The role of education policy in the experience of teaching: A sociocultural perspective

Teachers in schools experience continual policy reforms that seek to influence their professional practice. In this contribution I explore these ‘levers of change’ using a sociocultural perspective on teaching. This perspective draws from broader conceptions of human activity and meaning making in society as an interplay between individual agency and social structures. Agency focuses on the goals and choices of the individual. Social structure captures the role of social interactions, formal institutions and policy settings. The sociocultural perspective emphasises the complexity of teaching. Teachers are navigating powerful, and continually shifting, social, institutional and policy structures in their daily workplace activities. I explore these themes of teacher agency and social structure by drawing upon examples from two studies of teachers’ experiences of policy reform, one conducted in England the other in Sweden. Both involved longitudinal interviews with science teachers as they navigate complex structures of curriculum and assessment reforms. Overall, this analysis emphasises the complexity of teaching, but also how an understanding of this complexity can lead to the design of effective ways of supporting teachers’ work through policy reform.