TEACHER AGENCY
Be the change you want to see!
„The best way to predict the future is to create it.“Â
– Peter Drucker
Creating meaningful change in schools doesn’t always require formal authority. Teachers exercise agency and leadership every day—through their choices, interactions, and willingness to take initiative.
In this module, you will explore how teacher agency, teacher leadership, and job crafting contribute to positive school cultures and professional wellbeing. Through theory, realistic scenarios, and reflective activities, you will examine how small, intentional actions can lead to meaningful impact. The module invites you to connect ideas to your own practice and identify concrete ways to shape your role, collaborate with others, and boost job satisfaction in your school context.
In this module, you will be given the opportunity to…
In this module, you will be given the opportunity to…
- explore key concepts of teacher agency and teacher leadership with a focus on how influence and leadership can emerge through everyday actions rather than formal roles,
- apply principles of teacher agency, leadership and collaboration by working through realistic school-based scenarios and making decisions that contribute to meaningful change.
- reflect on your own approaches to leadership and agency, considering how your choices affect school culture, collaboration and job satisfaction.
- identify and practise job crafting strategies that help you proactively shape your work in ways that support engagement, well-being and professional growth within your own school context.
How to work on this Learning Module?
How to work on this Learning Module?
Whether you are working on this module individually or in a group, you will encounter several reflection and transfer questions.
This icon marks activities and tasks for individual learners.
For individual learners, we recommend you
- find a designated space where you collect your key ideas and findings: a notebook, a digital tool (i.e. Padlet, Miro, OneNote, …), etc. (in addition to your Action Plan (read below)).
- check if a colleague of yours completed the same modules as you and find an opportunity to meet up and share your results (or Action Plans (read below)).
This icon marks activities and tasks for groups.
For groups, we recommend you
- set up an Idea Hub – e.g. a white board, a poster, a table, a digital pinboard (i.e. Padlet, Miro), where you collect key ideas and findings. Decide for yourselves whether, after completing the module, the Idea Hub is meant for your group’s eyes only or if you would like to share or even present your work and experience (e.g. in the teacher’s lounge, during a conference, etc.).
- set up a Group Action Plan in addition to each learner’s individual Action Plan,which can be added to the aforementioned Idea Hub.
This icon marks an Action Plan activity to connect ideas with your own context in your personal Teacher Well-being Action Plan. You can download the Action Plan for each module at the very beginning of the respective module. Find out more about the idea behind the Action Plans here!
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This learning material has been developed by members of the Erasmus+ Teacher Academy „Teacher Education for a Future in Flux (teff)“, a dynamic consortium of ten leading European universities, partner universities and state and other educational institutions committed to improving teacher education. More information can be found here: teff-academy.eu
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
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