The Power of Teacher Voice: Developing Agency, Advocacy, and Efficacy amid COVID-19

Abstract

This qualitative study investigated how critical reflection can be incorporated into collaborative professional communities to enact a process of generative transformative praxis that leads to meaningful action on the part of its community members. Across the arc of a series of six collaborative reflection groups that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, we found that when teachers critically reflected on the work they were doing and wanted to do (agency), reflected on how this had been and would be enacted in their work with students (advocacy), and then reflected on their beliefs about the impact that they could have through this work (efficacy), they felt a deep responsibility to generate solutions to the problems faced by teachers, students, families, and communities during this time. From these findings we propose that as teacher voice is strengthened through critical reflection in collaborative professional communities, teachers come to see themselves as key stakeholders in continual educational improvement whose actions are necessary to impact positive change, even in the most challenging situations.