Finding and Enacting Agency: An Elementary ESL Teacher’s Perceptions of Teaching and Learning in the Era of Standardized Testing

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to examine how a first-grade ESL teacher understands teaching and learning as she explores her agency (and that of her students) in implementing and experimenting with project-based instruction (PBI) in her economically, culturally, and linguistically diverse classroom. Utilizing video-cued ethnography and drawing on teacher agency, pedagogy of hope, and identity in discourse, we explore how the process of implementing PBI and opportunities for reflection supported this teacher in examining her teaching approach while teaching in a high-stakes testing environment. Data suggested that when teachers have the professional agency to embrace more dynamic teaching practices without fear of failing, they can discover spaces to enact agency, extend agentic opportunities to their students, and create classrooms of hope, especially for marginalized communities in this era of standardization.

KEYWORDS:

• English language learners
• ESL classroom
• project-based instruction
• teacher agency

Acknowledgments

We extend our appreciation to Dr. Adair, Principal Investigator of the AYC project.

Notes

¹ The term “Hispanic” is used by U.S. government agencies to label groups deriving from Spanish-speaking Latin American countries, including islands in the Caribbean like Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.

Additional information

Funding

The Agency and Young Children project was funded by the Foundation for Child Development—Young Scholars Program. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agency.