The TESOL Research Professional Council (RPC) invites proposals for the TESOL Research Directions Fair during the TESOL International Convention and Expo 2025. The speakers of the accepted proposals will be invited as panelists in this session that focuses on the directions of Teaching Methods and/or Research Education and Literacy.

TESOL Research Directions (Curtis et al., 2024) is an initiative that constituted the Association's research directions – Research Education and Literacy, Emerging Educational Technologies, Teaching Methods, and Professional Learning. These directions provide a road map for TESOL members to shape their research agendas. One of the further steps to be taken is to “promote engagement in collaborative research” (p. 18), which calls for developing sustainable and participatory frameworks for classroom-based research.

To this end, equitable research collaborations between educators in various roles (e.g., teachers, researchers, teacher educators, administrators, educational consultants, and so on) and across communities have gained importance. By equitable research collaborations, we refer to an understanding that promotes reflexive development and knowledging together in classroom-based research rather than underscoring a unidirectional transfer of knowledge traditionally from university-based researchers to frontline teachers. There are established forms such as Action Research (Burns, 2010; Dikilitas & Yayli, 2018), Exploratory Practice (Allwright & Hanks, 2009), or Lesson Study (Cajkler et al., 2014; Dudley, 2014). However, the diversity and inclusivity of multilingual TESOL also allow for the development of similar but non-established frameworks. Accordingly, language educators come together to develop and advance effective teaching methods for their communities. Their engagement may help language educators advance Multilingual TESOL (Taylor, 2009) by devising language teaching pedagogies advocating diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in multilingual and multicultural classrooms across the globe.

Highlighting the impact of equitable research partnerships for Multilingual TESOL, this panel will feature locally informed partnerships among language educators from diverse backgrounds. The session encourages candidates to focus on the following questions:
- How can equitable research partnerships develop multilingual pedagogies in language classrooms?
- What benefits can such partnerships bring for multilingual learners?
- How can those partnerships influence language classrooms in the underrepresented contexts?
- What methods and pedagogies can equitable research partnerships develop for underprivileged or differently-abled learners?
- What are the roles of professional organizations in creating such partnerships?
- How can equitable research partnerships uncover and affect language educators’ language awareness?
- How do research collaborations and communities inform a culture of research in TESOL?