
preparation of teachers for this role in the classroom is seldom addressed, although it is
likely to considerably enhance a teacher’s effectiveness. In the final article, Mahmood
Reza Atai explores the use of critical incident analysis in an in-service course for teach-
ers. He demonstrates how it can be used as a way of engaging teachers in reflective
review of their own beliefs and practices, making use of blogs as a way of sharing reac-
tions to critical incidents and their meaning for the participating teachers.
This issue also includes a new feature that we hope will appear regularly in RELC
Journal, one that allows the reader to engage with a prominent TESOL specialist through
the form of a conversation. In this case Flora Debora interviews master storyteller and
pedagogue Andrew Wright, during which Andrew discusses the power of story telling in
the classroom and shares his experiences in using storytelling in teaching.
Readers will also find reviews of three recent books in the field of SLTE in this issue.
The articles in this issue thus provide a valuable account of current approaches to
research and practice in SLTE. They illustrate both the complex nature of the issues
involved as well as the need for research methods that can be used to explore the cogni-
tive, affective, personal, contextual and social nature of the factors that are involved in
teaching and in teacher learning.