Evaluating co-production as a guiding philosophy for EAP teacher training course development
Abstract
This paper considers the research philosophy of co-production for use in the field of EAP, where it has been little utilised as a guiding principle for research and development projects. The central question to be addressed is the appropriacy of co-production in a specific setting, and the challenges and benefits it brings to the research process. For projects situated in settings that are relatively unfamiliar to professional researchers, co-production provides a promising framework to i) ensure diversity of contextually appropriate perspectives, ii) engender collaboration and egalitarianism, iii) build capacity for action, and iv) engage with and bring together the community to work towards a common goal. We explored the potential of co-production through a project aiming to improve EAP teaching quality in tertiary education in Uzbekistan. The project was designed and implemented by one UK-based and four Uzbekistan-based team members who trained tertiary-level teachers to better instruct EAP, and it successfully reached approximately 300 teaching professionals across Uzbekistan. We detail how co-production brought value to the project but also ways in which it could not be fully implemented. We intend this paper to be an introduction to the application of co-production, through which others in EAP can explore its exciting possibilities.