Speaker
Description
This poster presentation provides bottom-up insights into how teachers develop their understandings of learner autonomy. Drawing on extended conversations with four practitioners about their experiences as learners and teachers, I explore how community-based interactions (informal collaboration, teacher groups, wider professional networks) have shaped their thinking, values, and practices. By highlighting shared themes, differences, and ongoing challenges, participants (both experienced and starting out) can reflect on their own local and global engagement with learner autonomy.
Abstract section 2: Contribution/research questions
Organised as a conversational practitioner inquiry, this poster explores teachers’ experiences of engaging with learner autonomy. Key inquiry points include: Who and what emerge as significant landmarks in their journeys? How have community-based interactions influenced their engagement? What overlaps, gaps, and tensions can be seen across the different paths they have followed? The poster furthermore examines how local and global experiences and discourses have impacted these teachers’ understanding and practices related to learner autonomy.
Abstract section 1: Relevance
This poster presentation takes a bottom-up look at how teachers develop understandings of learner autonomy. Although learner autonomy is now an established area in language education, less attention has been given to how teachers themselves engage with and develop these ideas in practice. Drawing on extended conversations with four practitioners about their experiences as learners and teachers, I examine how community-based interactions (informal collaboration, teacher groups, and wider professional networks) shape their thinking, values, and practices. By highlighting shared themes, differences, and ongoing challenges in their journeys, the presentation connects locally situated experiences with wider global discourses around learner autonomy.
Abstract section 3: Content/method
The poster presentation highlights how diverse community-based interactions enable teachers to experience and reflect on autonomous learning firsthand. These processes are realised in different ways across local contexts, as the four teachers’ journeys illustrate: a teacher collaborating with a colleague at another university; a university instructor involved in an autonomous learning module programme; a freelance teacher educator working with teachers locally and internationally; and the leader of a mentoring programme for high school teachers.
Abstract section 5: References
Dam, L. (1995). Learner autonomy. Authentik.
Little, D., Dam, L., & Legenhausen, L. (2017). Language learner autonomy. Multilingual matters.
Tassinari, M. G. (2017). Encouraging autonomy through a community of practice: The role of a self-access centre. Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 8(2), 157-168. https://doi.org/10.37237/080208
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511803932
Abstract section 4: Outcomes/results
This poster presentation will raise questions for reflection and discussion about how individuals develop their engagement with pedagogies for learner autonomy. Emphasising the importance of reflection, dialogue, and collaboration, the presentation will also show how local and global discourses influence pedagogies for learner autonomy and support sustainable teacher learning in diverse contexts. By examining different types of community-based interactions from multiple perspectives, participants (both experienced and starting out) may gain fresh and unexpected insights into their own learner autonomy journeys.
| Title | Learner autonomy journeys across local and global contexts |
|---|---|
| Teaching Context | General |