Teacher agency in the context of evolving educational technology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7577/seminar.6123Keywords:
teacher agency, in-service teachers, Information and communication technology (ICT), professional learning, teacher educationAbstract
As users of educational technology, teachers have been studied using different theoretical frameworks. However, the teacher agency perspective has not been explored extensively. Teacher agency as a concept has the potential to explain teachers’ actions related to quickly evolving educational technology. Thus, this study aims to examine teacher agency and educational technology to understand teaching in digitalised schools and teachers’ work in a situation where they are rapidly adapting their teaching technologically and pedagogically. The data consist of Finnish primary and secondary school teachers’ (N = 198) written answers to an online questionnaire. The qualitative data are analysed using theory-guided content analysis. The findings frame teacher agency materially, socially and structurally regarding educational technology and distance teaching and show how teacher agency appears in these contexts. These results deepen the understanding of teacher agency from the standpoint of educational technology and can be utilised to develop in-service teacher training on the pedagogics of educational technology. This study paves the way for future research targeting teacher agency and educational technology.
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