‘Finally, it's all in vain’: A Chinese as an additional language teacher's agency in navigating the teaching-research nexus in a neoliberal Chinese university

Abstract

The neoliberal emphasis on performance metrics, such as research outputs and citations, has weakened the symbiotic relationship between teaching and research in language education. However, language teachers' experiences of navigating the challenge that neoliberalism creates for the teaching-research nexus have been largely absent, with the existing literature predominantly focusing on documenting the impact of neoliberalism on research and teaching. This narrative case study aims to address this gap by tracing a Chinese as an additional language (CAL) teacher's agency in navigating the teaching-research nexus in a neoliberal Chinese university. Based on data from three rounds of interviews, informal conversations, notes, and policy documents, this study identified a noticeable shift in the participant's narrated experiences, progressing from active engagement with research to enhance teaching practices, to pragmatic engagement in research for scholarly publication, and eventually to disenchanted retreat from the academic battlefield. This trajectory highlights the escalating challenges faced by the participant in navigating the teaching-research nexus. Practical implications are discussed to strengthen the link between teaching and research in language education in the neoliberal context.