Empowering English Teachers: Teacher Agency in Australia

This article presents an account of a panel on English teacher agency in Australia at the 2020 IFTE conference, held virtually as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The article introduces the way the panel chair set up the concerns of the panel, providing relevant background, theoretical framing, and introductions to the panellists and the key questions that panellists were invited to address. The three panellists then contribute written insights from their research and/or practice, and reflections on their participation and the discussions that ensued. Fundamentally, the article explores how teachers might navigate their work if what they hoped to teach is not what they are told to teach, and provides practical suggestions for claiming agency. This is a timely intervention, as teacher agency is increasingly being eroded through a variety of forces.