“I Will Stick to My Guns”: Preservice Teachers’ Thinking About Agency and Professional Decisions

• In Event: Roundtable Session 95
  In Roundtable Session: Research on the Development of Teacher Beliefs, Knowledge, and Efficacy

Abstract

This qualitative study investigated eight preservice teachers’ thinking about personal agency. This was a case study design that was conducted in a semester-long undergraduate methods course. This study used Bandura’s (2001) work that is concerned with the cognitive aspects of human agency as a theoretical lens. The data suggests that participants prioritized certain discourses in thinking about their curriculum decisions, assessment development, professional acceptance, and resilience. This study demonstrates that a conflict in their thinking between two types of discourse began during their teacher education courses. This conflict is especially apparent in half of the participants’ thinking about assessment development and professional acceptance and represents the degrees to which some participants would possibly relinquish personal agency to make professional decisions.

Author

• J. Spencer Clark, Utah State University