From artefact to tool: teachers' collective agency in school reform

Abstract

This study examines the mutual development of person and collective in the enactment of instructional reform through professional collaboration. The research uses sociocultural perspectives to frame the connection among person and collective in terms of the emergence of collective agency. Teachers' collective agency comprises collaborative action that transforms institutionally defined artefacts into collectively derived tools for teaching practice. Data include a detailed transcript of a 39-minute sequence pivotal to the enactment of reform principles by teaching staff in a US public secondary school. The analysis, which draws on views of language and semiotic mediation that complement sociocultural perspectives, traces one interactive move in the realignment of social relations in the collective that contributed to the uptake and transformation of an artefact introduced as part of the reform initiative. Findings of the study provide a dynamic view of the development of collective agency as specific alignments among person, collective and institution in the enactment of reform. Implications for practice include highlighting conditions and patterns of interaction conducive to the mutual adaptation of institutionally derived forms and collectively mediated actions. The study contributes a novel approach to illuminating the institutional dynamics of educational change in the everyday interactions that constitute professional work in schools.

Keywords:

• educational change
• semiotic mediation
• collective agency

Acknowledgements

The author appreciates the feedback on previous drafts of this article from the editors, several anonymous reviewers, as well as Harry Daniels, Chris James, Keith Sawyer and Jennifer Vadeboncoeur. The author is grateful to Ron Ritchhart for permission to use Figure 2, TfU Planning Frame.

Notes

1. “Rationale for TfU for L-G,” personal communication, 28 April 2004.

2. For the codebook and examples of application of the codes, see Eddy Spicer (2006), retrieved from http://go.bath.ac.uk/codebook

3. Eddy Spicer (2006, pp. 240–241).

4. The following basic transcription conventions are used in the excerpts:

#	=	pause between words
##	=	long pause between words
xxx	=	unintelligible speech, not treated as a word
xx	=	unintelligible speech, treated as a word
[?]	=	unintelligible, preceding word is best guess
[!]	=	stress
[text]	=	transcriber comment or local event (e.g. laugh, groan)
[//]	=	self-correction
[///]	=	restart
text(text)text	=	partial or non-completed word
…	=	trailing off
<text> [>]	=	overlapped speech
<text> [<]	=	overlapping speech
(number)	=	a turn made up of a single move, e.g. (3), appearing at end of turn
(letter number)	=	a turn made up of more than one move, e.g. (3a), appearing at end of each move