TEACHER AGENCY AND CURRICULUM CHANGE:

Abstract

Dominant theories of teacher agency have been developed primarily within Global North contexts characterized by relative resource adequacy, policy stability, and individual professional autonomy. Yet, the majority of the world's teachers, coming from the global south, work under conditions of chronic resource scarcity, policy incoherence, and systemic constraint—conditions these theories were never designed to explain. This paper addresses a central question: what forms does teacher agency take when these conditions do not hold? Drawing on literature from Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Zambia, and Kenya, this conceptual study develops a tripartite framework of agency in conditions of constraint. It conceptualizes improvised agency as real-time creative response when formal systems are inadequate, collective agency as forms of action distributed across professional networks rather than located in individuals alone, and constrained agency as professional action exercised within severe structural limitations rather than the absence of agency. The paper further proposes a dynamic relational model in which structural constraints generate conditions for improvisation, improvisational practices are sustained and refined through collective professional networks, and collective forms of action may, over time, contribute to the partial renegotiation of structural constraints. This framework builds on ecological accounts of teacher agency by shifting attention to how agency is negotiated in contexts marked by persistent scarcity and unstable institutional conditions. In doing so, it offers a lens for interpreting curriculum reform beyond stable policy environments. The paper concludes by considering the implications of this perspective for curriculum policy design, teacher professional development, and comparative studies of educational change.