Browsing by Author "Nurminen, Petra"

The study analyzed the types and development of transformative agency of teachers in a Change Laboratory intervention in a teacher training school. Theoretical framework is based on activity theoretical research on transformative agency to which the study aims to add new knowledge. Change Laboratory is an activity theoretical method for developing work and organizations. The data for the study consists of three Change Laboratory intervention meetings conducted at the Viikki teacher training school in spring 2015. There were six meetings out of which this study focuses on the first, third and sixth meeting. The transcribed data was analyzed by using qualitative techniques, namely thematic analysis and activity theoretical framework for the identification of the types and development of transformative agency (Haapasaari, Engeström & Kerosuo, 2014). The analysis was enriched by depicting tensions in the development of transformative agency reflecting the dialectics of agency (Rainio & Hilppö, 2016). Quantification was also used to describe the data. Five types of transformative agency depicted by Haapasaari et al. (2014) were found in this data: resisting the change and initiatives, critical analysis of the current activity, explicating new possibilities in the activity, envisioning and developing new models or patterns in the activity, and committing to concrete actions. In the first meeting the most common types were resistance and critical analysis, in the third meeting there were high amount of explicating new possibilities in the activity and envisioning and developing new models or patterns in the activity, and in the sixth meeting the most common type was envisioning and developing new models or patterns in the activity. Based on the data, a new type of transformative agency was also proposed: casting faith in the joint developing. In the speaking turns representing transformative agency, the amount of collectively produced turns increased during the process being highest in the sixth meeting where the participants collectively visualized a new compass model of shared pedagogical leadership. The tensions in the speech reflected the dialectics of agency between the need of belonging and separability and between the need of autonomity and control. The compass model was interpreted to be an attempt to seek for a solution to these tensions.