Diversity of Intuitive Moments in L+ Practitioner Research: An Exploratory Autoethnographic Case Study

Abstract

The intuitions of teachers have been found to take a variety of forms in general education (John, 2003). However, in the field of additional language (L+) teaching, the lion’s share of past work has focused on the improvisational form of intuition (e.g., Borg, 2015; Richards, 1998; Smith, 1996). Moreover, the ways in which intuition plays a role in the thinking and actions of those not only teaching but concurrently conducting classroom practitioner research remains understudied. The current paper presents an exploratory autoethnographic case study of my own cognitions across three different action research projects. An interpretive analysis retrospectively examined data from my practitioner journals written during these projects. That is, while these journals were not produced with the intention of becoming data for an investigation of practitioner researcher cognition, I anticipated that they may provide informative examples of ‘intuitive moments.’ By basing analysis on the different forms of intuition previously uncovered by John (2003), I was able to reconceptualize and expand the range to be pertinent to those not only teaching but also engaged in researching their own practice. In order of prevalence, six forms of intuitive moments were forthcoming: mood assessment, improvisation, problem avoidance, envisaging direction, learning opportunity creation, and student-personalized actions. In addition, my presentation of results aims to illuminate the emergence of intuitive moments as localized perceptions and adaptations situated within longer-timescale tacit understandings and experiences.