ESL Teachers’ Acting Agentively Through Job Crafting

Abstract

Worldwide, countries strive for effective ways to educate migrant children, and the United States is no exception. In this context, this qualitative study examines how a group of ESL teachers in U.S. elementary schools acted agentively and redesigned their work through job crafting (Wrzesniewskum & Dutton, 2001) so as to provide optimal support for English learners. Key findings indicate that, despite institutional constraints, teachers found ways to organize their work to align their practices with their educational goals. In some cases, they were able to negotiate with key school personnel to reconfigure their instructional practices, and in others they created multiple advocacy roles beyond the classroom. Based on our findings, we suggest that, in preparing ESL teachers, attention needs to be paid not only to pedagogy but also to the wider scope of their roles as advocates who navigate the micro-politics of school organization.

Unraveling the EFL expat: challenging privilege through borderlands and Asia as Method

“…It is important to explore these narratives because narratives can be understood not just as being about identity, but in fact composing identity (Sfard & Prusak, 2005). EFL teacher identities are crucial to their self-understanding (Tsui, 2007;Varghese et al, 2005), and this teacher identity can connect to pedagogy (Hiver & Whitehead, 2018), professional agency (Haneda & Sherman, 2018;Kayi-Aydar, 2019), and arcs of professional development (Sherman & Teemant, 2022a;Varghese et al, 2005). While empirical studies of identity are valuable, it is also useful to develop sophisticated theoretical understandings of these dynamics of teacher identity to inform such empirical inquiry (Sherman & Teemant, 2022b).…”

A Systematic Review on Pedagogical Translanguaging in TESOL

“…Ecological perspective is evident in several articles (e.g., Glas, 2016;Haneda & Sherman, 2018;Hirver & Whitehead, 2018;Ilieva & Ravindran, 2018;Leal & Crookes, 2018;Mifsud & Vella, 2018;Vitanova, 2018). In current literature, although agency has been conceptualized as variable, capacity, or phenomenon/doing (Haneda & Sherman, 2018;Priestley, Biesta, & Robinson, 2015) in ecological perspective, agency as phenomenon or doing is more widely adopted in the exploration of internal and external factors on teachers" enactment of agency.…”

“…Ecological perspective is evident in several articles (e.g., Glas, 2016;Haneda & Sherman, 2018;Hirver & Whitehead, 2018;Ilieva & Ravindran, 2018;Leal & Crookes, 2018;Mifsud & Vella, 2018;Vitanova, 2018). In current literature, although agency has been conceptualized as variable, capacity, or phenomenon/doing (Haneda & Sherman, 2018;Priestley, Biesta, & Robinson, 2015) in ecological perspective, agency as phenomenon or doing is more widely adopted in the exploration of internal and external factors on teachers" enactment of agency. For instance, Glas (2016) explores both internal and external constraints such as teachers" knowledge, family background, classroom dynamics, teachers" lesson plans and materials, professional support, and more in shaping, enabling and limiting teacher agency.…”

Agency, identity, power: An agentive triad model for teacher action

“…If teachers are committed to their moral frameworks, they may try to change their institutional roles as well. This may take different forms, such as the role augmentation of job crafting (Haneda & Sherman, 2018), principled resistance (Achinstein & Ogawa, 2006), or outright opposition (Coburn & Woulfin, 2012;Soreide, 2006;Vähäsantanen and Eteläpelto, 2011). It is in teachers' efforts to change their sphere of legitimate action that their agency as a moral framework, emerging from identity, becomes the most authentic and tangible.…”