TY - JOUR
T1 - A narrative inquiry into the agency of an EFL teacher in Western China
AU - Gu, Haibo
AU - Liang, Yulian
AU - Wang, Qian
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by the General Project of Philosophy and Social Science Research in Jiangsu Universities (Ref. No.: 2020SJA1349), Research Project of Jiangsu Higher Education Association (Ref. No.: 2020WYKT064), and the 2020 Nurturing Project of Graduate Teaching Scholarship, Soochow University (Ref. No.: 2020107). We also received financial support from Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University’s Research Development Fund (Ref. No.: RDF-19-01-23) and China Education International Exchange Association’s 2020 Special Research Project of Sino-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools (Ref. No.: 2020-008).
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 Gu, Liang and Wang.
PY - 2022/9/21
Y1 - 2022/9/21
N2 - Despite the increasing interest in teacher agency in the field of language teacher psychology, little attention has been paid to how language teachers enact their agency in an under-resourced environment. To address the research gap, this narrative study explored how a secondary English as a foreign language teacher in Western China enacted his agency for professional development and identified its sources. The findings revealed that this teacher enacted his agency through passionate exploration of adaptive teaching and continuous investment in autonomous learning. His agency was attributed to the interplay of his past experiences, long-term goals, teaching beliefs, and the challenging working environment. Consequently, implications for teacher agency research and practice are discussed.
AB - Despite the increasing interest in teacher agency in the field of language teacher psychology, little attention has been paid to how language teachers enact their agency in an under-resourced environment. To address the research gap, this narrative study explored how a secondary English as a foreign language teacher in Western China enacted his agency for professional development and identified its sources. The findings revealed that this teacher enacted his agency through passionate exploration of adaptive teaching and continuous investment in autonomous learning. His agency was attributed to the interplay of his past experiences, long-term goals, teaching beliefs, and the challenging working environment. Consequently, implications for teacher agency research and practice are discussed.
KW - language teacher
KW - narrative inquiry
KW - teacher agency
KW - under-resourced environment
KW - Western China
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85140055039
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.957372
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.957372
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85140055039
SN - 1664-1078
VL - 13
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
JF - Frontiers in Psychology
IS - 957372
M1 - 957372
ER -