Beyond the classroom: Exploring teacher agency as a source of innovation and resistance in education reforms
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2023-09-08
Author(s)
Abstract
Vocational education and training (VET) teachers are at the forefront of educational reforms aimed at shifting learning from school to company environments, also known as “dual VET” reforms. However, little is known about their agency in this process. This article investi-gates the agency of teachers impacted by the introduction of dual VET reforms in post-socialist, school-based VET systems. Interview transcripts and surveys conducted with VET school teachers in Albania, Poland, Slovakia, Serbia provide the primary data for the qualitative analysis. Intermediary findings suggest that teacher agency is characterised by a multi-objective optimisation process during which teachers aim to maximise their absolute numbers of reimbursed working hours, their professional status, and learner’s well-being. When navigating their agency through insecure educational reforms embedded within distinct structural and institutional pressures, teachers rely on their experience to estimate what coping strategy to adopt. They adopt two inherently logical strategies: They either block the introduction of dual VET reforms to maintain the status quo or embrace them as an innovative instrument to realise their material, professional, and normative interests. These insights are key when designing policy and capacity-increasing measures to ensure the buy-in of micro-level gatekeepers in education reforms.
Event Title
ESPAnet conference 2023
Event Location
University of Warsaw
Event Date
7.-9.9.2023
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Name
Conference paper.pdf
Size
19.39 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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