“Game face on” when doing “good enough” teaching Manifestations of professional agency in teacher educators’ perceptions of a transition to remote work
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This study aims to investigate manifestations of professional agency in teacher educators’ (TEds) perceptions during the period of higher education transitioning to emergency remote work. This analysis applies the subject-centered sociocultural (SCSC) approach to professional agency. In this approach, agency is understood as exercised and the social context (the sociocultural conditions) as well as the individual’s agency (professional subjects) are mutually constitutive but analytically separate. Fourteen semi-structured interviews with Swedish teacher educators working at five different universities were analyzed using directed content analysis. The analysis shows that in an acute transition, the TEds exercised agency when trying to frame a blurred context, a connected space, and a screen identity. This is an agency exercised for many purposes, from retaining professional pride to transforming the teaching practice, involved coping with the “good enough” discourse, shaping the professional appearance, but foremost for the individual’s well-being and doing this in a social context containing e.g., expectations of availability and feelings of being in control. The results of the study can contribute to our understanding of university educators’ and teacher educators’ professional agency amid transitions to new, remote forms of hybrid work arrangements.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Accepted 2024-09-13
Published 2024-09-26
References
Allen, J., Rowan, L., & Singh, P. (2020). Teaching and teacher education in the time of COVID-19. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 48(3), pp. 233-236. Doi: 10.1080/1359866X.2020.1752051
Amhag, L., Hellström, L., & Stigmar, M. (2019). Teacher educators’ use of digital tools and needs for digital competence in higher education. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 35(4), 203-220. Doi: 10.1080/21532974.2019.1646169
Assunção Flores, M., & Gago, M. (2020). Teacher education in times of COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal: national, institutional and pedagogical responses. Journal of Education for Teaching, 46(4), 507-516. Doi: 10.1080/02607476.2020.1799709
Bartlett, M., Otis-Wilborn, A., & Peters, L. (2017). Bending or breaking: Appropriating edTPA Policy in Special Education Teacher Education. Teacher Education and Special Education, 40(4), 287–298. Doi: 10.1177/0888406417720188
Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, L. (2011). New teachers’ identity shifts at the boundary of teacher education and initial practice. International Journal of Educational Research, 50(1), 6-13. Doi: 10.1016/j.ijer.2011.04.003
Bozkurt, A., & Sharma, R C. (2020). Emergency remote teaching in a time of global crisis due to CoronaVirus pandemic. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), i-vi. Retrieved from https://asianjde.com/ojs/index.php/AsianJDE/article/view/447
Carrillo, C., & Flores, M A. (2020). COVID-19 and teacher education: A literature review of online teaching and learning practices. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43(4), 466-487. Doi: 10.1080/02619768.2020.1821184
Castañeda, L., & Selwyn, N. (2018). More than tools? Making sense of the ongoing digitizations of higher education. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, (15), 22 (2018) Doi: 10.1186/s41239-018-0109-y
Chaaban, Y., Al-Thani, H., & Du, X. (2021). A narrative inquiry of teacher educators’ professional agency, identity renegotiations, and emotional responses amid educational disruption. Teaching and teacher education, 108, 2021, 103522, Doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2021.103522
Connolly, M., Hadfield, M., Barnes, Y., & Snook, J. (2018). The accommodation of contested identities: The impact of participation in a practice-based master’s programme on beginning teachers’ professional identity and sense of agency. Teaching and Teacher Education, 71, 241–250. Doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2018.01.010
Dam, L. (2021). 3 Pandemic Pedagogy. In: Chan, R., Bista, K., & Allen, R. (Eds.). Online Teaching and Learning in Higher Education during COVID-19: International Perspectives and Experiences. Routledge.
Damşa, C., Langford, M., Uehara, D., & Scherer, R. (2021). Teachers’ agency and online education in times of crisis. Computers in Human Behavior, 121, 106793.
Day, C., & Kington, A. (2008). Identity, well‐being and effectiveness: The emotional contexts of teaching. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 16(1), 7–23. Doi: 10.1080/14681360701877743
Donitsa-Schmidt, S., & Ramot, R. (2020). Opportunities and challenges: teacher education in Israel in the Covid-19 pandemic. Journal of Education for Teaching, 46(4), 586-595. Doi: 10.1080/02607476.2020.1799708
Education International (2020). Guiding Principles on the COVID-19 Pandemic. https://www.ei-ie.org/en/detail/16701/guiding-principles-on-the-covid-19-pandemic
Emirbayer, M., & Mische, A. (1998). What is agency? American journal of sociology, 103(4), 962-1023.
Eteläpelto, A., Vähäsantanen, K., Hökkä, P., & Paloniemi, S. (2013). What is agency? Conceptualizing professional agency at work. Educational Research Review, 10, 45-65. Doi: 10.1016/j.edurev.2013.05.001
Eteläpelto, A., Vähäsantanen, K., Hökkä, P., & Paloniemi, S. (2014). Identity and agency in professional learning. In: Billett, S., Harteis, C., Gruber, H. (eds) International Handbook of Research in Professional and Practice-based Learning. pp. 645-672. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Dordrecht.
Goller, M., & Paloniemi, S. (2017). Agency at work, an agentic perspective on professional learning and development. Springer.
Green, C., & Pappa, S. (2021). EFL teacher education in Finland: Manifestations of professional agency in teacher educators’ work. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 65(4), 552-568. Doi: 10.1080/00313831.2020.1739128
Helleve, I., Ulvik, M., & Smith, K. (2018). «Det handler om å finne sin egen form» Læreres profesjonelle handlingsrom - hvordan det blir forstått og utnyttet. Acta Didactica Norge, 12(1), Art. 1, 22, sider. Doi: 10.5617/adno.4794
Hinostroza, Y. (2020). University teacher educators’ professional agency: A literature review. Professions and Professionalism, 10(2) Article 3544. Doi: 10.7577/pp.3544
Howard, N-J. (2021). Navigating blended learning, negotiating professional identities. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 45(5), 654–671.
Hsieh, H-F., & Shannon, S E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research, 15(9), 1277-1288. Doi: 10.1177/1049732305276687
Hökkä, P., Vähäsantanen, K., & Mahlakaarto, S. (2017). Teacher educators’ collective professional agency and identity – Transforming marginality to strength. Teaching and Teacher Education, 63, 36-46. Doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2016.12.001
Jonker, H., März, V., & Voogt, J. (2018). Teacher educators’ professional identity under construction: The transition from teaching face-to-face to a blended curriculum. Teaching and Teacher Education, 71, 120-133. Doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2017.12.016
Kidd, W., & Murray, J. (2020). The Covid-19 pandemic and its effects on teacher education in England: how teacher educators moved practicum learning online. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43(4), 542–558. Doi: 10.1080/02619768.2020.1820480
Lag 2018:218, med kompletterande bestämmelser till EU:s dataskyddsförordning.
Lag (2018:218) med kompletterande bestämmelser till EU:s dataskyddsförordning | Sveriges riksdag (riksdagen.se)
Leibowitz, B., van Schalkwyk, S., Ruiters, J., Farmer, J., & Adendorff, H. (2012). “It’s been a wonderful life”: accounts of the interplay between structure and agency by “good” university teachers. Higher Education, 63, 353-365.
Lillejord, S., Børte, K., Nesje, K., & Ruud, E. (2018). Learning and teaching with technology in higher education–a systematic review. Oslo: Knowledge Centre for Education, 2, 40-64.
Merriam, S. B., & Tisdell, E. J. (2016). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. John Wiley & Sons.
Mäkelä, T., Sikström, P., Jääskelä, P., Korkala, S., Kotkajuuri, J., Kaski, S., & Taalas, P. (2022). Factors constraining teachers’ wellbeing and agency in a Finnish university: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. Education Sciences, 12(10), 722.
Narayanan, M., & Ordynans, JG. (2022). Meaning making and self-efficacy: teacher reflections through COVID-19. The Teacher Educator, 57(1), 26-44. Doi: 10.1080/08878730.2021.1990455
Roumbanis Viberg, A., Forslund Frykedal, K., & Sofkova Hashemi, S. (2021). The teacher educator’s perceptions of professional agency – a paradox of enabling and hindering digital professional development in higher education. Education Inquiry, 1-18. Doi: 10.1080/20004508.2021.1984075
Sahu, P. (2020). Closure of universities due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): Impact on Education and Mental Health of Students and Academic staff. Cureus, 12(4)7541. Doi: 10.7759/cureus.7541
Swedish Research Council [Vetenskapsrådet]. (2017). God forskningssed (Good research practice). Retrieved from God forskningssed – Vetenskapsrådet. (vr.se)
Taylor, M., Klein, E. J., & Abrams, L. (2014). Tensions of reimagining our roles as teacher educators in a third space: Revisiting a co/autoethnography through a faculty lens. Studying Teacher Education, 10(1), 3–19. Doi: 10.1080/17425964.2013.866549
Tynjälä, P. (2013). Toward a 3-P model of workplace learning: A literature review. Vocations and Learning, 6(1), 11–36. Doi: 10.1007/s12186-012-9091-z
Vähäsantanen, K. (2015). Professional agency in the stream of change: Understanding educational change and teachers’ professional identities. Teaching and Teacher Education, 47, 1-12. Doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2014.11.006
Vähäsantanen, K., & Eteläpelto, A. (2015). Professional agency, identity, and emotions while leaving one’s work organization. Professions and Professionalism, 5(3). Doi: 10.7577/pp.1394
Vähäsantanen, K., Paloniemi, S., Räikkönen, E., & Hökkä, P. (2020). Professional agency in a university context: Academic freedom and fetters. Teaching and teacher education, 89, 103000. Doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2019.103000
Wilcox, K C., & Lawson, H A. (2018). Teachers’ agency, efficacy, engagement, and emotional resilience during policy innovation implementation. Journal of Educational Change, pp. 19, 181–204. Doi: 10.1007/s10833-017-9313-0
Wilson, E., & Deaney, R. (2010). Changing career and changing identity: How do teacher career changers exercise agency in identity construction? Social Psychology of Education, 13(2), 169–183. Doi: 10.1007/S11218-010-9119-X