LD SIG Realizing Autonomy Conference Proceedings

I N T ROD U C T ION
The Realizing Autonomy Conference, which was held on October 29th, 2011 at Nanzan
University, Nagoya, was a curious, Janus-faced event. On the one hand, looking backwards, theinitial rationale for such an event was to mark the publication by Palgrave Macmillan of theLearner Development Special Interest Group’s book, Realizing Autonomy: Practice and Reflectionin Language Education Contexts (2012). The three-year-long project of planning, writing, andediting a book had been a collaborative venture from the start, which entailed authors comingtogether at a weekend retreat to plan the book and later working together as readers of eachother’s chapters. The idea of a conference was to provide a further opportunity to draw on andcelebrate the energy and enthusiasm of that wonderful collective enterprise.
On the other hand, the conference provided not only an occasion for teachers to share current
and past practices and insights, but also to look to the future and consider new aspects of anddirections for enhancing learning. As Andy Barfield wryly suggested on the day, the prospect ofa Proceedings of the Conference of the book seems to take the notion of “spin-oﬀs” into therealm of the absurd. But, as we hope to show in this special issue of Learning Learning, each of
the articles that appears in these Proceedings represents the wide range of interests and typesof presentation at the conference and oﬀers insights and departures for practice and researchof autonomy and development in language education that are quite diﬀerent and new.
The conference started with a plenary session by Tim Murphey, and his article, “Autonomy,Agency, and Social Capital: Surfing the Altruistic Coral Reef Cafés On a 40-Mile Layer ofLife!” reflects the whimsical spirit of the talk. As the title implies, Tim’s article covers a lot ofground, ranging from the beginning of the history of mankind to the cyber-communities of the
21st century, and introduces us to a model he calls the dynamic dialectical adjustment harmonizerthat conceptualizes learning and growth as maintaining a healthy balance of autonomy andcommunity.
Tim’s initial overview paper is followed by three articles that present new research and theory.
Andy Barfield’s “Learners’ Changing Lexical Landscapes” is a thought-provoking piece thatraises questions about practices surrounding lexical development and their relation to learnerautonomy. His case study of Reiko illustrates the dynamic and increasingly purposeful way inwhich one autonomous learner seeks to refine a method for recording vocabulary that she
wants to learn.
A second research paper by Clair Taylor, Daniel Beck, Darrel Hardy, Keiko Omura, Michael
Stout and Gerald Talandis Jr., entitled “Encouraging Students to Engage in Learning Outside
the Classroom”, describes an initiative to implement a program-wide practice involving the useof stamp cards to ensure students take advantage of the self-access facilities the university
oﬀers. A particularly interesting feature of this article is its investigation into the eﬀects of thestamp card system over a two-year period, which not only highlights the incremental rewards

Special Issue of Learning Learning, Volume 19, Issue 2, July 2012（学習の学習特別号）!

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LD SIG Realizing Autonomy Conference Proceedings

from the innovation, but also reveals the continuing resistance to change and diﬃculty ofcreating a new culture at the university.
Next, Steven Paydon introduces a new model of classroom learning motivation, based on
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. As in his conference workshop, Steve illustrates his theory byshowing how various motivating classroom practices relate to this model: from fulfilling basic
needs for security through a need for a supportive community to a pinnacle of personal growthand learning.
These articles are followed by two reflections on the conference. The first by Robert Moreauand Jackie Suginaga takes the form of a dialogue about their workshop session on selfreflective practices for teacher development. The second is Naoko Harada’s reflection, inspiredby the image Tim Murphey presented in his plenary of a flying turtle, on the role of positive
self-talk when facing challenges of the unfamiliar or the seemingly impossible.
The final paper in this collection is the second plenary session, “Practices of Criticality, CriticalThinking, and Learner Autonomy”, which was given by Richard Pemberton and Mike Nix.
This is a very special paper, both because it shifts the parameters of learner autonomy research
towards the content of education and because it is Richard’s final publication. At theconference, Richard and Mike’s plenary was movingly introduced by Andy Barfield. His
introduction is reproduced here in the same order as on that day. Andy has also compiled forthis issue a profile of Richard’s life and work, and this stands as the final entry in theseProceedings.
Although we end the Proceedings by looking back at Richard’s life, we hope and trust that hislegacy—his lifelong commitment to respecting learners and their development, and hisenduring positive influence on students, colleagues and friends—will continue well into thefuture. We hope that you will enjoy the Realizing Autonomy Conference Proceedings, not only
as a record of what transpired in Nagoya on the day, but also as an inspiration and motivation
for developing your own understanding and practices of learner development.

Alison Stewart & Kay Irie

Acknowledgement
We would like to express our gratitude to Hugh Nicoll and Martha Robertson for proofreadingand Darren Elliott for the cover photo.
To cite this article: Stewart, A., & Irie, K. (2012). Introduction. In K. Irie & A. Stewart (Eds.), Proceedings ofthe JALT Learner Development SIG Realizing Autonomy Conference, [Special issue] Learning Learning, 19(2), 2-3.
Retrieved from http://ld-sig.org/LL/19two/stewart-irie.pdf

Special Issue of Learning Learning, Volume 19, Issue 2, July 2012（学習の学習特別号）!

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