Journals / Dil ve Dilbilimi Çalışmaları Dergisi / 2019 / Cilt: 15 Sayı: 4

Sense of professional agency in ELT practicum: Comparison of Polish, Portuguese, and Turkish contexts

Burçak Yılmaz Yakışık(Gazı University)
Fatıma Nur Fişne(Gazı University)
Gonca Yangın Ekşi(Gazı University)
Pages
1317–1331
Publication Date
2019-12-31
🏛️Bibliographic metadata and full text access for this article are provided via DergiPark.
DergiPark Record ↗
✨

AI Summary & Key Takeaways

AI Insight
⚡ TL;DR(Too Long; Didn't Read)

Turkish and Portuguese practicum contexts show similarities in the components of reflection and positive interdependence; however, three countries significantly differ in the sense of professional agency from a holistic perspective.

📌 3 Key Takeaways

🎯
Objective & Hypothesis:Teacher agency is a concept that defines a teacher’s commitments and capabilities of making decisions and taking actions which result in a change in the community of teaching (Husu & Toom, 2010; Pietarinen, Pyhälto & Soini, 2016).
📊
Key Findings & Data:Since practicum teaching is the first place where teacher trainees enhance both theoretical and practical teaching experiences, it plays a crucial role in shaping teacher trainees’ professional agency.
💡
Conclusion & Impact:Turkish and Portuguese practicum contexts show similarities in the components of reflection and positive interdependence; however, three countries significantly differ in the sense of professional agency from a holistic perspective.
🔬Design:Araştırma Makalesi
📍Scope:2010 Verileri
⚙️Variables:teacher trainees · agency · practicum

Abstract

Teacher agency is a concept that defines a teacher’s commitments and capabilities of making decisions and taking actions which result in a change in the community of teaching (Husu & Toom, 2010; Pietarinen, Pyhälto & Soini, 2016). Since practicum teaching is the first place where teacher trainees enhance both theoretical and practical teaching experiences, it plays a crucial role in shaping teacher trainees’ professional agency. Putting emphasis on the practicum teaching and different instructional backgrounds, this study aims to describe English language teacher trainees’ sense of professional agency in practicum in Poland, Portugal, and Turkey. In addition, it attempts to compare three practicum settings in terms of the professional agency. The main findings of the study show that teacher trainees have a sense of professional agency in three countries but their level of agency varies. Considering the dynamics of agency, it can be stated that teacher trainees feel more agentic in reflection. Turkish and Portuguese practicum contexts show similarities in the components of reflection and positive interdependence; however, three countries significantly differ in the sense of professional agency from a holistic perspective.

🔖

Cite This Article

Yakışık, B. Y., Fişne, F. N., Ekşi, G. Y. (2019). Sense of professional agency in ELT practicum: Comparison of Polish, Portuguese, and Turkish contexts. Dil ve Dilbilimi Çalışmaları Dergisi, Cilt: 15 Sayı: 4, 1317–1331. https://doi.org/10.17263/jlls.668451

📄 Full Text PDF Viewer

📄

PDF görüntüleyici hazırlanıyor...

References (35)

  1. Akbari, R. (2007). Reflections on reflection: a critical appraisal of reflective practices in L2 teacher education. System: An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics, 35(2), 192–220.
  2. Alger, C. (2006). ‘What went well, what didn’t go so well’: growth of reflection in pre-service teachers. Reflective Practice, 7(3), 287–301.
  3. Atay, D. (2006). Teachers’ professional development: Partnerships in research. Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, 10(2), 1-15.
  4. Bakkenes, T. I., Vermunt, J. D., Wubbels, T., & Imants, J. G. (2006). Teachers’ perceptions of the school as a context for workplace learning. In Education research in the public interest. Washington: American Educational Research Association.
  5. Clement, M., & Vandenberghe, R. (2000). Teachers’ professional development: A solitary or collegial (ad)venture? Teaching and Teacher Education, 16, 81–101.
  6. Cohen, L., Manion, L. & Morrison, K. (2017). Research methods in education (6th Edition). Oxon: Routledge.
  7. Degago, A. T. (2007) Using reflective journals to enhance impoverished practicum placements: A case in teacher education in Ethiopia. Teaching Education, 18(4), 343-356, DOI: 10.1080/10476210701687633
  8. De Vries, S., Jansen, E., & Van de Grift, W. (2013). Profiling teachers’ continuing professional development and the relation with their beliefs about learning and teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 33, 78–89.
  9. Edwards, A. (2007). Relational agency in professional practice: A CHAT analysis. Actio: an International Journal of Human Activity Theory, 1, 1–17.
  10. Author. (2019). Language teacher trainees’ sense of professional agency in practicum: cases from Turkey, Portugal and Poland. Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 25(3), 279-300. DOI: 10.1080/13540602.2019.1587404
  11. Eröz-Tuğa, B. (2012). Reflective feedback sessions using video recordings. ELT Journal, 67(2), 175–183.
  12. Eteläpelto, A., Vähäsantanen, K., Hökkä P., & Paloniemi S. (2013). What is agency? Conceptualizing professional agency at work. Educational Research Review, 10, 45– 65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2013.05.001
  13. Field, A. (2013). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics (4th Edition). London: Sage Publications.
  14. Fraenkel, J. R., Wallen, N. E., & Hyun, H. H. (2012). How to design and evaluate research in education (8th Edition). New York: Mc Graw Hill.
  15. Han, J., & Yin, H. (2016) Teacher motivation: Definition, research development and implications for teachers, Cogent Education, 3(1), doi:10.1080/2331186X.2016.1217819
  16. Hinton, P. R., McMurray, I., & Brownlow, C. (2014). SPSS explained (2nd Edition). Routledge.
  17. Hoekstra, A., Beijard, D., Brekelmans, D., & Korthagen, F. (2007). Experienced teachers’ informal learning from classroom teaching. Teachers and teaching: theory and practice, 13(2), 189–206.
  18. Husu, J., & Toom, A. (2010). Opettaminen neuvotteluna – oppiminen osallisuutena: opettajuus demokraattisena professiona [Teaching as negotiation – Learning as participation: The democratic profession of teaching]. In A. Kallioniemi, A. Toom, M. Ubani, & H. Linnansaari (Eds.), Akateeminen luokanopettajakoulutus: 30 vuotta teoriaa, käytäntöä ja maistereita [Academic class teacher education: 30 years of theory, practice and masters] (pp. 133–147). Research in Educational Sciences 52. Turku: Finnish Educational Research Association.
  19. Husu, J., Toom, A., & Patrikainen, S. (2008). Guided reflection as a means to demonstrate and develop student teachers’ reflective competencies. Reflective Practice, 9(1), 37–51.
  20. Kwakman, K. (2003). Factors affecting teachers’ participation in professional learning activities. Teaching and teacher education, 19, 149–170.
  21. Lipponen, L., & Kumpulainen, K. (2011). Acting as accountable authors: Creating interactional spaces for agency work in teacher education. Teacher and Teacher Education, 27, 812-819. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2011.01.001
  22. Meirink, J.A., Meijer, P.C., Verloop, N, Bergen, T.C.M. (2009). Understanding teacher learning in secondary education: the relations of teacher activities to changed beliefs about teaching and learning. Teaching and Teaching Education, 25(1), 89-100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2008.07.003
  23. Pietarinen, J., Pyhältö, K., & Soini, T. (2016). Teacher’s professional agency–a relational approach to teacher learning. Learning: Research and Practice, 2(2), 112–129.
  24. Pomaki, G., DeLongis, A., Frey, D., Short, K., & Woehrle, T. (2010). When the going gets tough: Direct, buffering and indirect effects of social support on turnover intention. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(6), 1340-1346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2010.03.007
  25. Pyhältö, K., Pietarinen, J., & Soini, T. (2014). Comprehensive school teachers’ professional agency in large-scale educational change. Journal of Educational Change, 15, 303–325.
  26. Pyhältö, K., Pietarinen, J., & Soini, T. (2015). Teachers’ professional agency and learning – from adaption to active modification in teacher community. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice., 21(7), 811–830.
  27. Pyhältö, K., Pietarinen, J., Soini, T. (2012). Do comprehensive school teachers perceive themselves as active professional agents in school reforms? Journal of Educational Change. 13 (1). 95-116.
  28. Pyhältö, K., Soini, T., & Pietarinen, J. (2011). A systemic perspective on school reform. Journal of Educational Administration.49 (1), 46-61. Sachs, J. (2003). The activist teaching profession. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
  29. Skaalvik, E. M., & Skaalvik, S. (2011). Teachers’ feeling of belonging, exhaustion, and job satisfaction: The role of school goal structure and value consonance. Anxiety, Stress and Coping, 24, 369–385.
  30. Soini, T., Pietarinen, J., & Pyhältö, K. (2016). What if teachers learn in the classroom? Teacher Development, 20(3), 380–397.
  31. Susoy, Z. (2015). Watch your teaching: A reflection strategy for EFL pre-service teachers through video recordings, Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 199, 163-171.
  32. Toom, A; Pyhältö, K; & Rust, F. (2015) Teachers’ professional agency in contradictory times, Teachers and Teaching, 21(6), 615-623. doi:10.1080/13540602.2015.1044334
  33. Turnbull, M. (2005). Student teacher professional agency in the practicum. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 33, 195–208.
  34. Vahasantanen, K., Saarinen, J., & Etela ̈pelto, A. (2009). Between school and working life: Vocational teachers’ agency in boundary-crossing settings. International Journal of Educational Research, 48, 395–404.
  35. Zeichner, K., & Conklin, H. G. (2010). Teacher education programs as sites for teacher preparation. In M. Cochran-Smith, S. Feiman-Nemser, & J. D. McIntyre (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education. Enduring questions in changing contexts (pp. 269–289). New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.