Exploring Critical and Transformative Teacher Educator Agency: Competing Contexts

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 12:40 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Design-Based Research and Transformative Practices: Cultivating Teacher Educator Agency and Professional Growth (Table 11)

Abstract

Despite the prevalence of justice-oriented teacher preparation, there is a gap between teacher educators’ espoused beliefs, practices, and the broader contexts that impact their work. Through the lens of critical and transformative teacher educator agency, we explore the interplay among justice-oriented teacher educators’ agentic capacities and contexts that support or hinder their practices. In this qualitative study, we analyze focus groups/interview data from 35 teacher educators in six U.S. states. Findings suggest that the relationships between contexts and described practices are complex; there is not a linear path between teacher educators who described more supportive state contexts, commitments, and their practices. This study sheds light on how teacher educators navigate multiple competing contexts to achieve professional agency. 

Authors

• Emilie Mitescu Reagan, Claremont Graduate University

• A. Lin Goodwin, Boston College

• Elyse Hambacher, University of Florida

• Andrew Pau Hoang, Hong Kong University

• Mayeen Quader, University of California - Riverside

• Rachel Roegman, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Jalea Turner, University of Florida

• Laura Vernikoff, Touro University

• Geying Zhang, Boston College