Within (Not Despite) the Context of Schooling: Understanding Teacher Agency Through Macro- and Micro-Contexts

• In Event: Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Teaching Contexts and Teacher Agency: Examinations of the Contextual Factors That Impact Teacher Learning and Practice

Abstract

The study seeks to provide insight into the significance of both macro- and micro-contexts to studies of teacher agency. Data was drawn from a grounded theory study of teacher agency conducted with 17 public school teachers and one administrator in a co-taught inclusion program in a large middle school. Sociological theory, discourse theory, and empirical data contribute to demonstrating that the choices and actions of the teacher researchers were entwined within a complex network of discourses and structures, even as they made choices contingent on their specific microcontext. These findings speak back to a tendency in teacher agency literature to characterize teacher agency as action despite the context, rather than action within the context.

Author

• Tina Y. Gourd, University of Washington