Exploring teacher agency through an ecological lens: a case study of an Atayal Indigenous experimental school
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This study investigates how teacher agency is generated and enacted during the transformation of an Indigenous experimental school, using Taiwan’s first Atayal Indigenous experimental elementary school as a case. Integrating ecological systems theory with a temporally embedded model of teacher agency, the study examines how agency develops within Indigenous experimental education. A qualitative case study design was adopted, drawing on interview and document analysis. The findings show that teacher agency is not a static individual attribute but a dynamic professional capacity emerging through cross-level interactions over time. At the macro level, policy deregulation enabled institutional transformation; at the exosystem level, community collaboration supported curriculum co-construction; at the mesosystem level, leadership and collegial culture fostered collective action; and at the microsystem level, teachers’ identity reflection reshaped professional meanings. Overall, teacher agency emerged through the interaction of past experiences, present contextual judgments, and future-oriented imagination. Teachers shifted from policy implementers to cultural agents and curriculum co-creators, demonstrating a collective and generative form of agency embedded in cultural, ecological, and historical contexts. The study contributes empirical and conceptual insights to Indigenous education reform and teacher agency research.
Source: Journal of Educational Change
Authors: Jui-Hsuan Hung, Jr-Yan Shen, Chuan-Chung Hsieh
Institution: National Tsing Hua University
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,590
OpenAlex ID: W7203703408