"I Feel It's a Mutiny": Teachers' Beliefs About Their Students' Agentic Engagement in Urban High School Science Classrooms

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: Motivation in Education SIG Poster Session: Contextual Factors, Teacher Motivation, and Motivational Interventions (San Diego)

Abstract

The current investigation provided the first exploration of teachers’ beliefs about urban U.S. high school students’ agentic engagement. We conducted focus groups with 16 science teachers using phenomenological methods to examine how, why, and whether students should (or could) enact their agency. Findings focused on the following themes. (a) Teachers provided strategies that students could do to enact their agency, through there were some inconsistencies with teacher recognition of behaviors as forms of student agency. (b) Teachers mentioned the benefits of agentic engagement for students (e.g., motivation), teachers (e.g., motivation to teach), and the classroom community as whole. (c) Teachers emphasized the factors that made agentic engagement more or less likely, including teaching styles (e.g., controlling) and time constraints.

Authors

• Jeanette Zambrano, University of Southern California

• Erika A. Patall, University of Southern California

• Alana Aiko Uilani Kennedy, University of California - Los Angeles

• Crystal Aguilera, University of Southern California

• Nicole M. Yates, University of Southern California