Teacher agency and spaces in changes of English language education policy

This article investigates the exercise of teacher agency in the context of English language education policy changes within China. Thematic analysis of data collected from narrative frame writing and semi-structured interviews identifies what opens spaces for teacher agency and what closes spaces, and the effects of the opening and closing of spaces on teacher agency exercise and policy implementation. Interpreting policy discourses and forming community of practice open spaces, planned and unplanned, for teacher agency at different layers of policy, and policy is then implemented in creative ways. However, institutional delays in implementing national policy and the ignorance of administrators towards the efforts of individual teachers to change close space for teacher agency, which then causes them to resist the implementation of a top-down policy, and the affective dimension of teacher agency is also manifested. This study suggests policy arbiters at the institutional layer should fulfil their role as the ‘intermediate agency’, and policymakers at the national layer need to become aware of space as an important component of policy implementation.