Teacher agency and identity commitment in curricular reform

This study explores how teachers enact agency to facilitate their professional development during curricular reform at a Chinese university. An analysis of data derived from life history interviews with eight language teachers complemented with field notes reveals differential agentic choices and actions. The teachers' learning, teaching and research endeavours in relation to the new curriculum are directed by various identity commitments and enacted in highly individualised ways, as mediated by their prior experiences. By situating teachers' agency in their individual professional trajectories, this study conceptualises interaction of teacher agency and identity commitment to professional development during curricular reform.     

Comprehensive school teachers’ professional agency in large-scale educational change

This article explores how comprehensive school teachers’ sense of professional agency changes in the context of large-scale national educational change in Finland. We analysed the premises on which teachers (n = 100) view themselves and their work in terms of developing their own school, catalysed by the large-scale national change. The study included theory-driven interventions in the case school communities, as well as pre- and post-test measurements. The results suggested that the learning of active professional agency was facilitated among teachers during the 2 years of development work. A significant number of teachers had adopted a more holistic orientation towards the reform. Moreover, the number of teachers who considered themselves as the subjects of the development work increased slightly. This increase suggests that teachers’ intentional and responsible management of new learning proceeds from the interpersonal meaning-making process to the internal process that regulates the elements of a teacher’s professional agency.     

Positioning ourselves in our academic lives: exploring personal/professional identities,voice and agency

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a rationale for understanding personal/professional identities to support personal/professional learning and positioning in academe and higher education. It explains the importance of women writing and speaking out the stories of their lives (everyday and academic), having their voices heard and responded to, and using embodied knowledge to question and challenge workplace systems and structures of power and sexism and invisibility. Importantly, this paper opens the space for women’s visibility, voice and agency in academic and educational life.     

On the relations of sociocognitive childhood characteristics,education, and socioeconomic success in adulthood

Sociocognitive characteristics—ranging from self-concepts and interests to goals and self-esteem—have been discussed as key drivers predicting adult socioeconomic success. This study analyzes how childhood sociocognitive characteristics relate to adult socioeconomic success (education, occupational status, and income). Drawing on Eccles et al.’s expectancy value theory, we operationalized sociocognitive characteristics comprehensively via academic self-concept, academic interest, professional goal aspirations and professional goal certainty, and self-esteem. Based on a German sample, we explored the extent to which potential relations were independent of other central childhood factors—namely intelligence and parental socioeconomic background—as well as of adult educational attainment, which simultaneously served as a mediator and outcome. Additionally, we used school track as a moderator variable for these relations. We thus tested the idea that the effects of childhood factors are strongly mediated and moderated by education in highly structured education systems like Germany. Our sample of N = 3906 randomly sampled participants came from a German prospective longitudinal study in which respondents were first assessed at age 12 in 1991 and last surveyed in 2009/10. All characteristics were related to socioeconomic success indicators. However, education played a central role in mediating almost all of the effects of childhood characteristics, as education was the strongest predictor for socioeconomic success, and sociocognitive characteristics—especially self-esteem, professional aspirations, and academic self-concept—predicted education. School tracks moderated these relationships, with sociocognitive characteristics being particularly predictive in the academic track. Furthermore, the effects of sociocognitive characteristics shared substantial variance with intelligence and socioeconomic background. Nevertheless, professional aspirations, academic self-concept, and—in the academic track—academic interests exhibited unique effects, predicting not only education but also further adult socioeconomic success.     

Reimagining the place of students in academic development

ABSTRACT

As calls for student-staff partnership proliferate across higher education, academic development must re-examine and reimagine its relationship to students. Students generally occupy roles with limited agency in academic development. We argue that this needs to change. We propose re-articulating the purpose of academic development toward the creation of conditions that liberate everyone involved in teaching and learning in higher education. We offer four vignettes that illustrate what is possible when students have the opportunity to embrace their essential roles. We conclude by reflecting on the human implications of student agency in academic development and higher education more broadly.     

Teacher Quality Indicators as Predictors of Instructional Assessment Practices in Science Classrooms in Secondary Schools in Barbados

This study investigated the self-reported instructional assessment practices of a selected sample of secondary school science teachers in Barbados. The study sought to determine if there were statistically significant differences in the instructional assessment practices of teachers based on their sex and teacher quality (teaching experience, professional qualification and teacher academic qualification). It also sought to determine the extent to which each of these four selected variables individually and jointly affected the teachers’ report of their instructional assessment practices. A sample of 55 science teachers from nine secondary schools in Barbados was randomly selected to participate in this study. Data was collected by means of a survey and was analyzed using the means and standard deviations of the instructional assessment practices scores and linear, multiple and binary logistic regression. The results of the study were such that the majority of the sample reported good overall instructional assessment practices while only a few participants reported moderate assessment practices. The instructional assessment practices in the area of student knowledge were mostly moderate as indicated by the sample. There were no statistically significant differences between or among the mean scores of the teachers’ reported instructional assessment practices based on sex ( t?=?0.10; df?=?53; p?=?0.992), teaching experience ( F[4,50]?=?1.766; p?=?0.150), the level of professional qualification (F[3,45]?=?0.2117; p?=?0.111) or the level of academic qualification (F[2,52]?=?0.504; p?=?0.607). The independent variables (teacher sex, teaching experience, teacher professional qualification or teacher academic qualification) were not significant predictors of the instructional assessment practices scores. However, teacher sex was a significant predictor of the teachers’ report of good instructional assessment practices. The study also found that the joint effect of the variables teacher sex, teaching experience, teacher professional qualification and teacher academic qualification was not significant in predicting the instructional assessment practices scores of the science teachers. However, the joint effect of these variables was statistically significant (X ²?=?18.482; df?=?10; p?=?0.047) in predicting the teachers’ reported use of good instructional assessment practices. The best predictor of teachers’ report of good instructional assessment practices, though not statistically significant, was the diploma in education professional qualification.     

Temporal development of student burnout symptoms: Sociodemographic differences and linkage to university dropout intentions

Considering the demanding higher education context, university students are at risk to experience burnout symptoms such as emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy. Theoretical models (e.g., Job Demands-Resources Model) state that burnout symptoms develop over time, vary between individuals, and bear adverse consequences. To date, the temporal development of student burnout symptoms within semesters, inter-individual differences in their development, and the role of their development for academic outcomes like student dropout are understudied. To complement this limited research, we used date of a three-wave longitudinal study with N = 1435 undergraduate students over one semester. First, we modeled unconditional second-order latent growth curves to examine the initial levels and trajectories of each burnout symptom (emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy). We then modeled conditional second-order latent growth curves to examine whether initial levels and trajectories differed depending on students’ sociodemographic characteristics (gender, age, study progress, and academic major) and associated with students’ intentions to drop out from university. Results indicated a linear increase in student burnout symptoms over the semester. Sociodemographic differences existed in the initial levels of emotional exhaustion and reduced professional efficacy and the trajectories of each symptom. Generally, female, STEM, and higher- and lower- semester students were particularly affected by burnout symptoms. Further, higher initial levels and an increase in each symptom corresponded with higher dropout intentions. Summarizing, the results highlighted that student burnout symptoms increase as the semester progresses, seem more pronounced among certain student groups, and operate as strong predictors for dropout intentions.     

Faculty Agency: Departmental Contexts that Matter in Faculty Careers

In a modern context of constrained resources and high demands, faculty exert agency to strategically navigate their careers (Baez 2000a; Neumann et al. 2006). Guided by the O’Meara et al. (2011) framework on agency in faculty professional lives, this study used Structural Equation Modeling to investigate which departmental factors (perceptions of tenure and promotion process, work-life climate, transparency, person-department fit, professional development resources, and collegiality) influenced faculty agentic perspective and agentic action. Results showed that faculty perceptions of certain departmental contexts do matter in faculty career agency, such as work-life climate, person-department fit, and professional development resources. These contexts have a particular influence on faculty agentic perspective. Results also showed a large effect of agentic perspective on agentic action. The study has important implications for administrators regarding departmental role in faculty agency and contributes to the growing body of literature on faculty sense of agency in academe.     

Structure and agency in learning: a critical realist theory of the development of capacity to reflect on academic practice

Theories of learning typically downplay the interplay between social structure and student agency. In this article, we adapt a causal hypothesis from realist social theory and draw on wider perspectives from critical realism to account for the development of capacity to engage in reflection on professional practice in academic roles. We thereby offer a theory of professional learning that explores how social and cultural structures and personal emergent powers combine to ensure variation in the emergence of such reflective capacity. The influence of these factors on professional learning is mediated through reflexive deliberation and social interaction, with the exercise of one's personal powers specifically identified as a stratum of social reality. We consider further the role of concerns, intention and attention in professional learning, drawing together issues that are rarely considered within the same theory. We thus offer a comprehensive account of professional learning, showing how a focus on structure and agency increases the explanatory power of learning theory.     

Academic identities and communities of practice in a professional discipline

This paper explores the dynamics surrounding the formation of academic identities in a context where the nature of academic work is contested both as a result of tensions within the discipline and in response to pressure from both the institution and the field of higher education. It is based on a case study which investigated the process of academic identity formation at the micro level of a department at a South African university. The study revealed a complex relationship between identity construction and participation within the particular configuration of teaching, professional and research communities of practice that defined the academic field in the department. Multiple identity trajectories were evident, indicating the role of individual agency, despite the dominance of a professional community of practice within the department. The arrival of new academics in the department without professional practice experience was found to have created the possibility of a changed notion of the academic within the discipline.     

Developing identity and agency as an early career academic: lessons from Alice

This paper draws on Lewis Carroll’s character of Alice as a metaphor for interrogating identity construction and agency amongst early career academics, a process which can seem like Alice’s pursuit of the White Rabbit in a strange land. Keeping in mind the effects of neoliberalism on the tertiary sector, we recognise the centrality of personal lives in decision-making about academic careers and the shaping of professional identities. We also foreground how communities of practice not only build agency amongst ECAs but can also be supported by academic developers.     

The anatomy of agency: Improving academic performance in first-year university students

The transition from secondary to tertiary education can be challenging, as students must adapt to independent learning. For students in the allied health and nursing disciplines, this transition may coincide with compulsory first-year courses in anatomy, which are traditionally difficult to master. Students' agency—their capacity to make intentional choices to alter the path of their learning—may play a role in their successful completion of first-year anatomy courses. This study aimed to develop a measure for agency and to determine whether agency is associated with academic achievement. First-year students (n = 131) completed open-ended questions measuring each aspect of agency. Student responses were quantified using rubrics and then combined to create an overall agency score. Three factors of agency were determined: action, metacognition, and self-efficacy. Students with higher agency scores were significantly more likely to have higher academic achievement in anatomy compared to students with lower agency scores. The relationship between agency and academic achievement was strongest for action. These results suggest that encouraging students to be active participants in their learning may help them to achieve at university.     

The relevance of identity style and professional identity to academic commitment and academic achievement in a higher education setting

Student retention remains an ongoing concern for higher education institutions worldwide. In the present study, we examine the predictive utility of identity styles, professional identity and academic commitment to academic achievement. We asked 120 second-year students in the profession of engineering in an augmented degree programme to complete the Identity Styles Inventory, the Engineering Identity Factors Inventory and the Academic Commitment Scale. We found that a normative identity style predicted professional engineering identity and meaningfulness, which predicted the participants’ investments in their studies. Additionally, a diffuse-avoidant identity style negatively predicted professional identity, meaningfulness and satisfaction, which provides empirical evidence of the contribution of identity to academic commitment. None of the variables we studied predicted academic achievement. Our findings are relevant, given current debates on access, equity and decolonisation in higher education, because it suggests that students’ sense of identity largely influences whether they feel a sense of belonging at university. Although identity styles and meaningfulness are not significant direct predictors of academic achievement, they probably do have an indirect effect on academic achievement through their direct influence on investment.     

Captain America, Tuskegee, Belmont, and Righteous Guinea Pigs: Considering Scientific Ethics through Official and Subaltern Perspectives

With an eye towards a potential scientific ethics curriculum, this paper examines four contrasting discourses regarding the ethics of using human subjects in science. The first two represent official statements regarding ethics. These include the U.S.’s National Science Education Standards, that identify ethics with a professional code, and the Belmont Report, that conceptualizes ethics in three principles to guide research oversight boards. Contrasting this view of ethics as decorum and practice in line with a priori principles is the conception of ethics from unofficial sources representing populations who have been human subjects. The first counter-discourse examined comes from Guinea Pig Zero, an underground magazine for professional human subjects. Here ethics emerges as a question of politics over principle. The good behavior of the doctors and researchers is an effect of the politics and agency of the communities that supply science with subjects. The second counter-discourse is a comic book called Truth, which tells the story of Black soldiers who were used as guinea pigs in World War II. Ethics is both more political and more uncertain in this narrative. Science is portrayed as complicit with the racism of NAZI Germany; at the same time, and in contrast to the professional guinea pigs, neither agency nor politics are presented as effective tools for forcing the ethical conduct of the scientific establishment. The conclusion examines the value of presenting all of these views of scientific ethics in science education.     

The accommodation of contested identities: The impact of participation in a practice-based masters programme on beginning teachers’ professional identity and sense of agency

Teachers' professional training and development has been the focus of intense academic and political debate. This paper contributes to this by considering Beginning Teachers' (BTs') self-views of their professional identity. The findings are derived from a mixed methods study with questionnaires (n = 886) and focus groups and interviews (n = 60) with BTs in Wales. Drawing on a socio-cultural approach, the findings illustrate how BTs’ integration of competing professional identities bolstered their sense of professional agency. These findings have salience within a policy context where both teacher education and professional development are increasingly aligned with the narrow organizational objectives of the school.     

A Framework for User Agency during Development of Interactive Risk Visualization Tools

ABSTRACT

Participating in user-centered design provides potential users of interactive risk visualization tools agency in influencing tool development. This article identifies and characterizes pathways for agency that users may experience as they participate in design of interactive tools for visualizing environmental risks. We present an empirically based conceptual framework for better understanding user agency during visualization tool development based on findings from interviews with professional visualization tool developers and discuss practical implications and future research recommendations.     

Professional development for practicing mathematics teachers: a critical connection to English language learner students in mainstream USA classrooms

This article examines the effects of changing teacher self-efficacy on student achievement. Results from a quantitative study of mathematics teachers in a USA mid-Atlantic state showed that teachers experienced reduced self-efficacy when working with English language learner students (ELLs) relative to non-ELLs. Further, the article explores professional development opportunities for strengthening teachers’ effectiveness with ELLs. The study utilized a four-part survey instrument based on the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES). All participants (n = 181) were mathematics educators from the highlighted state, and 94 % of them were preK-12 public school practicing classroom teachers. Study results indicate that teachers’ participation in professional development on ELL instruction is positively correlated to their heightened sense of self-efficacy. This finding points to continuing education as a potentially viable approach to reducing academic challenges for ELL students in mainstream mathematics classrooms by developing ever more effective practicing teachers.     

Academic identification as a mediator of the relationship between parental socialization and academic achievement

This study examines whether academic identification, or one’s psychological and emotional investment in academics, mediates the association between child-reported parental educational socialization and standardized achievement test scores among a predominantly ethnic minority sample of 367 urban middle school students. We predicted that academic identification would mediate the relationship between five forms of perceived parental academic socialization (future-oriented, teaching-oriented, effort-oriented, shame-oriented, and guilt-oriented) and achievement when controlling for prior achievement. We found confirmation for this effect among analyses involving teaching, future, and guilt forms of socialization. For teaching, this effect was not present for Black boys. Direct effects indicated that teaching and future socialization was inversely related to student achievement, but when mediated by academic identification it was positive. Guilt was only related to achievement through academic identification. Results suggest the importance of the manner in which parental educational socialization is engaged.     

Shifting Identities and Blurring Boundaries: the Emergence of Third Space Professionals in UK Higher Education

This paper adds to earlier reviews by the author of the changing roles and identities of contemporary professional staff in UK higher education, and builds on a categorisation of professional staff identities as having bounded, cross‐boundary and unbounded characteristics. Drawing on a study of 54 professional managers in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States, it describes a further category of blended professionals, who have mixed backgrounds and portfolios, comprising elements of both professional and academic activity. The paper goes on to introduce the concept of third space as an emergent territory between academic and professional domains, which is colonised primarily by less bounded forms of professional. The implications of these developments for institutions and for individuals are considered, and some international comparisons drawn. Finally, it is suggested that third space working may be indicative of future trends in professional identities, which may increasingly coalesce with those of academic colleagues who undertake project‐ and management‐oriented roles, so that new forms of third space professional are likely to continue to emerge.