Enhancing pedagogy for autonomy through learning communities: making our dream come true?

Abstract

Academic researchers and teacher educators have had a leading role in the field of autonomy in language education, hoping that teachers can ‘make their dreams come true’. However, the pedagogy for autonomy dream will only come true when it becomes the teachers’ dream, which means that unless they also play a leading role in the construction of knowledge for the promotion of learner autonomy, opportunities for transforming school pedagogy will be missed. One possibility is to form university_school networks that function as learning communities where (inter)personal development is linked to the definition of common goals, allowing for diversity in a democratic, supportive environment. I build on the case of the Grupo de Trabalho-Pedagogia para a Autonomia (Working Group-Pedagogy for Autonomy) to discuss the nature and the potential value of such communities for developing professional knowledge that is teaching/teacher development-based, context-sensitive and fluid.