TEACHER AGENCY AND CURRICULUM ADAPTATION IN HIGH-STAKES TESTING ENVIRONMENTS: A NARRATIVE INQUIRY IN EAST ASIAN EFL CONTEXTS

Abstract

This study has explored teacher agency and curriculum modification in high-stakes testing settings in East Asian EFL settings. Using narrative inquiry and quantitative survey as research methods, the study investigated how 180 EFL teachers in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan overcame curriculum limitation and professional autonomy. All the data were collected online using structured questionnaires (n=168), semi-structured Zoom interviews (n=15), reflective journals, and digital artifacts within a period of six months. The SPSS quantitative analysis indicated that there was a significant difference in the agency levels between countries, positive moderate relation between teaching experience and the frequency of curriculum adaptation. The qualitative analysis by utilizing the narrative framework by Clandinin and Connelly found that there are six main themes, including strategic compliance, creative resistance, assessment-driven pedagogy, collaborative adaptation, contextual constraints, and professional identity negotiation. Results found that teachers adopted a variety of approaches to strike a balance between testing requirements and pedagogical ideology and commonly adjusted curricula by making micro-level choices on a macro-level scale. The researchers established that teacher agency was a continuum and not a dichotomy, and it was determined by the support of the institution, the cooperation of colleagues, and cultural norms. Findings also assist in comprehending how EFL teachers can preserve professional identity in the context of working with constraining testing regimes which can serve policy makers and educators working in the same settings.