Teacher Agency in a Multiyear Professional Development Collaborative

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Professional Development for English Language Teachers in U.S., International, and Online Contexts

Abstract

Teacher agency describes the capability of teachers to make choices and act on these choices in ways that have professional importance. This study reports on the decisions two teachers made about how to engage with a five-year school-university collaboration that used professional development (PD) to foster changes in the language instruction of teachers of multilingual learners. A longitudinal case study was used to examine the experiences of two teachers to provide insights into classroom-level decisions and changes in instructional practices. This study contributes to the understanding of effective PD by presenting cases of the role of teacher agency in learning, and points to a need for long-term PD partnerships that value teacher agency to produce instructional changes.

Authors

• Christopher Wagner, Queens College, CUNY

• Marcela Ossa Parra, Queens College, CUNY

• Patrick Proctor, Boston College