Abstract for: Dynamics of teachers’ professional agency for quality education

Schools and school boards are increasingly advocating to assess quality of education from a broader perspective, including professional agency of their teachers. This study aims to understand the interrelationships between agency and quality of education, to (1) present a shared mental model of quality of education, and (2) further develop the theoretical conceptualization about teachers’ professional agency from a dynamic perspective. teachers’ agency is interactional and contextual, inherently calling for a comprehensive complex system approach. Agency forms the link between the professional development of teachers and quality of education in a dynamic interaction. We conducted five group model building sessions, each attended by 10-15 representatives of EPs from five schools. These five sessions were merged into one causal loop diagram of all important aspects of quality of education, and the interrelationships between these aspects.