Teacher professional identity: agentic actions of a novice teacher in a challenging school context

Abstract

ABSTRACT Teachers develop their identity during initial teacher training and continue to develop it throughout their careers. Many teachers in rural schools find themselves teaching in challenging contexts. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by exploring agency as part of the development of a female teacher’s professional identity over six years as she obtains her degree and begins working in a rural town in South Africa. We used a narrative approach to listen to the participant’s stories and present narratives related to the proactive and generative actions that the participant took. By drawing on Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), we illustrate the importance of intentionality, forethought, self-reactiveness, and self-reflectiveness for agentic actions. Bandura’s ecological model highlights the importance of personal, behavioural, and environmental determinants of agency. The findings reveal that teachers experiencing similar challenging school contexts can draw on their skills, knowledge, personal values, and teaching and learning experiences to develop into teachers with a strong sense of agency who remain actively engaged in their school and the wider community. The authors propose that initial teacher educators refer to SCT as a framework during teaching practice to support the development of student teachers’ agency as part of their professional identities.