A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Exploring the relational nature of teachers’ agency negotiation through master- and counter-narratives




AuthorsHeikkilä Mirva, Iiskala Tuike, Mikkilä-Erdmann Mirjamaija, Warinowski Anu

PublisherRoutledge, Taylor & Francis Group

Publication year2022

JournalBritish Journal of Sociology of Education

Volume43

Issue3

First page 397

Last page414

eISSN1465-3346

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2022.2038541

Web address https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01425692.2022.2038541

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/174544670


Abstract

Teachers’ agency has recently been vastly studied from a sociocultural perspective, emphasising that teachers’ action is shaped by the structures within which teachers work. However, this study provides a different perspective, introducing relational sociology to the research on teachers’ agency. Here, agency is seen as embedded in interdependencies and relationships, either personal or impersonal. Finnish newly qualified teachers were interviewed concerning their teacher training and work to explore how they negotiated agency in their narratives. The analysis shows the entanglement of master- and counter-narratives in agency negotiation as the teachers drew on prevailing societal master-narratives and simultaneously provided opposing categories through counter-narratives. The results reveal three aspects of relationships through which the agency was negotiated: political, cultural, and epistemic. The study contributes to the understanding of teachers’ agency, paying attention to language and the plurality of relationships in agency negotiation and formation.


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