Reclaiming Teacher Agency through Teranga: A Culturally Grounded Participatory Action Research Study in Senegal

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 9:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Lead Where You Are: Collaboration and Pedagogical Innovation in Context

Abstract

This study explores how Teacher Participatory Action Research (TPAR), grounded in the culturally rooted Teranga framework, can foster teacher agency, reflective practice, and contextually responsive English language instruction in Senegal. Through iterative cycles of planning, action, observation, and reflection, six in-service teachers engaged as co-researchers to address local pedagogical challenges shaped by standardized curricula and rigid curriculum packages. The Teranga framework, centered on cultural identity, community connectedness, and collective knowledge-building, guided the research design and methodology. Findings highlight how TPAR supported teachers in resisting top-down mandates, adapting instruction to learners’ sociolinguistic realities, and reclaiming epistemic agency. The study offers critical insights into the decolonization of teacher professional learning and curriculum reform in postcolonial, low- and middle-income contexts.

Author

• Oumar Moussa Djigo, Michigan State University