Teacher Agency

This investigation set out to look into the issue of teachers’ exercise of agency in the Iranian EFL context. More specifically, as part of a larger study, it reports on the ways two Iranian Ministry of Education teachers make sense of and operate in the country’s educational setting under the demands of a centralist system of education. Priestley, Biesta, & Robinson’s (2013) framework of teacher agency formed the conceptual backbone of the present study as well as guiding the data collection/analysis of the study. Qualitative data, from semi-structured interviews as well as follow-up data collection procedures, were gleaned from the participants over the course of an academic year and were subjected to analytical interpretation in the light of the said framework. The researchers came up with findings which, in the main, gave more weight to the well-roundedness of Priestly, Biesta, & Robinson’s model of teacher agency. The results also pointed to the highly situated nature of teacher responsiveness and action, thereby undermining the still prevalent views of the essentialist and idealized character of (teacher) agency. The results of the study are liable to be of use, among others, to case-based teacher education programs.

Agency is a significant element in both teacher education and school improvement because it informs how teachers make sound professional decisions. As such, the present study attempted to explore (a) Iranian university instructors’ conception of teacher agency; (b) components of teacher agency; and (c) the role of initial motives on the instructors’ professional agency. To address these issues, benefiting from purposive sampling, five participants were interviewed using the semi-structured interview as the main instrument. The findings indicated that Iranian university instructors believe that teacher agency is an important element in both language teaching and real-life contexts. As for the second concern of the study, the results revealed that personal, professional, and critical components are important. Regarding the third one, initial motives influence instructors’ professional agency. It seems the overall profile of teacher agency in the Iranian context consists of the following key components extracted from the interviews, namely, decision-making, professional development, purposeful acting, making changes, self-reactiveness, intentionality, and forethought. Based on the major findings of the study, concluding remarks are discussed and some tips for further research are presented.  

A sustained, school-based approach that offers in-service EFL teachers opportunities for collaboration in creating an environment that promotes their capacity-building and instructional growth is necessary for their professional growth. This study aimed to contribute to the growing body of research on the effect of distributed leadership in teacher professional learning. Specifically, this study scrutinized the connection between distributed leadership and professional learning of teachers, focusing on the mediating role of teacher agency. A cross-sectional survey design was applied, collecting data from 458 teachers in Iran. Teacher Professional Learning Scale, Teacher Agency Scale, and Distributed Leadership Scale were completed by them. Structural equation modelling was run to analyze the relationship between variables. The findings revealed a minimal direct relationship between distributed leadership and the professional learning of teachers, with teacher agency acting as a major mediating factor. These results contribute to existing research by suggesting that distributed leadership may not have a substantial direct effect on teacher learning, but rather indirectly improves teacher agency.

The growing literature on teacher professional development emphasizes the positive contribution of teacher engagement to the professional development of teachers. However, scant attention was given to the relationship between this concept and teacher ecological agency as one of the potential factors influencing teacher engagement and in turn professional development. To fill this research gap, a sample of 369 EFL teachers from different institutes in Iran selected through convenience sampling participated in this study. The required data was collected by administering two questionnaires: The teacher ecological agency questionnaire and the teacher engagement questionnaire. The relationship between teachers’ ecological agency and teachers’ engagement and their underlying components were investigated through structural equation modeling (SEM) and Pearson correlation. The outcomes of SEM revealed a significant association between teachers’ ecological agency and engagement. The Pearson correlation results indicated that all three components of teacher ecological agency are correlated significantly with all five components of teacher engagement. The highest degree of correlation was found between emotional engagement and practical-evaluative agency (.711), agentic engagement, and practical-evaluative agency (.705) and cognitive engagement and practical-evaluative agency (.692). The pedagogical implications of this study enhance the efficiency of the educational system and teachers’ professional development.