Elementary teacher candidates’ expressions of agency around literacy

This qualitative study conducted across five US institutions used focus group interviews to explore 19 elementary teacher candidates’ expressions of teacher agency when teaching literacy. Building on an ecological view of agency, we define teacher agency as the intentional and active contributions teachers make to shaping their practice, which are supported or constrained within their teaching contexts. Interviews were analyzed using collaborative coding and thematic analysis to explore aspects of teacher agency including sense of purpose, competence, and autonomy. Findings show that the teacher candidates were demonstrating emerging agency and beginning to navigate constraints of exerting their agency which was facilitated by the professional support they received from supervisors and professors. Considering restrictive, top-down educational policies experienced globally and particularly pervasive with respect to literacy instruction, these findings offer important insights into how educators newest to the field are starting to navigate these tensions and how teacher educators can support them.