Lee, Soh Young;
(2024)
Developing teacher agency for
professional learning and development
through an enquiry-based learning
approach involving action research.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
This thesis reports on a case study exploring development of teacher agency for professional learning and development (PLD) with a group of nine Korean primary school teachers working in a variety of schools in Seoul, South Korea. The study examines how an enquiry-based learning (EBL) programme can develop teacher agency among the participants through their engagement in their own action research projects. It aims to better understand teacher agency to enhance PLD so that practitioners can be better supported to act more strategically within an educational climate of standardisation and accountability schemes. The study explores teacher agency from multiple theoretical perspectives: Bandura’s (1986) socio-cognitive view of agency, Mezirow’s (1991) theories of critical reflection within his theory of transformative learning, and Priestley et al.’s (2015) ecological approach to teacher agency. By drawing on insights from these varied research areas, I develop conceptual models of teacher agency for PLD. This approach aims to understand, describe, and evaluate how different PLD environments influence teacher agency and how teacher agency operates within the realities of the constraints and resources provided by the workplace and policy conditions within which they work. Conducted over 18 months, the research involved three phases of data collection to examine both short- and long-term changes in participants’ teacher agency. Data were gathered through qualitative methods, including questionnaires, interviews, observations, a researcher's journal, and document analysis. The findings of the study demonstrate the important role that a PLD programme based on EBL can have on enhancing teacher agency. Additionally, they highlight a need to support teacher agency at both the school and policy levels to enable teachers to exercise greater levels of teacher agency. These insights have implications for enhancing teacher agency to promote effective PLD, and they also prompt broader reflection on the role of teacher agency within society.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Developing teacher agency for professional learning and development through an enquiry-based learning approach involving action research |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2024. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Learning and Leadership |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10194922 |
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