EAL teacher-agency: implications for participation in professional development

Teachers construct their practice, education and professional
development within two domains of professionalism: sponsored and
independent. The association between these two domains, however,
is complex; it is overlapping, inseparable and sometimes uneasy. The
complexity is further exacerbated by the codependent nature of
association between the teacher and employment context in which
teachers’ and institutions’ trajectories for professional development
may vary. This situation calls into question the discrete treatment
given to and received by sponsored and independent professionalism
in conceptualisations of teacher professional development. We argue
that, in both domains, teachers’ agency as learners is crucial for their
professional development and institutional efficacies. We critique the
ostensible disconnect and tensions that exist between the domains of
sponsored and independent professionalism in relation to teaching
English as an additional language and discuss how principles of
sponsored and independent professional development initiatives
can be harnessed for optimal teacher learning.discuss how principles of
sponsored and independent professional development initiatives
can be harnessed for optimal teacher learning.