Background/purpose: Although studies on teacher research are becoming more common in English language teaching (ELT), there is still a lack of understanding regarding how university lecturers shape their research identities. Using Ecological systems theory and Self-determination theory, this study examines the construction of research identities…

This study investigates the motivation of language teachers through the lens of possible language teacher selves (Kubanyiova, 2009) in the context of online teaching, exploring how motivation evolves over time. Using a longitudinal qualitative approach, the study utilised semi-structured interviews and teaching diaries with 14 secondary school…

The Soviet period is described as a highly centralised top-down system where schools and teachers had little to say about managerial topics. Instead, change was initiated by the resolutions and decisions of the Ministry of Education. This article aims to shed light on the establishment of Foreign-Language Subject Councils in Soviet Estonia in the…

In global trends and current curricular policy reforms in second language (L2) education, there is a great emphasis on repositioning of teachers as assessors and teachers' role as responsible agents in assessment. However, various factors affect the agency of teachers as assessors in the classroom. This study explored the ways English as a Foreign…

Teacher agency in Vietnam is an under-researched area, to the cost of recognising teacher professionalism, the role of teachers in curriculum reform and, consequently, the success of important curriculum improvements. This paper reports on a multiple-case study investigating teacher agency in primary schools implementing the national EFL…

Through an ethnographic study that took place in highly diverse primary school classrooms in London and the East of England, UK, this book engages with teachers' perspectives and children's descriptions of their plurilingual experiences, as it explores what constitutes, hinders and potentially facilitates teachers' agency in multilingual…

Teachers receive increasing attention as change agents within education reform policy discourses positioning their professionalism, identity, and agency as critical to implementation of reforms. However, identities either claimed by teachers or assigned by reform policies involve serious (re)negotiations on the part of teachers as they make…

Equality and equity have become dominant discourses within educational policy documents during the last decade. Colombia, for example, has introduced a language policy initiative that purports to provide educational equity opportunities for all through English language environments and opportunities within schools. Drawing on Ball's (1993.…

This case study reports how three high-school teachers from two state schools in Colombia enacted the National English Suggested Curriculum by the Ministry of Education. The teachers' trajectories of action were analyzed through semi-structured interviews, teachers' narratives, and lesson observations. Using the ecological model of agency as a…

This study explored a contemporary period of Japanese higher education policy planning that adopted internationalisation of higher education as a metanarrative for sociocultural change in Japan. These wider societal pressures have over a period of time contributed to increasing institutional resistance to top-down policy initiatives. Further,…

This article reports on a national survey of complementary school providers in Scotland to gain insights into their perspectives of the abrupt transition to online learning spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data gathered from a questionnaire (n=34) and in-depth interviews (n=13) covering 19 different heritage languages are analysed through the…

Netnography, a qualitative research approach, entails observing, analysing, and interpreting online data. This netnography explores how teacher agency, emotion regulation, and professional identity were enacted by a novice Chinese language teacher in response to emergency remote teaching (ERT) in Australia amid the global pandemic. Ecologically…

Curriculum material use is an agentive, reciprocal and innovative practice, involving multiple stakeholders such as teacher, students and assessments that mutually shape one another. While it is generally acknowledged that teachers' knowledge and skills deeply shape the way they use materials, little is known about how material use can possibly…

This study contributes to the limited research on teacher agency in task-based language teaching. Conceptualising agency through the lens of activity theory, the study investigated how two EFL teachers enacted their agency in TBLT implementation at a Chinese university and what factors mediated the enactment of their agency. Data collected by…

Myanmar has experienced more upheaval and crisis in the past decade than perhaps any of the other nations currently members of the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN). The impact of the twin crises of COVID and the February 1, 2021 military coup, on the heels of massive educational reforms in Myanmar, has created a crucible in which teachers…