From perceived discrepancies to intentional efforts: Understanding English department teachers’ agency in classroom instruction in a changing curricular landscape

Assessing student teachers’ agency and using it for predicting commitment to teaching

“…In line with the above, increasing attention has been paid to the concept of teacher agency in recent years (see Orland-Barak 2017; Toom, Pyhältö, and Rust 2015 for an overview). Several empirical studies (see, e.g., Erss 2018;Eteläpelto, Vähäsantanen, and Hökkä 2015;Kauppinen et al 2020;McNicholl 2013;Rajala and Kumpulainen 2017;Quinn and Carl 2015;Ruan, Zheng, and Toom 2020;Stillman and Anderson 2015;Van der Heijden et al 2015) have focused on understanding and supporting teacher agency in professional settings. Interest has also increased in supporting student teachers' agency in initial teacher education context (see, e.g., Juutilainen, Metsäpelto, and Poikkeus 2018;Soini et al 2015).…”

Exploring Female EFL Teachers’ Professional Agency for Their Sustainable Career Development in China: A Self-Discrepancy Theory Perspective

“…Second, the self-discrepancies facing female EFL teachers are manifested in the idealized coexistence of different roles and the actual conflicts of these roles in reality. Teachers perceive discrepancies in their professional development from different aspects, such as teaching, research, and teacher learning activities ( Tao and Gao, 2017 ; Ruan et al, 2020 ). The discrepancies perceived in teaching activities are manifested in the relatively fixed language teaching mode and the ever-changing requirements from curricular reforms, and in the fatigue of teaching based on years of repeated labor and the urgent need for cultivating teaching efficacy; the discrepancies perceived in research are manifested in the existing job promotion structure and teachers’ lack of research literacy, and in the ideal state to combine teaching and research and the actual paralleled and isolated state of the two; the discrepancies perceived in teacher learning are manifested in the ongoing needs for study and the restrictions from different aspects, for instance, teaching commitment and family burden.…”

“…As Gao and Xu (2014 , p. 153) postulated that “the discrepancies among teachers’ representations of ‘actual,’ ‘ought,’, and ‘ideal’ selves are likely to become the driving forces in their professional development and career pursuit.” By employing self-regulatory strategies and seeking external help, teachers can “reduce the degree of self-discrepancy and regain their motivations” ( Yuan et al, 2016 , p. 221). That is to say, the exercise of teacher agency forges the processes of teachers’ problem-solving competencies and their deliberation in tackling obstacles to bridge the gap between the professional ideals and the realities ( Ruan et al, 2020 ). Therefore, this study assumes that the self-discrepancy theory can serve as a theoretical lens in understanding female EFL teachers’ agency enactment and sustainable development.…”

Development and validation of a potential assessment inventory for assessing EFL teachers’ ecological agency

“…Various studies have attempted to explore teachers’ agency in curricular reform. Ruan et al ( 2020 ) for example, examined English department teachers’ agency in the context of the classroom by adopting journal entries, semi-structured interviews, and classroom observations. The thematic analysis of the data showed that teachers desired to enact their agency in different meaning-making attempts, in order to promote their teaching efficiency in the classroom.…”

“…A body of burgeoning studies investigated teacher agency from various standpoints such as the impact of teacher agency on teachers' professional development and the general quality of education (Lai et al, 2016;Ruan, 2018), the effect of teacher reflection on teacher agency (Jones & Charteris, 2017;Reichenberg, 2022), the interplay between teacher agency and teacher identity (Buchanan, 2015;Connolly et al, 2018), teacher agency and identity commitment (Tao & Gao, 2017), the effect of curriculum reform on teacher agency (Poulton, 2020;Ruan et al, 2020), and the role of teacher agency in inclusive education (Lyons et al, 2016;Naraian, 2014;Naraian & Schlessinger, 2018;Themane & Thobejane, 2019). The data collection methodologies utilized in these studies for the teacher agency construct are mainly based on interviews, reflective essays or diaries, classroom observation, portfolios, focused group discussions, document analysis, and teachers' narratives.…”