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Agency Development Process
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This paper presents a narrative inquiry study on agency development in student-teachers of an English language teacher program at a public university in the south of Colombia. Our goal was to understand how student-teachers develop agency when narratively inquiring their community by planning and conducting community-based pedagogy projects on issu...
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Context 1
... this section, first we are going to describe how English language sts developed agency through a fourmoment process consisting of (a) interacting within inquiry groups, (b) narratively interacting with the community, (c) voicing the untold necessities of the community, and (d) the moment of taking action (see Figure 1). Second, we are going to focus on how the development of agency influenced reconceptualizing participants' perspectives on the local sociocultural resources they inquired. ...
Citations
... For instance, the word agency can be found in many research articles. A good example are Hernández and Gutiérrez (2020) and Gallagher (2019) who address this concept for their research purposes and lead readers and researchers to an analysis of the word itself. ...
... Similarly, Hernández and Gutiérrez (2020), in their research article, tackled the term agency as a way of developing through community-based pedagogies. In relation to this, agency is taken as a state of being that appears with giving conditions. ...
... In other words, their article suggests developing agency by means of implementing communitybased pedagogies; thus, combining both approaches serve to generate the right conditions to promote the state of being and the attitude of agency. Moreover, community-based pedagogies allow Hernández and Gutiérrez (2020) to stimulate agency in students through the development of different projects in which their awareness took place, accompanied by the sense of taking action towards social situations. A feature that stands out here is the fact that agency can be linked with many terms and approaches, but keeping a similar perspective regarding awareness, identity, action, change, reflection, among others. ...
The current review article aims to inform and provide insights with regard to the term agency and its implications in national and international research studies in the field of education. By doing so, a systematic analysis was carried out in order to scrutinize articles from recent years that addressed and inquired about agency. As a result, it was possible to attain a holistic view of what this term implies in some educational settings, as well as, its significance when it is linked to different approaches and where diverse social agents are involved.
... Next teacher agency can be initiated through professional collaborative practices such as curricular co-designing (Severance et al., 2016) and having professional dialogues (Wallen & Tormey, 2019). Teachers' self-reflections on their teaching practices have also been found to be powerful for fostering their agency, which can be supported by employing artefacts such as instructional videos (e.g., Engeness et al., 2020) and facilitating teachers' inquiry into their own conceptions and prior experiences (e.g., Jensen, 2019;Hernández Varona & Gutiérrez Álvarez, 2020;Vu, 2018Vu, , 2020Wong et al., 2020). The transformation in teacher agency, as indicated by these studies, commonly starts with the teachers investigating their own pedagogical beliefs and conceptions, as well as their sense-making of prior experiences. ...
Teacher agency (TA) has been increasingly supported as an influential factor for teacher professional learning, school improvement and sustainable educational change. Previous studies, however, feature a variety of discrepancies in their conceptualisation and approaches to examining teacher agency. A systematic review is essential to map the field, refine our understanding of the concept and inform relevant stakeholders of useful insights for policy making and further research. After being screened against a number of inclusion criteria, 104 empirical studies were selected to be included in this review. Thematic analysis was adopted for the data analysis of these papers. Findings indicate an imbalance in geographical, theoretical, methodological and thematic distributions in previous studies. Six major themes were identified from the literature: (1) TA enactment, (2) the role of teacher cognition, (3) influential factors, (4) implementing professional development interventions, (5) TA outcomes and (6) TA change trajectory. TA can be extrapolated in terms of its source, enactment and outcomes. Teachers' capacities, implementation strategies, and contextual factors jointly determine the achievement of their professional agency. A conceptual framework for examining teacher agency holistically is proposed and implications for relevant stakeholders are discussed.
RESUMEN Distintas corrientes de intervención socioeducativa se encuentran en la literatura académica. El enfoque narrativo-discursivo puede ofrecer oportunidades de intervención en educación social desde las prácticas narrativas. El objetivo de este texto es evidenciar usos de las prácticas narrativas multimodales en la acción socioeducativa. Para ello se exploran conceptos iniciales de las prácticas narrativas y su relación con la educación social, así como el concepto de multimodalidad en las prácticas narrativas que incluye imágenes, simbolismo, gestualidad, acciones, música, sonido, materiales impresos, videos, sitios web objetos tridimensionales, actividades cotidianas, entre otros. También se hace un recorrido por los fundamentos teóricos y metodológicos de las prácticas narrativas para así mostrar elementos multimodales de las PPNN como textos, imágenes, artes escénicas, audios, videos, textiles y acciones. Con todo ello, se plantean experiencias y reflexiones sobre prácticas narrativas multimodales en la educación social. PALABRAS CLAVE: Educación social, Acción socioeducativa, Multimodalidad y Prácticas narrativas.
In this article, we attempt to understand English teachers’ perceptions, practices, and challenges concerning social agency through an integrative literature review to build and draw an interpretative framework and generate new knowledge. To achieve this, 58 empirical studies published in a period of seventeen years—2006 to 2023—were selected from the Scopus and Web of Science databases. Results showed that English language teachers’ perceptions of agency were closely related to structural factors. Practices such as interactions with communities and humanistic approaches can make agency meaningful. Challenges in agency were more related to collective agency and reflections. In conclusion, English teachers’ agentic actions are not dampened by structural factors; on the contrary, this review confirms the potential of English educators to transform education.
This reflection article makes a call to the language teacher education field in Colombia to integrate social justice language education and critical language education perspectives to advance a social justice agenda in language teacher education. Its overall intention is to invite critical language teacher educators to expand the scope of their work by being knowledgeable about the theories or dimensions of social justice - redistribution, recognition and representation - and including social justice frameworks and principles in their practices. These elements are fundamental to tailoring teacher education programs and guiding pedagogical practices that prepare future teachers for social action and transformation.
This qualitative study gives an account of a collaborative autoethnography held by 3 teacher researchers with the intention of better understanding the experiences that have contributed to the consolidation of their identity as investigators. By means of narratives and a 3 step framework for data collection and analysis, it was found that despite participant teachers were somehow exposed to research related experiences during their time as undergraduate students, experiences held within and after postgraduate education allowed the construction and subsequent consolidation of their teacher researcher identity dimension. Besides, actively participating in a research community as well as partaking in different national and international ELT specialized academic events has also boosted the aforementioned aspect.
This collaborative autoethnographic research explores the identity shaping construction trajectory of a group of three English teacher researchers as well as the repercussions that these processes had on the enactment of a critical decolonial perception toward the ELT field. Using a qualitative approach, the English teachers engaged in this collaborative autoethnography shared their experiences, beliefs, and influences to collectively examine how these influenced their evolving professional identities and their current critical understanding of the field. In general, the study reveals that collaborative autoethnography provides a unique platform for examining the identity trajectory of individuals and for establishing a connection between the past and the present. The findings similarly highlight the interplay between individual experiences, sociocultural contexts, and pedagogical practices, fostering a deeper understanding of English teacher researcher identity development. By emphasizing the significance of collective exploration, this study advocates for incorporating collaborative autoethnography more actively as a valuable tool for professional development in English education and research in general, and in Colombia in particular. Resumen: Esta investigación autoetnográfica colaborativa explora el proceso de formación identitaria de un grupo de tres profesores investigadores de inglés, así como las repercusiones que este proceso tuvo en su percepción crítica decolonial del campo ELT. Usando un enfoque cualitativo, los profesores de inglés que participaron en esta autoetnografía colaborativa compartieron sus experiencias, creencias e influencias, para así examinar colectivamente cómo estas influyeron en sus identidades profesionales y en su comprensión crítica actual del campo ELT. En general, el estudio revela que la autoetnografía colaborativa proporciona una plataforma única para examinar la trayectoria de identidad de los individuos así como para establecer una conexión entre el pasado y el presente. De igual manera los hallazgos resaltan la interacción entre las experiencias individuales, los contextos socioculturales y las prácticas pedagógicas, fomentando una comprensión más profunda del desarrollo de la identidad del profesor de inglés como investigador. Al enfatizar la importancia de la exploración colectiva, este estudio aboga por incorporar más activamente la autoetnografía colaborativa como una herramienta valiosa para el desarrollo profesional en la educación e investigación en inglés en general, y en Colombia en particular. Palabras clave: Autoetnografía, autoetnografía colaborativa, decolonialidad, identidad de profesores de inglés, identidad de profesores de inglés investigadores Teacher Researchers' Identity and Decolonial Stance in ELT: A Collaborative Autoethnography 157 No. 26 Resumo Esta pesquisa autoetnográfica colaborativa explora o processo de formação da identidade de um grupo de três professores pesquisadores de inglês, bem como as repercussões que esse processo teve em sua percepção crítica descolonial do campo ELT. Usando uma abordagem qualitativa, os professores de inglês que participaram desta autoetnografia colaborativa compartilharam suas experiências, crenças e influências, a fim de examinar coletivamente como isso influenciou suas identidades profissionais e sua atual compreensão crítica do campo ELT. No geral, o estudo revela que a autoetnografia colaborativa fornece uma plataforma única para examinar a trajetória de identidade dos indivíduos, bem como estabelecer uma conexão entre o passado e o presente. Da mesma forma, os achados destacam a interação entre experiências individuais, contextos socioculturais e práticas pedagógicas, promovendo uma compreensão mais profunda do desenvolvimento da identidade do professor de inglês como pesquisador. Ao enfatizar a importância da exploração coletiva, este estudo defende a incorporação mais ativa da autoetnografia colaborativa como uma ferramenta valiosa para o desenvolvimento profissional na educação e pesquisa em inglês em geral, e na Colômbia em particular.
Despite significant advances in the epistemological frameworks that guide teacher education in Colombia and elsewhere, it continues to be governed mostly by traditional Eurocentric paradigms. Decolonizing teacher education requires epistemological moves to resignify the plurality of local knowledges and praxis. This article aims at reporting a qualitative research project carried out with three student teachers of a teacher education program with emphasis on English, at a public university in the northeast of Colombia. The main objective was to explore and reflect on how EFL pre-service teachers incorporated knowledge of local communities as resources for language teaching and learning during the practicum. Data were gathered over a three-semester period through pre-service teachers’ lesson plans, materials, a final academic report, and a semi-structured interview. Data were analyzed based on the principles of thematic data analysis. Findings revealed that student teachers approached knowledge from an ecological perspective coming from different ways of knowing, seeing, being and living in the world. At the same time, the ecology of knowledges helped them to overcome the challenges they faced during the project.
This case study reports how three high-school teachers from two state schools in Colombia enacted the National English Suggested Curriculum by the Ministry of Education. The teachers’ trajectories of action were analyzed through semi-structured interviews, teachers’ narratives, and lesson observations. Using the ecological model of agency as a framework, we situated teachers’ steps within projective, iterational, and practical evaluative dimensions of agency. In this paper, we provide additional dimensions of teacher agency, which can help to expand theoretical and empirical knowledge in the field. Findings show that teachers cope with the changes derived from policy differently. The analysis presented in this paper can inform the creation and promotion of future curriculum policies in similar contexts.
This paper reports a qualitative narrative study that explored the trajectories of English language teachers’ identities before and after their participation in a master’s program in English language teaching at a Colombian public university. After analyzing the data gathered through oral narratives and narrative interviews, results showed that teachers’ identities are part of an endless process nurtured by experiences at the academic, pedagogical, and personal levels. We found that such experiences were constantly cultivated and analyzed in the master’s seminars, which positively influenced the development of the participants’ identities by making them more reflective and critical practitioners. Most teachers reported developing higher levels of social commitment, critical-reflective engagement, and research-oriented practices due to their graduate academic experience.
