Enriching and extending the ecological perspective on teacher agency

Recent concern in the Anglophone-West over teacher autonomy, well-being, demoralization, and retention, as well as increasing strike action, point to a critical moment in the work lives of schoolteachers. In response, scholars have reached for diverse conceptions of teacher agency. I argue that a robust and adequate response to the current crisis requires that teacher agency be tightly coupled with a distinct form of intentionality. At stake here is the intention to educate—to help students discern what goals and intentions are worthwhile. Given this view, what are the conditions of teacher agency? Mark Priestley, Gert Biesta, and Sarah Robinson’s ecological approach to teacher agency offers a viable start; yet it is limited by its adherence to the existing education system bureaucracy. I turn to the enactivist account of agency in order to extend and enrich their ecological account. According to enactivism, agents are driven by the goal of maintaining identity. Intentions are shaped and sustained in response to the agent’s situation. When an intention becomes unsustainable in a given context, agents will pursue other means of self-maintenance. Appeals to teacher agency, therefore, are ultimately about keeping the teacherly intention to educate alive. I posit three conditions of agency for teachers: 1) differentiation from the education system bureaucracy; 2) the ability to change the conditions of their practice in line with internalized and personally meaningful educational goals; and 3) a working environment that facilitates meaningful reflection upon, and refinement of, education goals—and discuss the implications of this approach.