TY - JOUR
T1 - Educators’ agency in implementing English-medium-instruction in Chinese higher education
T2 - a cultural-historical perspective
AU - Dang, Thi Kim Anh
AU - Bonar, Gary
AU - Yao, Jiazhou
N1 - Funding Information:
This research project is funded by the Faculty of Education, Monash University, Australia. This project was a research capacity building grant awarded to the first two authors. Sincere thanks to all the academics participating in this research. This project has received ethics approval from the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee with Project ID: 20430.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - The internationalisation of higher education (HE) worldwide has led to an expansion of courses using English-as-a-medium-of-instruction (EMI) in non-native-English-speaking countries. Research has identified complex challenges facing EMI educators in implementing EMI policies and suggested separately the significant roles educators’ agency and perceptions of EMI play on their EMI practice. However, little is known about how individual educators exercise agency in response to the perceived demands of EMI teaching and the role of their interpretations and perceptions of EMI in the process. Adopting a cultural-historical theory perspective, this study explores how Chinese educators exercise agency to respond to perceived demands of EMI practice. Data included questionnaires and written interviews with ten academics teaching in EMI courses at three Chinese universities. Manifest in their engagement and commitment, deliberate actions and responsibilities towards themselves and students, their agency is unfolded in acts to improve their pedagogy and student learning of academic content, but not necessarily to develop students’ English proficiency. Educators’ perceptions of EMI appear to play a vital role in orienting their agency as they respond to demands from EMI practice when enacting EMI policies.
AB - The internationalisation of higher education (HE) worldwide has led to an expansion of courses using English-as-a-medium-of-instruction (EMI) in non-native-English-speaking countries. Research has identified complex challenges facing EMI educators in implementing EMI policies and suggested separately the significant roles educators’ agency and perceptions of EMI play on their EMI practice. However, little is known about how individual educators exercise agency in response to the perceived demands of EMI teaching and the role of their interpretations and perceptions of EMI in the process. Adopting a cultural-historical theory perspective, this study explores how Chinese educators exercise agency to respond to perceived demands of EMI practice. Data included questionnaires and written interviews with ten academics teaching in EMI courses at three Chinese universities. Manifest in their engagement and commitment, deliberate actions and responsibilities towards themselves and students, their agency is unfolded in acts to improve their pedagogy and student learning of academic content, but not necessarily to develop students’ English proficiency. Educators’ perceptions of EMI appear to play a vital role in orienting their agency as they respond to demands from EMI practice when enacting EMI policies.
KW - cultural-historical theory
KW - EMI in China
KW - English medium instruction
KW - internationalisation of higher education
KW - sociocultural theory
KW - teacher agency
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85187178829&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/14664208.2023.2255493
DO - 10.1080/14664208.2023.2255493
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85187178829
SN - 1466-4208
VL - 25
SP - 117
EP - 136
JO - Current Issues in Language Planning
JF - Current Issues in Language Planning
IS - 2
ER -