Teacher Agency as Emergent: Between Past Critical Incidents, Present Constraints, and Future Aspirations

• In Event: Division K Section 2 Paper Session

Abstract

Teacher agency tends to be studied in relation to a predefined goal, with a dismissal of teachers’ situatedness (their personal biographies and socio-political constraints), thus the subtle forms of agency could go unnoticed. This study builds on a theoretical framework that is ethical, inclusive, critical, and hopeful to attend to the various forms of agency that emerge for the differently situated teachers in Egypt within life’s critical incidents. This study employs critical phenomenology and includes timeline interviews with thirty teachers. Findings reveal how teachers had strong inclinations of agency for anti-oppressive education that are highly inspired by oppressive moments in their own childhood. This study has promising implications for teacher education and empirical research on teacher agency.

Author

• Nashwa Moheyeldine Khedr, University of British Columbia