Exploring EFL Teacher's Agency and Self-efficacy in their Professional Practice among Indonesian EFL Teachers

Artine Ayu Utami, Paulus Kuswandono

Abstract


Studies on language teachers' agency and self-efficacy have shown that both are essential elements of teachers' identities and practices. However, only some researchers have explored how teachers perceive their agency and self-efficacy in the Indonesian context. Thus, this study aimed to investigate how English teachers perceive their agency and self-efficacy in their teaching practices and environments. This study employed a mixed method study in which both quantitative and qualitative data were utilized to answer the inquiry. The results shed light on how teachers perceive agency with school conditions, how they perceive their self-agency, and their aspiration to become agentic teachers. It was revealed that the majority of the teachers perform professional development to stimulate their agency and efficacy. Challenges were also explored in this article. The evidence of this study imparts policy and practice implications as well as future research direction to gain a deeper understanding of teachers’ agency and efficacy as well as to foster the practice in school contexts.

Keywords


agency, self-efficacy, motivation, professional development

Full Text:

Download PDF

References


Adnan, A. (2017). Being English teachers in Malaysian Islamic Schools: Identity narratives from a five year ‘life journey.’ Arab World English Journal, 8(1), 220–233. https://doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol8no1.16

Ali, L. N., & Hamid, M. O. (2018). 3 English-medium instruction and teacher agency in higher education: A case study.

Bachtiar. (2019). The effect of professional development on Indonesian EFL teachers’ self-efficacy. Journal of English Education and Development, 2(2).

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-Efficacy: The exercise of control. W.H. Freeman and Company.

Bidari, S. (2021). Engaging learners in online classrooms: A case study from Nepal. Journal of World Englishes and Educational Practices, 3(7), 01–06. https://doi.org/10.32996/jweep

Bjork, C. (2005). Indonesia education; Teachers, schools, and central bureaucracy (E. Beauchamp, Ed.). A Routledge Series.

Budiyono, A. (2015). Research and evaluation in education. In Research and Evaluation in Education (Vol. 1, Issue 2). http://journal.uny.ac.id/index.php/reid

Catalina, J., Serrano, A., Fajardo-Dack, T. M., Patricia, M., & Celleri, A. (2021). Students’ perceptions on their EFL teacher efficacy: A study on EFL teachers’ language proficiency and their self-efficacy. MEXTESOL Journal, 45(1), 2021.

Cirocki, A., & Farrell, T. S. C. (2019). Professional development of secondary school EFL teachers: Voices from Indonesia. System, 85, 102111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2019.102111

Cohen, J., Loeb, S., Miller, L. C., & Wyckoff, J. H. (2020). Policy implementation, principal agency, and strategic action: Improving teaching effectiveness in New York City middle schools. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 42(1), 134–160. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373719893338

Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design : qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage.

Edwards, A. (2015). Recognising and realising teachers professional agency. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 21(6), 779–784. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2015.1044333

Emirbayer, M., & Mische, A. (1998). What is agency? In The American Journal of Sociology (Vol. 103, Issue 4).

Fatatin Birrina, D., & Emaliana, I. (2022). Sustaining TBLT during online learning: The role of EFL teacher agency. Scope: Journal of English Language Teaching, 7(1), 34–43. https://doi.org/10.30998/scope.v7i1.13854

Gill, P., & Baillie, J. (2018). Interviews and focus groups in qualitative research: An update for the digital age. British Dental Journal, 225(7), 668–672. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2018.815

Ivankova, N. v., Creswell, J. W., & Stick, S. L. (2006). Using mixed-methods sequential explanatory design: From theory to practice. Field Methods, 18(1), 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X05282260

Jiang, A. L., Zhang, L. J., May, S., & Qin, L. T. (2020). Understanding novice teachers’ perceived challenges and needs as a prerequisite for English curriculum innovation. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 33(1), 15–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2018.1518452

Lasky, S. (2005). A sociocultural approach to understanding teacher identity, agency, and professional vulnerability in a context of secondary school reform. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21(8), 899–916. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2005.06.003

Lestari, Y., Yusra, K., Arifuddin, A., & Susanti, N. W. (2021). English teachers’ responses to the new Indonesian education paradigm: A case study of Batu Layar English teachers’ consultative group. In Proceedings of the 9th UNNES Virtual Conference on English Language Teaching, Literature, and Translation, ELTLT 2020, 14–15. https://doi.org/10.4108/eai.14-11-2020.2310178

Liddicoat, A. J., & Taylor-Leech, K. (2020). Agency in language planning and policy. Current Issues in Language Planning, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2020.1791533

Listiani, S., Willian, S., & Muhaimi, L. (2019). Investigating English teachers’ self-efficacy in developing classroom management style.

Loo, D. B., Trakulkasemsuk, W., & Jimarkon Zilli, P. (2017). Examining narratives of conflict and agency: Insights into non-local english teacher identity. Journal of Asia TEFL, 14(2), 292–306. https://doi.org/10.18823/asiatefl.2017.14.2.6.292

Mehmood, N. (2019). Factors impacting EFL teachers’ self-efficacy: A theoretical perspective. English Language Teaching, 12(4), 39. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v12n4p39

Miller, E. R., & Gkonou, C. (2018). Language teacher agency, emotion labor and emotional rewards in tertiary-level English language programs. System, 79, 49–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2018.03.002

Min, M. (2019). School culture, self-efficacy, outcome expectation, and teacher agency toward reform with curricular autonomy in South Korea: a social cognitive approach. Asia Pacific Journal of Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2019.1626218

Nguyen, H. T. M., & Bui, T. (2016). Teachers’ agency and the enactment of educational reform in Vietnam. Current Issues in Language Planning, 17(1), 88–105. https://doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2016.1125664

Polatcan, M., Arslan, P., & Balci, A. (2021). The mediating effect of teacher self-efficacy regarding the relationship between transformational school leadership and teacher agency. Educational Studies, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2021.1894549

Priestley, M., Biesta, G., & Robinson, S. (2015). Teacher agency. Bloomsbury Academic.

Rahman, A. (2018). Building Autonomous Learners in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Classroom. http://www.nclrc.org/guides/HED/pdfs/full.pdf

Rahman, U., Shahrazad, W., Sulaiman, W., Nasir, R., Omar, F., Kebangsaan Malaysia, U., & Selangor, U. B. (2014). The role of job satisfaction as mediator in the relationship between self-efficacy and organizational citizenship behavior among Indonesian teachers. In International Journal of Business and Social Science (Vol. 5, Issue 9). www.ijbssnet.com

Rahmawati, A., & Wirza, Y. (2022). Indonesian EFL teachers’ self-efficacy and online classroom management during Covid-19 pandemic. The Journal of English Literacy Education: The Teaching and Learning of English as a Foreign Language, 9(1), 36–51. https://doi.org/10.36706/jele.v9i1.17436

Riveros, A., Newton, P., & Burgess, D. (2012). A situated account of teacher agency and learning: Critical reflections on professional learning communities. In CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION (Vol. 35).

Robinson, S. (2012). Constructing teacher agency in response to the constraints of education policy: Adoption and adaptation. Curriculum Journal, 23(2), 231–245. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2012.678702

Siswanto, I. L., & Kuswandono, P. (2020). Understanding Teacher Identity Construction: Professional Experiences of Becoming Indonesian Montessori Teachers. Understanding Teacher Identity Construction Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, 5(1), 2020. www.ijeltal.org

Sözen, E., & Güven, U. (2019). The effect of online assessments on students’ attitudes towards undergraduate-level Geography courses. International Education Studies, 12(10), 1. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v12n10p1

Sutono, A. A., & Budiraharjo, M. (2020). The impacts of liberal arts education of Jesuit school culture on English teachers’ transformed agencies. International Journal of Education, 13(1), 26–36. https://doi.org/10.17509/ije.v13i1.24589

Teng, (Mark) Feng. (2019). Understanding teacher autonomy, teacher agency, and teacher identity: Voices from four EFL student teachers. English Teaching and Learning, 43(2), 189–212. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42321-019-00024-3

TkáÄ, B., & Gabrhelová, G. (2020). Teacher and contemporary society. Online Journal for Research and Education, 168–171.

Tunku, L. M., Binti, B., & Ahmad, T. (2018). Development and validation of an instrument to measure teachers’ professional agency during curriculum reform and its underlying structure. IIUM Journal of Educational Studies, 6(2), 72–88.

UU 14-2005 Guru dan Dosen. (2005).

Wilcox, K. C., & Lawson, H. A. (2018). Teachers’ agency, efficacy, engagement, and emotional resilience during policy innovation implementation. Journal of Educational Change, 19(2), 181–204. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-017-9313-0

Xu, G., & Kim, J. (2022). Building and sustaining a group of Chinese EFL learners’ imagined identities and agency. Sustainability (Switzerland), 14(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084659

Xu, J., & Fan, Y. (2021). Finding success with the implementation of task-based language teaching: the role of teacher agency. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 35(1), 18–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2021.1906268

Yustina, Syafii, W., & Vebrianto, R. (2020). The effects of blended learning and project-based learning on pre-service biology teachers’ creative thinking skills through online learning in the COVID-19 pandemic. Jurnal Pendidikan IPA Indonesia, 9(3), 408–420. https://doi.org/10.15294/jpii.v9i3.24706

Zein, S. (2016). Pre-service education for primary school English teachers in Indonesia: policy implications. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 36, 119–134. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2014.961899

Zhao, S., & Baldauf, R. B. (2012). Individual agency in language planning. Language Problems and Language Planning, 36(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1075/lplp.36.1.01zha

Zhao, Y., & Mantero, M. (2018). The influence of study-abroad experiences on Chinese college teacher’s identity. Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, 3(1). www.ijeltal.org




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21093/ijeltal.v7i2.1358

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
IJELTAL (Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics) by http://ijeltal.org is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

 

Abstracting and Indexing

              

 



Contact Us: IJELTAL (Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics;

Address: Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Islam Negeri Sultan Aji Muhammad Idris Samarinda

Jl. H.A.M. Rifadin, Samarinda, Kalimantan Timur, Indonesia. Email: ijeltalj@gmail.com