The context in which teachers exercise agency and autonomy in directing and completing their own research: a teacher-led, academic-facilitated research group

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ABSTRACT

This paper explores the contexts of the decision-making of seven Teacher Researchers in an informal practitioner research group which we facilitated. The group was established to support teachers in undertaking small-scale professional research studies within their own settings. This paper focuses on the contexts of the decisions about research questions undertaken by the teachers, each of which were given one stipulation of working to the demands of educational research ethics throughout their study, in the hope that teachers would therefore be able to exercise high levels of agency in making these decisions. Although agency is often perceived as something individual teachers possess, we suggest that this conception of agency is limited. Data collection took the form of a focus group which was analysed through a coding approach to identify emerging themes. Focus group interviews were thematically coded. We found that teachers’ decision-making about practitioner research is heavily framed by their contexts and their professional histories, as well as the access to time and resource to carry out research that is afforded to them. However, even within these constraints, they are active agents, who have embraced the tools of accountability rather than submitted to them.

KEYWORDS:

• autonomy
• agency
• accountability

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ed Podesta

Ed Podesta is a Senior Lecturer at Leeds Trinity University. He leads the Secondary Education ITE team and teaches undergraduate and post-graduate modules on Philosophy of Education and Action Research. He worked as a Secondary History Teacher for 14 years, and during that time wrote or contributed to several textbooks for secondary pupils studying History. Ed is starting a PhD focused on autonomy and agency in curriculum in October at the University of Leeds.

Leigh Hoath

Dr Leigh Hoath is a Senior Lecturer and leads on Science Education at Leeds Trinity University. She is a former classroom teacher, experienced across the primary and secondary age phases. As well as being heavily involved with the Association for Science Education and editor of Primary Science, Leigh also has a strong interest in teaching beyond the classroom and her doctorate created a framework for effective pedagogy in the outdoors.