Institutional leaders and teacher research: Roles, interactions, and impacts

Abstract

This study aimed to understand the role of administrative managers in building and enabling the organisational strategies and frameworks that encourage positive attitudes towards research and in creating conditions for research collaboration among teachers in the context of two Chinese university College English Departments. Drawing on self-determination theory, particularly basic psychological needs theory, and the concept of transformational leadership, this study adopts a narrative approach to explore how teachers' research motivation changes from being controlled to being autonomous from the perspectives of two leaders, one in each of the two universities. A thematic analysis of narrative interviews with the leaders and eight teachers, four from each university, results in five dominant themes concerning the role of leadership within their institutional contexts. These are interpreted and discussed in terms of three needs of teachers’ research experiences, namely, relatedness, competence, and autonomy, and how these needs are satisfied or thwarted in relation to the leadership practices of the two leaders. The article concludes with recommendations for fostering a conducive institutional environment in which teacher-researchers, with the support and mediation of their leaders, become empowered to transform from being externally motivated to autonomous while strengthening the nexus between their teaching and research.