Teaching and Teacher Education 63 (2017) 346e355

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Teaching and Teacher Education

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Teacher agency and identity commitment in curricular reform

Jian Tao a, b, Xuesong Gao b, *
a
Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, China
b
Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China

h i g h l i g h t s

We examined the interaction of teacher agency and identity commitment to professional development in curricular reform.

We interpreted agentic choices and actions in their professional trajectories from a sociocultural developmental approach.

Teachers’ agentic choices were mediated by their identity commitment.

Teachers’ individualized ways of enacting agency was affected by their prior experience..

These findings inform how to prepare and support teachers as agentic professionals in the shifting educational contexts

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study explores how teachers enact agency to facilitate their professional development during
Received 31 May 2016 curricular reform at a Chinese university. An analysis of data derived from life history interviews with
Received in revised form eight language teachers complemented with field notes reveals differential agentic choices and actions.
6 January 2017
The teachers' learning, teaching and research endeavours in relation to the new curriculum are directed
Accepted 12 January 2017
Available online 26 January 2017
by various identity commitments and enacted in highly individualised ways, as mediated by their prior
experiences. By situating teachers' agency in their individual professional trajectories, this study con-
ceptualises interaction of teacher agency and identity commitment to professional development during
Keywords:
Teacher agency
curricular reform.
Identity commitment © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Professional development
Curricular reform

1. Introduction (Sannino, 2010; Va €ha

€santanen & Etela €pelto, 2009). Therefore
teachers are not “pawns in the reform process” but “active agents,
Teacher agency has become an important construct in the whether they act passively or actively” (Lasky, 2005, pp. 900e901).
literature on educational change, because it affects the imple- Agentic teachers not only fulfil complicated tasks but also “have the
mentation of educational policies at the institutional and national skills and will to strengthen their own … capabilities for life-long
levels. Previous studies assumed that “agency and change [were] learning and sustained professional growth” (Lipponen &
synonymous and positive” (Priestley, Edwards, Priestley, & Miller, Kumpulainen, 2011, p. 812). In other words, teacher agency plays
2012, p. 191), projecting teachers into the role of technicians a critical role in sustaining teachers' professional development. It
actualising directives for educational innovation. Such notions have directs them to stay true to themselves on their career path and
been challenged in recent studies which draw more attention to attain self-realisation (Ketelaar et al., 2012), a sign of the intricate
how individual teachers practise agency in response to educational relationship between agency and identity. When teachers have a
change (Robinson, 2012; Va €ha€santanen & Etela €pelto, 2009; sense of being able to practise agency, they are more likely to
Ketelaar, Beijaard, Boshuizen, & Den Brok, 2012). These studies consider and make what they do as “a meaningful profession rather
reveal that teachers' agency manifests a range of orientations to- than just a job” (Priestley, Biesta, & Robinson, 2015, p. 149), which
wards reform, including resistance, ambivalence and approval in turn strengthens their commitment to being a particular kind of
teacher and contributes to their professional development. For
these reasons, more research is needed to accord primacy to
* Corresponding author. Office 663, Meng Wah Complex, Faculty of Education, teachers as agentic professionals who develop professionally to-
The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China.
wards self-realisation while coping with external demands
E-mail addresses: taojian@connect.hku.hk (J. Tao), xsgao@hku.hk (X. Gao).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2017.01.010
0742-051X/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 J. Tao, X. Gao / Teaching and Teacher Education 63 (2017) 346e355 347

(Leander & Osborne, 2008; V€ aha€santanen, 2015). To this end, the and lead to mutual learning in cross-cultural communication. Other
current project reports on the professional experiences of eight studies have investigated professional practices such as research
English language teachers who underwent career transformation in performance (Ho € kka
€, Etela
€pelto, & Rasku-Puttonen, 2012) and the
a context of curricular reform, shifting from general English to ESP supervision of vocational students' workplace learning
(English for specific purposes), in a Chinese university. As teachers' (Va€ha€santanen, 2015). Thus, teacher agency is multifaceted and
professional development can be understood as “a process of life- involved in professional growth in many different facets of a
long learning” (Beijaard, Meijer, & Verloop, 2004, p. 122), our in- teacher's daily work. There are also consequences to teachers'
quiry draws on the life-course notion of agency and takes a socio- professional well-being when their agency is limited. For instance,
cultural developmental approach (Etela €pelto, Va €h€
asantanen, Lasky (2005) reports on teachers' increased feelings of vulnerability
Ho€kka€, & Paloniemi, 2013) to examine how teacher agency inter- during a secondary school curriculum reform that placed more
acted with identity commitment to mediate their professional emphasis on accountability. Lasky shows that professional vulner-
development in the midst of educational reform. ability co-occurs with the constraint of agency and also a
Three main conceptualisations of agency can be found in the disjuncture between teacher identity and the reform mandate.
current literature: agency as variable, agency as capacity, and agency Thus the interaction between agency and identity cannot be
as phenomenon/doing (Priestley et al., 2015). The notion of agency as underestimated.
an innate variable, as opposed to being structurally determined, In relation to identity, teacher agency has been considered a
negates social contributions to the development of agency. Other crucial component of intentional individuals, underlying teachers'
researchers take a more complex view of agency, seeing it as a construction of themselves as professionals (Beijaard et al., 2004;
capacity or phenomenon. From the former perspective, agency is Varghese, Morgan, Johnston, & Johnson, 2005). In other words,
“the socioculturally mediated capacity to act purposefully and teacher agency is a core aspect of identity formation and devel-
reflectively on [one's] world” (Rogers & Wetzel, 2013, p. 63). Such a opment. Recent research, however, contends that teachers practise
conceptualisation emphasises that agency is subject to contextual agency in line with who they say they are (Sloan, 2006). Teacher
mediation and draws attention to the interaction between the agency has been examined through teacher positioning (Kayi-
personal and the social, but has been criticised for failing to provide Aydar, 2015; Va €ha€santanen & Etela €pelto, 2009), teachers' role
“ways to identify agentic actions” (Hitlin & Elder, 2007, p. 173). For (Campbell, 2012) and teachers' self-authored ‘I’ (Sloan, 2006),
this reason, our inquiry makes use of the conceptualisation of indicating that teachers' identity must be considered in terms of
agency as phenomenon/doing, as something “achieved and not as their agentic choices and actions. These studies indicate teacher
merely … a capacity or possession of the individual” (Priestley et al., identity mediates and shapes the practice of teacher agency
2012, p. 197). We discuss below how teacher agency and identity particularly manifested in their classroom practices in the context
commitment have been used to explore teachers' professional of changing student populations (Kayi-Aydar, 2015) and shifting
development in light of educational change, and elaborate the so- educational policies (Toom et al., 2015). Teacher identity can be
ciocultural developmental approach used in this study. defined as various commitments, or as a resolve “to be the kind of
teacher they [want] to be” (Buchanan, 2015, p. 15, italics original).
2. Professional development: teacher agency and identity Teachers' professional commitments, though oriented towards the
commitment future, develop out of prior experience as well as contextual con-
ditions (ibid.), and are an important component of teacher identity
Rather than something that is done to teachers, professional that influences teacher agency (Etela €pelto et al., 2013). In this study,
development has been reclaimed as something “for teachers, by we define identity commitment as the combination of a teacher's
teachers” (Johnson, 2006, p. 250). That recognises teachers' ‘right’ professional interests and aspirations (V€ aha€santanen, 2015) and
to direct and ‘responsibility’ to sustain their professional develop- examine its interaction with teacher agency. Taking a more holistic
ment throughout their careers (ibid.), highlighting teacher agency. approach to teachers' professional development, we do not confine
Recent studies primarily characterise teacher agency through our examination of teacher agency to teaching practices, and
teachers' response to educational change, developing a complex investigate other areas that the participants considered relevant to
picture (Robinson, 2012; Sannino, 2010). Teacher agency may have their everyday work and professional trajectories. Thus we inter-
different manifestations, and evolve through different stages from pret individual teachers' actions and choices within their profes-
compliance to resistance and then to negotiation (Robinson, 2012). sional history as well as an institutional context, and explore the
Teacher agency also varies between individuals, as teachers enter interplay between teacher agency and identity commitment. To do
the profession with different backgrounds and have relative pro- so, we adopt a socio-cultural developmental approach to teacher
fessional autonomy to teach (Kayi-Aydar, 2015). The exercise of agency (Etela €pelto et al., 2013).
teacher agency is thus a dynamic process inflected by teachers'
beliefs (Biesta, Priestley, & Robinson, 2015), personal goals 3. Towards a socio-cultural developmental approach to
(Ketelaar et al., 2012), and knowledge of curriculum and pedagogy teacher agency
(Sloan, 2006). Though these studies contribute to our under-
standing of teacher agency, it is increasingly important for re- Recent research on teacher agency has been problematised, as it
searchers to see the value of teacher agency “not only for tends to offer “an uncritical privileging of the immediate social
facilitating student learning but also for continuing professional €pelto et al., 2013, p. 56) such as activity theory.
contributions” (Etela
development” (Toom, Pyh€ €, & Rust, 2015, p. 615). In other words,
alto We accordingly draw on the life-course notion of agency to expand
more research is needed to link teacher agency and professional the temporal dimension that helps understand teacher agency
development during educational changes (Va €ha €santanen, 2015). within a professional trajectory dictated by contextual resources
Teacher agency plays a key role in teacher learning as man- and constraints (ibid.). This life-course theoretical orientation to-
ifested in collective efforts to confront, resist and work out peda- wards agency posits that “individuals construct their own life
gogical conflicts (Sannino, 2010). Similarly, Lai, Li and Gong's (2016) course through the choices and actions they take within the op-
study of professional learning in an institutional environment portunities and constraints of history and social circumstance”
where Chinese and Western teachers co-exist demonstrates that an (Elder, Johnson, & Crosnoe, 2003, p. 11, italics added, also see Gao &
agency-oriented approach can overcome unequal power relations Xu, 2014). This implies the primacy of individual development
348 J. Tao, X. Gao / Teaching and Teacher Education 63 (2017) 346e355

across a life history as a result of interaction between agency and ESP teaching (Cheng, 2016) and must engage in a range of profes-
context. Individuals at work enact agency through making choices sional development activities (Campion, 2016). Nonetheless, these
about what to engage in and taking action with different degrees of pioneering efforts to embrace ESP did not change the low profes-
engagement to shape their own professional trajectory (Billett, sional status of general English teachers (Cheng, 2016), as echoed
2006). Agency is thus closely linked to a range of forms of partici- by the experiences of ESP teachers in the university's English
pation (and non-participation) in the social world. The life-course Department. The program's two other concentrations are Literature
notion of agency also takes into account individuals' identity and Linguistics (LL) and Translation Studies (TS), which are taught
commitment, which affects their choices and actions (Etela €pelto by over 80% of department members. The long tradition of LL and
et al., 2013). In line with an ontological orientation towards doing TS as well as the dominance of those teaching these courses makes
or practice, Wenger’s (1998) construct of participation serves to them the mainstream, as opposed to ESP; this power structure
identify agentic choices and actions affected by one's identity. Ac- constitutes the basic social configuration of the faculty.
cording to Wenger, a mix of participation and non-participation As required by the changed curriculum, a team of eight ESP
defines identities, as reflected in “1) how we locate ourselves in a teachers was established (see Table 1). The team began with two
social landscape; 2) what we care about and what we neglect; 3) teachers (Zhao, Qian) who pioneered teaching ESP courses as
what we attempt to know and understand and what we choose to general electives; the department then absorbed some in-service
ignore; 4) with whom we seek connections and whom we avoid; 5) teachers (Li, Sun, Wang) who had varying knowledge of other
how we engage and direct our energies; and 6) how we attempt to subjects, retrained English teachers (Zhou) and recruited a few
steer our trajectories” (pp. 167e168). Wenger argues that these English teachers interested in teaching ESP (Wu, Zheng). They all
manifestations of participation and non-participation are not voluntarily agreed to implement the curricular reform and to
merely personal choices but must be understood within the refocus their careers on ESP. Though one participant, Wang, quit
“configuration of social relations” (p. 168) at different levels. We teaching finance English two years ago, we decided to include her
apply this socio-cultural developmental approach to data inter- in our study because she may provide very different insights into
pretation to explain the following research questions: teachers' professional development amid curricular change.
All participants except Wu were graduates of English-related
1) How did teachers enact agency in facilitating professional undergraduate programs; some pursued master studies in related
development during curricular reform? subjects such as law or business before or after becoming involved
2) How did their identity commitment mediate teachers' enact- in teaching the new curriculum. The identity commitments they
ment of agency to facilitate their professional development articulated also reveal a great deal of diversity within the team.
during curricular reform? Only Zhao and Qian showed firm identity commitments to the new
enterprise, while the rest expressed a mixture of identity
commitment and ambivalence (Sun, Li, Wu, Zheng) or a refusal to
4. Research background and participants identify with the new enterprise (Zhou, Wang). Some teachers'
accounts contain conflicting identity statements, as in the case of
Examining the enactment of agency necessitates “an under- Wu. Such complicated scenarios demonstrate the intricate inter-
standing of the ecological conditions under and through which action between educational change and identity negotiation; as
agency is achieved” (Biesta & Tedder, 2007, p. 146), including his- Va€ha€santanen (2015) puts it, “an educational change can challenge
torical, socio-economic, institutional and disciplinary conditions teachers to negotiate their identities, but it may also be insufficient
(Ecclestone, 2007). Thus we turn now to an overview of the con- to produce a process of identity reformation” (p. 6).
ditions in which this study's participants made agentic choices and
took agentic actions. 5. Research design
The study was conducted in Mainland China, where the national
craze for English has resulted in students entering colleges with Informed by the sociocultural developmental approach, this
improved English proficiency. This has “prompted teachers of En- study situates teacher agency within each teacher's professional
glish to rethink the goal of English teaching at [the] tertiary level” trajectory. By interpreting their professional experiences retro-
(Cheng, 2016, p. 121). This becomes a more urgent issue for de- spectively, we explore how participants enacted agency to facilitate
partments of English in Chinese universities, because the reduced their own professional development, within a shifting context that
competitiveness in the job market of English-major graduates featured both opportunities and constraints.
relative to other majors has led to a rapid decline in un-
dergraduates' choosing to major in English (Qu, 2012). Meanwhile, 5.1. Data collection
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has in recent years become a
popular form of English education in China and in other Asian Our inquiry was part of an ethnographic study in which the first
countries (Cheng & Anthony, 2014). Compared to general English author conducted life-history interviews with eight teachers
courses focusing on language proficiency only, ESP teaching con- involved in the new curriculum. This was followed by an extended
nects English with the content of other disciplines to give students engagement with three focal teachers for a semester. Fieldwork
relevant English competence in specific professions (Campion, was concluded by re-interviewing all participants. The whole data
2016). At the local level, this study focuses on a comprehensive collection process lasted a year, and data from multiple sources
university on the east coast of China that enjoys a geographical were collected, including participatory observation data, conver-
advantage in its proximity to the international business market. The sations with administrators, field notes and relevant school docu-
English major program in this university took note of the social ments. Due to space limitations, this paper explains the research
demands arising from the region's export-driven economy and questions by presenting our interpretation of data derived from
incorporated ESP into the curriculum as one of the three concen- life-history interviews, as supplemented with field notes. In line
trations. Reflecting local socio-economic development, the ESP with our theoretical orientation, life-history interviews afford “a
concentration primarily involves business English, legal English, practical and holistic methodological approach” to examining
finance English and marketing English courses. General English agentic choices and actions “within a life-as-a-whole narrative”
teachers commonly lack relevant subject knowledge necessary for (Atkinson, 2007, p. 224). We would argue that teachers could only
 J. Tao, X. Gao / Teaching and Teacher Education 63 (2017) 346e355 349

Table 1
Participants (n ¼ 8).

Teacher Educational Background Articulation of identity commitment

Zhao 1. BA in English “I have different roles at different places … I am an ESP teacher in class, an ESP researcher when writing articles,
2. MA in English Literature and an ESP practitioner when doing business.”
Qian 1. BA in English “I am an ESP teacher in a deeper sense.”
2. MA in Linguistics; MA in Law
Sun 1. BA in English “I position myself as a college English teacher, which may sound a little negative, but I wish I could become an
2. MA in English language literature; ESP teacher in terms of my research or professional development because I could make more contribution to
MA in British Literature (abroad) society.”
Li 1. BA in English “First of all I am an English teacher no matter what I teach, EGP or ESP.” “Yes, I am an ESP researcher.”
2. MA in World Trade
Development (abroad)
Zhou 1. BA in Medical English “I only teach one ESP course, so I cannot identify myself as an ESP teacher. I am just an ordinary university
2. MA in English Literature English teacher.”
Wu 1. BA in Public Finance “I may not belong to them (ESP teachers). I felt a bit embarrassed because I am neither a teacher in the business
2. MA in English faculty nor similar to teachers in the foreign languages faculty, whose research is very different from mine.” “I
am not saying I am not an ESP teacher, but I am a bit different from other ESP teachers.” “I am a not-very-
academic teacher, just interested in teaching.”
Zheng 1. BA in English “I am a business English teacher but not a researcher.”
2. MA in Applied Linguistics
(focus on Business English)
Wang 1. BA in English “I am not an ESP teacher, I am just an ordinary university English teacher.”
2. MS in Finance; MA in TESOL (abroad)

retrospectively gain insight into the effect of critical events such as descriptive codes, and then used analytic induction to uncover
education reform on their professional development (Webster & themes that reoccur across multiple cases. Three themes emerged
Mertova, 2007). The interviews were conducted in 2014, ten years out of the cross-case analysis: common investment in continuous
after the shift from general English to ESP in the university's English learning via diversified channels; sustained engagement in
program. We adopted a semi-structured interview format to elicit teaching the new curriculum despite the challenges; and diver-
teachers' professional experiences prior to, during and after their gent endeavours of developing ESP as a research focus. These
transition to ESP education. Each interview lasted approximately an themes were verified and refined by tracing the supporting pas-
hour and was conducted in the interviewees' L1, Mandarin Chinese, sages back to individual cases, including participants' prior expe-
to minimise language barriers. The interpretation of interview data riences and identity commitment, to make sense of their agentic
was also supplemented with 22 entries of field notes collected choices and actions.
during the first author's semester of fieldwork at the university. The
field notes are descriptive in nature and document whatever was 6. Results
observed that may augment the interview data to create a
comprehensive and contextualised account of the teachers' pro- The participants reported that they enacted agency in three
fessional trajectories (LeCompte, Preissle, & Tesch, 1993). The field primary aspects of professional development: learning, teaching
notes thus yield a thicker description of the context, but also enrich and research. The experiential accounts showed that most of
the explanations of the research questions, as some agentic actions teachers displayed relatively strong agency in learning investment
and choices may have been missed in the interviews or need and teaching engagement but varied agency in research practices,
observed. as manifested in their agentic actions. The accounts also demon-
strate that their agentic choices, or what to engage in the three areas
5.2. Data analysis of professional development, are mediated by their various identity
commitments.
Guided by the research questions, we conducted an initial
within-case analysis to obtain a holistic understanding of each
6.1. Common investment in continuous learning
participant, followed by a cross-case analysis of how the partici-
pants enacted agency in facilitating their professional develop-
Most of the participants (7/8) displayed strong agency in their
ment. In the within-case analysis, we adopted a biographic
continued investment in learning so as to be better prepared for
approach (Gibbs, 2008) to analyse the interview transcripts and
teaching the new curriculum. Such agentic choice in “direct[ing]
field notes. The first author, after reading the transcripts carefully,
and engag[ing their] energies” (Wenger, 1998, p. 168) towards self-
wrote a summary of each participant's professional trajectory from
initiated learning was driven by the self-perceived disjuncture
his/her tertiary education onwards; this was modified and
between their educational background and the knowledge needed
enriched by the second author. We also identified passages in
for ESP teaching. What and how each teacher chose to learn was,
which participants discussed their identity commitment, to obtain
however, highly varied, and was mediated by prior experiences and
baseline data for this inquiry (see Table 1). Having analysed the
resources.
response of each participant, we followed a sequential and itera-
A few (3) participants who had only studied linguistics in ter-
tive procedure to conduct a cross-case analysis (Miles &
tiary education felt obliged to strengthen their knowledge of their
Huberman, 1994). In our initial reading and coding of the data
target subject. Qian became a teacher after having worked in the
we identified passages concerning agentic actions and choices as
industry for two years. Despite the rich hands-on experience, he
part of their engagement with professional development during
recognised the importance of acquiring a “systematic” knowledge
curricular reform. These passages fall broadly into three cate-
of the subject area which a given ESP course relates to.
gories: learning, teaching and research. We conducted content
analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) on these passages to produce [1]
350 J. Tao, X. Gao / Teaching and Teacher Education 63 (2017) 346e355

Qian: I think [summer] training is far from enough; it is better to engagement with the target discourse community manifests itself
study in a specialised institution … to study not just a course but in “with whom … [they] seek[ing] connections” (Wenger, 1998, p.
a major. I taught legal English … I entered a law program. I can 168) to facilitate professional growth. Their participation may also
show you my notes in business law, economic law, intellectual be enabled by their prior or ongoing workplace-based learning
property law and so on. A master-level curriculum is more experience, which indicates the interplay between prior experience
systematic. and contextual opportunities.
Unlike the other teachers, Wu, the only one who had a non-
language-related bachelor's degree, demonstrated remarkable
To teach legal English, Qian self-funded his way through a part-
confidence in his subject knowledge but was concerned about his
time master program in law, taking courses on weekends over two
language skills. Driven by his self-perceived deficiency in language
years. Apart from professional training, he also “spent a lot of time
skills and his identity commitment to teaching, Wu was motivated
reading” to keep himself up to date on international laws and
to enhance his language competence to fulfill the increasing de-
regulations. This kind of learning by reading was also adopted by
mands of ESP teaching.
Zhao, who trained himself to be an ESP teacher. Zhao was one of the
first in the faculty to offer business English courses. Familiar with [4]
his own learning style, he acquired relevant business knowledge
Wu: I have no problem with subject knowledge … but my lan-
through voluntary reading in his spare time.
guage skills are weaker than my colleagues' because I have not
[2] travelled abroad … Most of my colleagues have studied abroad
and thus do not have language problems. I think I may need to
Zhao: I personally do not like taking classes, but am able to do a
retrain myself and take some language courses.
lot of reading. For example, I can discuss the whole international
trade system, which I learned about entirely through reading. I
read very extensively. His diffidence about his language competence stemmed from
comparing himself to his colleagues, who are language experts and
have studied abroad. Assuming a positive correlation between
The considerable amount of time and monetary investment
studying overseas and language competence, Wu chose to under-
manifests the enactment of agency in what these teachers “attempt
take a scholarly visit to the UK the following year to improve his
to know and understand” (Wenger, 1998, p. 167), which might be
English. Given that Wu felt “a bit different from other ESP teachers”,
due to their strong identity commitment towards ESP education.
the very act of following his colleagues to study abroad can be
Though teacher learning in isolation seems negative, they displayed
interpreted as an agentic choice and action to reduce the gap be-
strong agency in autonomously facilitating their own professional
tween Wu and his colleagues. In other words, his enactment of
growth in ways that suit them. Such individualised forms of
agency emerged from collegial interaction and peer influence
continuous learning can overcome the contextual constraints of
(Lipponen & Kumpulainen, 2011).
limited ESP teacher training resources and extend teacher educa-
The participants' accounts reveal that while they all enacted
tion to include self-initiated development (Johnson, 2006).
agency in continuous learning, as required by curricular reform,
Zhou also had an educational background confined to language
they did so in highly individualised ways. Some teachers (Zhao,
studies. He seized the opportunity to make a scholarly visit to an
Qian, Zhou) who had extensive language expertise worked hard to
American university, taking business courses there to consolidate
gain a more systematic knowledge of business and law through
his “specialised knowledge repertoire” in English. Asked about the
obtaining a master's degree, voluntary reading, or studying in
major sources of his learning and confidence, however, he
English-speaking countries. Other teachers (Zhou, Li, Sun), who had
emphasised his continuous involvement in his relative's company,
working experiences in the industry, sought out contextual op-
which gives him up-to-date knowledge of the target industry.
portunities to enrich their practical knowledge. The only teacher
Perhaps for this reason, Zhou was very dedicated to building the
(Wu) without a bachelor's degree in English made an effort to
university-company partnership (UCP) program. Similarly, Li, who
improve his language skills by studying abroad. Though the
received professional training in a business-related master's pro-
teachers' continuous learning engagements take many different
gram in Britain, attributes teacher learning to involvement in the
forms, they all demonstrate “what [they] attempt to know and
target industry. Professional training can, in his words, become
understand, …with whom [they] seek connections, …and how
“outdated” and need to be “adapted” to the local context; Li
[they] engage and direct [their] energies” (Wenger, 1998, pp.
therefore felt that industrial experience is more important for
167e168), as shaped by their prior learning and working experi-
teaching business English.
ence and its interaction with contextual conditions. While making
[3] agentic choices to enhance their professional expertise, these par-
ticipants also fulfil different identity commitments towards the
Researcher: When you started preparing for lessons, did you
new enterprise except Zhou who had family influence. It should be
need to self-study? Or did your master's studies suffice?
noted that these diverse forms of teacher learning occurred at an
Li: My master's studies were not relevant. What matters most is institution that provided limited resources for teachers' profes-
practice and personal interest. In fact, the content of master's sional development. The absence of teacher development resources
program becomes outdated … And I need to adapt the content nonetheless offers a freedom for individuals to engage in self-
to the Chinese context. directed learning, in which teacher agency thus plays a key role
(Ollerhead, 2010).
To do so, he actively participated in UCP and maintained con-
nections with local companies to keep him up to date on “societal 6.2. Sustained engagement in teaching the new curriculum
needs”. The other teacher Qian, who had participated in UCP for
years, also perceived workplace-based learning as the major source Despite their continuous learning efforts, the majority of the
of first-hand information for writing ESP textbooks which can have participants reported pedagogical challenges and had to work
“blood and flesh”. These teachers' agentic actions of sustained harder in delivering the new curriculum. In response to the
 J. Tao, X. Gao / Teaching and Teacher Education 63 (2017) 346e355 351

challenges, the teachers displayed a strong sense of enacting different personal resources they brought to bear. Li and Zhou, who
agency, as manifested in how they consistently “engage[d] and had working experience in the business sector and maintained
direct[ed] … energies” (Wenger, 1998, p. 168) to fulfill their connections with local companies, could make use of these re-
teaching tasks and creatively improve their teaching performance. sources in teaching. In particular, Li edited a booklet for his own
While implementing curricular change, the participants re- class and updated the content annually using latest materials from
ported pedagogical challenges of integrating language and subject companies in partnership with the university.
knowledge “organically” in ESP teaching. Half of the participants
[8]
mentioned that students often were zero-level learners of the
related subjects, which made lesson planning and delivery highly Li: I often used receipts and shipping documents which I had
challenging. processed to show my students how to fill in them. I am very
clear about those materials, and the students are also more
[5]
interested in practical stuff.
Sun: My students have a solid foundation in language skills but
Researcher: Do you feel that using your own experience to
not subject-matter knowledge. When it comes to the subject-
lecture is more compelling?
related content, they cannot follow … So this was the chal-
lenge I was confronted with: how to combine subject and lan- Li: Of course. So in terms of teaching Business English, Inter-
guage organically. How can I focus on language as well as national Business Correspondence, and Business Translation, I
systematic instruction in the particular subject matter? am not bragging but would say that no one teaches better than
me in the foreign languages faculty.
[6]
[9]
Wu: I am relatively confident in my subject knowledge, but the
course is not easy to teach because the students do not have Zhou: When I talk about business operations, some case study
background knowledge of business. materials were written by me … When I lecture about them, it of
course helps … Students find it more vivid and I feel more
confident lecturing.
It should be noted that both teachers had professional training
in language and the related subjects and had taught for over ten
years. The concern they expressed indicates that their rich profes- Both teachers drew on their industry experience and authentic
sional expertise and teaching experience did not reduce the workplace materials to enrich their teaching, engaging students
pedagogical challenges they had to cope with in teaching ESP more deeply. Rather than relying on textbooks like most other
courses. The participants' difficulty with the target students' small language teachers, these participants spent extra time creating and
knowledge base was great that some teachers, such as Wang, updating teaching materials to accommodate their students' needs.
experienced burnout. Wang, with a bachelor's degree in English In the process, they developed a strong sense of agency as they took
and master's degree in finance, spent a great deal of time preparing agentic actions to improve their teaching and gained increased
for her Finance English class at the beginning. While the peda- confidence in their teaching skills (Priestley et al., 2012).
gogical challenge sustained or even augmented to affect her self- Wu, who possesses a bachelor's degree in Public Finance, pio-
perceived teaching effectiveness, she lacked a sense of being able neered the use of original target subject textbooks in English with
to enact agency and discontinued her teaching efforts. tailored classroom activities.

[7] [10]

Researcher: Why did you quit teaching Finance English? Wu: The course is not easy to teach because the students do not
have any business knowledge. I need to help them build a
Wang: After I taught for a while, I found that the students were foundation in business knowledge, but mere lecturing does not
getting lost. English-major students do not have systematic interest them. So I designed a group project in which each group
subject-matter knowledge, which is very difficult for me to of four ran a virtual company … Using the original English
teach … textbook, I could familiarise students with the whole process of
running a business, from production to sales.
Wang's decision to withdraw from the new curriculum may be
due to her low level of identity commitment. She studied Finance This carefully designed project reflects Wu's effort to equip
out of personal interest, but failed to develop a professional aspi- language students with relevant subject-matter knowledge in an
ration of being an ESP teacher, as reflected in her statement, “I am engaging way. He also emphasises the importance of practising
not an ESP teacher.” In such situations, the pedagogical challenges self-reflection on his teaching, so that students can “get more
and limited external support made her give up and re-direct her input” out of his class. Wu's sustained dedication to improving his
professional trajectory away from the new curriculum (Lasky, teaching effectiveness is indicative of teacher agency, as mediated
2005). by a commitment to considering teaching his top priority.
Although pedagogical challenges may constrain teacher agency, Qian, the most prolific business English teacher, chose a
the rest of the participants demonstrated sustained engagement research-based way to improve the delivery of the new curriculum
with teaching the new curriculum and enhancing their teaching through applying for a Quality Course Grant. With funding to
performance. Their unyielding effort may be driven by a belief in conduct research, he videotaped his teaching for an entire semes-
the utility of ESP education: it has a wide range of “applicability” ter, analysed it, and conceptualised his teaching practice into a
(Zhou, Zheng) and provides “more career options for students” model that may benefit other English teachers. Qian's decision to
(Qian). Consequently, they fulfilled their teaching tasks by teaching engage in such a research project has to be understood in the
ESP classes every semester (Zheng, Sun) and offering multiple ESP context of his 19-year professional life and strong identity
classes (Zhao). Moreover, the ways they enacted agency in commitment. Qian has published five monographs and chaired
enhancing their teaching effectiveness vary depending on the multiple national research projects, and had rich research
352 J. Tao, X. Gao / Teaching and Teacher Education 63 (2017) 346e355

experience that enabled him to initiate and complete the project. for ESP research, while Li felt confused about which community he
Such agentic choice to improve ESP instruction is sustained by belonged to.
Qian's identity commitment towards “being an ESP teacher in a
[12]
deep sense”.
In short, the participants demonstrated concern about and Sun: Since the centers merged, it has become embarrassing to
sustained engagement with teaching the new curriculum, except talk about my identity. Do you think I should identify with lin-
for Wang, who had limited identity commitment and disengaged guistics or something else? … I will not like ESP less or give up,
herself from the curricular reform. When confronted with peda- but may do some adjustment. My objective is not as clear as
gogical challenges, they enacted agency in individualised ways by before … I work in the College English Department (CED) now
fulfilling teaching tasks and adopting strategic efforts to improve and my energy is limited. When the CED takes up my time and
their performance. Some (Li and Zhou) with industry experience energy, the amount I can devote to the other [ESP] is inevitably
capitalised on their first-hand access to workplace materials; Wu, reduced.
with a non-language-related bachelor's degree, pioneered the use
[13]
of subject textbooks in English for systematic instruction in the
related subject; Qian, an experienced researcher, used research to Li: Now there were only two research teams in English
conceptualise and refine his teaching practices. Some teachers (Li, Department: language and linguistics, translation studies. I
Qian, Zhou) were enabled by their prior experience to draw on don't even know which I can identify with …
contextual resources, such as the Quality Course Grant. Thus, the
teachers' different actions within their institutional conditions have
The above-mentioned career dilemma reflects contextual con-
to be understood in the context of their own professional trajec-
straints on the participants' research participation related to the
tories. Nevertheless, the agentic choice of “steer[ing] … [their]
new curriculum, and has led to inconsistent enactment of agency in
trajectories” (Wenger, 1998, p. 168) towards teaching the new
research practice (Ho € kka
€ et al., 2012), as mediated by individual
curriculum is sustained by different identity commitments (Gao &
teachers' identity commitment. The above participants, though
Xu, 2014).
discouraged by the policy shifts, have continued to engage strate-
gically in ESP research. For example, Li stated that he would adjust
6.3. Research endeavours and marginalisation relating to the new his manuscripts' titles by adding keywords from mainstream areas,
enterprise while Sun adjusted her schedule to allow for ESP research despite a
heavy teaching load (see extract [12]). They both have a relative
Compared to the relative consistency of their engagement with strong identity commitment that has sustained them in doing ESP
learning and teaching, the participants showed varied agency in research: in the interviews they state, “I wish I could become an ESP
research endeavours which are more closely linked to their identity teacher” (Sun); “I am an ESP researcher” (Li). However, teachers
commitment. This phenomenon cannot be understood without with limited identity commitment did not intend to participate in
taking into account the power relations and shifting institutional ESP research, as they were unable to see any “need” (Wang) or felt
context surrounding the new enterprise, which shape participants' such research would lack “recognition” (Zhou). Others re-directed
agentic choices to participate in research. Working within an their research practice to “more well-established areas” (Wu) so
unfavourable situation, the participants reacted in dissimilar ways as to “secure high-level grants” (Zheng). For example, Zheng re-
to “steer [their] trajectories” (Wenger, 1998, p. 168) so as to facilitate oriented her research focus from ESP to linguistics, to facilitate
their own career development. Only those who held a strong her “own development”.
identity commitment were able to sustain their research endeav-
[14]
ours in the new enterprise.
It was a recurring theme in the interviews that the participants Researcher: Why did you change your research focus?
felt “embarrassed” to conduct ESP research in the Faculty of Foreign
Zheng: Business English research cannot be published in high-
Languages. What underlies the “embarrassment” is the discursive
level journals and cannot secure high-level grants, which is
construction of ESP as a “marginalised” area opposed to “main-
very detrimental to one's own development.
stream/traditional” areas such as linguistics or literature.
[11] Her response reflects a general lack of agency to conduct ESP
Sun: … [ESP] is not the mainstream. The mainstream refers to research for professional development, particularly when limited
literature, translation and linguistics. So some teachers are resources are available.
confronted with embarrassing issues when applying for pro- Two other participants, Zhao and Qian, maintained their ESP
motion. That is, which area does your research belong to, the research endeavours when they aligned with their strong identity
related subject or language studies? commitment. For example, Qian felt it was important to conduct
relevant research as “a qualified ESP teacher in a comprehensive
university”, as opposed to a vocational/technical institute. He also
Sun's remark reveals that the “embarrassing” disciplinary status delineated a clear area of research for the future:
of ESP itself has implications for both ESP research evaluation and
the participants' careers. The implicit power relation between [15]
traditional language studies and ESP was reinforced by recent Qian: I will work on corpus-based studies of legal translation
institutional restructuring: the ESP Research Center (hereafter and try to make a big difference. Once we succeed, we will be
Center) was shut down and merged into the Linguistics and recognised. The key issue is that we are underperforming.
Translation two research teams. Such shifting institutional contexts
have had a major influence on how the participants “direct and
engage” their “energies” and “locate” themselves “in [the] social This account reveals that Qian not only had a clear career plan
landscape” (Wenger, 1998, pp. 167e168). For instance, Sun found it but also sought to change the status of ESP teachers in the faculty. In
difficult to have clear career objectives and reduced her availability other words, Qian was not immune to the marginalisation
 J. Tao, X. Gao / Teaching and Teacher Education 63 (2017) 346e355 353

discourse but reacted with determination to steer his career path industry experience emerge as important resources that they can
towards the new enterprise. mobilise to enhance professional practices. Those experiences also
While the majority of teachers have continuously enhanced enable teachers to seek and seize contextual opportunities to create
their professional expertise and teaching performance, they are “rich and meaningful educational experiences for their students”
also under great pressure to publish, as this is closely tied to pro- (Priestley et al., 2012, p. 210). In this regard, the interaction between
motion in tertiary institutions. The interviews reveal varied prior experience and contextual conditions informs the accom-
enactment of agency in research performance, and identity plishment of agency. While showing relatively strong agency in
commitment emerges as a salient factor. Despite negative circum- continuous learning and teaching improvement, the participants
stances, half of the participants continued to “engage and direct demonstrated divergent choices and actions concerning research
[their] energies” to research projects related to the new curriculum projects for professional growth. Half of the participants lacked
(Wenger, 1998, p. 168). Their unyielding research endeavours agency when engaging in research or working as an ESP researcher.
showed a considerable degree of consistency with their identity Such a pattern echoes the findings of Ho €kka€ et al. (2012) that ed-
commitment towards the new enterprise. The other teachers, ucators with limited external support lacked agency to construct a
lacking a stable teacher identity associated with the new enter- researcher identity. Aside from the availability of resources, our
prise, could not maintain motivation to exploring relevant research findings suggest that the agentic choice of research participation
projects (Va€h€asantanen, 2015). Thus they “choose to ignore” and needs to be understood within the implicit power relations, social
“steer [their] trajectories” away from such projects (Wenger, 1998, positioning (Lai et al., 2016) and shifting institutional structure. As
p. 168), particularly in view of the marginalisation of ESP. In other agents of professional development, the participants are sensitive
words, implicit power relations and policy shifts pose challenges to to the marginalisation of the new enterprise, and followed their
ESP teachers' career paths, and constrain the enactment of teacher career path in a way conducive to their own development. Mar-
agency (Lai et al., 2016). ginalisation did not, however, prevent those participants who have
a firm identity commitment with the new enterprise from engaging
with relevant research activities. For example, Qian initiated a
7. Discussion course improvement project, writing ESP textbooks and exploring
new research areas, which makes a strong case that “there is always
Based on teachers' retrospective narratives concerning a time of room for maneuver” (Priestley et al., 2012, p. 210). Therefore,
educational reform, this study has examined the enactment of identity commitment plays a crucial role in the production of
teacher agency in connection with professional development, as agentic actions to direct one's career path. When negative dis-
manifested in their learning investment, teaching engagement and courses, such as those reflecting the power imbalance between ESP
relevant research endeavours. The overall findings corroborate the and the traditional language studies, marginalise a teacher's
conceptualisation of teacher agency as “individually varied … and endeavour, a strong identity commitment can be particularly
both socially and individually resourced” (Va €h€
asantanen, 2015, p. important for teachers seeking to sustain their agentic choices.
1). Responding to similar contextual opportunities and constraints, Building upon previous research and the findings of this study,
the participants made different choices and took different actions we suggest more discussion is needed on the connections among
which were mediated by their individual identity commitment. By identity, agency and professional development in the context of
situating teacher agency in professional trajectories, the sociocul- educational change. 1) While teacher agency can be looked at in the
tural developmental approach used in this study helps us under- context of teachers' response to educational change and has
stand the varied manifestations of teacher agency among meaningful implications for policy making and implementation,
participants “for their own purposes … by their own design, educational change means transforming professional practices,
appropriate for their contexts” (Johnson, 2006, p. 250) (see Fig. 1). belief and identities, and ultimately career paths. Our findings
The majority of teachers interviewed (seven out of eight) have suggest that teacher agency plays a critical role in co-constructing
continuously enhanced their professional expertise and teaching language teachers in the process of educational changes (Day,
performance to implement the new curriculum since its initiation Elliot, & Kington, 2005; Sannino, 2010). Informed by a sociocul-
ten years ago. Their agentic choices of sustained involvement in tural developmental approach, we argue that while teacher agency
curricular reform may be fostered by different identity commit- is enacted within shifting contextual conditions, studying teacher
ments towards the new enterprise, though family influence can agency in educational change necessitates situating educational
also be a factor (e.g. in the case of Zhou). The agentic actions they change in teachers' professional trajectories so as to make sense of
took to fulfill their identity commitment were quite various, as individual differences. Only in this way can we provide customised
reflected in their diverse learning and teaching efforts support for teachers. 2) Identity commitment influences teacher
(Va€ha
€santanen & Etel€ apelto, 2009). In particular, retraining and agency not only in how they position themselves towards reforms
(Kayi-Aydar, 2015; Va €ha €santanen, 2015), but also in how they act
towards reforms. In addition to their sustained engagement in
teaching the new curriculum, teachers enacted agency to create
learning opportunities for themselves (Pyha €lto
€, Pietarinen, & Soini,
2014) and engaged in relevant research endeavours to sustain their
career development in higher education. Though teachers need a
strong identity commitment to sustain research participation, they
are less likely to stop learning and teaching the new curriculum if
they feel connected with the new curriculum through research
activities. Thus school managers, administrators and senior faculty
members should create space for research into the new curriculum,
to sustain teachers' commitment. 3) Though we cannot correlate
teacher agency and identity commitment on the basis of these
Fig. 1. Teacher agency and identity commitment in relation to professional findings, they do support the claim that a heightened sense of
development. identity commitment will more likely lead to a stronger sense of
354 J. Tao, X. Gao / Teaching and Teacher Education 63 (2017) 346e355

agency (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009) in the areas of learning, their future workplace. This echoes recent calls to develop research
teaching and research. While teacher agency has been recognised literacy as an integral part of teacher identity (Sachs, 2016). Last but
as a critical component of teacher identity construction (Beijaard not least, this study also has explored how to prepare teachers for
et al., 2004; Varghese et al., 2005), the study argues that identity professional development amid curricular reforms when limited
commitment plays a pivotal role in the enactment of teacher support is provided. Based on the findings here, we propose taking
agency for continuing professional development. This indicates a an agency-oriented approach to teacher education (Lai et al., 2016).
relational and inter-dependent relationship between teacher Teacher educators should guide student teachers to become more
agency and identity commitment (Billett, 2006). Thus future aware of their personal resources and learn to capitalize on them to
studies should take into account teachers' identity commitment seize available contextual opportunities. Being able to mobilise
when theorising and examining teacher agency in other contexts. personal and social resources to practise teacher agency can pre-
pare student teachers for “externally sanctioned as well as inter-
8. Conclusion nally initiated and controlled” (Johnson, 2006, p. 25) development
opportunities in shifting educational contexts.
While collegiality may facilitate teachers' enactment of agency
and identity commitment to educational change (e.g. Robinson, Acknowledgement
2012), we cannot assume a community of practice (CoP) among
teachers in all institutions (Varghese, 2006). Teachers at the tertiary This paper was presented in the colloquium “Investigating
level are more likely to work individually and learn, teach and methodological and Conceptual understandings of agency in lan-
research within their own professional trajectories, and identity guage teacher identity” at 2016 AAAL conference. We thank the
commitment emerges as a salient factor. With an epidemic of insights and encouragement from all the colloquium participants
change sweeping across the Anglophone world (Priestley et al., and particularly the organizers Dr. Manka Varghese and Dr. Ger-
2012) as well as Asia, we call for more attention to teachers' gana Vitanova and also the discussant Dr. Hayriye Kayi-Aydar.
continuing professional development (CPD) amid educational
change. As our study is largely based on one-time interviews, it is
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