Expertise exists among all communities of educational practitioners at all levels and in all national contexts. By identifying expert practitioners, learning from them and valuing their professional competence, researchers can support, promote and build upon sustainable, embodied, holistic models of quality in ways that have direct relevance for the classroom, the curriculum and wider educational goals. Yet, despite its potential as a field of research, there have been relatively few studies involving expert language teachers to date. After a brief historical background, this article makes the case for language teacher expertise research, noting its high ecological validity, its great practical utility, its ability to bridge the research–practice divide and its potentially positive impact on teaching communities. Key methodological considerations are also discussed, including defining expertise, identifying expert teachers and looking beyond the limits of subject-specific pedagogy to understand the whole practitioner in their sociocultural context. The article then proposes a framework for future teacher expertise research that spans diverse methodologies. Six example research tasks from within this framework are proposed, each justified and exemplified, incorporating suggestions for research design that are intended to encourage both experienced and novice researchers to engage with teacher expertise as a promising domain for future investigation.

中文翻译：

---

语言教师专业知识研究：理论案例和研究议程


专业知识存在于各级和所有国家背景的所有教育从业者群体中。通过识别专家从业者、向他们学习并重视他们的专业能力，研究人员可以以与课堂、课程和更广泛的教育目标直接相关的方式支持、促进和建立可持续的、具体的、整体的质量模型。然而，尽管它作为一个研究领域具有潜力，但迄今为止涉及专业语言教师的研究相对较少。在简要的历史背景之后，本文提出了语言教师专业知识研究的理由，指出其高度的生态效度、巨大的实用性、弥合研究与实践鸿沟的能力以及对教学社区的潜在积极影响。还讨论了关键的方法论考虑，包括定义专业知识、确定专家教师以及超越特定学科教学法的限制，以在其社会文化背景下了解整个从业者。然后，本文提出了一个跨越不同方法的未来教师专业知识研究框架。该框架内提出了六个示例研究任务，每个任务都得到了证明和举例说明，并纳入了研究设计建议，旨在鼓励有经验的和新手研究人员参与教师专业知识，作为未来调查的一个有前途的领域。