A framework for language specialist and content teacher collaboration in Turkish EMI university settings

Abstract

Abstract Although the efficacy levels of interdisciplinary teacher collaboration attained at pre-university level are well documented, research in higher education contexts is still scarce. Macaro et al. (2016) earlier reported on a quasi-experimental intervention project conducted in Türkiye with an objective to promote collaboration between nine pairs of English language specialists and content teachers from four universities, and the analyses of the pre- and post-intervention interviews suggested that this sort of collaboration can be highly beneficial. This paper, however, puts the research tool, the Collaborative Planning Tool (CPT), into perspective by describing a learning-centred approach to research design as a way to better understand interdisciplinary teacher collaboration. By re-examining the extant research data (audio-recorded discussions of 72 collaborative planning sessions), this paper presents new findings (clustered under three emerging themes: use of the CPT; interplay between language and content; and the role of feedback in lesson planning), suggesting that the CPT can provide an effective framework for interdisciplinary teacher collaboration in EMI university settings. A discussion of the concept of quality in EMI is also presented.