Collective Agency among Physics Teachers: A Case in China’s Curriculum Reform

Abstract

This study explored how secondary physics teachers exercised their collective agency in the process of adopting and adapting to a nation-wide curriculum reform in China. Through an ethnographic approach and drawing on Social Cognitive Theory, physics teachers’ collective agency was explored and interpreted. The results revealed that collective agency was a mediating bridge through which the discrepancies between reform mandates and teachers’ pedagogies and curriculum interpretations were negotiated. Further, collective agency helped teachers to cope with uncertainties generated by the reform and offered mental supports. Moreover, the reform mandates undermined the traditional power hierarchy within teachers and thus stimulated teachers’ collective agency. The study demonstrates the interdependent relations between collective agency and reform environment and has implications for theory, practice, curriculum, and research.