Teachers’ Motives, Agency and Vygotsky’s Notion of Perezhivanie

The challenges English language teachers face in pivoting to online teaching can facilitate teachers’ engagement with technology in ways useful for teacher development. This conceptual article argues that if teachers make use of such inner drivers of their agency as motives, teachers become more reflective practitioners who are more self-determined in their engagement. Motives can be revealed in the analysis of a teacher’s perezhivanie – an instant psychological response to a challenge in context when teachers are forced out of their comfort zone. Appealing to perezhivanie might lead to teachers’ greater self-awareness, and help them to redesign their language classes to meet the demands of a new, technologically enhanced practice. However, as part of teachers’ inner worlds, motives, perezhivanie and agency are hidden from direct observation. Using a conceptual framework, the relationship between these three notions is investigated and pedagogical implications for teacher development are suggested.