Conditions that mediate teacher agency during assessment reform

IF 0.8 4区教育学 Q3 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

English Teaching-Practice and Critique Pub Date : 2019-06-03 DOI:10.1108/ETPC-11-2018-0108

Jill Willis, K. McGraw, Linda J. Graham

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引用次数: 8

Abstract

Purpose A new senior curriculum and assessment policy in Queensland, Australia, is changing the conditions for teaching and learning. The purpose of this study was to consider the personal, structural and cultural conditions that mediated the agency of Senior English teachers as they negotiated these changes. Agency is conceptualised as opportunities for choice in action arising from pedagogic negotiations with students within contexts where teachers’ decision-making is circumscribed by other pressures. Design/methodology/approach An action inquiry project was conducted with English teachers and students in two secondary schools as they began to adjust their practices in readiness for changes to Queensland senior assessment. Four English teachers (two per school) designed a 10-week unit of work in Senior English with the aim of enhancing students’ critical and creative agency. Five action/reflection cycles occurred over six months with interviews conducted at each stage to trace how teachers were making decisions to prioritise student agency. Findings Participating teachers drew on a variety of structural, personal and cultural resources, including previous experiences, time to develop shared understandings and the responsiveness of students that mediated their teacher agency. Teachers’ ability to exert agentic influence beyond their own classroom was affected by the perceived flexibility of established resources and the availability of social support to share student success. Originality/value These findings indicate that a range of conditions affected the development of teacher agency when they sought to design assessment to prioritise student agency. The variety of enabling conditions that need to be considered when supporting teacher and student agency is an important contribution to theories of agency in schools, and studies of teacher policy enactment in systems moving away from localised control to more remote and centralised quality assurance processes.

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考核改革中教师代理中介的条件

目的:澳大利亚昆士兰州新的高中课程和评估政策正在改变教学条件。本研究的目的是考虑在高级英语教师谈判这些变化时，个人、结构和文化条件对中介作用的影响。能动性的概念是在教师的决策受到其他压力限制的情况下，教师与学生进行的教学谈判中产生的行动选择机会。设计/方法/方法对两所中学的英语教师和学生进行了行动调查项目，他们开始调整自己的做法，为昆士兰州高级评估的变化做好准备。四位英语老师(每所学校两位)设计了一个为期10周的高级英语单元，旨在提高学生的批判性和创造性。在六个月的时间里，我们进行了五个行动/反思周期，每个阶段都进行了访谈，以追踪教师如何做出优先考虑学生代理的决定。参与的教师利用了各种结构、个人和文化资源，包括以前的经验、发展共同理解的时间和学生的反应能力，这些都是他们作为教师的中介。教师在课堂之外施加代理影响的能力受到现有资源的感知灵活性和分享学生成功的社会支持的可用性的影响。原创性/价值这些发现表明，当他们试图设计评估以优先考虑学生代理时，一系列条件影响了教师代理的发展。在支持教师和学生代理时需要考虑的各种有利条件是对学校代理理论的重要贡献，也是对从局部控制转向更远程和集中的质量保证过程的系统中教师政策制定研究的重要贡献。

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来源期刊

English Teaching-Practice and Critique Multiple-

CiteScore

1.40

自引率

11.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： English Teaching: Practice and Critique seeks to promote research and theory related to English literacy that is grounded in a range of contexts: classrooms, schools and wider educational constituencies. The journal has as its main focus English teaching in L1 settings. Submissions focused on EFL will be considered only if they have clear pertinence to English literacy in L1 settings. It provides a place where authors from a range of backgrounds can identify matters of common concern and thereby foster broad professional communities and networks. Where possible, English Teaching: Practice and Critique encourages comparative approaches to topics and issues. The journal published three types of manuscripts: research articles, essays (theoretical papers, reviews, and responses), and teacher narratives. Often special issues of the journal focus on distinct topics; however, unthemed manuscript submissions are always welcome and published in most issues.