In the contents of the teachers’ narratives (chapter 4); in the research they conduct (chapter 5A); and in the classroom practices they claim are effective (chapter 5B), there is a marked concern, on the part of the SS teachers represented, with addressing the specific needs of adolescent learners by paying attention ‘to their attitudes, values, how they see the world - in short, to their reality’ (Widdowson, 2011, p. 12). With the exception of the work of a few mainstream researchers (see below), this specific concern for adolescent SS learners is, quite aberrantly, absent from mainstream research agenda. This situation, Faltis (1999) maintains, is reflected in the USA with respect to bilingualism and ESL at the SS level, which he describes as ‘the most unexamined and most overlooked areas of education in the United States’ (p. 1). Yet, as learners, adolescents have very specific cognitive, emotional and social needs.

Whatever is currently affecting the political and socio-economic life of the community ( Episodes 3 and 4 ) and whatever goes on regularly outside the classroom, irrespective of political, social or economic change ( Episodes 1, 2 and 5 ), will, for better or worse, influence what goes on in the classroom. Pete and Gloria ( Episodes 2 and 5 ) put it to good use. For Kate ( Episode 1 ), it was like a tsunami, which completely submerged her lesson; and, for Lilia and Zofia ( Episodes 3 and 4 ), it caused, in the case of the former, bewilderment and, in the case of the latter, elation. If given the opportunities to share, during TD programmes and in TESOL literature (see Appleby, 2010), how they exploit or deal with these outside realities in the classroom, teachers are likely to acquire a keener understanding of their own practices. At the very least, they should feel less alone when facing any challenges the realities may present.

Despite the pressures they are under from major global economic powers, national governments, industry and big business, it is all the more noteworthy that teachers in this study reveal a determination to persevere with the notion of a broad liberal humanist education, which they do not sacrifice to the whims and volatility of the ultimately soul-destroying demands of the labour market (Ben-Peretz, 2001). What’s more, they often pursue, or endeavour to pursue, their vocational goals in conditions where the curricula are exclusively test-oriented or where management has long since abandoned its concern for providing learners, through the teaching of all subjects on the school curriculum, with strategies for living a good life.

Second, the research into curriculum design reported by Fang (2012) and Kim (2012) indicates that problems teachers encountered with curriculum reforms in China and South Korea are similar to those in other regions of the globe, for example, Eastern Europe and Latin America ( see Episode 3, chapter 3, p. 76 and Narrative 1, chapter 4, p. 111 ). Not least among those problems are the uncompensated-for increase in teachers’ workloads; the stress teachers experience because they and other stakeholders have not been properly prepared for the innovation; the absence of fit between the innovations and the contents of national tests and university entrance examinations; and, in the case of Kim’s research, the negative effect of the reform on adolescent learners’ self-esteem, self-confidence and motivation.

For the grassroots SS teacher researchers of EFL represented in all these research projects, the route to successful teaching and learning is not, in the first instance, predicated solely on major curriculum reform or on techniques or technology; rather, it follows a path which starts with the teachers' sensitive appreciation of the context of teaching and learning, and follows a trajectory where success hinges on the establishment and maintenance of mutually nurturing teacher-student relationships.

The absence of recognition of teachers is, what’s more, to the detriment of teachers’ well being (Scholes Gillings de González, 2011) as, in the case of many reforms, teachers are being forced into the role of ‘… a standardised performer of tasks increasingly defined by others’ (Goodson, 2006, p. 261) and, ‘seem to be regarded as mere deliverers of content that is not related to students’ lives, as trainers in skills that do not necessarily help students cope with issues they face every day’ (Echeverri Sucerquia & Pérez Restrepo, 2014, p.174). This enforced robotic role damages not just the professional but also the emotional lives of teachers as it denies them the expression of the identity they wish to claim as their own. As a result, the communal identity of grassroots SS teachers of EFL with its deeply embedded commitment to educating fully rounded and emotionally stable SS graduates remains very much on the margins of the TESOL mainstream.