Teacher Research for Professional Development: The Tales of Two Teachers

Abstract

Teacher research (TR) has become popular as a transformative continuing professional development (CPD) activity for in-service teachers. In Vietnam, English as a foreign language teachers carry out TR through a top-down national scheme called ‘ Sang kien kinh nghiem’ (‘initiatives–experiences’ (I-E)) to explore and attempt to resolve classroom issues through the application of ‘innovative solutions.’ This paper reports a part of a larger study which examines I-E scheme implementation. It focuses on the narratives of two teachers who engaged with the I-E scheme. The narratives, constructed through narrative analysis from narrative frames, semi-structured interviews, and the teachers’ I-E reports, reveal the affordances and hindrances in the experience of the teachers when engaging with the I-E scheme. The paper offers insights into TR for teachers’ CPD in Vietnam and has implications for effective implementation of TR for teachers’ CPD elsewhere.