The AILA Research Network entitled Trajectories and Perspectives of Language Teachers in the 21st Century (TPLang21) brings together 35 established language educators and researchers from 15 countries across five continents who work on information and communication technology (ICT) and (self-)empowering methods of continuing professional development (CPD) for language teachers.
The AILA Research Network entitled Trajectories and Perspectives of Language Teachers in the 21st Century (TPLang21) brings together 35 established language educators and researchers from 15 countries across five continents who work on information and communication technology (ICT) and (self-)empowering methods of continuing professional development (CPD) for language teachers. The network was established to investigate training initiatives and models created to meet the demands placed on language teachers in terms of digital skills and competences in ICT which have grown in line with the increased use of technology in the classroom and in teachers’ professional development. Surveys of teachers and teacher trainers confirm that although training is provided, teachers nevertheless lack in confidence when it comes to the use of ICT. Two factors seem to play a deciding role in this discrepancy: on the one hand, the models used for many training initiatives which are predominantly top-down and transmissive. On the other hand, an influencing factor might be the apparent mismatch between institutional and national ideals of language teachers (“model teachers”) and the internalised beliefs of and day-to-day demands on language teachers in the classroom. This introductory presentation of our symposium will introduce our network, bring together findings from research undertaken over the past four years, including a large-scale, multilingual, international survey and qualitative interviews with individual teachers, and describe the methods proposed for further investigations.
