Be(com)ing an educational researcher in the global south (and beyond): a focus on the research-practice relationship

Abstract

Educational researchers are increasingly expected to focus on their research productivity as per their professional performance. Such a trend may have influenced their professional identities and activities, especially in the Global South, where researchers have not been immersed in the new research culture and where their assumed primary role may be to increase teaching efficacy instead. The pervasive focus on research productivity is detrimental to the equitable research-practice relationship whereby two groups of professionals—practitioners and researchers—collaboratively work to achieve the common goal of student learning. This teacher-researcher epistemological clash may exist within individual researchers when they have abundant teaching experience prior to becoming educational researchers. Through the lens of activity theory, we report on a case study of educational researchers’ lived experiences and struggles of navigating teacher-researcher identities in Chile, entailing their boundary-crossing of teacher-researcher identities, internal and external identity conflicts, and beliefs and actions related to the ideal research-practice relationship. In conclusion, we call for changes at the institutional level to promote an equitable and manageable research-practice relationship as well as at the individual level to reflect the ultimate purpose of educational research.