Teacher agency has become the focus of educational research in recent years, as a result, attention has been paid to the nature and ways of expression of agency, but also to everything that helps to strengthen agency – because it is a crucial component as part of the professional development of teachers.

Numerous researches have been done on which external factors work against the development of agency. For example educational policies that emphasize testing, accountability and efficiency have been heavily criticized for restricting teacher agency (see, e.g.,Cochran-Smith, 2004; Mirra and Morrell, 2011). Moreover, competitive education is counterproductive measure (Priestley et al. (2015).

Here, the focus is on construction of teacher agency, and firstly on factors connected with teachers’ professional identity, which enables or restrains the formation and further development of teacher agency. The extra angle is added by bringing in a concept of nostalgia for it can be linked to constructing teachers’ professional identity. The second focus is on factors connected with school environment and community, which can be considered as enablers or restraints to teacher agency.

Agency is an indicator that shows what teacher does, or to be more precise, what she/he is able to do – what firstly a broader context and secondly her own baggage and professional aims are allowing her to do and what she actually does.

Most generally, professional identity refers to how a person perceives oneself as a teacher. Identity building means finding a balance in between different aspects of it (Beijaard et al., 2004; Lipka & Brinthaupt, 1999).  Professional identities are recognized to be teachers’ understanding of themselves as professionals (Eteläpelto & Vähäsantanen, 2008), including both, personal and institutional aspects of being a teacher (Beijaard et al., 2004).

Professional identity is in a constant change and development, being formed in the interaction between the individual and the social environment.  This development is in turn influenced by the person's previous beliefs, experiences, values, as well as the experiences gained during studying and working, and the interpretation of these experiences (Flores & Day, 2006; Kagan, 1992; Löfström, Poom-Valickis, Hannula, & Mathews, 2010). According to Brown & Humphreys (2002) nostalgic narratives can be treated as an effort to maintain the collective sense of socio-historic continuity. Hence narratives of teachers provide fruitful data for analysing how nostalgia has been made use of in constructing ones professional identity and adapting to changes in the context of radical educational changes taken place during the last decades.

When change often reduces trust, integrity and professional autonomy then nostalgia quickly finds it place to make sense of it all. Nostalgia is seen as a psychological mechanism, which helps to sustain the integration of the personality by eliminating any pain related to the past and presenting it as a harmonious version of “golden age”. Nostalgia, although creating the image of the perfect past, actually tells us about the dissatisfaction with the present conditions (Velikonja, 2009).

Often nostalgia tends to carry not so much individual, but rather collective character and contribute into group identity building. However, it is important to note that those not having first-hand experience of certain period, regime, personality or culture feeling nostalgic about (Velikonja, 2009) can also carry on nostalgic narratives. This “second-hand nostalgia, borrowed or “stolen” nostalgic narratives of others (Velikonja, 2009) or “armchair nostalgia” can be as strong and influential as “authentic” nostalgia.

For gathering data, life history approach was used. Narrative life history interviews (Goodson, 2014) provide a deep understanding of a person's life – both individual and professional and the overlaps between the two. In addition, the approach also fits well with the ecological model of agency. Further, a thematic narrative analysis (Riessmann 2008) was used. Narrative portrayals were created based on the themes that emerged from the results of the analysis in order to better convey the socio-historical context. (Goodson, 2013, 41; Sadam, Jõgi, Goodson, 2019). The interview sample was formed based on the principle of diversity, therefore teachers from different age groups, both male and female as well as from different schools and regions in Estonia. Interviews lasted from 72 minutes to 2,5 hours.

Based on the results a typology was created: 1) Contra – teacher with distrust issuses, doesn’t cooperate with colleagues and the main obstacle lies in nostalgia 2) Affirmer – teacher who has a plan, who sees opportunities in every situation, nostalgia is the the main enabler 3) Adaptor – one without a long-term plan, but who makes things work for her, one with practical mind, narrow professional vision but good level of skills

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