Achieving Teacher Agency: A Collaborative Self-Study of Doctoral Students' First-Time Teaching Experience in Higher Education

• In Event: Using Self-Study to Ask Hard Questions About Being and Belonging

Abstract

As doctoral students in educational psychology, we employed collaborative self-study to investigate how we strived to achieve teacher agency throughout our first-time teaching experiences in higher education. Our study is conceptually grounded in Biesta et al.’s (2015) achievement of the teacher agency model in terms of iterational, practice-evaluative, and projective dimensions. We developed semi-structured interview questions and conducted analysis by incorporating essential concepts from self-study of teacher education practices (S-STEP). Our findings indicate that the development of novice teachers’ agency can be supported through considering: 1) contextual supports; 2) teachers’ roles; and 3) psychological factors. The current study highlights the value of studying teacher agency in novice teachers’ professional development

Authors

• Xingya Xu, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  Presenting Author

• Sara A. Field, George Mason University
  Presenting Author