Teachers as Researchers: Voices from Experts

Research has shown the importance of the role of teachers (Hattie, Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning, 2012). Given this information, it is surprising that several researchers (e.g., Legutke & Schart, Fremdsprachendidaktische Professionsforschung: Brennpunkt Lehrerbildung, 2016) have identified a research gap in foreign (FL) teacher education—very specifically, in the area of early English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher education (e.g., Wilden & Porsch, The professional development of primary EFL teachers. National and international research, 2017). Although many countries have defined standards for teacher education, it has not been researched how universities actually “translate” these state requirements into their everyday pre-service teacher instruction and why they opt for one or the other seminar concept. Using semi-structured interviews (Richards, Interviews, 2009), experts in the field of teacher education were asked to provide insights into their daily practices as well as their ideas on the education of primary pre-service teachers in the subject of English in the German university context. Based on these context-specific results, implications for teacher education are discussed, showcasing what characterizes “good” EFL teachers and how academic settings could be structured to allow for the development of well-qualified teachers.