Agency and confidence in taking decisions
In the context of professional learning, teacher agency is the capacity of teachers to act purposefully and constructively to direct their professional growth and contribute to the growth of their colleagues.
The agency model describes how agency is achieved - it helps to think systematically of the factors that influence you when considering alternatives and making decisions, including professional decisions about Video-Supported Collaborative Learning (VSCL) topics. Agency embodies both personal and professional values, beliefs and knowledge (i.e. the main components of competence).
Considering alternatives while making professional decisions is influenced by:
- your personal and professional background from the past - the professional competence of teachers (reflecting teachers' educational background as well as work experience).
- your professional purposes - the short- and long-term future goals, aspirations and values.
- conditions arising from the working environment - Cultural aspects characterize the ways how and what is talked and thought about, what values are considered important, what are the prevailing beliefs and aspirations. Structural aspects are related to organizational matters and social structures. Material aspects relate to existing or missing resources and the overall physical environment in which and through which agency is achieved.
In other words, decision making is influenced by professional competence (your past), professional purpose (your goals) and cultural, structural and material conditions in the workplace. Therefore, when choosing between different alternatives in the future, it helps to think through the three dimensions of the agency model before making decisions. Analysing your past, your future and work environment will give a better vision when choosing between alternatives to make decisions to use Video-Supported Collaborative Learning in teaching and/or learning.
Agency in VSCL
Video bridges theory and practice, which develops students’ reflection skills and supports the development of agency. Video-supported learning has also been used as a strategy to promote the development of teacher agency. Additionally, in the pedagogical model for VSCL agency is depicted as the base for the three pillars. Agency applies to both teachers and learners and is a kind of pre-condition for the engagement of the actors in the VSCL system and for learning.
Model of the formation of agency (based on Biesta et al., 2015; Priestley et al., 2015)
References:
Leijen, A., Pedaste, M., & Lepp, L. (2019). Teacher agency following the ecological model: how it is achieved and how it could be strengthened by different types of reflection, British Journal of Educational Studies, 10.1080/00071005.2019.1672855.
Priestley, M., Biesta, G., Robinson, S. (2015). Teacher Agency: An Ecological Approach. Kindle Edition.
/not freely available online/
Biesta, G., Priestley, M. and Robinson, S. (2015). The Role of beliefs in teacher agency, Teachers and Teaching, 21 (6), 624–640.
