Teachers' Agentic Orientations to Educational Change

• In Event: Understanding the Transformative Power of Teacher and Student Agency in Changing Educational Contexts

Abstract

Objectives
Teacher agency is an important mediator of educational change (Engeström, 2011). It is hence important to understand the dynamics of teacher agency and conditions that contribute to its emergence, particularly in times of educational change.

This paper examines teacher agency in making sense of an educational change effort in two Finnish schools. Specifically, we examine agentic orientations in the teachers’ accounts while they reflect on the uptake of a new digital learning environment, called the FUSE Studio (Stevens, et al., 2016) at their schools as part of the adaptation to the new core curriculum. The FUSE Studio is a choice-based digital platform designed to promote students’ interest in science. Our study asks; What kind of agentic orientations to educational change do teachers display while they reflect on the uptake of a new learning environment in their schools? How are different temporal dimensions of agency displayed in teachers’ accounts?

Theoretical framework
Informed by sociocultural theorizing (authors, 2011), agency is viewed as an interactional process that results from the interplay of individual efforts, available resources and contextual and structural elements (Biesta & Tedder, 2007). In specific, we focus on how agentic orientations are composed of routine, projective and judgmental dimensions where past, present and future interact (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998).

Methods and data sources
The empirical data derive from two public schools situated in culturally and socioeconomically heterogeneous suburbs of Helsinki. The data comprise thirteen teachers’ accounts derived from semi-structured interviews conducted before and after the implementation of the FUSE studio. The interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis (Kvale & Brinkmann 2009). We focused on passages in which the teachers displayed agentic orientations towards the FUSE Studio, indicated by critical evaluations or attempts to reconstruct one’s conditions of work. We identified the temporal dimensions of agency: past (preference of routine and habitual ways of working), future (reference to educational ideals or future events), and present (considering the pressing here-and-now realities of the school).

Results
Our analysis revealed four agentive orientations with distinct temporal dimensions of agency. Firstly, the practical-evaluative orientation emphasized the contextualization of the educational change in the practical realities and actual details of the teachers’ work. Secondly, through the reproductive orientation the change effort was appropriated within a habitual pedagogical framework that placed value on existing practices by considering how they could be implemented in the new learning arrangement. Thirdly, the critical-projective orientation helped the teachers to articulate their criticism of the current pedagogical practices in the school. Fourthly, through the creative-projective orientation, the teachers used the FUSE Studio as a springboard to realize their long-term pedagogical visions and goals.

Scientific significance
Overall, our findings suggest that a temporal approach is vital for developing a more nuanced understanding of the meaning-making processes teachers go through during their possibly agentive adaptation to education reforms. The knowledge generated will contribute to present-day knowledge of the resources and support mechanisms that mediate teachers’ work and agency in times of educational change.

Authors

• Antti Juhani Rajala, University of Oulu

• Kristiina P. Kumpulainen, University of Helsinki