Teacher agency and transformation at the crossroads of a diffused school change movement: An empirical typology of the Hyukshin Schools in South Korea

In this article, Lauren Anderson takes an inductive approach to the study of teacher agency, specifically considering who supports teachers, and how, in their efforts to advance equity in urban, high-needs schools. Drawing from a larger research project,Anderson focuses on a multiyear case study of one early-career teacher and incorporates social network and ethnographic methods to investigate relationships among the teacher's support network, her participation in school change efforts, and her career decisionmaking. In doing so, Anderson addresses the potential for network diversity,particularly the presence of supportive school-based and beyond-school ties, to serve as resources for school change, teacher retention, and the construction of school-community social capital.

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Impact of Motivational Languaging Activities on Novice English Teachers’ Motivation: An Activity Theory Perspective

Porta Linguarum Revista Interuniversitaria de Didáctica de las Lenguas Extranjeras ◽

10.30827/portalin.v0i36.15909 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 139-157

Author(s):

Hyun Soo Kim ◽

Tae-Young Kim

Keyword(s):

Secondary Schools ◽

South Korea ◽

Activity Theory ◽

Teacher Identity ◽

Teacher Motivation ◽

English Teachers ◽

Teacher Agency ◽

Teacher Community ◽

Ideal Teacher

The study aims to explore the influence of languaging on novice English teachers’ motivation and to investigate the uniqueness of each English teacher’s reactions to motivational languaging activities (MLAs) from an Activity Theory (AT) perspective. Three novice English teachers at secondary schools in South Korea were interviewed using questions based on an AT framework, and they completed six sets of MLAs consisting of two parts: motivation and languaging. Our findings indicated that the two relatively motivated teachers could use MLAs to develop their ideal teacher identity and improve their teaching confidence. By participating in MLAs, a demotivated teacher can reshape her thoughts regarding teaching and motivate herself again. It has also been shown that MLAs can mediate participation in an imaginary teacher community, possibly leading to enhancement of L2 teacher motivation, but that this also might not occur depending on one’s teacher agency.

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