Relational agency and disposition in sociocultural accounts of learning to teach

Young writers’ construction of agency

“…These responses may seem to imply a lack of independence but independence is not the same as agency. If learning is the ability to recognise available resources, whether people or tools, as well as to actively seek and use such resources (Edwards and D'Arcy, 2004), there must also be an element of evaluation of those resources. Those children whose responses implied that they sought help from the teacher and who judged success by teacher approval may be those whose chosen pathway through schooling will lead to success within the institution of school.…”

“…Children are learning in the setting and actively negotiating their position in the context. Edwards and D'Arcy (2004) discuss the importance of relational agency in learning. They see this as the capacity to engage with the disposition of others.…”

Early career teachers’ sense of professional agency in the classroom: associations with turnover intentions and perceived inadequacy in teacher–student interaction

“…Furthermore, they use others (e.g. pupils, peers) as resources for learning and provide support for them in their learning (Edwards, 2005;Edwards & D'Arcy, 2004). This further requires creating and sustaining functional teacher-student relationships, and perceiving instruction as a reciprocal process (Martin & Dowson, 2009).…”

Constructing the caring higher education teacher: A theoretical framework

“…Furthermore, research appears to suggest that caring relationships in particular are of great salience to students, who appear in such studies to be convinced of their educational impact and thus that teachers in higher education should by extension, be 'caring' (Docan--Morgan, 2011;Hixenbaugh and Thomas, 2006;Author et al, 2006). Qualitative studies analyzing the nature of caring teaching in practice (Dallavis, 2014;Edwards and D'Arcy, 2004;Goldstein, 1999;Larson and Silverman, 2005;Author et al, 2006;Velasquez et al, 2013) establish the extensive relational nature of pedagogic care, suggesting that caring teachers have particular 'exemplifiers' in their practices including the ability to: listen to students, show empathy, support students, actively support students' learning, give students appropriate and meaningful praise, have high expectations of work and behaviour, and finally, show an active concern in students' personal lives. However, the research that exists in this field does not expose which of these exemplifiers are more significant in the construction of the 'caring' teacher.…”