G5 Doctoral dissertation (article)
Teacher identity tensions and professional agency in the Hong Kong context (2024)
Lau, J. (2024). Teacher identity tensions and professional agency in the Hong Kong context [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Jyväskylä. JYU Dissertations, 779. https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-86-0147-0
JYU authors or editors
Publication details
All authors or editors: Lau, Josephine
eISBN: 978-952-86-0147-0
Journal or series: JYU Dissertations
eISSN: 2489-9003
Publication year: 2024
Number in series: 779
Number of pages in the book: 1 verkkoaineisto (80 sivua, 58 sivua useina numerointijaksoina, 3 numeroimatonta sivua)
Publisher: University of Jyväskylä
Place of Publication: Jyväskylä
Publication country: Finland
Publication language: English
Persistent website address: https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-86-0147-0
Publication open access: Openly available
Publication channel open access: Open Access channel
Abstract
Research gaps still exist regarding what teacher identity tensions crop up along the career trajectory and how professional agency changes and continues via longitudinal lenses. Additionally, empirical studies that delve into contexts featuring a workplace culture of high power distance are even rarer. This dissertation aims to investigate teacher identity tensions and professional agency in the sociocultural context of Hong Kong. The dissertation includes three substudies utilising qualitative methods. Substudy I revealed teachers’ identity tensions in the situated sociopolitical context and immediate school context and how different career stages are related to these identity tensions and the associated coping strategies. Substudy II concentrated on teachers’ professional agency in the Hong Kong context, which features a centralised-decentralisation education governance system and a hierarchical cultural work environment. The substudy presented the agency enacted in terms of pedagogical and relational aspects and the agency-promoting factors related to the context. Substudy III was a longitudinal study that explored the changes and continuities of teachers’ agency and identified four agency types: expanding, strategic, exploring and withering.
This dissertation argues that teacher professional identity and agency could be empowered through trust in management, a collaborative work community, accessibility to resources beyond the school context, and the availability of democratic communication channels to the central policies despite the historically and culturally embedded hierarchical structure in a work environment like that in Hong Kong.
Keywords: longitudinal study; teacher career development; teacher identity tensions; teacher professional agency; qualitative analysis
Keywords: teachers; professional identity; values (conceptions); contradictions; human agency; career development; longitudinal research; doctoral dissertations
Free keywords: longitudinal study; teacher career development; teacher identity tensions; teacher professional agency; qualitative analysis
Contributing organizations
Ministry reporting: Yes
VIRTA submission year: 2024