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Teacher Agency in Social-Justice Aspirations and Inquiry-Based Science Instruction

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Abstract

Inquiry-based science instruction (IBSI) has the potential to contribute to social justice through widening participation and success in science. However, teachers struggle to implement IBSI because of contextual factors. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of agency as a framework for understanding teachers’ decision-making, by asking the question: what was the agency of six science teachers in their social-justice aspirations and use of IBSI? An agency framework recognizes that teachers’ decisions are informed by their internal conversations at the intersection of personal aspects (their history, repertoire, and aspirations) with the cultural and structural constraints and resources of their contexts. However, research on IBSI has focussed on teachers’ personal aspects or their perceptions of contextual factors. The sample had learnt IBSI through service learning in the context of a science fair. From teacher interviews, it emerged that these teachers had strong social-justice aspirations to serve disadvantaged students. The teachers linked their social-justice aspirations to their choice of school rather than their use of IBSI. The teachers at better-resourced schools initiated participation in science fairs at their schools, whilst the rest judged that science fairs were not appropriate for their students. The results suggest that, rather than prescribing particular pedagogies, teacher education programmes should aim to increase teachers’ pedagogical repertoires, in order to enrich their agency in whatever contexts they teach.

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Funding

The research leading to these results received funding from the South African National Research Foundation Thuthuka grant GUND008.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Academic Development Programme & Department of Physics, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Dale L. Taylor

  2. South African Institute for Distance Education, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Anthony D. Lelliott

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  1. Dale L. Taylor
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  2. Anthony D. Lelliott
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Both authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Dale Taylor. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Dale Taylor, and both authors had input to subsequent drafts. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Dale L. Taylor.

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Ethical clearance was obtained from the Department of Education and the relevant university for the study from which the data for this paper is drawn. All research subjects gave informed consent and were free to withdraw at any time.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Taylor, D.L., Lelliott, A.D. Teacher Agency in Social-Justice Aspirations and Inquiry-Based Science Instruction. Res Sci Educ 52, 1375–1386 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-021-10015-9

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