Practical and theoretical considerations as a researcher-teacher: reflections on a bidialectal programme involving Singlish in a secondary school

Abstract

This paper is an exercise in reflection on my role as a researcher-teacher, while designing and implementing a qualitative study in a secondary school in Singapore. The first study of its kind locally, I designed and taught a bidialectal programme with Singlish as a resource to facilitate the teaching of Standard English. The 8-week programme was delivered to two classes of Secondary One students (13 year olds) in a mainstream secondary school, between July to August 2019. In this reflection, I first conceptualize gaining access as part of the research project, resulting in a research design that involved myself as a researcher-teacher. The nature of Singlish then posed particular issues when it came to designing teaching materials for students, even as certain aspects of classroom teaching went well. I discuss my dual position as researcher-teacher in the data collection process, before addressing the importance of and how I shifted between analytic familiarity and distance from the data. It is hoped that being transparent about the research process in this fashion will strengthen the field and be useful to fellow researchers embarking on similar studies.