Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Insight Meets Innovation: Interdisciplinary Explorations in Language, Yonca Özkan,Mustafa Kara,Diser Sucak,Ayça Dinçer,and Esma Deniz, Editör, BLACK SWAN PUBLISHING, Ankara, ss.594-621, 2025
Critical role of teachers in shaping equitable learning environments, particularly for students with visual impairments, has been discussed in various publications recently. Acting as mediators between educational policy and classroom practices, teachers have a critical role to transform abstract principles of inclusion policies into meaningful classroom practices for students with disabilities. Their agency in this process determines the effectiveness of inclusion and its successful integration into the broader school culture. However, there is limited amount of research on the tensions and resources that influence the EFL teachers’ agency for inclusive education at a university context. By means of semi-structured interviews with an EFL teacher, this study aims to better understand how teacher agency is experienced with a specific focus on teachers working with students with visual impairments at a university with EMI. To examine tensions and resources, an ecological perspective of teacher agency is utilized as a framework. Data analysis revealed four themes for tensions: (1) school organizational set-up, (2) heavy-duty accountability mechanisms, (3) accessibility of instructional resources, assessment materials, (4) visions for students in mainstream education. For the enabling factors four themes were identified: (1) socially perceived professional roles, (2) relationships (3) personal beliefs and values, (3) past teaching experiences. The study concludes with several practical implications for both teachers, school principals and future researchers.