Early career teachers’ sense of professional agency in the classroom: associations with turnover intentions and perceived inadequacy in teacher–student interaction

ABSTRACT

Teachers’ capacity to learn intentionally and responsively in the classroom is particularly vulnerable during the first years in the profession. This study investigated the interrelations between early career teachers’ turnover intentions, perceived inadequacy in teacher–student interaction, and sense of professional agency in the classroom. The survey data were collected from 284 in-service teachers with not more than 5 years of experience and analysed by structural equation modelling (SEM). The results showed that the negative relation between turnover intentions and early career teachers’ sense of professional agency was completely mediated by perceived inadequacy in teacher–student interaction. The results indicate that experiences of insufficient abilities to solve pedagogically and socially challenging student situations have a crucial effect on early career teacher’s capacity for adaptive reflection and active transformation of instruction.

KEYWORDS:

• Early career teachers
• teacher learning
• professional agency
• turnover intentions
• teacher–student interaction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Academy of Finland [grant number 1259489]; the EU Lifelong Learning Programme [grant number 526318-LLP-1-2012-1-EE-COMENIUS-CMP]; and the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters [grant Jutikkala] awarded to Lauri Heikonen.

Notes on contributors

Lauri Heikonen

Lauri Heikonen is a PhD student in the Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. His research interest is teacher learning in classroom interaction.

Janne Pietarinen

Janne Pietarinen is a professor in the School of Applied Educational Science and Teacher Education at the University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland.

Kirsi Pyhältö

Kirsi Pyhältö is a professor in the Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland, and a research director in the Center for Research and Development of Higher Education, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.

Auli Toom

Auli Toom is an assistant professor at the Centre for Research and Development of Higher Education, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. Her research interests are teacher’s knowing, agency and scholarship.

Tiina Soini

Tiina Soini is a research director at the School of Education, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.