Vol.:(0123456789) New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies https://doi.org/10.1007/s40841-019-00150-3 1 3 ARTICLE Negotiating the Teaching‑Research Nexus: A Case of Classroom Teaching in an MEd Program Yongyan Li 1  · Danling Li 1  · Weipeng Yang 2  · Hui Li 3 Received: 23 August 2019 / Accepted: 18 November 2019 © New Zealand Association for Research in Education 2019 Abstract This paper reports a case study of the manifestation of the teaching-research nexus in a research-active professor’s classroom teaching of a research methods course tar- geting a cohort of Master of Education (MEd) students in early childhood education (ECE). The study was conducted at a research-intensive English-medium university in Hong Kong where excellence in both teaching and research is emphasized. Data were gathered through classroom observation and interviews with the focal partici- pant. Data analyses showed that in teaching the research methods course the focal professor aimed to train the students to become critical ‘consumers’ and novice ‘producers’ of research through a ‘PBL-triple’—problem-based, practice-based, and project-based—approach, and his identity as a prolifc researcher also infuenced his class teaching. Our study contributes to the literature by providing a new perspective on research-teaching relationships from the classroom. Keywords Teaching-research nexuses · Research-active academics · Knowledge building · Research methods course · Master of Education Introduction The teaching-research nexus is a ‘classic issue’ in higher education (Mägi and Beerkens 2016, p. 254), and the interest among researchers and policy-makers to try to understand the complicated relationship between teaching and research has remained strong to this day, as shown in a range of literature reviews on the topic (e.g., Malcolm 2013; Tight 2016). In recent times, the signifcance of the nexus has * Yongyan Li yongyan@hku.hk 1 Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China 2 S R Nathan School of Human Development, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore, Singapore 3 Department of Educational Studies, Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, NSW, Australia