Douglas i BC TEAL Journal Volume 8 Number 1 (2023): i–iii https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.548 Editorial Scholar-Practitionership as a Way of Being in the Field of EAL Teaching and Learning Scott Roy Douglas University of British Columbia (Okanagan School of Education) Abstract The BC TEAL Journal continues to serve as an open-access peer-reviewed publication for scholar-practitioners in the field of English as an additional language (EAL) teaching and learning. This editorial affirms the multiple possibilities that exist within the scholar-practitioner identity and outlines key habits of mind that define a stance bringing together theory, research, and practice to strengthen teaching and learning. The current issue of the journal offers five examples of scholar-practitionership on topics related to LGBTQ+ representation in teaching materials, the transition from face-to-face to online learning, English for academic purposes (EAP) student presentation skills development, key issues in classroom language education research, and EAP curriculum intercultural communicative competence learning outcomes. The editorial ends with an invitation for readers to live within the hyphen of scholar-practitionership and offers support to contributing back to the field through publishing in the BC TEAL Journal. From the Editor The BC TEAL Journal is a peer-reviewed publication for scholar-practitioners in the field of English as an additional language (EAL) teaching and learning, with this characterization of the journal community understood as being expansive rather than restrictive. The readers, authors, peer reviewers, editors, and other journal volunteers are scholar-practitioners each in their own way, giving evidence to the multiple possibilities of the scholar-practitioner identity (Macintyre Latta et al., 2017). It is a bricolage that brings together a wide range of experiences, knowledge, methods, activities, and approaches (Jenlink, 2005). Within this diversity, adaptive expertise, continuous growth, community contribution, articulated practice, research application, theory exploration, intellectual wellbeing, and professional discernment are some of the common habits of mind that broadly define what it means to be a scholar-practitioner (Macintyre Latta et al, 2017). It is a stance that brings together EAL theory, research, and practice to further learning and enhance teaching. It embraces scholarly inquiry into practical language-related and real- world issues and draws on different understandings, methods, and traditions to meet those issues (Brumfit, 1995). In turn, this scholarly inquiry adds to the knowledge base of EAL teaching and learning, with the potential to inform policy and practice and the goal of encouraging and strengthening the field as an academic discipline in its own right (Ding & Bruce, 2017; Dlouhy- Nelson et al., 2023; Scrivener et al., 2016; TESOL Research Agenda, 2014). The current issue of the BC TEAL Journal offers five examples of scholar- practitionership that resonate with the definition above. The first paper reported a research project examining LGBTQ+ representation in newspapers for EAL learners and how local materials may lead the way for greater inclusion (Freimuth & Walter, 2023). Next, Chang et al. (2023) described the transition for English for academic purposes (EAP) students from in-person https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.548 Douglas ii BC TEAL Journal Volume 8 Number 1 (2023): i–iii https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.548 instruction to online teaching and learning in a foundation research and writing course offered by their university’s library. While there were online benefits, results point to the effectiveness of blended approaches and the importance of collaborating with EAL experts. The third paper in this issue described how an EAL instructor was able to support presentation skills development in a post-secondary EAP course. The teaching and learning cycle was described in detail, with design and activity descriptions ready for uptake by other EAL teachers (Martin, 2023). Next, Curtis (2023) has authored a powerful description of three key problems he sees in classroom language education research. He has outlined the “doing research on” versus the “doing research with” problem (p. 43), the “publish or perish” problem (p. 45), and the “trickle down problem” (p. 47). His descriptions of these three problems serve to trouble common understandings of research and offer ways out of these problems for the field of EAL teaching and learning. Finally, this issue closes with a research paper that examined how the inclusion of intercultural communicative competence learning outcomes in an EAP curriculum supports EAP students with their lives both on and off campus. Easier academic transitions, greater friendships, and increased community engagement were key findings in this paper (Landry, 2023). This editorial ends with an invitation for readers to live within the hyphen of scholar- practitionership, drawing inspiration from the above peer-reviewed journal articles to assume an inquiry stance in relation to their own educational practice (Macintyre Latta et al., 2017). Readers can seek out puzzles that drive their curiosity about EAL teaching and learning and develop understandings of those puzzles that directly connect to their own contexts. It is an ongoing and enjoyable process that can focus on the quality of life in the classroom, benefit teachers and students, and bring colleagues together to grow within a community (Allwright, 2003). Thus, teachers become students of learning who ask questions and wonder about the answers (Maley, 2016). This wondering can bring people to reflect on their own practice, read what others have written, engage in discussion, and make their own contributions in turn (Borg, 2009; Kupo, 2014; Megyes, 2017). When that time comes to contribute back to the field, the BC TEAL Journal is ready to support scholar-practitioners through a publication process that guides writers step-by-step from submission, peer review, and revisions to copy editing, proof reading, and layout. Sharing expertise and supporting English language education is at the core of BC TEAL’s mission and vision (BC TEAL, 2023), and the readers of this editorial are encouraged to join the ranks of the authors in the current issue as part of the journal’s scholarly community. References Allwright, A. (2003). Exploratory practice: Rethinking practitioner research in language teaching. Language Teaching Research, 7(2), 113–141. https://doi.org/10.1191/1362168803lr118oa BC TEAL. (2023). Our mission and vision. https://www.bcteal.org/mission-vision-grid.php Borg, S. (2009). English language teachers’ conceptions of research. Applied Linguistics, 30(3), 358–388. http://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amp007 Brumfit, C. J. (1995). Teacher professionalism and research. In G. Cook & B. Seidlhofer (Eds.), Principle and practice in applied linguistics (pp. 27–41). Oxford University Press. Chang, D. H., Lane, J., & Power, H. (2023). A preliminary investigation into the effectiveness of online modules for teaching research and writing skills to multilingual international post- secondary students. BC TEAL Journal, 8(1), 8–28. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.548 https://doi.org/10.1191/1362168803lr118oa https://www.bcteal.org/mission-vision-grid.php http://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amp007 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 Douglas iii BC TEAL Journal Volume 8 Number 1 (2023): i–iii https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.548 Curtis, A. (2023). Three key problems in classroom language education research. BC TEAL Journal, 8(1), 43–55. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.541 Ding, A., & Bruce, I. (2017). The English for academic purposes practitioner: Operating on the edge of academia. Palgrave Macmillan. Dlouhy-Nelson, J., Hamilton, K., Loland, D., Shayer, L. P., Broom, C., Cherkowski, S., Macintyre Latta, M., & Ragoonaden, K. (2023). Reorienting toward complexity in teacher education. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 51(3), 283–296. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2023.2197188 Freimuth, H., & Walter, L. (2023). An examination of LGBTQ+ representation in a Canadian ELT newspaper. BC TEAL Journal, 8(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.501 Jenlink, P. M. (2005). On bricolage and the intellectual work of the scholar-practitioner. Scholar- Practitioner Quarterly, 3(1). 3–12. Kupo, V. L. (2014). Becoming a scholar-practitioner in student affairs. New Directions for Student Services, 147, 89–98. https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.20103 Landry, M. H. (2023). Intercultural communicative competence learning outcomes in EAP: A tool for supporting post-secondary students with life on and off campus. BC TEAL Journal, 8(1), 56–80. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.546 Macintyre Latta, M., Cherkowski, S., Crichton, S., Klassen, W., & Ragoonaden, K. (2017). Investing in communities of scholar-practitioners. Teacher Learning and Professional Development, 2(1), 32–47. https://journals.sfu.ca/tlpd/index.php/tlpd/article/view/31 Maley, A . (2016). “More research is needed”—a mantra too far? Humanising Language Teaching, 18(3). Available at http://old.hltmag.co.uk/jun16/index.htm Martin, J. L. (2023). The problem of presentations: An EAP lecturer’s approach to teaching presentation skills. BC TEAL Journal, 8(1), 29–42. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.539 Medgyes, P. (2017). The (ir)relevance of academic research for the language teacher. ELT Journal, 71(4), 491–498. http://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccx034 Scrivener, J., Cardoso, W., Medgyes, P., Saraceni, M., Bao, D., Farrell, T., Kiss, T., Watson- Todd, R., Thornbury, S., Hill, D. A., Tomlinson, B., Ellis, R., Bolitho, R., Ur, P., & Underhill, A. (2016). Responses to the chapter: More research is needed—A mantra too far? Humanising Language Teaching, 18(3). Available at http://old.hltmag.co.uk/jun16/index.htm TESOL Research Agenda. (2014). TESOL International Association. https://www.tesol.org/media/zbyaoumx/2014_tesol-research-agenda.pdf The BC TEAL Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.548 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.541 https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2023.2197188 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.501 https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.20103 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.546 https://journals.sfu.ca/tlpd/index.php/tlpd/article/view/31 http://old.hltmag.co.uk/jun16/index.htm https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.539 http://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccx034 http://old.hltmag.co.uk/jun16/index.htm https://www.tesol.org/media/zbyaoumx/2014_tesol-research-agenda.pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/