Conference Agenda

1.Research Question

In recent years, the burden on Chinese teachers has become increasingly severe, with a deepening crisis of job burnout(Wang&Ning,2018;Liu&Bian,2024;Xue&Zhang,2024). Teachers are exhausted by a multitude of non-teaching tasks. Although the Chinese government has introduced a series of policies aimed at alleviating teachers' burden, the effectiveness has been limited. To move beyond an external observation of teachers as mere objects of measurement, this study argues for the necessity of entering their authentic life-world to understand their real lived experience.Based on this shift in perspective, this study is guided by three core research questions: “Why is the burden on Chinese teachers so severe?” “What are the specific manifestations of this burden?” and “How do Chinese teachers exercise their agency, and what coping strategies do they employ in response?” Addressing these questions aims to provide a deeper understanding of teachers' authentic life-world, offer evidence-based insights for alleviating their burden, and contribute meaningful references for the development of teacher education.
2.Theoretical Framework

The research is grounded in Jürgen Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action, specifically employing the dual conceptual framework of "System and Life-world." (Wang, 2024) Habermas posits that the life-world is the source of social order and the arena where consensus is reached through communicative action, with communicative rationality at its core. Communicative rationality constructs an "ideal speech situation," requiring that interactions among subjects satisfy the three validity claims of truth, sincerity, and normative rightness. It offers a theoretical pathway, through rationally motivated communicative action, to restore teacher autonomy and creativity, thereby providing a foundation for alleviating teacher burden and enhancing educational quality. The erosion by the system leads to the colonization of the life-world, which refers to the encroachment and control of the life-world by the system—a phenomenon particularly evident in modern society. The expansion of instrumental rationality results in the atrophy of value rationality. Economic and administrative systems, via the non-linguistic media of money and power, colonize the originally non-marketized and non-commodified private and public spheres, leading to a loss of meaning and value.

This framework allows for an analysis that transcends a simple subjective-objective dichotomy, instead viewing teacher burden as the result of the systemic (instrumental) colonization of the teachers' lived, experiential world (life-world).With the theory,the study investigates the phenomenon of excessive burden among Chinese teachers. Moving beyond conventional descriptions of burden as merely administrative or quantitative(OECD, 2014;Wang&Ning,2018), this research conceptualizes teacher burden as a process of systemic colonization of the teacher's life-world. The life-world, comprising the cultural, social, and personal dimensions of teachers' lived experience and professional interactions, is increasingly eroded by the instrumental logic of external systems ,such as administrative and economic systems(Habermas, 2004; Wang, 2024; Xia, 2024).
3.Conceptual Framework

Teacher burden:Teacher burden refers to the multidimensional pressures educators face in their professional roles, stemming from systemic colonization of the life-world (Habermas, 2004). It encompasses pedagogical demands, role conflicts, administrative tasks, and adaptive challenges from policy changes, impacting well-being and job satisfaction.

Teacher life-word:Rooted in Husserl’s critique of scientific abstraction, the life-world is the pre-reflective, experientially given realm of everyday life (Husserl, 2005). Schütz later sociologized it as a context for meaningful action. Habermas (2004) conceptualizes it as the background horizon of cultural knowledge, social norms, and personal identity. In this study, the teacher life-world denotes the integrated sphere where educators’ professional, cultural, and personal dimensions interact. It is where systemic burden are felt and where communicative rationality enables meaningful resistance and agency.

4.Contribution

This study contributes a critical theory perspective（Communicative Rationality） to analyze the genesis of Chinese teacher burden and their coping strategies, offering a new framework to inform policy and enhance teacher well-being.

Bilingual Education (BE) is a globally established educational approach implemented in both strong and weak forms (Baker, 2006). In Sri Lanka, the Bilingual Education Programme (BEP) was introduced in 2001 with the dual aim of fostering bilingualism and biliteracy, while promoting social cohesion and ethnolinguistic harmony in a multilingual and multi-ethnic community. The terms Bilingual Education and English Medium Instruction (EMI) are typically used interchangeably, reflecting the privileged status assigned to English in a post colonial education system. However, even after two decades, Sri Lanka has no explicit national BE policy, which has led to inconsistent implementation, inequities in access, and persistent gaps in teacher education and pedagogies (Wijesekera, 2018). Although Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) was prescribed as the recommended pedagogical approach in 2016, less than 20% of BE teachers and teacher educators apply CLIL in practice while CLIL is largely absent from the teacher education curricula (National Education Commission, 2024).

In this context, the importance of teacher agency in navigating the pedagogical and institutional tensions inherent in BE classrooms, and the urgent need for empirical, evidence-based insights into teachers’ professional experiences have been highlighted (National Education Commission, 2024). However, empirical research examining how BE teachers in Sri Lanka perceive, negotiate, and enact their agency remains scarce and has created a critical gap in understanding the lived realities of the bilingual classrooms, especially in relation to how teachers navigate daily challenges, and make critical pedagogical choices amidst contextual constraints and affordances.

This ongoing doctoral study addresses this gap by exploring the tensions, choices and experiences of BE teachers in junior secondary classrooms (Grades 6–9) in relation to their agency enactment. The aim of this study is to explore agency from the perspective of BE teachers’ pedagogical practices and choices, as well as affordances and constraints that shape their agency.The overarching research question is “How do Sri Lankan bilingual teachers navigate tensions and make choices in their agency enactment”, supplemented by the following:

1. In what ways do bilingual teachers in Sri Lanka perceive and enact their agency at work?

2. What are the pedagogical practices teachers apply to demonstrate teacher agency in BE classrooms?

3. What contextual factors enable or constrain the enactment of teacher agency in bilingual education?

Theoretical framework

Human agency has been conceptualized in multiple ways by researchers from diverse disciplines. For Emirbayer and Mische (1998) agency was a temporal construct while Bandura (2001) viewed it as an individual’s intentional actions. In relation to teachers , Zembylas ( 2003) explained agency as an essential element of teacher identity construction and highlighted the role of emotions.

This study is grounded in a two- layered theoretical framework including the ecological framework of agency (Priestley et al., 2015) and the socio-cultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978). The ecological model of agency proposed by Mark Priestley, Gert Biesta and Sarah Robinson in 2015 is used as the primary framework as its core dimensions are mapped to this investigation. The ecological model conceptualizes agency as an emergent phenomenon that is the outcome of the interplay of individual capacities, environmental conditions, cultural and material contexts over time.

The three dimensions of ecological agency i.e. Iterational, Practical-evaluative and Projective agency capture multiple aspects of BE teachers’ agency enactment process. These dimensions provide the holistic framework to understand how BE teachers perceive and enact agency in their classrooms.This framework is complemented by the sociocultural approach that foregrounds social interaction, negotiations, and cultural contexts that can shape the agency of BE teachers. These two perspectives provide a complimentary framework to explore how bilingual teacher agency is shaped , enacted or constrained in this Global South context.

This study investigates the discursive construction of teacher professionalism within the Estonian media, comparing two distinct socio-political eras: the interwar period of the 1930s and the contemporary neoliberal landscape of the 2020s. Teacher professionalism is not a static concept but an ideological and historically situated construct, constantly reshaped by societal, political, and cultural transformations. By critically analyzing media representations across these epochs, the research seeks to illuminate how different ideological frameworks—specifically the ideal of teachers as custodians of national culture versus the modern emphasis on accountability and performance—refract in professional identity. This research addresses a significant gap in Estonian educational history by providing a historical-comparative analysis of media discourses, contributing to broader international debates on how public narratives mediate professional identities during times of societal rupture.

The theoretical foundation of this research draws upon the understanding of professionalism as a dynamic ideological construct (Stevenson et al., 2007). The framework incorporates Hoyle’s (1974) distinction between the status and value of teaching and Ozga’s (1995) conceptualization of professionalism as a mechanism of state control. Central to this study is the tension between different models of professionality: the "moral community leader" and the "service provider."

The interwar period is examined through the lens of nation-building, where teachers acted as "cultural custodians", fostering social cohesion and national identity. Conversely, the contemporary analysis is framed by neoliberalism and New Public Management, which align education with market logics such as competition, parental choice, and target-driven performativity. This shift redefines professionalism around measurability and accountability, often at the expense of moral leadership. Furthermore, the study utilizes the concept of "refraction" (Rudd & Goodson, 2016), acknowledging that while teacher professionalism is shaped by global trends like digital transformation and neoliberal governance, these forces are locally reinterpreted within specific national contexts. Freidson’s (2001) emphasis on knowledge-based autonomy and the service of the "public good" provides an additional layer for evaluating how social trust in the profession is constructed or eroded.

The study is guided by three primary research questions and several sub-questions designed to capture discursive shifts:

1. How is teacher professionalism discursively constructed and represented in the media?

* Which discourses of teacher professionalism in the media have been represented in international academic education journals since the 2000s?

2. Which conceptions of professionalism are dominant in different types of Estonian media and policy documents?

* Are there differences in the discourses of teacher professionalism across various media formats (e.g., specialized teacher newspapers versus general daily newspapers)?

* What qualities do the policy documents of the 1930s and 2020s attribute to teacher professionalism, and what ideologies do they reflect?

3. How does media discourse reflect societal changes and construct the image of teacher professionalism accordingly?

By integrating Estonian findings with international scholarship, this research plans to highlight how global phenomena—such as the intensification of public scrutiny, the impact of COVID-19 on digital transformation, and the rise of performance management—manifest in a specific European context. The study explores how the teaching profession, often characterized by low status or state-limited autonomy (Perkin, 1983), seeks to redefine its value in an era where learning processes are increasingly prioritized over the holistic social roles previously expected of educators. Ultimately, the research hopes to offer a comprehensive look at how political, cultural, and technological changes have shaped the very meaning of what it means to be a "professional" teacher in the modern world. This research attempts to move beyond sequenceing of historical facts to offer a critical interpretation of how education and society mutually influence one another, emphasizing that developments in education drive social and political change as much as they reflect it.