EFL Teacher Education in Finland: Manifestations of Professional Agency in Teacher Educators’ Work

ABSTRACT

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher educators play a key role in the development of university-based teacher education and the preparation of preservice EFL teachers. However, the professional agency of EFL teacher educators in developing their work remains understudied. Employing a Vygotskian sociocultural theoretical perspective, this research considers the individual and collective professional agency of eight EFL teacher educators at two Finnish universities. Findings demonstrate that individual professional agency is enacted in the expression of professional identity and the development of professional relationships, and in offering and receiving professional assistance. Findings also demonstrate that collective agency occurs in the shared development of routine practices and the transformation of EFL education, and in responding to shifts in power dynamics. These findings affirm the roles of identity and relational agency in enacting professional agency as well as the object-oriented nature of EFL teacher educators’ collective agency.

KEYWORDS:

• Finnish teacher education
• EFL teacher education
• teacher educator
• professional agency
• collective agency
• sociocultural approach

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the teacher educators for sharing their experiences. They would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive and insightful feedback. They would like to extend their gratitude to Emerita Professor Anneli Eteläpelto, Professor Aini-Kristiina Jäppinen, and Professor Elina Lehtomäki for their guidance.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The first author was supported by the Ellen and Artturi Nyyssonen Foundation, Finland. The second author was partly supported by the Academy of Finland, Grant number 288925 (The Role of Emotions in Agentic Learning at Work) and the Urpo ja Maija-Liisa Harvan Foundation under the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Grant number 00190798 (Teaching Immigrant Children: Teacher Identity Negotiation).