The Teachers Research! Online 2021 conference – final event in the International Festival of Teacher-research in ELT 2021
Friday December 10th – Saturday December 11th, 2021
Proceedings of the conference, featuring posters, presentation videos and reflections on Q&A, edited by Richard Smith, Asli Saglam and Zening Yang
This international online conference brought together teacher-researchers from a range of contexts, including Argentina, Cameroon, India, Iraq, Israel, Morocco, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, the Philippines, Turkey and Uzbekistan , supporting the growing international movement of teachers as researchers and knowledge creators for themselves, their students and their schools. As with previous Teachers Research! conferences in Argentina, Chile and Turkey, this online conference was participant-centred, with teachers being viewed as at the centre of knowledge construction rather than the ‘receivers’ of expert knowledge. The innovative format of the conference promoted interaction among presenters and participants by allowing ample discussion time after brief poster presentations. In this way, teachers and participants were encouraged to communicate their ideas, and to get and give feedback freely.
In total, teachers mentored by 34 mentors were enabled to give a total of 116 separate poster presentations in three parallel strands. The conference also featured plenary sessions which placed groups of teachers and mentors at centre-stage, encouraging overall reflection on the processes of teacher-research and teacher-research mentoring.
This event brought to a close the International Festival of Teacher-research in ELT 2021, which aimed to provide opportunities for teachers – in particular those in countries of the 'Global South' – to remain hopeful via teacher-research, even through the dark days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
We are very grateful to the A.S. Hornby Educational Trust Decentring ELT initiative, which enabled us to keep the conference free for IATEFL members and non-members alike.
Asli Saglam and Richard Smith, conference chairs
This international online conference brought together teacher-researchers from a range of contexts, including Argentina, Cameroon, India, Iraq, Israel, Morocco, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, the Philippines, Turkey and Uzbekistan , supporting the growing international movement of teachers as researchers and knowledge creators for themselves, their students and their schools. As with previous Teachers Research! conferences in Argentina, Chile and Turkey, this online conference was participant-centred, with teachers being viewed as at the centre of knowledge construction rather than the ‘receivers’ of expert knowledge. The innovative format of the conference promoted interaction among presenters and participants by allowing ample discussion time after brief poster presentations. In this way, teachers and participants were encouraged to communicate their ideas, and to get and give feedback freely.
In total, teachers mentored by 34 mentors were enabled to give a total of 116 separate poster presentations in three parallel strands. The conference also featured plenary sessions which placed groups of teachers and mentors at centre-stage, encouraging overall reflection on the processes of teacher-research and teacher-research mentoring.
This event brought to a close the International Festival of Teacher-research in ELT 2021, which aimed to provide opportunities for teachers – in particular those in countries of the 'Global South' – to remain hopeful via teacher-research, even through the dark days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
We are very grateful to the A.S. Hornby Educational Trust Decentring ELT initiative, which enabled us to keep the conference free for IATEFL members and non-members alike.
Asli Saglam and Richard Smith, conference chairs