Critical Teacher Agency: Transformative Teaching and Learning

• In Event: 54.050 - Working Toward Teacher Ownership and Meaningful School Improvement

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between a culture of teacher ownership and teacher agency. Specifically we explored the conditions necessary to create an environment that supports teachers’ agency and strengthens teachers’ voice in order to sustain a culture of ownership. We further explore the concept of critical teacher agency that we define as an agency that aims to transform the classroom and school oppressive practices in addition to working in solidarity with students to change structures of domination outside of the school walls. Teachers use their agency at their schools to set an agenda that results in students who think critically of their world and seek out ways to transform it for the better.

This paper uses a critical pedagogy framework that views education as a practice of freedom (hooks, 1994). From this perspective, classrooms are settings were both students and teachers are empowered to be self-fulfilled and work towards the dismantling of oppression. We affirm that teaching is more than just the transmission of knowledge from teacher to student but instead is the continual exchange of learning and teaching that occurs in a classroom where all become, as Freire states, “teacher-students and student-teachers” (Freire, 1970). Through an emancipatory education, teachers can see their profession as one that changes the world where students are critical thinkers and where students can see the importance in engaging in the world.

Across participating survey and case study sites, teachers indicated that they felt their voice was heard. Indeed, approximately two-thirds of teachers indicated that they felt they had a voice in influencing the direction of the school. Teachers felt most strongly that they could influence the development of teaching strategies that best met the needs of their students, and designing and deepening instruction, with 87% of teachers “agreeing” or “strongly agreeing” that they could influence these decisions. We also found that through a range of structures and practices, like teacher-led professional development, intentional hiring practices, and a well developed purpose and mission, schools were able to create critical agents of change within their teaching staff.

In a time when popular discourse around teachers is centered on effectiveness (based largely on test scores), we found that teachers within this school site are challenging the dominant narrative and providing a transformative experience for the school community as a whole. Supported through a vision and purpose of self-actualization, teachers were able to practice critical teacher agency in their classrooms, as leaders in their school, and as members of the larger community.

Authors

• Ruth María Lopez, University of Houston

• Vianna Alcantara, Annenberg Institute for School Reform