Costantino, Anna ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8459-8561 (2022) Re-balancing artistry and technique: a case for an enquiry-based approach to professional learning and development. In: The Expertise Symposium "Developing Expertise for Teaching in Higher Education: The Artistry of Teaching", 14th - 21st October, 2022, University of Warwick & University of the West of England, Bristol.

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Abstract

In literature on second-language teacher education, there is a consensus that professional knowledge is contextual and experiential (e.g., Golombek, 1998; Gray & Block, 2012). The view of language teachers as consumers of academic research who mechanically apply methods and curricular prescriptions to become effective teachers and enable students’ achievement has been overtaken by a view that language teachers are agents and worldmakers (Gallardo, 2019). Language teachers are capable of understanding the complexity of their local context of practice, they make informed decisions about appropriate teaching methodologies, and they make use of embodied practical knowledge, which is personal and has ‘moral and affective dimensions’ (Connelly & Clandinin, 1985). The contemporary view aligns with Schön’s (1987) call for an epistemology of practice that acknowledges professional artistry and craft and enables practitioners to use these tools to deal with unique or conflictual events (Kinsella, 2010). This notion also hints that there should be opportunities for language teachers to develop as reflective practitioners (Schön, 1987). In the British Higher Education (HE) sector, such opportunities can be found in the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) events that academics participate in as part of their job requirements to enhance their subject knowledge. However, language-education CPD opportunities often contradict the agentive view of teaching. They tend to be transmissive and adopt a technocratic approach. Their scope is often limited to teachers updating skills and techniques, enhancing competence, or addressing weaknesses in performance (Kennedy, 2005; Slimani-Rolls & Kiely, 2018). Moreover, they adopt a top-down approach dependent on experts, which devalues individual teachers’ personal expertise and lacks opportunities to leverage their experience and artistry. The typical CPD view of language educators is aggravated by the contemporary HE environment, where teachers are vexed by a lack of institutional support, shrinking time and funding for professional development, heavy teaching workloads, and job precarity (Gray & Block, 2012). To counteract the instrumental, utilitarian approach to CPD for language teachers in HE, this paper advocates for the use of practitioner research in professional learning in order to acknowledge and leverage teachers’ agency and artistry. It calls for professional learning and development to be viewed as a continuous and sustainable enterprise undertaken by both language teachers and learners, which enables both to better weather the challenges of the current educational environment. The proposed framework empowers language teachers to address pedagogical implementation heuristically (open-ended), as opposed to algorithmically (closed-ended) (Amabile, 2012). The proposed enquiry-based approach to professional learning and development calls for a re-balancing to prioritise individual artistry and experience. Initially, the paper addresses the epistemological underpinnings of language-teacher education and the tensions found in the contemporary HE context. The Exploratory Practice (Allwright & Hanks, 2009) model of practitioner research is suggested as a form of professional development, learning, and teaching rooted in the view that language teachers are agents and worldmakers. The paper then reports on the understandings that emerged from the author’s implementation of Exploratory Practice over the course of many years as a sustained form of self-reflexivity, as a form of continual engagement in her communities of practice (e.g., regular discussion fora), as pedagogical and scholarly development, as a mechanism for enabling language learners to understand their learning context (e.g., as a pedagogical development), and as a means to facilitate fellow language teachers’ professional learning (e.g., bringing language teachers together to initiate EP enquiries).

Item Type:	Conference or Conference Paper (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	artistry of teaching, enquiry-based learning, exploratory practice language education, language teaching expertise, practitioner research, professional expertise, reflective practice
Subjects:	L Education > L Education (General) L Education > LB Theory and practice of education P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences > School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Last Modified:	30 Jul 2025 15:46
URI:	https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/50882

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