Search results for "Professional agency"
showing 10 items of 23 documents
Investigating the professional agency of secondary school English teachers in South Korea
2020
This qualitative study examines the professional agency of secondary English teachers in Midwestern South Korea. Specifically, it investigates how secondary English teachers in South Korea understand their professional agency and what mediates their professional agency. The ecological approach in this study recognises that agency encompasses both individual and environmental dimensions and is formed through the constant interplay between the individual and the environment. The dataset for this study comprises 15 semi-structured interviews with secondary English teachers in South Korea. The thematic analysis highlights a significant gap between Korean English teachers’ espoused agency and re…
Leadership as an enabler of professional agency and creativity : case studies from the Finnish information technology sector
2018
This paper summarizes and elaborates the findings of a research project on leadership as an enabler of professional agency and creativity in information technology organizations. The synthesis in this paper is based on a summary of three primary studies. Each of the studies approached leadership, creativity and/or professional agency with a specific focus. Leaning on a mixed‐methods and ethnographic approach, including various empirical data collection and analytical tools, the project investigated the relationship between professional agency and creativity; issues that frame professional agency and creativity; and the meaning of leadership practices for the enhancement of agency and creati…
How do novice teachers in Finland perceive their professional agency?
2015
This study investigated novice teachers’ perceptions of their professional agency during the initial years of their work in schools. The research questions were: (i) How do novice teachers perceive their professional agency within their work, and what do they see as the main restrictions and resources affecting that agency? (ii) How do novice teachers perceive their professional agency in the construction and renegotiation of their professional identities, and what do they see as the main restrictions and resources affecting their sense of agency? In theoretical terms, we adhere to a subject-centered sociocultural approach. This implies understanding subjects as active agents from a develop…
Professional learning and agency in an identity coaching programme
2016
This article addresses the professional learning that occurred in an identity coaching programme. The arts-based programme aimed to enhance the participants’ professional learning, notably through helping them to process their professional identities. Professional learning was seen as resourced by the participants’ professional agency, and by the promotion of such agency. Through interviews, we investigated what the participants perceived they had learnt during the programme, and the potential differences in learning outcomes between professional groups from university and hospital contexts. The findings showed that the programme was perceived as a rich learning arena in the domains of the …
Professional agency in a university context: Academic freedom and fetters
2020
Professional agency is an urgent topic in academic contexts, albeit relatively unexplored, and elaborated with contradictory conclusions on its extent and characteristics. To contribute to the discussion, this multimethod study investigated professional agency within a Finnish university. We utilised questionnaire data and interviews to explore agency, as manifested in influencing at work, developing work practices, and negotiating professional identity. We found that overall, these three dimensions of agency were manifested fairly substantially, and in a similar manner among the academic staff. The study further emphasises the social nature of professional agency, and presents theoretical …
An Integrative Approach to Emotional Agency at Work
2022
AbstractThe concept of agency has recently emerged as a fruitful construct in understanding organizational practices and development. However, agency has tended so far to be seen as a rational and goal-oriented phenomenon, with little attention paid to the role of emotions within it. There is thus a need for theoretical discussion on both agency and emotions in organizations, and also on how the two phenomena are related. This paper aims to introduce an elaborated conceptualization of emotional agency at work, based on recent theories on professional agency and emotions in organizational contexts. We suggest that emotional agency can be understood as the competence to perceive, understand, …
Emerging conceptualisations on professional agency and learning
2017
This chapter provides an evaluative summary of the major contributions from the first section of this book, comprising conceptualisations on professional agency and work-related learning. The evaluation focuses on the differences, similarities, and strengths of the approaches and conceptualisations touched on. The focus is, first of all, on how the core meanings of agency and the agentic perspective are understood. Secondly, the approaches are addressed according to their view of how the contextual aspects of working life relate to agency. Thirdly, attention is given to the practical conclusions deriving from different understandings of agency. The present chapter thus elaborates how these …
The professional agency of teacher educators amid academic discourses
2012
Agency has been seen as fundamental in the renegotiation of professional identities. However, it is unclear how teacher educators exercise their professional agency in their work, and how multiple discourses frame and restrict the practice of their professional agency. This study examines how teacher educators practise agency in negotiating their professional identities amid the multiple discourses emerging from the academic context of their work. The aim was to investigate educators’ locally expressed professional agency in the context of the more global discourses that may construct teacher educator identities. The analysis made use of applied thematic discursive analysis to address patte…
EFL Teacher Education in Finland : Manifestations of Professional Agency in Teacher Educators’ Work
2020
English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher educators play a key role in the development of university-based teacher education and the preparation of preservice EFL teachers. However, the professional agency of EFL teacher educators in developing their work remains understudied. Employing a Vygotskian sociocultural theoretical perspective, this research considers the individual and collective professional agency of eight EFL teacher educators at two Finnish universities. Findings demonstrate that individual professional agency is enacted in the expression of professional identity and the development of professional relationships, and in offering and receiving professional assistance. Findin…
"You've got the color, but you dont't have the shades" : primary education CLIL teachers' identity negotiation within the Finnish context
2018
This dissertation explores how professional identity is experienced by teachers in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) instruction. In particular, it addresses professional identity in relation to two immediate contexts of teacher activity, i.e. that of the classroom and that of the collegial community. In addition to exploring how these two sides of the professional self give rise to a broader understanding of professional identity, this dissertation also explores aspects of professional agency and the negotiation of emotions in their work. The dissertation is founded on fourteen interviews with Finnish kindergarten and primary education teachers doing CLIL. The data were thema…