Language teachers as materials developers in China

In recent years, in light of educational changes such as pedagogical shifts, technological development and educational reforms, language teachers are increasingly being expected to develop their own language learning and teaching materials. However, there are very few empirical studies investigating language teachers’ experiences as materials developers, with the exception of studies by Carabantes and Paran (2022) and Banegas, Corrales and Poole (2020). This study draws upon the ecological perspective (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) and the concept of trajectory from the theory of Communities of Practice (Wenger, 1999) to understand language teachers’ experiences while they are playing the role of materials developers in China. The study employs a multimethod approach, and consists of two stages. In the first stage I interviewed 15 language teachers who had developed or were developing materials, to gain a broad understanding of their experiences influenced by different layers of context. In the second stage I focused on language teachers’ developmental trajectories from a chronological point of view by interviewing four language teachers who were developing a textbook in a materials development group, as well as collecting their WeChat conversations with me and their personal documents related to developing the textbook. The findings show that language teachers who were playing the role of materials developers encountered challenges in relation to three levels of context (the macro, meso and micro levels), and that to cope with these challenges they employed various strategies involving both personal and contextual resources. The study concludes that language teachers who develop materials gain professional development through excising their agency to learn (de Laurentiis Brandão, 2018) and respond to the challenges they experience. The findings enrich our understanding of language teachers’ professional development while they are playing the role of materials developers by highlighting the interplay between the individual teachers and different layers of context, and between their past, present and future identities. The study offers implications for language teacher professional development, for language teachers as materials developers, and for materials development