Agents pedagogical: Bootstrapping reflexive practice through the psychological resources of self-agency

Abstract

Abstract Two different strands of evidence coalesce to give rise to the issue of concern in this paper. Firstly, proposals for educational reform assert that teacher- -agency is necessary for effective reform. Indeed it is argued that it is agency which drives the construction/reconstruction of professional knowledge, to influence and transform work practices. Secondly, the emphasis on teacher cognition marks a departure from teaching being characterised in terms of observable behaviours and gives way to teaching being construed as thoughtful behaviour. Nowadays, teachers are understood not merely as mechanical implementers of external prescription but as active decision-makers who interpret what they read/are told through their own conceptual lenses. Given the importance of teachers in their own professional learning, and the centrality of teacher cognition as the conduit through which they plan and enact pedagogical activities, it is a non-trivial matter to understand the dynamics at play in being an agentic teacher. Using a lens of psychological literature, this conceptual analysis explores how the tools of self-efficacy, self-regulation, and self-determination interact with reflexive practice.