Sumario: |
This study explored how the rural working contexts of Costa Rican adult educators teaching
in postsecondary education interact with their condition as non-native English-speaking
instructors to inform their professional agency. In this study, professional agency refers to the
engagement of adult educators in making choices, influencing others, and taking stances on their
work and professional identities in negotiation with their individual characteristics and social
context. Data for the study come from a narrative inquiry into the complexities involved in being
a university teacher in a regional campus through life history interviews, a researcher’s
reflexivity journal, and supplementary documentation. Nine English as a Foreign Language
(EFL) university teachers constituted the participants in this study. The data from the study were
analysed and organized by following the three-dimensional, temporal-relational perspective on
teacher agency offered by the ecological approach. In that view, findings were organized in
relation to the past, present and future. Findings suggest that elements of the past gave teachers a
broad repertoire of responses to engage and act and mainly included participants’ rural and
institutional belonging and how non-native English-learning experiences inform their teaching
practices. The present dimension of participants reported beliefs and the affective factors behind
non-nativeness, classroom agency and institution structure, the role of their relationships, and a
strong sense of commitment. The projective dimension of professional agency in this study were
frequently rooted in a weighty sense of accountability for students’ and the community’s
economic, social, and academic development. The need for academic professional development
and empowerment through community projects stood out in participants’ stories.
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