Teacher agency in challenging contexts as a consequence of social support and resource management

Ebersöhn, Liesel; Loots, Tilda

doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2016.11.005

Cited by 18 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Similarly, there is evidence of flocking as resilience response in the education system. In studies with teachers in South Africa it was evident that, given the high need associated with structural disparities, teachers enacted flocking as a way to manage resources, support quality education, remain in the profession and experience eustress (Ebersöhn 2014 ; Ebersöhn and Loots 2017 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Academic flocking and global distress: Equitable south-north research partnering to promote quality education in diverse contexts and cultures

2022

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In this article we apply an Afrocentric Resilience Theory (relationship-resourced resilience) to the domain of education research partnerships. We posit academic flocking as an equitable research partnership approach aimed at developing education knowledge that responds to collective distress and supports collective quality education. We provide support for our supposition regarding academic flocking by overviewing the mutually beneficial development of an online, home-based learning resource with relevance in two transnational contexts and cultures, South Africa and the United States of America. Whereas the context of the argument is a COVID-19 related global need for evidence-based education resources, conceptually we draw on lenses of resilience and emancipatory, democratising methodology to make sense of academic flocking as a fundamental structure for research partnership equity and relevant education innovation. As such, academic flocking holds value as a transformative alternative for South-North researcher partnerships in generating useful, quality educational innovations to address critical needs.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Academic flocking and global distress: Equitable south-north research partnering to promote quality education in diverse contexts and cultures

2022

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“…In the centre of attention of representatives of the anthropocentric approach, the question arises about the modern goals and means of developing human abilities in the context of the teacher's professional self-development [12]. The formation of reflexive skills and focus on the professional selfdevelopment of the special education teacher is important [13].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ways of Forming Personal and Social-Labour Functions of a Future Teacher

Tangkish¹,

Kamalov²,

Aripzhan³

et al. 2020

J. Intellect. Disabl. Diagn. Treat.

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Objective: The relevance of research is determined by the fact that it allows identifying the main criteria by which the development of a teacher is ensured both at the level of personal development and at the level of improving labour functions. The authors understand the complex development of personal and social-labour functions of a teacher as self-development in the process of fulfilling professional relations.Background: Each of the participants in the educational process must meet the requirements set by state educational standards. With that, the personal qualities of a teacher should be fully correlated with the necessity of improving labour parameters. Method:The effectiveness of the introduction of pedagogical conditions, which had a significant impact on the professional self-development of teachers, was tested experimentally with the use of anthropocentric and activity-based approaches to studying the problem, as well as with the use of the statistical method.Results: The analysis presented in the paper showed that the indicated pedagogical conditions contribute to the formation of professional motivation, focus on the professional self-development of teachers, a high level of aspirations, awareness of the value of individual professional self-development, the ability to notice shortcomings, develop social skills and communication skills of teachers. Conclusion:It was determined that the socio-psychological climate in an institution, where there is organisational support from the administration and informational support from other specialists, contributes to the development of operationalactivity and reflective and value-based components.

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“…Flocking mirrors tenets of instrumental social support (Taylor, 2011;Ebersöhn & Loots, 2017) with both explicit and implicit social support being evident. Explicit social support signifies people explicitly leveraging established social networks to provide tangible support services to others faced with challenges.…”

Section: Flocking: Collective Resiliencementioning

confidence: 96%

Collective resilience to global challenge: a collective wellbeing agenda to transform towards sustained equitable education

Ebersöhn¹

2020

Prax. Educ.

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COVID-19 is a large scale and unpredictable global challenge. It predicts extreme negative outcomes for development-including education. Those with privilege will benefit and those living on the margins will be additionally side-lined. Responses to equalise the unevenness of opportunities to learn is often perceived as goodwill attempts to help 'a few in distress' to thrive-with the norm that a majority has well-established resourced pathways towards wellbeing. COVID-19 constitutes a time and space of collective distress. COVID-19 calls for strategies to enable collective wellbeing-not as a luxury but as a necessity. Adversity responses that absorb or adapt to shock continue to maintain, rather than transform, the unequal essence of existing structures. What is needed for equity, also in education, is a transformative response. Social support responses to the global challenge of COVID-19 may offer insight into transformative pathways. Instances of social innovations because of a social contract to privilege collective wellbeing abound in the COVID-19 realm. In Africa, where large-scale adversity is normative, this is not unprecedented. Everyday interdependent resilience mechanisms of this calibre exist, termed flocking responses. Flocking denotes targeted joint resource distribution to counter extreme adversity. In this social response self-protection becomes secondary to collective wellbeing. In this position paper I argue that transformation to that which constitutes 'new education' post-COVID-19 may be the result (unintended and possibly sustained) of prolific non-structural flocking responses to equalise pathways that support education across systems. Examples of spontaneous systemic social interventions that resulted from 'freedom to make choices (for all) with what is available' could provide transformative insights to intentionally strive for collective wellbeing education agendas and deliberately create pathways for participatory engagement-rather than persisting with structurally engineered strategies maintaining inequality.

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Teacher agency in challenging contexts as a consequence of social support and resource management

Cited by 18 publications

References 19 publications

Academic flocking and global distress: Equitable south-north research partnering to promote quality education in diverse contexts and cultures

Academic flocking and global distress: Equitable south-north research partnering to promote quality education in diverse contexts and cultures

Ways of Forming Personal and Social-Labour Functions of a Future Teacher

Collective resilience to global challenge: a collective wellbeing agenda to transform towards sustained equitable education

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