Chilean and Finnish university-based teacher educators’ agentic approaches to academic career path development

ABSTRACT

University-based teacher educators are key agents of educational and societal change. Yet their academic careers across institutions and countries have received insufficient attention. To bridge this gap, our empirical study collected data from 12 teacher educators in different Chilean and Finnish research-oriented universities. Drawing from Archer’s social theory, we examine teacher educators’ reflexivity as a decision-making process, offering them directional guidance to act in and over their (professional) lives. We identify three agentic approaches to career path development triggered by reflexivity modes – we-relationship, excellence-driven and value-oriented – that Chilean and Finnish teacher educators practice amidst workplace structural and cultural conditions. These approaches explain their diverse professional trajectories, even under similar circumstances, and contradict ideas of linear progression and ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions to career development. This study contributes to promoting more equitable career pathways for teacher educators in Chile, Finland and elsewhere.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher educators
• academic career
• higher education
• agency
• reflexivity

Acknowledgement

To Margaret Archer (1943–2023), whose work inspired this research.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Nonetheless, despite increasing full-time and part-time employment, 57% of academics are fixed-term or hourly paid (CNED, 2021).

2 Collaboration dividing (un)consciously and insulating into competing sub-groups (Hargreaves, 1994).

Additional information

Funding

Work funded by the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) / Scholarship Program / DOCTORADO BECAS CHILE/2019–72200368.