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Article published In:
Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education
Vol. 10:1 (2022) ► pp.90–112

The agency of CLIL primary school teachers in Austria

ORCID logo | Private University College of Teacher Education Graz
ORCID logo | University of Graz

Although recent years have seen a growth in studies examining teacher agency, educators working in the primary sector remain a relatively under-researched population. One specific group of teachers in primary education are those who teach Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). In this study, we wanted to understand how CLIL primary teachers’ sense of agency helped them to navigate this professional role, considering factors in their ecologies which supported or inhibited their agency. Based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with six primary school CLIL teachers, this study shows that even though these teachers were initially passionate about CLIL, they all ultimately exercised their agency as teachers in giving up on CLIL due to a limited sense of agency in the particular role as a CLIL educator.

Keywords: self, agency, CLIL, primary, Austria
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Teacher agency in second language acquisition
    • 2.2CLIL teachers’ agency
    • 2.3CLIL in Austrian primary schools
  • 3.Research design and methodology
    • 3.1Interviews
    • 3.2Participants
    • 3.3Ethics
    • 3.4Data analysis
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1Restrictions on CLIL Teachers’ Sense of Agency
      • 4.1.1Lack of support
      • 4.1.2Self-confidence
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 27 August 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jicb.20032.gru
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