THE LEARNER DEVELOPMENT JOURNAL
学習者ディベロップメント研究部会誌
https://ldjournal.ld-sig.org

The Learner Development Journal Issue 9
Theme: Engaging With and Exploring Autonomy, Creativity,and Well-Being for Learner Development
Call for Stories of Practices and Practice-Related Reviews
Deadline: February 4th, 2024
Email: LDJ.Issue9@gmail.com
Editors: Stacey Vye, Rob Moreau, Amelia Yarwood, Ivan Lombardi
We are language teachers and practitioner researchers who share a common interest inlearner autonomy, creativity, and the well-being of teachers and learners alike. For Issue
9 of the Learner Development Journal (LDJ9), we would like to bring together a group ofpractitioners who are actively engaged in exploring learner development and who areeager to discuss questions and puzzles related to their practice.

Overview
If you are interested in exploring questions like the following, please consider submitting a
proposal for LDJ9:
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What puzzles do you have about developing the interconnections between learnerautonomy, creativity, and well-being?
How might you bring those pieces together in engaging projects and understand them in
new ways?
What are your experiences as practitioners in such engagements with your learners (and/or with other people that you work with)?
How do we/you/our learners break through into new practices, spaces, and ways ofcreative participation in learning?
What challenges and questions come up for you and your learners in these processes ofchange in learner development? Why?
What stories of practice would you and/or your learners like to share and develop to
foster autonomy, creativity, and well-being for learner development?

For LDJ9, we would very much like to bring together a group of practitioners (teachersand students/learners) to create an original collection of stories of practices for learnerdevelopment and of practice-related reviews on interrelationships between autonomy,creativity, and well-being.
We warmly invite contributions from diverse areas of language education from primarythrough to tertiary, and/or in other relevant contexts, in Japan and other countries.
Prospective contributors should focus on practitioners’ and students’ stories andreflections, both individual and collective, generated in practice and explored throughinquiry, reflection, and practitioner research.
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Possible areas of activity and inquiry
We hope contributors will be interested in exploring areas such as:•••••••

Multimodal learner development projects and activities that involve visual arts, music,drama, poetry, photography, video, literature, manga, anime, or other creative arts
Community-based projects and activities where teachers and learners engage with localorganizations/organisations, communities, and networks, foster creativity together, anddevelop their sense of well-being
Experiences with mindfulness practices for learner development like guided meditation,reflective journaling, collaborative dialogues, and personal story-sharing
Working with digital storytelling tools to create and share stories of autonomy, creativity,and well-being for learner development
Learners’ and teachers’ experiences with translanguaging and how they relate totranslanguaging for developing well-being in learning communities
Learners’ creative engagement with critical theories (e.g., critical race, gender,intersectionality, disability theories) within the classroom and different social spaces
Innovative and holistic assessment practices that embrace creativity and well-being
as areas of focus in helping teachers and learners reflect on and understand theirdevelopment from new whole-person perspectives.

If there are other areas of activity and inquiry that appeal to you about engaging with andexploring interrelationships between autonomy, creativity, and well-being, then please feel
free to contact us by email <LDJ.Issue9@gmail.com> ahead of sending in your proposal.
Many thanks!

Developing a community of practices together
Our aim is to make the collaborative process of LDJ9 supportive and inclusive by creatinga stimulating and enjoyable community of practice for practitioner research andstory writing. We warmly encourage co-constructed inquiries, co-authorship, and joint
participation of students/learners in stories and writing.
As a contributor to LDJ9, you will be expected to collaborate with other contributors
at different points in the development of your practices, explorations, practitionerresearch, and writing, for example, engaging in discussions of your practices, sharing
writing, responding to each other’s drafts, and taking part in online and/or face-to-faceconversations.

Writing with a personalized/personalised reflective quality
LDJ9 will feature two main types of writing: STORIES OF PRACTICES & PRACTICE-RELATEDREVIEWS. Both genres invite contributors to experiment with narrative and reflection inpersonalised/personalized ways.
(1) With STORIES OF PRACTICES at 4,000-5,000 words, we are looking for around 6-10
contributions, each with a strong personalised/personalized reflective quality. We invite
contributors to LDJ9 to:
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ground their writing in practice-driven concerns and questions that they have aboutengaging with and exploring projects for learner autonomy, creativity, and well-being
write their stories in personalized/personalised, reflective ways
include different voicesrelate their stories to arguments and debates in the wider field where appropriate, andwrite questioningly to construct their critical understanding and reflection on practices,
discourses, and theorisations/theorizations to do with exploring learner autonomy,
creativity, and well-being for learner development.
2•write in your preferred variety of English that supports your creative flow. Your editors will
honour/honor your distinct written voice.

Stores of Practices may include reader responses, artifacts/artefacts, and other multi-vocalic
elements to help make your writing interactive and dialogic. We encourage contributors toconsider how they might use narrative, critical incidents, dialog/dialogue, interview, andother interactive elements (for example, visual, video, web, multimodal, digital, multimedia)
to enhance the personalized/personalised and reflective quality of their stories.
(2) For PRACTICE-RELATED REVIEWS, we would like to include reflective commentaries
of around 2,500-3,000 words that relate your review of one of the following publishedbooks to your own local learner development practices and concerns. Here we hope to
get an inspection copy to share with you. You are welcome to focus on specific chapters/
parts in a particular book:Learner Autonomy
Murray, G., & Lamb, T. (2018). Space, place and autonomy in language learning. Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781317220909-1
Little, D., Dam, L., & Legenhausen, L. (2017). Language learner autonomy: Theory, practice andresearch. Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783098606
Creativity
Jones, R. H., & Richards, J. C. (Eds.) (2016). Creativity and language teaching: Perspectives fromresearch and practice. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315730936
Resnick, L. (2017). Lifelong kindergarten: Cultivating creativity through projects, passion, peers,and play. MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11017.001.0001
Well-Being
Lemon, N. (Ed.). (2022). Creative expression and wellbeing in higher education: Making
and movement as mindful moments of self-care. Taylor & Francis. https://doi.
org/10.4324/9781003207863
Project-Based Learning
Gras-Velázquez, A. (Ed.) (2019). Project-based learning in second language acquisition.
Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429457432

Staged development of research and writing
Rather than working exclusively towards a full draft from the outset, we feel it is moreproductive and enriching to build on, re-work, and extend your stories of practices andpractice-related reviews in stages through sharing incomplete drafts, discussing them,and getting peer responses from other contributors. This will be in addition to receiving
later feedback from LDJ Review Network members, and the LDJ9 editors.
For LDJ9 the proposed schedule is:oposed stages of development:
1. NOTIFICATION OF ACCEPTANCE: Sunday, February 18th, 2024
2. FIRST PIECES OF WRITING: Stories of practices: 1,200-1,500 words; Practice-relatedreviews: 600-1,000 words; peer responses (April/May 2024)
3. SECOND PIECES OF WRITING (building on, re-working, and extending the first piece):
Stories of practices: 2,500-3,000 words; practice-related reviews: 1,200-1,800 words;
peer responses. Choice of blind peer or open review by LDJ Review Network members(September/October 2024, with review in November/December 2024)
4. THIRD PIECES OF WRITING (building on, re-working, and extending the second piece):Stories of practices: Full drafts of 4,000 to 5,000 words; practice-related reviews: Fulldrafts of 2,500-3,000 words (February/March 2025)
35. FINALIZATION/FINALISATION OF ALL TEXTS: Includes abstracts and keywords (Englishand Japanese or another language), statement of the review process (open or blind
peer review - see below), and author bios (English and Japanese or another language)(June, July, August 2025)
PUBLICATION: The digital journal will be made available on the Learner Development
Journal website, with copies sent to contributors (October/November 2025)
Choice of open or blind peer review
In keeping with established LDJ practices, contributors have a choice between blind peer
review and open peer review by members of the Review Network and guest reviewers
invited for LDJ9. For more details, see https://ldjournal.ld-sig.org/peer-review-process/.

Initial inquiries and proposals (Deadline Sunday, February 4th, 2024)
1. If you wish to check anything with us ahead of sending in your proposal, please email
the editors at: <LDJ.Issue9@gmail.com>, and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
2. The deadline for all proposals is Sunday, February 4th, 2024.
3. For your proposal, please include the following information in a Word .docx.
Name(s):Institutional affiliation(s) and country:
E-mail address(es):Member of JALT Learner Development SIG? Yes/No
Proposal guideline: Start with a brief story about yourself and your working (or studying)
context(s), and your interest in engaging projects with learner autonomy, creativity, andwell-being for learner development through inclusive practitioner research. Indicate which
type of writing you plan to do:
For STORIES OF PRACTICES, write around 500-600 words to introduce your ideas andproposed focus. Include also your experiences and/or concerns about writing in apersonalised/personalized reflective way.
For PRACTICE-RELATED REVIEWS, write about 300 words, identifying the book you areinterested in reviewing and why, and focusing on practices and questions that you plan
to relate your review to.
4. Send your completed proposal as a Word .docx attachment to the editors at<LDJ.Issue9@gmail.com> using the tag line [NAME/S]_LDJ9_Contribution***Contacting us
If you have any questions or concerns along the way, please feel free to email us at <LDJ.
Issue9@gmail.com>, and we will get back to you as soon as we can. The Call for Proposals
will be officially released in early December, 2023, on different email discussion lists,
Facebook, and other social media platforms, as well as on the LDJ website: https://ldjournal.
ld-sig.org/
Looking forward to hearing from you —Best regards
Stacey Vye, Saitama University, Saitama, Japan
Rob Moreau, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan
Amelia Yarwood, Research Institute for Learner Autonomy Education (RILAE), Chiba, Japan
Ivan Lombardi, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan
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