Technology Teacher Agency in Navigating Resource Constraints to Support Creative Thinking in Vietnam
Keywords:
Teacher agency; Technology education; creative thinking; ecological perspective; improvisationAbstract
While Vietnam's 2018 General Education Curriculum formally mandates the cultivation of creative thinking within technology education, its implementation is frequently undermined by systemic resource constraints. This qualitative case study examines how teachers of technology enact agency to foster creative thinking in resource-constrained contexts. Data from four technology teachers included eight lesson plans, eight classroom observations, and twelve stimulated recall interviews. Data was analyzed using an ecological model of teacher agency, examining the iterational, practical-evaluative, and projective dimensions. Teachers enacted agency through strategic improvisation, pivoting from physical prototyping to conceptual ideation amid equipment shortages. Findings reveal that teacher agency is shaped by the interaction between teachers' past experiences, current material constraints, and future visions for their discipline. These results challenge individualistic capacity-building models, suggesting that policy should prioritize improving structural conditions to enable agency rather than focusing solely on skill enhancement. Finally, the study suggests that administrators should recognize improvisation as professional judgment by adopting adaptive lesson documentation formats and flexible evaluation criteria to sustain teacher resilience.
https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.25.2.43
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