THE FORUM The TESOL Quarterly invites commentary on current trends or practices in the TESOL profession It also welcomes responses to rebuttals to any articles or remarks published here in The Forum or elsewhere in the Quarterly The Struggle to Develop a ‘‘Research Culture’’ in a Developing Country STEPHEN MOORE Macquarie University Sydney, Australia doi: 10.5054/tq.2011.254525 & During the past 20 years, English language teaching and learning has grown phenomenally in Cambodia as the country has opened up to the outside world following more than two decades of civil war As a result, the standard of English spoken today in Cambodia has also risen dramatically One feature of this context of dynamic change has been the gradual emergence of indigenous TESOL research as a means to address personal, professional, and institutional goals Much of this research, however, would not be judged rigorous enough to meet standards for publication in international peer-reviewed journals This article explores the apparent mismatch between the qualities of local TESOL research and the expectations implicit in global TESOL standards The Cambodian experience raises important issues about the legitimacy of Western ownership of research, and the extent to which it is possible for a small developing country to foster its own research culture where local knowledge and practices are featured BACKGROUND To contextualise this article, a few words about my background are helpful Although I work full time as an applied linguistics lecturer and researcher at an Australian university, I have maintained a long-standing engagement with TESOL in Cambodia since 1994, when I first taught in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, on a Bachelor of Education in teaching English as a foreign language (BEd TEFL) degree program 334 TESOL QUARTERLY Vol 45, No 2, June 2011 sponsored by the Australian government At that time this program was Cambodia’s only internationally recognised degree in English language education I have also been a strong supporter of CamTESOL (not officially affiliated with TESOL, the association), the country’s annual TESOL conference, since its inception in 2004 I am a founding member of the editorial board of CamTESOL Selected Articles, and in 2009 I supervised the first research grants awarded at CamTESOL, designed to promote quality research in the local community During the second half of 2009 I undertook a 5-month sabbatical in Cambodia with the aim of assisting in the development of a research culture at my former university and, through initiatives of the CamTESOL conference, in the TESOL community more broadly The first draft of this article was written in Phnom Penh at the end of my sabbatical I would like to place the discussion in this article in the context of the ongoing debate about Western and native-English-speaker (NS) hegemonic tendencies in the TESOL profession Holliday (2005), for example, makes a compelling case for the recognition of institutionalised NS biases in the profession, and more provocatively, Holliday and Aboshiha (2009) argue that NS bias is a kind of neo-racism On the other hand, Waters (2007) argues that the TESOL profession is unduly influenced by political correctness Canagarajah’s (2009) notion of professional contact zones is also relevant to the discussion below, as I, the supposedly NS TESOL expert, interact in a context of local non-NS TESOL professionals Although a history of the development of TESOL research in Cambodia has not been written, it could be told in at least two ways: (1) as a case of intentional and targeted deficit filling, in which claims to perceive what is lacking are matched by bold attempts provide it (typically the perspective of non-Cambodian outsiders), or (2) as a case of unplanned context-bound organic growth (possibly the perspective of Cambodian insiders) My own engagement with Cambodia as a language educator has largely and uncritically assumed the first of these perspectives, but in seeking to better understand the limited success of that approach, I am compelled to consider and pursue alternative possibilities and explanations, particularly from a Cambodian perspective This quest for understanding aligns with earlier research I have undertaken using critical discourse analysis and other approaches to explicate representations of Cambodia in Western media (see Moore 2006, 2008) A BRIEF HISTORY OF TESOL RESEARCH IN CAMBODIA 1994–2009 For the purposes of this article, it is useful to consider the history of TESOL research in Cambodia by reference to a leading local university (henceforth LLU) and its research practices both before and after the THE FORUM 335 establishment of the CamTESOL organisation in 2004 I believe they are instructive in highlighting the evolving state of TESOL research in Cambodia I taught on the BEd TEFL program at LLU in 1994, my time spanning the second half of one academic year (1993–1994) and the whole of the next (1994–1995) The subjects taught then were (and remain now) a combination of English and applied linguistics At that time each expatriate teacher was partnered with a Cambodian teacher in a mentor–mentee relationship to enable the Cambodian counterpart to assume the duties of the expatriate when the foreign aid funding (and the expatriate support this enabled) was substantially reduced for the 1995–1996 academic year Although we undertook to collaborate with our counterparts on small-scale research connected to our teaching areas, including joint presentations of these projects at regional conferences (see Denham, 1997, for a collection of this research), research capacity building was simply not a priority Cambodianising the teaching program at LLU was the priority, and the thought, if any, of developing a research culture alongside the teaching program was left to the Cambodians to pursue in their own way in their own time Over the subsequent decade the TESOL scene in Cambodia grew dramatically thanks to the strong demand for English language skills created by Cambodia’s stabilised political situation and the arrival of investors to stimulate economic growth Many private universities and language schools sprang up to help meet the demand for English courses In terms of TESOL research activity, there were a few Cambodian TESOL lecturers from a handful of Cambodian institutions who presented articles at local TESOL seminars organised periodically by Western agencies, or at regional conferences Unlike in 1994, however, there was no longer one institution (i.e., LLU) dominating the TESOL field in Cambodia, and this presented an opportunity for the development of a pan-institutional TESOL organisation that could make a useful contribution toward meeting the professional needs of English teachers throughout Cambodia Thus was CamTESOL born in early 2004 (see www.camTESOL.org), as an initiative of IDP Australia (owned by a consortium of Australian universities with a broad mission that includes developing and promoting opportunities for international students to study at Australian universities) Because CamTESOL was established and funded by a third party, rather than by any particular Cambodian institution, it was able to appeal across all sectors of TESOL education in Cambodia: primary, secondary, and tertiary; public and private However, and despite its intentions to be Cambodianised as soon as possible, its support model has been primarily one of Western experts leading the way, with Cambodians mentored in supporting roles 336 TESOL QUARTERLY By 2009 several Cambodian TESOL lecturers from LLU had been successful in their applications for PhD studies in Western countries, and many others were actively seeking to follow suit Likewise, at the institutional level, incentives for conducting research were formally implemented at LLU For example, a prestigious teacher of the year award was established which included a research activity criterion CamTESOL, for its part, was also seeking ways to encourage more and better quality research papers from Cambodians for its annual conference and Selected Papers publication (This internationally peer-reviewed collection of articles dramatically increased the number of articles published, from just in 2005 and again in 2006, to 6, 16, and 26 in 2007, 2008, and 2009, respectively Of the 56 articles published over this period, (14%) were authored or co-authored by Cambodians.) CamTESOL established a small number of research grants for projects that would be undertaken in 2009 by Cambodian TESOL professionals (under the supervision of foreign TESOL experts) and presented at the CamTESOL conference in February 2010 According to CamTESOL’s website, the 2010 conference attracted 1242 participants, of whom 778 were Cambodians However, of 250 presentations, only 15 (6%) were given by Cambodians To sum up this brief and selective history of TESOL research in Cambodia over the past decade and a half, there appears to have been little real growth in the development of active indigenous TESOL researchers as measured by research output in the public domain Indeed, the community of TESOL researchers in Cambodia seems fragmented and, by Wenger’s (1998) definition, there appears to be no actual ‘‘community of practice’’ of Cambodian TESOL researchers, that is, one characterised by mutual engagement of members, jointly negotiated enterprise, and members’ shared repertoire (p 76) This scenario raises interesting questions about whether there is a genuine need for research amongst TESOL professionals in Cambodia; whether what counts as research in Cambodia is different from elsewhere; and in consequence of this, whether what counts as support for research in Cambodia is also different from elsewhere A NEED FOR RESEARCH? Given the very small number of Cambodian TESOL professionals who are active researchers, it is fair to ask whether there is any genuine need for more research activity amongst the wider TESOL community in Cambodia Certainly most TESOL lecturers at LLU are quite content to teach and not undertake research, and I believe that this is the case at virtually every TESOL institution in Cambodia If there is a perceived need for research, then whose need is it, and what motivates this need? THE FORUM 337 To answer these questions, it is useful to conceptualise the TESOL community as having at least three distinct parties, each with their own needs and each with different motivations: (1) TESOL professionals, such as English teachers; (2) their institutions; and (3) their professional organisations While what actually motivates Cambodian TESOL professionals to research might include satiating a genuine academic curiosity or realising the perceived merits of English language teachers engaging in research (see, e.g., Atay, 2008; Borg, 2006; Burns, 1999), in my experience, it seems that many Cambodian TESOL professionals are interested in undertaking research in order to attend conferences (especially outside Cambodia) or to build a research track record toward the ultimate goal of securing a PhD candidature overseas According to Luise Ahrens, a higher education advisor to the Cambodian government since 1991, at present there are no internationally recognised PhD programs in Cambodia, and this is largely because there are so few qualified and experienced academics to supervise doctoral-level research She states that there are currently between 12 and 15 such Cambodian academics across all disciplines throughout the entire country, compared to none 10 years ago, and between 50 and 100 projected by 2020 (Ahrens, 2009) In my own estimation of the TESOL field, there might currently be no more than two or three Cambodian academics with sufficient qualifications and experience to supervise PhD research The motivations of the institutions to promote research activity seem to be geared toward enhancing their status (both domestically and internationally) to gain a competitive edge over their rival institutions If doing research is perceived as a sign of academic maturity (see, e.g., Stewart, 2006), then there is likely to be institutional support and accommodation for it among leading institutions As for the motivations of professional organisations, they need the research output of individuals and institutions to feed into their own structures of ritual (i.e., conferences) and dissemination (i.e., publications) Indeed, one could say that such organisations function in part to stimulate an appetite which then requires feeding WHAT COUNTS AS RESEARCH? Nunan (1992) provides a ‘‘minimal definition’’ of research as being ‘‘a systematic process of enquiry consisting of three elements or components: (1) a question, problem, or hypothesis, (2) data, (3) analysis and interpretation of data’’ (p 3) Against this measure, there is perhaps a healthy degree of research activity in TESOL in Cambodia However, much of it that I have read lacks the rigour expected of a minimally 338 TESOL QUARTERLY acceptable quality of publishable research by Western standards Many of the studies superficially resemble good scholarship (in the Western sense) but, on close inspection, reveal a lack of rigour in their reviews of the literature, their research question formulations, their data collection methods, and their data analyses and interpretations These studies are poor models for novice researchers to emulate if their goal is to publish their research in international peer-reviewed journals (see, e.g., the discussion in Allwright, 1997) A personal experience teaching an intensive 15-hour course in action research at LLU in 2008 is instructive in exemplifying an underlying epistemological confusion in notions of research among Cambodian postgraduate TESOL students Action research would seem to be one of the most accessible research models for teacher researchers (Burns, 1999); however, this proved not to be the case in this particular course Despite being alert to the need to explain carefully, and repeatedly, the nature of action research and its cycles of observation, planning, intervention, and evaluation, and despite introducing more than 30 different potential action research projects to illustrate the various aspects of this model of research, the course requirement to prepare a draft action research proposal was performed poorly, with as many as half the students inserting notions of control groups and variables in their proposals My contemplations on this surprising result have led me to consider the possibility that research, in Cambodian terms, necessarily implies a positivist orientation A variation of research common in Cambodia is the institutionally sponsored study that looks inwardly at the institution’s own programs, policies, or teaching practices Indeed, this inward gaze is often apparent in discussions I have held with Cambodian TESOL lecturers who are looking to develop a research topic They rarely have the sense of possibility that their research might be of interest or value to teachers or researchers beyond their own institutions Or, perhaps, they see no reason why outsiders should gain access to research to which they (the outsiders) have not contributed To a Westerner, this kind of study might better be labelled program evaluation rather than research, and is notable for its findings not being made available to the public This is noteworthy in the case of teacher research because, as Freeman (1998) argues, one of its defining characteristics is that it be made public In the worldwide enterprise of TESOL, what is most highly valued as research is that which is publishable in international peer-reviewed journals written in the English language Many, if not all, TESOL academics (myself included) are busy with workloads that include research projects designed to achieve such publishable outputs This research takes many forms, ranging from positivist experiments to constructivist narratives and, increasingly, mixed-method combinations THE FORUM 339 (Nunan & Bailey, 2009) In any case, it is worth pausing to reflect on how well this state of affairs serves the majority of TESOL professionals, who work in multilingual environments in periphery (as opposed to inner circle) countries The debate about academic inequality in publishing the work of scholars from periphery countries (see TESOL Quarterly, 43(4)) is an important step in acknowledging the TESOL profession privileging the work of NS scholars and thereby reinforcing their dominance as role models Should there not also be a debate about what can count as research in a periphery country? Such a debate would include what knowledge is valued, and how that knowledge should be shared In the case of Cambodia, is it necessary to have an institution such as CamTESOL and its Selected Papers publication? In the absence of such an institution, would what counts as research be contested? WHAT COUNTS AS SUPPORT FOR RESEARCH? As pointed out by Holliday and Aboshiha (2009), ‘‘learner training’’ is not a neutral term (p 677) Any attempt by Western academics to assist or influence the development of a ‘‘research culture’’ in Cambodia (or elsewhere) carries with it the implicit values of Western academia It is the mismatch of these values in the Cambodian context, which accounts for what I have perceived to be a struggle to develop a research culture there Following the experience of my sabbatical, I was puzzled by several apparent contradictions about research activity in Cambodia For example, on the one hand, there seemed to be a strong interest in learning about research, as evidenced by good attendance at three CamTESOL ELT Research Group workshops that I facilitated (These workshops are typically held every few months on Sunday afternoons, one of the few times of the week that Cambodian English teachers are not working.) On the other hand, this interest did not translate into applications for available CamTESOL research grants to actually research under the supervision of foreign TESOL specialists A second example, concerning LLU, is that despite strong institutional support for TESOL lecturers to conduct research, very few lecturers took up the opportunity to undertake research projects under my supervision Indeed, only one pair of lecturers actually completed a project with regular input from me Apart from the possibility that these Cambodians did not want to work with me personally, as opposed to other foreign TESOL specialists, these examples suggest that perhaps the institutional framing of TESOL research support in Cambodia is somehow inappropriate Workshops, though apparently popular, not demand the level of commitment required of one-on-one mentoring, but neither they make anywhere 340 TESOL QUARTERLY near the same impact on developing the research skills of a novice researcher If the goal is to play the Western game of doing research, then the one-on-one model can be very effective, particularly if, through the mentoring process, the mentee learns enough about doing research to be able to undertake and successfully complete unsupervised projects in the future Indeed, that is the hope and expectation of the CamTESOL grant-funded projects, and the CamTESOL project that I supervised actually resulted in a featured speaker presentation at CamTESOL 2010 The uptake of such research might even improve if the mentor were a qualified local academic rather than an outsider By contrast, institutional preferences for top-down directives from program managers that are meant to generate research activity seem, from a Western perspective, to be misguided and unhelpful For example, the research coordinator at LLU actually prescribed research topics and the methodology to be followed, including the very questions to be used in an interview To sum up, on present evidence it could be that Cambodian TESOL professionals are curious about understanding research but not particularly interested in doing research After all, they have little time to spare from heavy teaching schedules, a financial disincentive to research (as it would be at the expense of paid teaching), and poor access to the resources needed To better understand this complex situation, a survey of the kind proposed by Borg (2009) is needed to provide insights into how research is perceived by TESOL professionals in Cambodia Only with such local knowledge can an informed debate take place about the best way(s) forward for nurturing and developing the community of TESOL researchers in Cambodia, and whether outsiders should play any role in that development process As a final point to raise in this discussion about the development of TESOL research in Cambodia, we should consider whether due to its traumatic history (of losing up to a quarter of its population during the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979, including the vast majority of its educated workforce), Cambodia represents a special case of deficit, one that unconditionally warrants Western leadership and intervention In 1994, when very few Cambodians could speak English and many were taught by teachers who barely knew more than their students, there can be no doubt that outside help was needed An ensuing culture of dependency may well have been an unintentional consequence of many foreign aid projects at that time, including EFL programs In contemporary Cambodia, however, the teaching of English no longer depends on foreign support, as evidenced by many educational institutions successfully delivering programs taught entirely by Cambodian staff With regard to research, on the other hand, it is harder to see the dependence on Western support (e.g., through THE FORUM 341 overseas scholarships and PhD training, or through CamTESOL training initiatives) becoming unyoked any time soon This is a pity, because it represents a lost opportunity for Cambodians to show more clearly what knowledge they value and how they think it is best shared CONCLUDING REMARKS This article has presented a brief history of the development of TESOL research in Cambodia over the past decade and a half It has sought to explore the issue of academic inequality in a periphery country by focusing on the relationship between Cambodian TESOL professionals and Western-inspired notions of what counts as authentic research; how it can (or should) be supported; and how (or if) it should be publicly available Whether there is truly an appetite for doing TESOL research in Cambodia is unclear, and consequently, so is the issue of any pressing need to such research What is clearer, however, is that any perceived struggle in TESOL research in Cambodia should not be seen as an inability on the part of Cambodian TESOL professionals to coalesce as a community of practice and develop a strong and sustainable Western-style research culture; rather, it is a struggle for non-Cambodians to attempt to understand, respect, and ultimately accept local research practices Furthermore, whereas the focus of this article has been on the Cambodian context, personal experience suggests that the same issues concerning the authenticity of research also occur, at least to some extent, elsewhere in Southeast Asia, and quite possibly even further afield Thus, TESOL professionals engaging in and with research from periphery countries will stand to benefit from reflecting on their own views and practices in light of the insights provided in this article ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the anonymous TESOL Quarterly reviewers for their very helpful comments on an earlier version of this article I am also indebted to a Cambodian reviewer and many Cambodian TESOL colleagues for sharing their experiences of conducting research in Cambodia THE AUTHOR Stephen Moore is a senior lecturer in the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University in Australia He teaches and researches across a broad range of fields in applied linguistics, including TESOL teacher education, discourse analysis, and language assessment He has been involved in ELT and language research in Cambodia since 1994 342 TESOL QUARTERLY REFERENCES Ahrens, L (2009) Postgrad studies are limited but on the rise Phnom Penh Post Education and Careers, 23 December 2009, p Allwright, D (1997) Quality and sustainability in teacher-research TESOL Quarterly, 31, 368–370 doi:10.2307/3588054 Atay, D (2008) Teacher research for professional development ELT Journal, 62(2), 139–147 doi:10.1093/elt/ccl053 Borg, S (2006) Conditions for teacher research English Teaching Forum, 44, 22–27 Borg, S (2009) English language teachers’ conceptions of research Applied Linguistics, 30(3), 358–388 doi:10.1093/applin/amp007 Burns, A (1999) Collaborative action research for English language teachers Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press Canagarajah, S (2009) In this issue TESOL Quarterly, 43(4), 565 Denham, P (Eds.) 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