Chapter 8 provides details of a seventh year ESL teacher reflecting on her philosophy, principles, theory, practice, and critical reflections beyond practice. The chapter also provides details of her interpretations of her overall reflections, followed by a discussion of the teacher’s experiences during her seventh year of teaching.

At its most basic, the application of reflective practice in teaching involves scrutiny of the practical theories and values that shape teachers’ daily activities. This is a complex process in which teachers undertake various forms of reflection. The purpose of this is to increase teachers’ comprehension of the teaching–learning process, increase their personal and professional efficacy, and formally investigate various classroom problems. The complexity of reflective practice requires that teachers engage in the formation of routines, practices, and structures that facilitate individual or collective reflection on their experiences when teaching, support for which can be provided by a range of tools. To discuss these issues in greater detail, this chapter is organised as follows. First, it explains what reflective practice means and what it involves. This includes elucidation of concepts such as reflection, critical reflection, and reflexivity. This is followed by a summary and endorsement of the theoretical framework for reflective practice developed by Farrell. Then, several tools that teachers are advised to adopt to reflexively examine and enhance their teaching are outlined. The chapter ends with a brief discussion of the concept of teachers as researchers and exemplifies teacher-led research in terms of action research and classroom ethnography.

This chapter sets the scene for the remainder of the volume. It establishes the conceptual foundations of English language teaching as a profession and highlights its complexity. Professional teaching needs to be regarded as a multidimensional process that combines issues pertinent to the classroom context and teaching–learning with institutional and general pedagogical factors. The process of becoming a professional teacher therefore implies an ongoing commitment to educational change and growth. By adopting a broader perspective, practitioners will be able to teach in a manner that is beneficial to students and society alike. This chapter also elucidates the fact that professional language teaching entails the use of culturally and socially embedded communication and an ability to connect pedagogy with language learning. To address these issues successfully, teachers need to engage in ongoing processes of reflection and theorisation of their practice. To conclude the chapter, a synopsis of all the chapters in this book is provided, highlighting the key themes that emerge from each.

This chapter concludes the volume as a whole; however, it amounts to much more than the mere sum of its parts. Its purpose is to draw together the salient points of the preceding chapters and present the professional learning of English language teachers as a sociocultural process. The chapter then situates professional teachers in communities of practice. However, because traditional communities of practice do not fully meet their needs, professional development communities for English language teaching (ELT) practitioners are proposed. A principled approach to building such communities is put forward, and exemplars of professional development communities in action in diverse ELT contexts are presented. At the very end, the chapter highlights avenues for the future exploration of teacher professionalism, both conceptual and empirical, and offers recommendations for teacher education and professional development, as well as educational research. Regarding ways forward, professional ELT should be viewed in terms of three meta-dimensions: lifelong learning, classroom ethnography, and educational leadership.

This chapter further specifies and particularises the concept of competence orientation in teacher education that was first outlined and presented in Chapter 1. First and foremost, it argues that discourse competence in the English language is an overarching goal of all language teaching and learning in schools. Thus, student teachers must fully acquire discourse competence to facilitate the development of their learners’ discursive and linguistic competences. The chapter elaborates on the general concept of competence in more detail before explaining discourse competence as a meta-concept. It also provides examples of how competence orientation is concretised in can-do descriptors for student teachers and outlines a broad range of English language teaching competences that need to be developed. Finally, the chapter explains and illustrates how competence orientation in teacher education is translated into structured curricular programmes.

This chapter focuses on teacher professionalism. In response to vigorous debates initiated in the disciplines of education and sociology, this issue has been discussed with varying degrees of intensity in the field of English language teaching over the past three decades. The concept of teacher professionalism, however, has an intricate nature. Its complexity partially results from the fact that it cannot be fully explained without linking it to teachers’ professional knowledge, practice, and engagement, teachers’ professional identity, and their ethical conduct, all of which are sophisticated constructs in their own right. The complexity of teacher professionalism is also attributed to its evolution within active and learning communities of English language teachers. With this in mind, this chapter begins with a presentation of important definitions of teacher professionalism. This is supported by a brief examination of the professional standards obligatory for the teaching occupation. These are discussed in relation to three dimensions: professional knowledge, professional practice, and professional engagement. The chapter then explicates the construct of teacher professional identity. This is followed by a concise deliberation on the relationship between professionalism and ethics. The chapter concludes with constructive suggestions for sustaining teacher professionalism.

Language teaching and learning are substantially affected by the rise of digital technologies. Digitisation has resulted in the integration of a whole new set of competences into teacher education, not least with regard to what instructors have to teach their learners to enable them to become proficient users of digital technologies and to move, communicate, and interact within digital environments competently and safely. This chapter delineates the considerable cultural transformations that go hand in hand with digitisation. The aim is to capture its professional and cultural intricacies and to describe the competences that teachers and teacher educators need to become competent professional agents capable of integrating digital technologies into their own professional development and into the language classroom.

This chapter focuses on the notion of teacher leadership. Although this topic is of major significance, as it portrays teachers as facilitators of school reform and improvement, it has not been given much attention in the field of English language teaching. Contemporary English language education needs teachers who can passionately implement effective and innovative practices in the classroom, develop and take ownership of new pedagogical strategies, utilise professional knowledge to contribute to school improvement plans, and establish close relationships with other school stakeholders to enhance the student learning experience as well as overall school functioning. With this in mind, this chapter defines the concept of teacher leadership and presents a profile of a teacher leader who can exert their influence, both in the classroom and in the wider school, through a variety of formal and informal channels. This is followed by a discussion of the process of developing teacher leadership. Among other things, this touches upon different types of leadership and power and provides strategies to support teachers in their development as leaders. Next, the principles of successful teacher leadership are presented. A brief discussion of leadership through mentoring teachers concludes the chapter.

Teacher autonomy is a key component of teacher professionalism. It is positively related to self‐efficacy and job satisfaction among teachers – two factors that enhance their motivation and commitment to providing successful learning opportunities for students. However, despite playing a vital role in the teaching–learning process, insufficient attention has been paid over the past few decades to teacher autonomy in the field of English language teaching. There are significant gaps in theory, research, and practice. For example, there is a lack of consistency in definitions of teacher autonomy. Available empirical studies are also rather scarce. With this in mind, this chapter defines the construct of teacher autonomy and presents a profile of an autonomous teacher. This is followed by an overview of empirical projects investigating teacher autonomy. The aim is to show what has been done and what the findings reveal and identify possible gaps practitioners and educational researchers could fill in future research. The focus then shifts to pedagogical strategies for promoting teacher autonomy in teacher education programmes or professional development events. Eleven effective strategies are proposed that can be easily integrated into both types of provision and afford teachers ample opportunity to show personal autonomy and engage in collaboration, thus demonstrating collective autonomy.