The affordances beyond what one does: Reconceptualizing teacher agency with Heidegger and Ecological Psychology

There has been a recent growth in interest in the concept of teacher agency. However, teacher agency remains somewhat ill-defined and is also difficult to map onto everyday teaching practice. This article attempts to outline a model of teacher agency which is rooted in what teachers perceive and do in their everyday practice. This model draws on ecological psychology and phenomenological perspectives to argue that teacher agency is a capacity to perceive affordances beyond the conventional affordances we are socialized into perceiving. Implications for teacher development are also discussed.