Complex professional learning and development: experienced university language teachers in Japan and learner autonomy support

Professional learning and development (PLD) experiences should be locally relevant and individually meaningful. Reflective inquiry into and as practice for learner autonomy support may be suitable PLD for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in higher education in Japan whose needs, problematically, may lie unmet outside mainstream provision. Drawing on the notion of assemblages and a conceptual model of autonomy as an emergent phenomenon, this study asks how a complexity perspective on PLD might be leveraged to inform a sustainable local solution. Four experienced teachers engaged in a program of learner autonomy-supportive activities over one academic year. Interviews and teaching diaries conducted throughout this time were used to produce qualitative multiple case studies. Cross‑case analysis revealed the entanglement of the research process itself with how the teachers converged and diverged around supporting learner choice. Their pivots were reabsorbed into each assemblage – constituting professional learning. This study argues for the case studies to form the foundational resources of a sustainable local PLD system, and for the approach to be transposed and evaluated in other contexts.