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

Abstract

Teacher action and change is a complex and nuanced phenomenon that has been theorized across diverse literature in terms of identity, agency, and power. Drawing on this literature, this article offers specific articulations of teacher identity as interpretive framework, power as legitimate action, and agency as moral coherence. We posit a model of teacher agency understood in the interplay of individual beliefs, values, and ideals with institutional roles, authority, and institutional action, producing (or not producing) authentic action. This model draws a distinction between agency and power, and highlights dynamics of equilibrium and discord that may emerge between who teachers are and what they do. The agentive triad model serves as a theoretical tool for guiding or supporting teacher growth and agentive action, and for understanding the dynamics between institutionally legitimized roles and teacher identities.

Keywords:

• Teacher agency
• teacher identity
• teacher power
• teacher action

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Note, problematically, this is also the way agency is sometimes defined, leading to the two terms being treated as synonymous (see Achinstein & Ogawa, 2006). Below, we clarify a distinction.

2 In qualifying ethical positions as subjective, we are avoiding committing to broader discussions of ethics and ethical standards. Actions that may be unethical to the wider world may be ethical within the actor’s subjective interpretive framework. This also distinguishes this model from conceptions of teachers as moral agents treating values and morals as a pedagogical concern (e.g. Rosenberg, 2015).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Education Office of English Language Acquisition under National Professional Development Grant T365Z110203.

Notes on contributors

Brandon Sherman

Dr. Brandon Sherman (Ph.D., Penn State, 2016) is the Research Project Manager for the U.S. Department of Education grant funded initiative, Partnering for Radical School Improvement. His research interests include critical and sociocultural pedagogies, non-linear theoretical approaches to educational research, and dialogic interaction. His current research focuses on pedagogical coaching, professional learning, equitable family/community/school partnerships and agency/identity.

Annela Teemant

Dr. Annela Teemant (Ph.D., Ohio State University, 1997) is Professor of Language Education at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Her scholarship focuses on critical sociocultural theory and pedagogy in teacher preparation. She has been awarded five U.S. Department of Education grants focused teacher preparation of general education teachers for multilingual learners.