Language teacher associations as innovative and collectively autonomous spaces in changing times: a global study

The first systematic survey of language teacher associations (LTAs) was conducted in 2008 and resulted in a practical handbook and an academic publication (Lamb, T., T. Atanasoska, M. Hepp, S. Jónsdóttir, and J. Zielinsky. 2012. Learning from Each Other: A Handbook for Language Teacher Associations. Graz: European Centre for Modern Languages; Lamb, T. 2012. "Language Associations and Collaborative Support: Language Teacher Associations as Empowering Spaces for Professional Networks." Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching 6 (3): 287–308). This article discusses new research conducted in 2024–2025 that revisits key aspects of the original survey and explores changes in LTA activity since the first study, as well as new developments and challenges for language educators and LTAs themselves since 2008. Data were collected primarily through a global survey of 40 LTAs, representing national and international, unilingual and multilingual associations across the globe. The thematic analysis of the survey responses was integrated with insights from two in-depth group discussions with 13 LTA leaders from FIPLV member associations. Five thematic dimensions emerging from the data analysis are discussed: spaces for manoeuvre; LTAs as knowledge producers; technological developments: opportunities and challenges; interlingual shared spaces; and advocacy and critical collective autonomy. The findings demonstrate an enduring pattern of the professional identity of LTAs as dynamic, multidimensional, interlingual spaces for their members' collaborative learning, fostering critical collective autonomy and innovation with the strong potential to find the spaces for manoeuvre to develop value-based practices locally and globally. These dimensions also imply that, whatever their internal and external challenges, LTAs will continue to play a central role in advocating for languages and sustaining language teacher agency amidst wider global changes.