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This book highlights that language matters permeate all areas of higher education and that language matters for everyone involved in academic institutions: in policy, in teaching and learning, in administration, in research and in leadership. The chapters in this volume address national, institutional and local levels, and range from legal texts to students' and teachers' stories across disciplines. It provides a useful picture for all those who work in the various fields of higher education. Contributors are: Britt-Marie Apelgren, Tove Bull, Josep Maria Cots, Ann-Marie Eriksson, Sylva Frisk, Lídia Gallego-Balsà, Peter Garrett, Linnea Hanell, Luke Holmes, Niina Hynninen, Kathrin Kaufhold, Maria Kuteeva, Ragnhild Ljosland, Heidi Rontu, Taina Saarinen, Linus Salö and Susanne Strömberg Jämsvi.

The aim of this book is to bring teacher research to the centre of attention in educational research. Knowledge generated by researching teachers and teacher researchers--often in collaboration with university researchers--identifying new and innovative research methodologies and theories, feeds directly back into theorising practice and the practice of theory that is necessary to improve student learning.

By weaving together the broad range of empirical and conceptual examples of research from local academic European settings presented in the book Language Matters in Higher Education Contexts: Policy and Practice, this chapter reflects on how European higher education is permeated by, and entangled with, language matters, and how such matters are tightly interwoven with, for example, internationalisation and societal responsibility in higher education contexts.

The introductory chapter is designed to set the scene for the different contributing chapters in the book Language Matters in Higher Education Contexts – Policy and Practice. Two overarching themes, ‘internationalisation’ and ‘societal responsibility,’ are identified in relation to language matters in higher education. These themes are both intertwined and nestled together, which sometimes causes significant tensions or fluxing borders. Within these chapters, researchers from different higher education institutions in several European countries bring up emerging and current language issues relating to the ever-increasing urge for universities to be and become international.

This thesis examines Swedish foreign language teachers' personal teaching theories and experiences of change in teaching during their careers. The study adopts an eclectic theoretical framework, drawing on the approaches of phenomenology, phenomenography and personal construct psychology. It explores the many different kinds of changes a teacher faces during her or his career. This includes subject-related changes, curricular changes as well as more personal-related professional changes. The thesis also deals with the relation between EFL-teachers' experiences of self and non-self, and how this influences the teachers' willingness and capacity to change. In order to achieve this, four aspects of the teachers' lifeworlds are explored, through the techniques of questionnaire, career-rivers, career stories and focused interviews.The thesis examines the individuals' personal conceptions and constructions of the nature of EFL and EFL-teaching. It then compares this analysis with the teachers' constructions of what constitutes foreign language teaching in general, as well as how they view their own teaching and themselves as EFL-teachers. Finally, it links the analysis so far with change in constructions of EFL-teaching and self. This involves the researcher moving between teachers' different dimensions of lived experiences. Thus, the teachers' construction of the subject (EFL), their teaching and the experiences of change are drawn together and discussed in relation to the phenomenological concept of intentionality.In the findings four major themes are identified in the teachers' experiences of change and development: (1) gaining inspiration from external sources, (2) adapting to new directives, (3) interacting with colleagues, and (4) adopting perspectives from more experienced teachers. In addition, qualitatively different ways of experiencing language teaching are found. The teachers in this study show four orientations towards language teaching: (1) 'teaching as a mutual affair', (2) 'teaching as guiding with an invisible hand', (3) 'teaching as a social activity, and (4) 'teaching as being a captain on a ship'.As this study falls within the constructivist tradition, it places importance on identifying from the teachers' perspectives their experiences of having participated in the research. The findings indicate that participation has helped in enabling the participants to reflect and recollect their everyday teaching, leading to a professional perspective of themselves. Categories of descriptions in the findings could therefore function as 'models' or points of departure for discussions with colleagues in schools and staff development.