Teacher agency and spaces in changes of English language education policy

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the exercise of teacher agency in the context of English language education policy changes within China. Thematic analysis of data collected from narrative frame writing and semi-structured interviews identifies what opens spaces for teacher agency and what closes spaces, and the effects of the opening and closing of spaces on teacher agency exercise and policy implementation. Interpreting policy discourses and forming community of practice open spaces, planned and unplanned, for teacher agency at different layers of policy, and policy is then implemented in creative ways. However, institutional delays in implementing national policy and the ignorance of administrators towards the efforts of individual teachers to change close space for teacher agency, which then causes them to resist the implementation of a top-down policy, and the affective dimension of teacher agency is also manifested. This study suggests policy arbiters at the institutional layer should fulfil their role as the ‘intermediate agency’, and policymakers at the national layer need to become aware of space as an important component of policy implementation.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher agency
• planned and unplanned spaces
• layers of policy
• English language education policy

Acknowledgements

Our appreciation goes to Hannah Grieves and Chris Grieves, who couldn’t have been more careful in proof-reading this paper and showed their support in various ways.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes on contributors

Yuanyuan Liu is a lecturer at the School of Education, Shanghai International Studies University, People’s Republic of China. She got her doctoral degree at Beijing Foreign Studies University, and is now doing her post-doc research at Shanghai International Studies University while teaching English language courses. She does research in language policy and planning, and language learning and identity.

Huan Wang is a lecturer at the School of International Studies, NingboTech University, People’s Republic of China. She is now doing her PhD research in the School of Education, Western Sydney University, Australia. She does research in Second Language Teaching, Second Language Teacher Education and International Education.

Ronghui Zhao is a professor at the National Research Center for Language Planning and Policy, Shanghai International Studies University, People’s Republic of China. She was funded by the National Office for Philosophy and Social sciences, and Ministry of Education for her outstanding study on language policy and planning and sociolinguistics, and was elected as the pioneering scholar by Shanghai City in the year 2017. Her research mainly focuses on the social function of language, and urban language policy.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China [grant number 15JZD047]; Postdoctoral Research Foundation of China [grant number 2017M611602].