Teacher Agency in Educational Reform: Lessons from Social Networks Research

2012 ◽  
Vol 119 (1) ◽  
pp. 193-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Datnow
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Educational Reform ◽  
Teacher Agency

scholarly journals Making sense of teacher agency for change with social and epistemic network analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nataša Pantić ◽  
Sarah Galey ◽  
Lani Florian ◽  
Srećko Joksimović ◽  
Gil Viry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Teacher Agency ◽  
Education Literature ◽  
Inclusive Practice ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Agents Of Change ◽  
Inclusive Pedagogy

AbstractReference to teachers as agents of change has become commonplace in the education literature, including change toward more inclusive practice in response to the changing demographic of schooling. Yet, little is known about how teacher agency relates to (1) their understanding of, and commitment to any given change agenda and (2) the institutional and social structures through which they are able to access knowledge and resources within and beyond their schools. This study combined social and epistemic network analysis to examine teachers’ understanding of change and their sense of agency as they use their social networks to mobilise support for furthering change that matters to them. Our study is the first to apply this learning analytic approach in a real setting context. We used theories of teacher agency and inclusive pedagogy to interpret teachers’ social interactions in light of the extent to which they seek to make a difference toward greater inclusion. We collected data with an online log completed by teachers and other staff in two schools in Sweden over 6 months. The findings suggest that teachers understanding of change is embedded in their day-to-day activities such as student support, lesson planning, improvement of programs, and working conditions. Teachers tend to exercise agency toward inclusion when they seek to support student learning and well-being. When teachers act as agents of change, their social networks are bigger, more diverse and more collaborative than in situations in which they act as role implementers. We discuss substantive and methodological implications of these findings.

scholarly journals Agents pedagogical: Bootstrapping reflexive practice through the psychological resources of self-agency

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-96
Author(s):  
Effie Maclellan
Keyword(s):  
Educational Reform ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Teacher Cognition ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Teacher Agency ◽  
Psychological Resources ◽  
Reflexive Practice

Abstract Two different strands of evidence coalesce to give rise to the issue of concern in this paper. Firstly, proposals for educational reform assert that teacher- -agency is necessary for effective reform. Indeed it is argued that it is agency which drives the construction/reconstruction of professional knowledge, to influence and transform work practices. Secondly, the emphasis on teacher cognition marks a departure from teaching being characterised in terms of observable behaviours and gives way to teaching being construed as thoughtful behaviour. Nowadays, teachers are understood not merely as mechanical implementers of external prescription but as active decision-makers who interpret what they read/are told through their own conceptual lenses. Given the importance of teachers in their own professional learning, and the centrality of teacher cognition as the conduit through which they plan and enact pedagogical activities, it is a non-trivial matter to understand the dynamics at play in being an agentic teacher. Using a lens of psychological literature, this conceptual analysis explores how the tools of self-efficacy, self-regulation, and self-determination interact with reflexive practice.

scholarly journals Teacher Agency Through Collaborative Expertise-building

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-84
Author(s):  
Ruanni Tupas ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Educational Reform ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Teacher Agency ◽  
Institutional Constraints ◽  
Tertiary Institutions ◽  
Capacity To Act ◽  
Everyday Classroom

Drawing on teacher agentive acts in the process of collaborative expertise-building in selects tertiary institutions in Southeast Asia, this paper maps out the conceptual configurations of teacher agency. In doing so, it avoids both the overly deterministic and individualistic views of agency by locating it within structuring conditions where individual acts are also mobilized. However, while most socially constructive views of agency focus on situated and institutional constraints of agency, this paper conceptualizes teacher agency in its broadest possible sense as historical, cultural and ideological phenomenon, arguing that agentive acts cannot merely be seen as either working for or against educational reform and transformation; rather teachers must take control of the process of knowledge production because it is by doing so that teachers can take ownership over their everyday classroom tactics and practices. Teacher agency in this sense is not simply a capacity to act but, in fact, an accomplishment of acts of producing knowledge for one’s professional practice.

Lee Teng Hwee, Ho Pao Jin, and Educational Reform in Malacca, Singapore, Shanghai and Beyond, 1885–1945 (李登輝、何葆仁和麻六甲、新加坡、上海各處的教育改革及其它,一八八五-一九四五)

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry Dennerline (鄧爾麟)
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Educational Reform ◽  
University President ◽  
Reform Movements ◽  
Economic Networks ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Student Union ◽  
Local Experience ◽  
Union President ◽  
In Trans

This essay focuses on Lee Teng Hwee and Ho Pao Jin, two “trans-local” activist educational reformers, in order to explore the interaction between changing social networks, governments, and educational reform movements in Shanghai, Singapore, and Malacca at critical moments between the 1880s and 1930s. Lee, as Fudan University President, and Ho, as Shanghai Student Union President, were key actors in the 1919 protest movement. Both were sons of families engaged in trans-regional trade, Lee moving from Batavia to Singapore, America, and Shanghai and Ho moving from Xiamen to Singapore, Shanghai, America, and Malacca. My purpose is to show how the shifting socio-economic networks and political structures and the activities of these educational reformers influenced each other, drawing on and contributing to local and trans-local experience. As these contributors were flexible in adapting to circumstances as they pursued their goals, we should also be flexible in our analysis of them.本文聚焦在李登輝、何葆仁這兩位「跨越地域」（trans-local）的行動派教育改革者，從而探討在一八八零年代到一九三零年代的關鍵時刻，發生在麻六甲、新加坡和上海各地社會網絡、政府和教育改革運動之間的交流。兩位在一九一九年抗議運動時皆是活躍份子：李氏當時是復旦大學的校長，而何氏則是上海學生會的主席。兩人亦皆出身於從事跨區域貿易的商人家庭：李氏自巴達維亞移居到新加坡、美國和上海；而何氏則自廈門移往新加坡、美國和麻六甲。我的目的是要突顯出變動的社會經濟網絡、政治結構和這些教育改革者的活動之間彼此的影響，特別是一地的經驗如何在另一地被承續。由於這些貢獻者是探取相當彈性的方式在追求其目標，會因不同的情境而做出調整，我們對他們的活動之分析也應是彈性的。 (This article is in English).

Multilayer Social Networks

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark E. Dickison ◽  
Matteo Magnani ◽  
Luca Rossi
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Multilayer Social Networks

Hostility and Perceptions of Support in Ambiguous Social Interactions

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana-Maria Vranceanu ◽  
Linda C. Gallo ◽  
Laura M. Bogart
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Information Processing ◽  
Perceived Social Support ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Inverse Association ◽  
Processing Bias ◽  
Information Processing Bias

The present study investigated whether a social information processing bias contributes to the inverse association between trait hostility and perceived social support. A sample of 104 undergraduates (50 men) completed a measure of hostility and rated videotaped interactions in which a speaker disclosed a problem while a listener reacted ambiguously. Results showed that hostile persons rated listeners as less friendly and socially supportive across six conversations, although the nature of the hostility effect varied by sex, target rated, and manner in which support was assessed. Hostility and target interactively impacted ratings of support and affiliation only for men. At least in part, a social information processing bias could contribute to hostile persons' perceptions of their social networks.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document