Nowadays, it is widely accepted that the role of the teacher is of great influence when it comes to the quality of student learning (Priestley, Biesta, Phillippou & Robinson, 2015). Consequently, teacher agency gainedincreased interest among policy makers, educational organizations and researchers (Hökkä & Etelapelto, 2014; Vähäsantanen, 2015). In European countries, like the Netherlands, teachers in schools are expected to become teacher leaders and use their agency for professional development and school development. Hence, several initiatives (for example, Professional Learning Communities, scholarships for teachers to do research, etc.) are being deployed to emphasize the need to improve the quality of teachers to help them to become teachers with agentic capacity who can take leadership roles. Another example of such an initiative is a teacher traineeship. Similar to programs like Teach First and Teach for America, in the Netherlands, traineeships are established to motivate young excellent academics to work in education rather than an employment in the business world. In a two-year program the trainees work two or three days per week as teacher in a school for secondary education. The other days they follow a regular university teacher-training program and master classes specifically aimed at teacher leadership skills.  The goal of the traineeship is to educate young professionals who can both direct their own professional development as well as contribute to school development. In other words, trainees are expected to become agentic teachers.

Nevertheless, empirical evidence is lacking on how agency is established in teacher trainees’ working environment.

In research on teacher agency, differences can be found in how agency is described or defined. In this study we assume that agency can be characterized with a dynamic and interactive perspective. Teacher agency can change over time (Priestley, et al, 2015) and develops in a continuous interaction (Kessels, 2012). De Rue & Ashford (2010) refer to this interaction process by arguing that agency includes a view on the teaching profession in which teachers take responsibility for the quality of their teaching while claiming and granting their leadership and ownership accordingly.

In a context of a teacher traineeship it is interesting to explore how beginning teachers perceive their agency and how they enact one the goals of the traineeship: to contribute to school development. Although these beginning teachers work in schools for secondary education, they are still in training and need to develop their knowledge, skills and identity. At the same time they are expected to be agentic teachers who take responsibility for their own professional development and to contribute to the quality of education in their schools.

In this paper we therefore address the following research questions:

-       How do beginning teachers experience professional agency to contribute to school development in the context of a traineeship?

-       How do school leader perceive professional agency of beginning teachers to contribute to school development in the context of a traineeship? 

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