Scholarship on our own terms: evaluating the impact of an EAP Teachers’ Forum

Abstract

This article provides a reflective narrative and evaluation of an example of co-constructed grassroots EAP (English for Academic Purposes) practitioner development, Teachers’ Forums (TFs). In line with the theme of this special issue, rather than examining the approach in isolation, we aim to describe the specific contexts from which it became possible, evaluate the boundaries of its impact on our practice and consider its future and relevance to other contexts. Underpinning this evaluation is our ambivalence towards defining this approach as scholarship, which we have tried to convey in the title – the tension of wanting to engage in scholarship on our own terms while working within contexts which may simultaneously afford, reward, ignore and obstruct this. To develop our evaluation, we drew on elements of collaborative autoethnography (e.g., Rolinska et. al., 2021) to systematically reflect on the development of TFs. This included a reflection on the specific contexts which made them possible, the often tacit ethos that underpinned their development as well as the various impacts they had on our EAP practice. After providing a narrative of the development of the TFs, this paper presents four broad strands of evaluation, drawing on a range of social theories for additional insights: the ethos of the TFs, their role as part of our EAP teacher development ecosystem, the extent they can be considered a form of critical professional development and the risks and rewards of framing them as scholarship.