A narrative inquiry into the agency of an EFL teacher in Western China

Haibo Gu; Yulian Liang; Qian Wang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.957372

A narrative inquiry into the agency of an EFL teacher in Western China

Front Psychol. 2022 Sep 21:13:957372. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.957372. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Haibo Gu^{1

2}, Yulian Liang^{1

3}, Qian Wang⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Foreign Languages, Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
² School of Foreign Languages, Xinjiang Normal University, Ürümqi, China.
³ Wuxi Foreign Language School, Wuxi, China.
⁴ Academy of Future Education, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China.

Abstract

Despite the increasing interest in teacher agency in the field of language teacher psychology, little attention has been paid to how language teachers enact their agency in an under-resourced environment. To address the research gap, this narrative study explored how a secondary English as a foreign language teacher in Western China enacted his agency for professional development and identified its sources. The findings revealed that this teacher enacted his agency through passionate exploration of adaptive teaching and continuous investment in autonomous learning. His agency was attributed to the interplay of his past experiences, long-term goals, teaching beliefs, and the challenging working environment. Consequently, implications for teacher agency research and practice are discussed.

Keywords: Western China; language teacher; narrative inquiry; teacher agency; under-resourced environment.