Teacher agency in online teaching: contextual conditions and psychological adaptation experiences among international Chinese language teachers
- 1Faculty of International Education, Qingdao Hengxing University of Science and Technology , , ,
Abstract
Introduction: Digital transformation has changed the conditions of teaching, requiring educators to adapt their instructional practices and respond to new professional demands. Teacher agency has been widely examined from ecological perspectives, whereas less attention has been paid to teachers' psychological adaptation experiences in digitally mediated teaching contexts. This study examines the associations between teacher agency and selected personal and contextual conditions among international Chinese language teachers engaged in online teaching and explores teachers' psychological adaptation experiences in relation to agency.
Methods: The study used an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. The quantitative phase involved a survey of 312 international Chinese language teachers with online or blended teaching experience, followed by a qualitative phase involving four purposively selected cases. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis, while qualitative data were analyzed thematically.
Results: The results showed that behavioral agency had the highest descriptive mean among the three dimensions of teacher agency. The regression analysis showed that teacher information literacy, school support, and student cooperation were independently associated with teacher agency, whereas colleague collaboration was not independently associated with agency when the four conditions were considered simultaneously. The full model accounted for 53.9% of the variance in teacher agency. The qualitative findings identified three recurring patterns in teachers' psychological adaptation experiences: emotional adaptation, professional reflection, and identity negotiation.
Conclusion: This research builds on ecological perspectives of teacher agency by considering psychological adaptation as a qualitative explanatory lens for understanding teachers' experiences and responses in online teaching contexts. The findings highlight the relevance of social and institutional resources, as well as opportunities for reflection, identity development, and psychological support, to understanding teacher agency in online teaching.
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BibTeX
@article{wu2026teacher,
title = {{Teacher agency in online teaching: contextual conditions and psychological adaptation experiences among international Chinese language teachers}},
author = {Yi Wu},
journal = {Frontiers in psychology},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1953643},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13724448},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Teacher agency in online teaching: contextual conditions and psychological adaptation experiences among international Chinese language teachers
AU - Yi Wu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/19
JO - Frontiers in psychology
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1953643
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13724448
AB - Introduction: Digital transformation has changed the conditions of teaching, requiring educators to adapt their instructional practices and respond to new professional demands. Teacher agency has been widely examined from ecological perspectives, whereas less attention has been paid to teachers' psychological adaptation experiences in digitally mediated teaching contexts. This study examines the associations between teacher agency and selected personal and contextual conditions among international Chinese language teachers engaged in online teaching and explores teachers' psychological adaptation experiences in relation to agency. Methods: The study used an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. The quantitative phase involved a survey of 312 international Chinese language teachers with online or blended teaching experience, followed by a qualitative phase involving four purposively selected cases. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis, while qualitative data were analyzed thematically. Results: The results showed that behavioral agency had the highest descriptive mean among the three dimensions of teacher agency. The regression analysis showed that teacher information literacy, school support, and student cooperation were independently associated with teacher agency, whereas colleague collaboration was not independently associated with agency when the four conditions were considered simultaneously. The full model accounted for 53.9% of the variance in teacher agency. The qualitative findings identified three recurring patterns in teachers' psychological adaptation experiences: emotional adaptation, professional reflection, and identity negotiation. Conclusion: This research builds on ecological perspectives of teacher agency by considering psychological adaptation as a qualitative explanatory lens for understanding teachers' experiences and responses in online teaching contexts. The findings highlight the relevance of social and institutional resources, as well as opportunities for reflection, identity development, and psychological support, to understanding teacher agency in online teaching.
SN - 1664-1078
ER -