Conference Agenda

The aim of this collaborative workshop is to open a dialogue on how the concept of Student Teacher Professional Agency (STPA) can serve as a methodological and mediational tool for fostering contextually sensitive discussions about teachers’ continuous professional development within international education development collaboration. STPA can be understood as student teachers’ engagement in managing their own learning process oriented towards ongoing professional development, a need that has become increasingly salient in view of the rapid changes and uncertainties currently shaping schools and educational systems (Soini et al., 2015).

The workshop first situates STPA within global teacher education, drawing on comparative research done between Finland and Brazil. Participants will engage with recent findings on how teacher identity negotiation, curriculum coherence (as the linkage between theory and practice), and learning environments (as the pedagogical interaction between students and teacher educators) correlate to STPA (Leite et al., 2022; 2024; 2025). These findings are further contextualised within broader global policy pressures and the internationalization of teacher education. The discussion highlights how STPA can help navigate tensions between globalised standards and local educational priorities.

Through structured presentation and interactive subgroup workshops, this session fosters cross-national dialogue on integrating the concept of agency into teacher education curriculum design, emphasizing contextual responsiveness and continuous professional development. Expected outcomes include actionable ideas for using the concept as a methodological and mediational tool to foster professionalization discussions on teacher education curriculum.

Theoretical Background

Contemporary teacher education is shaped by international programs and growing Global North/South exchanges (Chung, 2019), heavily influenced by neoliberal movements as the Global Educational Reform Movement (GERM) (Sahlberg, 2021). GERM emphasizes market-driven values, competition, standardization, and performance-based accountability, often resulting in the privatization of schools, reduced public funding, and top-down, decontextualized curricula (Chung, 2019). While reforms aim to increase qualified teachers worldwide, educators frequently encounter tensions between globalized professional ideals and local realities (Bamberger & Yemini, 2022; Chung, 2019), compounded persistent challenges such as low salaries, burnout, and high attrition rates (Daboín & Ribeiro, 2019).

In parallel, the discourse of teacher centrality has emerged, positioning teachers as central to educational reform and accountability (Larsen, 2010). While this discourse ostensibly promotes teacher professionalism, it has paradoxically led to increased stress, anxiety, and frustration due to intensified external monitoring and evaluation, undermining teacher autonomy and professional development (Larsen, 2010; Priestley et al., 2022).

The teacher efficacy paradigm has further reinforced this trend, focusing on measurable competencies and viewing teaching as a set of technical tasks to be optimized (König et al., 2023). This approach tends to overlook the adaptive, context-sensitive nature of teaching and the complexities of social, cultural, and systemic influences on education (Fairbanks et al., 2010). As a result, teacher education has become increasingly standardized, limiting the capacity for locally responsive curricula and reducing teachers’ agency in curriculum decision-making (Melo et al., 2022).

To address these challenges, scholars advocate for a critical, context-sensitive approach to teacher education that emphasizes professional agency, contextual responsiveness, and social justice (Chung, 2019). This includes fostering student teachers’ ability to critically reflect on their practice and exercise agency in navigating complex educational landscapes (Fairbanks et al., 2010). Such an approach calls for curricular designs that empower future teachers as curriculum decision-makers, recognizing that agency is shaped by both individual and collective efforts, as well as contextual resources and constraints (Melo et al., 2022).