October 2025: Notes on Teaching, Research, and Writing

Last month, I started experimenting with a new way to use this blog. In the past, I have tended to use it for sharing academic content in accessible formats — and, judging by the number of views, I think that this has not been an entirely unsuccessful endeavour. But, increasingly I have been feeling the need to return to what blogging was meant to be: a space for sharing glimpses of life and work, perhaps in a more reflective and less fragmented way than social media allows for. Now, as I gradually step away from some of those platforms (there’s only so much one can take of what Twitter has become), I’d like to use this space to gather small updates and reflections in a more coherent rhythm.

So, in this post, you will find some updates on my research and teaching, along with a few more personal notes on recent readings and everyday academic life. I hope you enjoy reading along.

New publications

Perhaps the most exciting development in the last few weeks has been the publication of a new article, entitled ‘Developing a teacher research literacy framework for language teacher education‘ at the European Journal of Teacher Education. Co-authored with University of Thessaly colleagues Eleni Motsiou and Georgios Vleioras, the article builds on our work we did at the Research Literacy of Teachers project (ReaLiTea). In it, we describe a framework of competences that make up teacher research literacy and also share some insights about its ongoing validation.

I was also very happy that another ReaLiTea publication just made it pass the reviewers. The article ‘Shaping the reality of foreign language teachers’ research literacies’, which will appear at the EuroCall 2025 conference proceedings has been a more collaborative work. It involving almost the entire ReaLiTea team, coordinated by Caro Blume. I don’t have a link for this yet, but when it goes online I will be sure to share it in my publications page.

Both projects involved a lot of collaboration. This way of work has been central to the ReaLiTea project from the very beginning, but I haven’t always found this the easiest way of writing. Working with colleagues across institutions and disciplines can be demanding: coordinating writing, aligning perspectives, and finding shared language for complex ideas all take time and patience. What I have learnt, over time, is that it is also a deeply rewarding process. Each collaborator brings a different lens and expertise, and the process of weaving these together often leads to insights that none of us could have reached alone. In that sense, the collaborative spirit of these papers is not just a practical necessity but also a reflection of what academic work stands for.

Workshops and presentations

While writing and publishing has its rewards, I think that the aspect of my job I enjoy the most is running workshops. So you will hopefully indulge me as I talk about them for a while.

The ReaLiTea dissemination workshop in Linz

On 24th September, I had the pleasure of facilitating a workshop on helping pre-service teachers develop research literacy at the Private Teacher Education University of the Diocese of Linz (Private Pädagogische Hochschule der Diözese Linz). I must admit that I was not entirely comfortable about this: I am not sure there’s ever a point when one feels entirely ready to stand in front of a room full of teachers. They tend to be thoughtful, questioning, and wonderfully alert to anything that doesn’t quite make sense —which, of course, is what makes working with them so stimulating. Once the initial hesitation passes, that energy quickly turns into a genuine dialogue.

One thing that always helps, I’ve found, is to treat workshops less as a space for delivering knowledge and more as a space for co-constructing it. Inviting participants to connect the ideas discussed with their own classroom realities often leads to far richer insights — and, just as importantly, to a sense that the knowledge created in the room truly belongs to everyone in it.

The LCRGrad Conference in Chelmniz

That experience in Linz reminded me how productive it can be when teachers engage with research not as an abstract idea, but as something that can grow directly out of their own classroom questions. It’s a perspective I’ll also be taking to my next workshop, together with Richard Fay, which takes place next Wednesday (22 October) at the LCRGrad Conference 2025. This session will focus on practical ways of publishing from, as part of and during one’s doctoral studies, the topic of our edited collection Doctoral Study and Getting Published. If you’re attending LCRGrad2025, I’d be delighted if you joined us. Bring a question from your own context — and perhaps you’ll leave with the beginnings of a small research project to take back to your classroom.

The ReaLiTea dissemination workshop in Greece

Looking further ahead, I just wanted to give a heads-up to readers in Greece that my colleages and I will be holding a dissemination event focusing on teacher research literacy in Larissa (Greece) on 6th December.

The CLILMat workshop

While I enjoy running workshops, every now and then I find myself in a participant role. This is how I found myself invited to the CLIL teaching materials for 21st-century competences workshop, at the European Centre of Modern Languages on 17-18th September.

The truth is, I am often sceptical about CLIL, at least in the ways it’s done in Greece, so I definitely wasn’t prepared for how powerfully inspiring this experience would be. The workshop proposed a vision of language education that goes beyond the development of linguistic competences: one that connects language learning with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and in doing so, opens up space for students to think critically, act responsibly, and use language as a tool for change.

What was even more inspiring than the workshop content, however, was the participants’ engagement and enthusiasm. The truth is that teacher apathy often frustrates me, so finding myself in the midst people with whom I shared an understanding of education, a vocabulary and a vision for the future was a moving experience. In the words of one participant, “I have found my people”, and taking my leave after the conference was not easy.

Research updates

In the meanwhile, life in research goes on. Together with different groups of colleagues we have been preparing a number of events which means a flurry of drafts, meetings, and late-night edits; a bit stressful at times (the kind of stressful that my doctors gently frown upon), but also the kind of busy that comes with a sense of momentum and quiet excitement about what’s taking shape.

• Late in October, we are about to have our semi-annual ReaLiTea steering group meeting, where my University of Thessaly team will present a full set of materials that we have been preparing for developing teacher research literacy;
• Later in November, the AI Lang team is hosting a workshop in Graz for experts on artificial intelligence Education. I am always happy to visit my old academic home, and even more so because I am excited to present the first full draft of our developing Guidelines for the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Language Education.
• In the meanwhile, preparations are underway for hosting the Revitalising Linguistic Diversity and Cultural Heritage (LocalLing) kick-off meeting in Volos next March – here’s a tip for all of you: don’t agree to host any meetings unless you can get your university administrators to give you rooms first.
• And the most exciting thing: manuscripts have already started to pour in for the Empowering Language Teachers through Research Literacy volume I am co-editing with Christina Ringel and Kenan Dikilitaş. I cannot say much about them now, but I am thoroughly enjoying reading what has come in so far!

Calls for papers

Speaking of edited collections, I have received a number of interesting calls for papers, what may be of use to some. Here they go:

• The 3rd Conference on Diversity and Inclusivity in English Language Education are inviting submissions by 1st November. At a time when conversations about diversity and inclusion are increasingly contested, this seems like a good time to reaffirm the value of openness, representation, and critical reflection in language education.
• If you are working on fields such as linguistic inclusion, antiracist perspectives in language education and decolonising the TESOL curriculum, this Call for Papers for a special issue in TESOL Journal may be of interest (deadline 30th November)

From the blog

I have tried to retain a (somewhat) steady posting rhythm in the blog over the last couple of months, and also aimed for a variety of topics. The latest posts, are below, in case you missed them.

Reading and more

One thing I wish I had more time for would be reading (but given the amount of time I have to spend teaching, writing and doing admin, this could only come at the expense of sleep). Still, I did manage to nearly finish one book that I would definitely recommend: Ross Perlin’s Language City: A fight to preserve endangered mother tongues (2024; Grove). This is the story of the hundreds of languages that coexist in New York, but unlike what the title suggests, it’s not so much an elegy for vanishing languages as it is a celebration of how their tenacity and resilience. In some ways, this is a counternarrative to the Tower of Babel narrative: in the biblical story, God scatters humanity by making everyone speak different languages; in New York, and modern metropolises like it, they gather back together.

Some more bite-sized readings that I found interesting included

• this transcript of a podcast on sexual predation in the language teaching industry — a topic about which I was blissfully unaware, I am embarrased to admit.
• a powerful critique, by Ian Cushing, of the word deficit ideologies that are prevalent in education.
• some interesting thoughts on how to challenge monolingual practices in qualitative research.

What can I say? My reading habits are nothing if not eclectic.

Looking ahead

Turning to the future, I am very much looking forward to the upcoming LCRGrad2025 conference. But equally, I am eager to share updates on the other events that are lined up: the project outcomes, insights from the workshops and more. So, as the autumn term gathers pace, there will be plenty to write about —and, I hope, much to learn along the way. As always, I’ll be sharing some of these moments here, in the hope that they resonate with colleagues who find themselves navigating similar questions. Stay tuned.