Teachers’ positioning towards an educational innovation in the light of ownership, sense-making and agency

The positioning of eleven teachers towards an innovation was studied in the light of ownership, sense-making and agency. Semi-structured and video-stimulated interviews were used for data collection. The findings show that these three concepts are useful for describing similarities and differences between teachers in terms of their positioning towards the innovation. Considerable differences were found between teachers regarding their ownership, sense-making, and agency. Exploring the relations between these concepts revealed that a high degree of agency often went together with a high degree of ownership, but seemed to be moderated by the sense-making process.

► Teacher change towards coaching role was studied in the light of ownership, sense-making and agency.
► These concepts proved useful to describe teachers’ positioning towards an educational innovation.
► Teachers’ ownership, sense-making and agency of the coaching role differed considerably.
► Coaching role part of teacher identity when feelings of ownership are high.
► High agency often goes together with high ownership, but seems moderated by sense-making process.