Topic:

It has been suggested that professional agency in the classroom characterised by early career teacher’s ability to actively manage their learning (Pyhältö Pietarinen, and Soini 2012) is a key for promoting teacher’s professional development, commitment to school development and supporting pupils’ learning (Eteläpelto, Vähäsantanen, and Hökkä 2015; Heikonen, Pietarinen, Toom, Soini, and Pyhältö 2020; Oosterhoff, Oenema-Mostert, and Minnaert 2020; Toom, Pietarinen, Soini, and Pyhältö 2017). However, the current understanding of individual variations in active teacher learning in the classroom and its development in the early career phase is insufficient (Eteläpelto, Vähäsantanen, Hökkä, and Paloniemi 2013; Heikonen et al. 2020). Thus, this study investigates the individual variations in early career teachers’ sense of professional agency and its trajectories during five years’ follow-up. Moreover, the relationships between teachers’ sense of professional agency profiles and stress, attrition intentions, teacher type and school size are explored.

Theoretical framework:

Professional agency in the classroom is a key for active teacher learning as well as for improving pupils’ learning, implementing pedagogical innovations, and commitment to school development (Toom et al. 2017). Teachers’ professional agency refers to teachers’ capability to manage new learning actively and intentionally at their work (Pyhältö et al. 2012; Soini et al. 2016). It is composed of interrelated motivational, affective, cognitive and behavioural activities enabling teachers to enhance reciprocal learning actively and intentionally (Heikonen et al. 2020; Toom et al. 2017). The initial years of teaching constitute a significant phase in professional growth, and particularly classroom experiences play a central role in the early career teacher learning and their commitment to teaching (Feiman-Nemser 2001; Meristo and Eisenschmidt 2014; Heikonen, Pietarinen, Pyhältö, Toom, and Soini 2017). Despite being on an intensive learning curve, active and skilful early career teacher learning in the classroom cannot be taken for granted (Darling-Hammond 2008).

The development of early career teachers’ professional agency in the classroom may not be linear (cf. Heikonen et al. 2020; Pietarinen et al. 2016; Pyhältö et al. 2014). The reason for this is that the complexity of teaching and the classroom dynamics faced by early career teachers make them reconsider and revisit their professional beliefs and practices (Borko 2004), resulting in a possible increase or decrease in their sense of professional agency in the classroom. Thus, more studies are needed to investigate the individual differences in early career teachers’ professional agency and its’ development by using a person-centred approach.

Research aims and hypotheses

The aim with this study is to gain a better understanding of the individual variations in and development of early career teachers’ sense of professional agency in a five-year follow-up.

The following three specific hypotheses were tested:

H1. Several profiles of perceived professional agency in the classroom can be detected among early career teachers.

H2. Increases in experienced professional agency in the classroom can be detected in a five-year follow-up.

H3. Professional agency in the classroom profiles differ in terms of stress, attrition intentions, teacher group and school size.

Research Context: Comprehensive school teachers in Finland include primary school teachers (class teachers), subject teachers, and special needs education teachers. Finnish teachers have high autonomy in their work. They are free to plan their work, decide on learning materials and implement pupil assessment within the framework of the Finnish National Core Curriculum for Basic Education (2014). They are also involved in developing the local and school-specific curricula. Participants: In this longitudinal study, the data were collected in 2011 (Time 1) and 2016 (Time 2) from comprehensive school teachers in Finland. The early career teachers in their induction phase with 0-5 years of teaching experience at T1 were included, setting the size of the sample at N = 284. In total, 71% of these early career teachers participated in the study at the second point of measurement. The respondents in this study comprise the 201 early career teachers who participated at both measurement points. Measures: In the present longitudinal study, the professional agency in the classroom scale (PAC) was used. The PAC scale (Pietarinen et al. 2013; Soini et al 2016) measured two components of early career teachers’ professional agency in the classroom: Collaborative environment and transformative practice (CLE) (six items); and Reflection in classroom (REF) (four items). These items measure the central components of sense of professional agency of teachers, including motivation to learn, efficacy beliefs in terms of learning, and intentional acts to manage new learning in the classroom (Edwards 2005; Soini et al. 2016). The background variables used in this study are work-related stress, attrition intention, teacher group and school size. Analysis: First, the validity of the scales was examined using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). A latent profile analysis was conducted by using Mplus 8.4 to examine individual variations in teachers’ sense of professional agency and their development (Muthén and Muthén 1998-2015). Development of the teachers’ sense of professional agency within the profiles during the five-year follow-up and the interrelationships with the background variables were further examined with paired-samples t-tests and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test utilizing the most likely class membership as a grouping variable.

The preliminary findings showed that three distinctive sense of professional agency profiles employed by early career teachers were identified, including high sense of professional agency in the classroom (n = 129), moderate sense of professional agency in the classroom (n = 65), and low sense of professional agency in the classroom (n = 7). Moreover, observed variations between the modes of professional agency in the classroom were detected during the five years’ follow-up in the three profiles. This indicates the development of the sense of professional agency, i.e. teacher’s capacity to enhance reciprocal learning actively and intentionally (Toom et al. 2017), seems to further develop and differentiate in the early career teacher and induction phase. Thus, more studies are needed to investigate the individual differences in early career teachers’ professional agency, its’ development and the key determinants that may predict the differentiated professional trajectories in terms of the active and skilful early career teacher learning in the classroom. All of the above suggests and confirms that an individual variation occurs in in-service teachers’ sense of professional agency in terms of school development, especially by transforming own teaching with students (Pyhältö et al. 2012; Pyhältö et al. submitted). Also, the sense of professional agency profiles differed from each other in terms of teacher group but did not differ from each other in terms of perceived work-related stress, attrition intentions or school size (i.e. number of students).

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