May I See Your Credentials, Please? Displays of Pedagogical Expertise by Language Teaching Researchers

Abstract

There is a growing popular discourse that the intellectualization of the field of language teaching has resulted in a growing divide between language teaching researchers and professionals. Some scholars have called for more holistic professionals, that is, people who embody the identities of both researcher and practitioner. To explore such positioning, this study analyzed author biographies (bios; N = 400) of research articles in leading language teaching journals that self-identified as major avenues to communicate research to language teaching practitioners. Questionnaires were then sent to authors to probe further into their professional positionality and their perspectives on the importance of teaching experience for researchers. Results of the biographical text analysis showed that authors primarily positioned themselves as researchers through their research interests, academic qualifications, and publication achievements. The questionnaire ( N = 233) revealed that authors had a wealth of language teaching experience and qualifications and viewed the relationship between research and teaching as important. Comparing survey data to biographical data revealed that a majority of researchers clearly underreported teaching credentials in their author bios. We conclude that researchers with relevant teacher identities to draw upon should foreground their professional expertise in their published work, especially in journal outlets that claim to operate within a teaching–research nexus.