Teacher Agency
Agency: The person and purpose of the teacher in learning
Who was your favourite teacher? Oprah Winfrey, recalling her favourite teacher, Mary Duncan, says, ‘I always, because of [Duncan], felt I could take on the world. [She] did exactly what teachers are supposed to do, they create a spark for learning that lives with you from then’. Former professional footballer, Ian Wright equates his teacher, Mr Pidgen, with transformation, channelling his frustrations and teaching him patience and confidence. ‘He opened up the world to me,’ remembers Wright many years later, ‘He gave me some love and I needed that.’ These examples, among countless others, underline the importance of, and therefore the need to,honour, preserve and cultivate the unique character of the teacher. These stand-out individuals are remembered for their kindness, care and thoughtfulness, and for the way they made lessons come to life. They have made a difference to us and to our lives.
In the sincere quest to improve schools, raise standards, enhance outcomes, the profession is working harder than ever – but in so doing, is increasingly allowing itself to be run on tramlines. Yet this conformity is killing the spirit of learning. In A Head Full of Ethos, Armando Di-Finizio illustrates the problems of jumping from one bought-in program to another, while ignoring the importance of the school culture and ethos. No teacher expects – or probably wants - unfettered freedom; the point here is simply that we have become so busy chasing ‘improvement’ we are missing the biggest ‘trick’ of all…
Most teachers say they joined the profession to ‘make a difference’ to children. Newly hopeful students embarking on teacher training qualifications continue to cite this as their uppermost motivation. The wish to reciprocate the benevolence they themselves were shown. In the human business of educating, we recognise that teacher effectiveness – that vital catalyst in the pedagogic process - resides in the personality and motivation of the teacher. The link between effective learning and personal connection, interest and meaning iswell-established and understood. This vital component is created in the interaction between the teacher and learner. It is also elusive and delicate, requiring vital conditions for it to flourish. This spark is what makes teaching and learning worthwhile and purposeful for so many and is the thing that mpels a learner to want to carry on the quest for knowledge and gives the teacher that necessary professional well-being. Teacher agency resides in the individual commitment the teacher has to their role, their sense of purpose, autonomy and authority. It’s about how much an individual feels the school, their class, belong to them.
The best schools create safe and well -thought out structures that allow for and positively encourage teachers to make their classrooms their own, to bring to bear their own personalities, inclinations and interests on lessons and the process of learning – this is where effective learning takes place. Contributors too On the Subject of Values and the Value of Subjects, demonstrate how subject disciplines are deepened and illuminated when the teacher draws out the inherent quality of values. This leads learning in to an even more productive, memorable and meaningful arena. It depends, however, on the teacher feeling empowered and supported to do so within the climate and ethos of the school.
Teacher agency is about how teachers see themselves, their role and their active contribution in shaping their work – and how it is valued in their own professional context. It is about how they bring an eternal critical thinking quality to everything they do. Good teachers – those who are fired up to bring the best for their pupils, day in and day out, go on the learning journey with their class. They notice what works and what doesn’t. They are curious and relentless in their analyses and evaluations of their own performance and its outcomes for their children. They are passionate and their energy is unmistakable, bringing a contagious vitality that learning cannot manage without. They do not need to only rely on formal observation and feedback but seek insight on how they might continually develop by engaging in rich and deliberate conversations with colleagues, reflecting on research, instigating their own evidence base and seeking to solve the problems and challenges that that they unearth. They are intrigued by the mysteries of their professions.
The contention here is that trust in the person and purpose of the teacher in the learning process is being whittled away, almost eroded, by successive governments of all shades. The accountability agenda is predominant in British schools and, with it, a pernicious fear of failure. The ongoing quest to raise standards whilst understandable – as Sir Ken Robinson once said, after all, no-one would advocate a lowering of standards – is fast leading to a blanching of innovation and invention in the system. The noble role of the teacher can be rapidly, and irretrievably, eradicated in the present English system of schooling, where the quest for quality is putting a premium on homogeneity. Even if a teacher’s individual input isn’t deliberately overlooked, with OFSTED now explicitly looking for consistency across schools and departments, headteachers feel impelled to play safe. In the effort to ensure consistency and outcomes, many school leaders require their staff to interpret the curriculum in exactly the same way – sometimes even at the same time – using the same set scheme, resources, methods of delivery and work in books. Teachers in some schools (most usually across some Multi-Academy Trusts) report even having to have the same displays as their year colleagues in the classroom, use the same pattern of wording to manage behaviour. Affiliation to the policy is prized above all, and there is satisfaction as classes gobble up the same diet and hopefully, make steady progress up the rungs of learning. The teacher can feel they have done a satisfactory job, the learners are secure in their drill, the leadership and management can tick off their tick sheet. Everybody can afford to be happy. Or can they? Teachers want to do their jobs brilliantly…they do not want to be automatons.
What is never measured, is what is lost in this ultra-processed diet of learning. And learning can be likened to the present concern about eating habits: we need to be giving our children and young people the best and most nourishing diet of learning. If we are not careful, standardised learning will be all too like mass-produced, pre-made meal which only requires taking out of the packet: it looks like a meal, it tastes quite like a meal (even though it might have a rather similar in flavour to yesterday’s) and it fills you up… but ultimately, it is not nourishing, sustaining or even interesting. It isn’t providing the best of what we need to grow. Ultimately, it’s boring. Like food, children need learning which is rich in fibre with less processed content and few additives. We need to beware turning children off learning as we fill them stodge.
Promoting teacher agency doesn’t equal a ‘free for all’. Neither does it mean a move away from securing the best standards for our children. It doesn’t mean anything goes. Teachers have always taught a syllabus, followed a curriculum. The difference lies in the relationship the teacher has with the subject matter, and those they teach.When we are attuned to our pupils, when we constantly remember to look at the classroom, lessons and learning through the eyes of the child, we learn in turn how to be better teachers. This is the philosophy of learning from the shop floor that business leaders have long celebrated. We simply cannot afford to waste the potential that lies at our very feet. Schools can and do thrive through placing a high value on their unique workforce and individual teacher contribution. These are often self-declared ‘values-based’ schools. Values-based schools put a premium on the person, and the voice, of the teacher. Working to shared principles that keep principles and ethics at the core elicits the best from professionals. Their leaders explicitly promote the value of positive, affirming and supportive relationships, teacher to teacher, teacher to child. This both creates and realises the human potential for high function. These leaders deliberately find out, notice and promote individual skill sets and promote the sharing of these in the school. They explicitly encourage, notice, praise, support and reward curious innovation and dynamism. They explicitly encourage action research and collaboration so that teachers see their role as one of continuous enquiry. The rewards are implicit. Success breeds success. This is real professional well-being, bringing purpose and meaning to the role.
Schools can promote teacher agency within the context of continuous school improvement. Leaders need to actively encourage evidence -based development and change in school. They must desire true engagement at staff meetings and professional development days, not compliance. They must be prepared to be challenged. And so must the inspection bodies that currently exert undue control on education. In About Our Schools, Brighouse and Waters argue powerfully that, if our politicians are serious about our education system, we must remember who it’s all for – the young people in our schools - and so we must maximise their talent. We cannot afford the ‘human waste we have tolerated in the past’. Unlocking the talent in our schools will affect the future of our society. This must be recognised in terms of our teachers too. If we allow a system to disregard and smother professionalism, it is our country that will ultimately pay the price. In service to the best education for all our futures, teachers must be allowed to use their skills and ingenuity to create the vibrant learning communities we so badly need.
Bridget Knight, 28 August 2023
References
Brighouse, T. and Waters, M. (2021) About Our Schools, Crown House Publishing
Di-Finizio, A. (2022) A Head Full of Ethos: A holistic guide to developing and sustaining a positive school culture.
Knight, B. Chater, M. Hawkes, N. and Waters, M (2022) On the Subject of Values and the Value of Subjects, John
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