Blurring Boundaries: A Longitudinal Teacher-Researcher Collaboration in South Korea

In this reflective chapter, four former English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in South Korea and a former doctoral student tell their story of building a teacher-researcher community grounded in mutual trust. A three-phase dissertation study involving all five authors and led by the first author illustrated the ways in which this community of first-time teachers could support one another. In so doing, the participants represented in this chapter intentionally blurred the boundaries between their emerging professional identities, believing that everyone in the community was simultaneously a teacher and a researcher with insights to contribute to the two-year study. From research design to data generation and analysis to dissemination, the community sought an equitable approach by embracing a qualitative research methodology based on 정 [jeong], a shared feeling of connection and compassion. The community aimed to center the participating teachers’ humanity, honor their stories, amplify their voices, and engage the teachers as researchers of their own teaching practices and professional identities. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the challenges encountered and recommendations on how TESOL researchers can build teacher-researcher communities that support and sustain classroom teachers, especially first-time teachers.