(Il)Legitimate Knowledge in English Language Education Research

Abstract

This chapter discusses the nature of legitimate knowledge in English language education research, arguing that what counts as knowledge in the field is a hugely contested matter. Our search for legitimate knowledge through objective and scientific means in research is far from being objective and disinterested. The problem is not simply the use of methods in research, but what methods count and do not count which, in turn, have implications for (de)legitimizing knowledge and evidence. The commoditization of knowledge in competitive markets outside the academe demands that the research predispositions of scholars and students be (re)aligned with a scientific habitus – disciplined, rigorous, and methodical – in order for them to be credible and for their research to be marketable. Therefore, the aim of this chapter is to trace a specific trajectory of the delegitimization of knowledge in (English) language education research, and then call for the greater democratization of knowledge production in the field, for example by recognizing that scholars and writers operate on radically different understandings of what methodology is.