The importance of teacher agency and expertise in education reform and policymaking

Abstract

This paper asserts that teacher agency and expertise are often underutilized in education systems throughout the world, and that by encouraging greater teacher agency and better leveraging and utilizing the collective expertise of teachers, educational systems can become more successful and more equitable. It summarizes several arguments for government officials who are responsible for education in their countries to support the development of genuine teacher agency with regard to their teaching and professional learning experiences, and to give teachers collectively a greater voice in the conceptualization and development of education policies. The goal here is to support teacher agency and to benefit from teachers' expertise in ways that are connected to system goals to provide everyone's children with access to well-prepared teachers and a high quality and enriching education that addresses academic, social-emotional, and civic aspects of learning and that reflects the multicultural and global realities that affect all nations.