In this chapter, Mark Biesta and Gert Robinson outline the conception of agency, developing a conceptual model for teacher agency that emphasises the temporal and relational dimension of the achievement of agency. The authors illustrate how a detailed understanding of teacher agency and the conditions under which it is achieved offer considerable potential in enabling teachers to engage with curricular policy in more meaningful ways. They offer an alternative view of teacher agency, developing an ecological conceptualisation of agency that emphasises the importance of both agentic capacity and agentic spaces in shaping agency, and moreover views the achievement of agency as a temporal process. Professional experience out with education is another significant and interesting pointer to the sorts of agency achieved by teachers. The practical-evaluative dimension forms a major influence on agency, powerfully shaping decision making and action, both offering possibilities for agency and inhibiting it.

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Teacher Agency : What Is It and Why Does It Matter?

Policies around the world increasingly call for teachers to become ‘agents of change’, often linked to social justice agendas. However, there is little clarity about the kind of competencies such agency involves or how it can be developed in teacher education. This paper draws on theories of teacher agency and inclusive pedagogy to clarify the meaning of teachers as agents of change in the context of inclusion and social justice. Inclusive practice requires the collaboration of teachers and others such as families and other professionals. Agents of change work purposefully with others to challenge the status quo and develop social justice and inclusion. We discuss the possibilities of combining theories of inclusive pedagogy and teacher agency for developing teachers as agents of inclusion and social justice in teacher education. These possibilities include: 1) nurturing commitment to social justice as part of teachers’ sense of purpose; 2) developing competencies in inclusive pedagogical approaches, including working with others; 3) developing relational agency for transforming the conditions of teachers’ workplaces; and 4) a capacity to reflect on their own practices and environments when seeking to support the learning of all students. Keywords:  teacher agency, inclusive pedagogy, teacher competence, teacher education, educational change (Published: 1 September 2015) Citation: Education Inquiry  (EDUI) 2015,  6 , 27311,  http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/edui.v6.27311

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Developing teachers as agents of inclusion and social justice

Teacher agency and identity commitment in curricular reform

Teacher agency is suggested to be a key capability not only for facilitating student learning but also for continuing professional development, collaborative teacher learning and school development...

Teachers' professional agency in contradictory times

Teachers play a key role in realizing successful changes in education. Among them are real ‘change agents’ at both classroom and school level. To obtain insights into what characterizes these teachers, an exploratory study has been conducted by interviewing external experts, principals, and teachers (n = 20). An analysis of data resulted in a picture of characteristics attributed to teachers as change agents. These characteristics pertain to lifelong learning (being eager to learn and reflective), mastery (giving guidance, being accessible, positive, committed, trustful, and self-assured), entrepreneurship (being innovative and feeling responsible), and collaboration (being collegial). The category mastery appeared to consist of the most characteristics. Within the category entrepreneurship, ‘being innovative’ was mentioned most. The characteristics mentioned apply to both the classroom and school level, but the importance of demonstrating these characteristics at the school level seems to be weighed less...

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Characteristics of teachers as change agents

Teachers as agents of change: teacher agency and emerging models of curriculum

Drawing on agency literature, this paper demonstrates how teachers’ professional agency emerged when seemingly conflicting strategies were imposed on them in policy reform. Policy discourse is often linked to performance and accountability measures, which teachers respond to in a number of ways. Some education researchers identify tensions caused by such strategies; others warn that if outcomes are defined by mechanical techniques that are practised and imposed rather than constructed and negotiated then there is a danger that teachers will be re-shaped as technicians. A number of debates discuss de-professionalism, the erosion of status and new definitions of the role of the teacher. This ethnographic study examines how the implementation of policy requirements for writing student reports, stipulated by two levels of government, emerged through the practices of the teachers in an Australian non-government school. The analysis of the data is located within the policy in/as practice literature. The evidenc...

Constructing teacher agency in response to the constraints of education policy: adoption and adaptation

Teacher Agency, Performativity and Curriculum Change: Reinventing the Teacher in the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence?

This ethnographic study captures the processes that led to change in an Australian public education system. The changes were driven by strong neo-liberal discourses which resulted in a shift from a shared understanding about leading educational change in schools by knowledge transfer to managing educational change as a process, in other words, allowing the schools to decide how to change. Inside an Australian state education bureaucracy at a time when the organisation was restructured and services decentralised, this study helps show some of the disturbing trends resulting from the further entrenchment of neo-liberal strategies. Although control was re-centralised by legitimising performance mechanisms, in the form of national testing, there are indications that the focus on national tests may have alarming consequences for the content and context of education. I argue that the complexities of learning and fundamental pedagogies are being lost in preference for an over-reliance on data systems that are ba...

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Diluting education? An ethnographic study of change in an Australian Ministry of Education

This paper investigates the use of the strut-and-tie model to calculate the capacity of longitudinally reinforced cement-stabilized rammed earth deep beams with no shear reinforcement. Beams with a span-to-depth ratio (L/D) less than 10 and reinforced only by longitudinal steel bars represent the majority of lintels used to span openings such as windows, doors, and garage entrances. The strut-and-tie model is used in this work to analyze these structural members. This paper studies the failure modes and ultimate loads of 13 beams subject to two-point loading at quarter spans, with span-to-depth ratios ranging from 1.7 to 10. The results indicate that the strength of beams with span-to-depth ratios up to 10 can be predicted by the proposed method when the failure is dictated by the yielding of the tie. The compression capacity of the strut is more difficult to calculate because of the discrepancy between the compressive strength of small rammed samples and the real strength of rammed earth of large structural members. For this reason, the calculation of the capacity of beams failing for compression of the strut needs a more conservative approach and further research.

Sarah Robinson

Papers

Teachers as agents of change: teacher agency and emerging models of curriculum

Constructing teacher agency in response to the constraints of education policy: adoption and adaptation

Teacher Agency, Performativity and Curriculum Change: Reinventing the Teacher in the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence?

Diluting education? An ethnographic study of change in an Australian Ministry of Education

Use of the Strut-and-Tie Model in the Analysis of Reinforced Cement-Stabilized Rammed Earth Lintels