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The change and continuity of teachers’ professional agency : a two-year longitudinal study in the case of Hong Kong

Year of publication

2023

Authors

Lau, Josephine; Vähäsantanen, Katja; Collin, Kaija

Abstract

To transform existing education practices in tackling different challenges and future uncertainties, it is essential to engage teachers as active agents in students’ learning, collegial collaboration, school development and societal issues throughout the career. This study investigates the change and continuity of teacher professional agency associated with the individual position and socio-cultural factors in Hong Kong. Data from semi-structured interviews were collected with 14 teachers over a two-year period in 2018 and 2020, and narrative analysis was utilized to examine teacher agency. The changes and continuity were categorized into four types: 1) expanding, 2) strategic, 3) exploring, and 4) withering agencies. The way teachers took and made work-related actions and decisions on their career trajectories could be associated with the changes in individual positions, the organizational culture, and the leadership style in the socio-cultural context. This study contributes to the existing understanding of the temporal development and enactment of professional agency. Despite the strong hierarchical structure embedded in the school managerial practices, a trusting management and collaborative work community that allow channels to receive bottom-up suggestions and spaces to enable individual learning could support positive changes and the continuity of professional agency.
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Organizations and authors

University of Jyväskylä

Lau Josephine Orcid -palvelun logo

Collin Kaija Orcid -palvelun logo

Publication type

Publication format

Article

Parent publication type

Journal

Article type

Original article

Audience

Scientific

Peer-reviewed

Peer-Reviewed

MINEDU's publication type classification code

A1 Journal article (refereed), original research

Publication channel information

Publisher

Routledge

​Publication forum

51924

​Publication forum level

1

Open access

Open access in the publisher’s service

Yes

Open access of publication channel

Partially open publication channel

Self-archived

Yes

Other information

Fields of science

Educational sciences

Keywords

[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Publication country

United Kingdom

Internationality of the publisher

International

Language

English

International co-publication

No

Co-publication with a company

No

DOI

10.1080/02188791.2023.2283368

The publication is included in the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Publication data collection

Yes