ERIC Number: EJ1391059
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1931-3152
EISSN: EISSN-1931-3160
Available Date: N/A
Examining ESL and Bilingual Teachers' Agency after NCLB: Expanding the Ecological Perspective
Fu, Yao; Weng, Zhenjie
International Multilingual Research Journal, v17 n3 p245-269 2023
There is growing recognition about the importance of studying teacher agency in working with Linguistically Diverse Students (LDSs) after No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Every Student Succeed Act (ESSA) given that the high-stakes testing and accountability system, required by NCLB and largely maintained by ESSA, have exerted negative effects on LDS educators and students. In response to this, we compiled a comprehensive set of empirical studies and conducted a thematic synthesis to examine how various factors could impact pre-service and in-service teachers' agency in English as Second Language (ESL) and bilingual PreK-12 classrooms in the U.S. We adopted the ecological model of teacher agency as the analytical framework to guide our synthesis. Through both a top-down and bottom-up coding process, we further expanded the existing ecological model by adding two factors: knowledge and emotions. Detailed analyses led to seven common factors that could shape teachers' agentic power in working with LDSs, all of which are either from the iterational or practical-evaluative dimension of agency. The projective dimension of teacher agency is relatively less discussed. Among those factors, cultural and structural factors draw most research attention across the selected studies, with the structural factors exerting most constraining effects on teacher agency. Additionally, we uncovered nuanced differences in teacher knowledge and emotions through in-depth analysis of the ESL and bilingual contexts. Further implications on how to improve teacher education and professional development are provided, in addition to the future directions for research.
Descriptors: Professional Autonomy, Bilingual Teachers, Language Teachers, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Educational Legislation, Federal Legislation, Elementary Secondary Education, High Stakes Tests, Accountability, Bilingual Education, Kindergarten, Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Faculty Development
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education; Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education; Kindergarten; Primary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: No Child Left Behind Act 2001; Every Student Succeeds Act 2015
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A