Re-Imagining Language Teacher Education: Agency and Innovation (72892)
Session Chair: Laila Familiar
Thursday, 23 November 2023 10:15
Session: Session 1
Room: Room 707
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
Student agency in the classroom is considered a key element in promoting students’ engagement, in unleashing their creativity, and in helping them take control of their own learning. We celebrate agency when it’s enacted by students, and we promote it; but how do language teachers in higher education institutions understand the concept of ‘teacher agency’? In what professional areas do teachers exercise their agency? What are some lived experiences that make it easier or harder for teachers to exercise their agency?
The aim of this exploratory study is to address a gap in the field by investigating the experience of a group of Arabic teachers that work in higher education institutions, in relation to their understanding and enactment of their agency, both in the classroom and in their professional lives. The methodology followed to investigate teachers’ experiences, perceptions, values, attitudes and beliefs towards the concept of teacher agency is phenomenology (Cohen et al2018, Webb & Welsh 2019), as a type of research that is well suited to capture qualitatively and in-depth the lived experience of teachers, individually and collectively.
Over a hundred teachers of Arabic from around the world were surveyed, and fourteen interviewed via an online video platform. Given that teacher agency has such a strong influence in shaping the quality of classroom instruction (Priestley 2011) and the professional development trajectories of language teachers, this as a priority research area in the field of language teaching and education at large.
Authors:
Laila Familiar, New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Geri Atanassova, The Ohio State University, United States
About the Presenter(s)
Dr Laila Familiar is a University Professor/Principal Lecturer at New York University Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates
See this presentation on the full schedule – Thursday Schedule
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