School staff members’ professional agency in Finland, Scotland and Sweden – A comparative study

Paivi Hokka; Eija Räikkönen; Katja Vähäsantanen; Marc Sarazin; Anna Lund; Natasa Pantić

doi:10.1016/j.tate.2025.104998

School staff members’ professional agency in Finland, Scotland and Sweden – A comparative study

Paivi Hokka, Eija Räikkönen, Katja Vähäsantanen, Marc Sarazin, Anna Lund, Natasa Pantić

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Professional agency has been comprehensively investigated in educational contexts, but there have been few quantitative or comparative studies. This quantitative study explored school staff members’ professional agency in Finland, Scotland, and Sweden, addressing three dimensions of agency: influencing at work, participation at work, and negotiating professional identity. The questionnaire data indicated fairly strong agency among lower secondary school staff members across the dimensions and countries. Professional agency was perceived to be stronger in Sweden than in Finland or Scotland. There were some differences between the countries in terms of the background variables (e.g. working experience) affecting professional agency in schools.

Original language	English
Article number	104998
Pages (from-to)	1-12
Number of pages	12
Journal	Teaching and Teacher Education
Volume	159
Early online date	17 Mar 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2025.104998
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 17 Mar 2025

Access to Document

10.1016/j.tate.2025.104998Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY)

HokkaEtalTTE2025SchoolStaffMembersFinal published version, 759 KBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY)

https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0742051X25000745

Cite this

@article{e15d42a34dec4319bcff8ea19f943690,

title = "School staff members{\textquoteright} professional agency in Finland, Scotland and Sweden – A comparative study",

abstract = "Professional agency has been comprehensively investigated in educational contexts, but there have been few quantitative or comparative studies. This quantitative study explored school staff members{\textquoteright} professional agency in Finland, Scotland, and Sweden, addressing three dimensions of agency: influencing at work, participation at work, and negotiating professional identity. The questionnaire data indicated fairly strong agency among lower secondary school staff members across the dimensions and countries. Professional agency was perceived to be stronger in Sweden than in Finland or Scotland. There were some differences between the countries in terms of the background variables (e.g. working experience) affecting professional agency in schools.",

author = "Paivi Hokka and Eija R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen and Katja V{\"a}h{\"a}santanen and Marc Sarazin and Anna Lund and Natasa Panti{\'c}",

year = "2025",

month = mar,

day = "17",

doi = "10.1016/j.tate.2025.104998",

language = "English",

volume = "159",

pages = "1--12",

journal = "Teaching and Teacher Education",

issn = "0742-051X",

publisher = "Elsevier",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - School staff members’ professional agency in Finland, Scotland and Sweden – A comparative study

AU - Hokka, Paivi

AU - Räikkönen, Eija

AU - Vähäsantanen, Katja

AU - Sarazin, Marc

AU - Lund, Anna

AU - Pantić, Natasa

PY - 2025/3/17

Y1 - 2025/3/17

N2 - Professional agency has been comprehensively investigated in educational contexts, but there have been few quantitative or comparative studies. This quantitative study explored school staff members’ professional agency in Finland, Scotland, and Sweden, addressing three dimensions of agency: influencing at work, participation at work, and negotiating professional identity. The questionnaire data indicated fairly strong agency among lower secondary school staff members across the dimensions and countries. Professional agency was perceived to be stronger in Sweden than in Finland or Scotland. There were some differences between the countries in terms of the background variables (e.g. working experience) affecting professional agency in schools.

AB - Professional agency has been comprehensively investigated in educational contexts, but there have been few quantitative or comparative studies. This quantitative study explored school staff members’ professional agency in Finland, Scotland, and Sweden, addressing three dimensions of agency: influencing at work, participation at work, and negotiating professional identity. The questionnaire data indicated fairly strong agency among lower secondary school staff members across the dimensions and countries. Professional agency was perceived to be stronger in Sweden than in Finland or Scotland. There were some differences between the countries in terms of the background variables (e.g. working experience) affecting professional agency in schools.

U2 - 10.1016/j.tate.2025.104998

DO - 10.1016/j.tate.2025.104998

M3 - Article

SN - 0742-051X

VL - 159

SP - 1

EP - 12

JO - Teaching and Teacher Education

JF - Teaching and Teacher Education

M1 - 104998

ER -

School staff members’ professional agency in Finland, Scotland and Sweden – A comparative study

Abstract

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this