Bringing Research to Your Classroom

Amira Salama shares insights on practitioner research and how everyday classroom experiences can contribute to meaningful research. She challenges traditional notions of research and highlights how teachers are already engaging in research without realising it.

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Key talking points

Research doesn’t have to be complex—any teacher reflecting on and improving their practice is engaging in research.

Sharing findings with colleagues, at conferences, or within schools is just as valuable as publishing in journals.

Teachers can use simple methods like student feedback, classroom observations, and collaborative discussions to gather insights.

Research helps educators take control of challenges like AI integration and curriculum development.

Contextualised, bottom-up approaches to teaching and research are more effective than applying generic ‘best practices.’

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About Amira

Amira Salama is the Chair of the TESOL International Research Professional Council (2024-2025) and the Past President of Africa ELTA. She has an MA TESOL from the American University in Cairo with a research focus on teacher leadership and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in inclusive education. Amira is the winner of the TESOL Outstanding Advocate Honor Award in 2024. She has given a number of plenary and featured talks at local and international conferences and developed teacher training programs in Egypt and Africa with a focus on association leadership in low-resource contexts, classroom research, and women leadership.

Follow on LinkedIn

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References & Resources

• TESOL Research Report

• Africa ELTA (Mentoring programmes)

Watch the video with closed captions or refer to the transcript below.

Transcript

00:00:00:08 - 00:00:22:09

Laura

TESOL Pop season 11, episode two. Hi, welcome to TESOL Pop, the mini podcast for busy teachers. I'm your host, Laura Wilkes, and joining me today to talk about bringing research into the classroom is Amira Salama. Now, Amira knows lots about this topic. She's the current chair of the TESOL International Research Professional Council and the past president of Africa ELTA

00:00:22:11 - 00:00:39:09

Laura

I'm really excited to share this conversation with you, because Amira demonstrated how the little things we're doing in our classroom are perfect examples of what research can look like. So let's join the conversation where Amira started by explaining what practitioner research means and why it's so important.

00:00:39:11 - 00:01:12:01

Amira

Well, I'm not going to talk about traditional research definition that we usually find in the scholarly work or even the definitions in books. But I'm going to share, my own understanding and definition of practitioner research as I love to talk about it with teachers. It is basically like any idea, any problem and even any success story you have in your classroom that you would like to investigate further.

00:01:12:03 - 00:01:46:24

Amira

So if practitioner research does not have to be a very big, idea of research that some teachers might think it is and that keeps them intimidated to do it. This idea comes and stems from your interaction with your students. And also it sometimes comes from, great stuff that we have done inside the classroom that we would like to learn why it worked, or from a lesson that we had in the classroom, and would like to also investigate why it didn't work.

00:01:47:01 - 00:02:19:03

Amira

And I would have to say also that inside the classroom, the research actually research ideas are born because we usually talk about the, gap between theory and practice. And we forget that practitioner research or teacher research is there to fill in this gap that we as teachers have the agency to actually fill in this gap by sharing our experiences and trying to pose questions that come from our interaction with our students.

00:02:19:05 - 00:02:46:05

Amira

It also comes from our interaction with our colleagues, because sometimes you would be in the classroom and then you go outside of the classroom, and then you start sharing ideas with a colleague at school about something that you are concerned about in your class, or about an issue that you would like to find a solution for. And from this discussion, also, you get ideas and you get reflections that help you solve the problem.

00:02:46:11 - 00:03:00:12

Amira

So this in itself is a practice of research. And if you take it further and apply the other stages of doing research that maybe you can talk about later in this episode, you can actually do practitioner research yourself.

00:03:00:14 - 00:03:33:02

Laura

I'm so grateful for you to describe research as in this kind of framework, because I think when you we say research, I do associate it with universities and PhD studies. But what you've just described there, I can already imagine and recall examples of what this looks like in practice. So, for example, I remember me and my team, we did spot observations for our own professional development to get ideas on how we can borrow from other teachers to develop our own practice and just try new things.

00:03:33:04 - 00:03:38:00

Laura

That sounds like what you describing, right? It can be that kind of grassroots level.

00:03:38:02 - 00:04:10:03

Amira

Yeah. You see, Laura, you yourself found instances for you doing research yourself as a teacher and practitioner. And they think this is the idea of practitioner research because some teachers shy away from doing it because they think they need to also get it published in a scholarly journal or something. But what they always share with teachers, and what I also have done myself in the past, is sometimes they would conduct these kinds of research with my students and then share it with my school teachers, share it in a conference

00:04:10:03 - 00:04:24:04

Amira

in my country, for example. I don't have to write a paper and get it published. To call it a practitioner research. Although this would be great because we need teachers voices in research as well, but it is not a requirement.

00:04:24:06 - 00:04:47:05

Laura

Yeah, it’s completely reframing this whole word research for me, and I'm sure listeners are feeling the same, like, oh, I'm actually doing things like this. So maybe sharing what, I've been working on with my students in the school staffroom is, is a really good space as well. I wonder if you have more examples of, like, topics. We could research, with this kind of approach.

00:04:47:05 - 00:04:50:07

Laura

Do you have some examples that you'd like to share?

00:04:50:09 - 00:05:21:18

Amira

Yeah, sure. Like, I have I would slide some examples from, a recent research mentoring program I conducted with Africa ELTA and this is the regional association for Teachers in Africa, where, we had some teachers, for example, researching topics like why my students are not motivated in my classroom. And usually you would find it's interesting that the teacher would start the research with a question, but then they end up with, a totally different outcome.

00:05:21:18 - 00:05:48:06

Amira

So the teacher that had the question initially about her students not motivated in her classroom after doing research, asking her students, trying to do observations of her classroom and to see and getting someone to observe her classroom to give her some ideas. When do students actually engage and interact in her classroom? She ended up with the conclusion that it was not her students who are not demotivated.

00:05:48:11 - 00:06:17:18

Amira

It was her own practices in the classroom that were not as engaging for them. So she came up with the conclusion that she needed to change something about her, practices, about classroom dynamics, to engage students more and motivate them. So this is an idea, and it's fascinating in this kind of research that sometimes we as teachers have preconceived the ideas about our students and about things that happen in the classroom.

00:06:17:22 - 00:06:44:15

Amira

But when you take a step back and you start to question it and maybe get someone else to help you see things in the classroom, you find the, topic is totally a different story. It's something that is not, really, you will have thought about at the beginning. So this is an example. Also, cite one example of, maybe a topic that is very current nowadays about the use of AI.

00:06:44:17 - 00:07:16:00

Amira

And this is a very, heated discussion that also my department, because I teach, academic writing, academic reading, research, writing to my students. And this is a heated discussion because how can we really identify students work and AI’s work all of this dilemma in, teaching, writing. But this in itself, if you're as a teacher and you feel overwhelmed with these current trends, you can take it as a topic for your own investigation and research.

00:07:16:02 - 00:07:37:09

Amira

Ask students when they use AI, ask other teachers what are the best practices about them using AI or not. So like taking it, taking this approach to understand difficult and sometimes, you know, current trends that make us sometimes feel overwhelming as teachers can help us really, grow and develop our skills.

00:07:37:11 - 00:08:10:05

Laura

It's incredibly empowering what you just described there and the amount of autonomy teachers can take over things like the topic of AI you just described, which I can completely relate to, that it just feels so overwhelming at the moment. But to kind of flip that and take the approach of, okay, I want to look into this and find what really works for my context for me as a teacher and for my students and for my colleagues is a brilliant way of kind of just, putting yourself in the driving seat rather than other noises and voices driving and influencing decisions for you.

00:08:10:05 - 00:08:39:16

Laura

I think that's a wonderful example. And the other example you gave is a good way of kind of testing our own teaching beliefs. Its almost like here's a hypothesis I have about my students or my teaching or the course books, for example. Let's test it out. And what a journey that teacher went on that you just described in finding that actually, it just meant a bit more student interaction was sought after in order to, change maybe the behaviour she was seeing in the classroom.

00:08:39:18 - 00:09:03:00

Amira

Yeah, exactly. And also that that idea. Laura, like, sometimes when we are thinking about our classroom because we are busy as teachers and practitioner research is all about the teachers taking the agency and having that autonomy to do things and change stuff, in their classroom. Sometimes you are too busy to really stop and think and reflect.

00:09:03:00 - 00:09:27:18

Amira

So this kind of research gives us this opportunity that maybe like every semester, one thing that you can think about for yourself as an idea of professional development is to select one topic that you would like you need to understand more about in your classroom, and maybe this topic. You can involve your students in helping you to understand them by asking them to be part of your research.

00:09:27:18 - 00:09:50:04

Amira

And you do it throughout the semester. And one simple thing that I sometimes do also is my students is just asking them at the end of the semester, like, what did they like about my course and what didn't they like and even like in these very short sentences they gave about my course that are not formal, like the teacher evaluation stuff, but only like comments they shared with me as their teacher.

00:09:50:07 - 00:10:12:24

Amira

These comments helped me a lot in developing the course for next semesters, so this in itself is an act of reflection that we can include in our teaching and practitioner research is basically, in my opinion, a reflection cycle because you find, something it doesn't have to be a problem, by the way. It can be successful lesson and then you investigate how it worked, how it didn't.

00:10:12:24 - 00:10:21:09

Amira

You involve your students in the decision and you come up with a conclusion to help you improve for the future. So it's all about reflection.

00:10:21:11 - 00:10:45:01

Laura

That's wonderful. And I love that example of even it being a simple as asking your students a question at the end of a course. It's not something that has to take up heaps and heaps of your time. Because of course, our listeners for this podcast and teachers around the world are very short on time. So that's a lovely example that it can just be kind of integrated and woven into things that teachers are probably already doing.

00:10:45:03 - 00:11:07:24

Laura

They're probably already creating feedback and collecting feedback, or there's administrative systems that are collecting feedback that we could leverage and use as part of our reflective process. I wonder if you have any other techniques that you love to kind of use as part of this practitioner research? That survey and of course survey is a brilliant example. Do you have any others that you'd like to share?

00:11:08:01 - 00:11:38:22

Amira

Yeah, I do have another example because in our contexts, usually here in Africa, we also have some, you know, textbook materials and teaching materials that might not be really relevant sometimes to our context. And I have, like it took two teachers before about some ideas that some teachers might use sometimes especially like in some countries in Africa that are sometimes the, schools that students do not really get enough copies of textbooks.

00:11:39:02 - 00:12:04:17

Amira

So the teacher has to be innovative and creative in how we use the materials, how to create their own materials. So that idea also of adapting and evolving your own materials in the classroom and the process of how you do this as a teacher and what makes it successful in your classroom, makes it like really rather, bottom up approach to like, professional development and teaching in itself rather than a top down one.

00:12:04:17 - 00:12:43:06

Amira

So instead of like, advocating for best practices and this thing, this has become an outdated term now in TESOL, that we look into grassroots and we look into, localised, contextualised teaching practices. And these in themselves are very, ripe areas for research that those teachers themselves, going through the process of trying to teach their students, using their own develop the materials that relate to their context is in itself also an idea of a teacher listening to us today can take it and pursue research in that perspective to see whether it worked

00:12:43:06 - 00:12:58:12

Amira

or not to see, what makes it work or what doesn't make it work? So it really is, also another perspective to look at practitioner research. Again, taking that agency and autonomy into perspective as well.

00:12:58:14 - 00:13:26:00

Laura

You know, Amira I bet listeners are tuning in and just thinking, oh gosh, I've got some things I'm going to try. I'm going to try this. To close today's episode, you did mention, that you have mentor programs. You support teachers in conducting their research. I know you're part of many organisations. Please could you tell us where can listeners find you, to get further inspiration on what they should be, what they can be researching, and how they can go about research in their own context?

00:13:26:02 - 00:13:50:06

Amira

Yeah. So I'm already, like, available on LinkedIn. And, I think I will share this with you, Laura, as well. And I would be glad to, get in touch with our viewers if anyone would like to share an idea about research and you need any support and help in that regard, I would be glad to give advice and also not just give advice, because in practitioner research we are collaborating with our students.

00:13:50:06 - 00:14:19:05

Amira

So I would also believe in that, perspective that I would also love to support a colleague, pursuing practitioner research from that perspective. I would also like to say that the, being the chair of TESOL Research Council, I would like to share with our viewers the recent TESOL Research Directions report that really advocates for practitioner research as being an area for TESOL researchers to look at, now and in the future.

00:14:19:05 - 00:14:25:06

Amira

The report is published on the TESOL website. And also glad to share it with you more so you can share it with our viewers.

00:14:25:12 - 00:14:49:14

Laura

Listeners will already know that those links are in the show notes right now. So they can go and take action. Connect with you on LinkedIn, check out the International Research Professional Council that you mentioned and that report, and start having fun with exploring different things in that classroom. I think that's super exciting, and I hope listeners, you share with those what action you take as a result of listening to today's brilliant interview.

00:14:49:16 - 00:14:54:03

Laura

Amira thank you so much for your time today. It's been an absolute delight creating this episode with you.

00:14:54:05 - 00:14:56:03

Amira

Thank you, Laura, for inviting me.

00:14:56:05 - 00:15:19:05

Laura

If you have a question or an idea that you'd like to pitch the podcast, you can get in touch with us via the website tesolpop.com. As always, if you love what we do here at TESOL Pop, then you can support us by leaving a rating and review wherever you listen to the podcast by, of course, sharing today's episode with your teaching community to continue the conversation, or by even buying Haven and me a coffee by going to ko-fi.com/tesolpop

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