Teacher agency and professional learning in cross-cultural teaching contexts: Accounts of Chinese teachers from international schools in Hong Kong

Teaching and Teacher Education 54 (2016) 12e21

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Teacher agency and professional learning in cross-cultural teaching contexts: Accounts of Chinese teachers from international schools in Hong Kong Chun Lai*, Zhen Li, Yang Gong The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

h i g h l i g h t s  Professional learning in cross-cultural teaching contexts is examined.  Teacher agency shapes professional learning in cross-cultural teaching contexts.  The nature of teacher agency varies in different dimensions of professional learning.  Teacher agency is shaped by teachers' professional and social positioning.  Teacher agency is shaped by the imposed identity and social roles.

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history: Received 29 May 2015 Received in revised form 13 October 2015 Accepted 12 November 2015 Available online xxx

This study examined how teacher agency shaped professional learning in cross-cultural teaching contexts. Interviews with 14 Chinese language teachers showed that teacher agency varied in different dimensions of professional learning. Social suggestions, power relations, teachers' professional and social positioning and the imposed identity and social roles in the school contexts interacted to shape teacher agency. The findings suggest both creating school cultures and structures that value and share diverse discursive and pedagogical practices and managing teachers' professional identity and self-positioning to enhance teachers' agency to engage in mutual learning and remaking of their work practices. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Teacher agency Professional learning Internationalization of education Teacher professional development

1. The research issue Globalization has brought with it an increase in the internationalization of education, which is reflected in the fast expansion of transnational education, namely educational provision across national and regional borders, and the bourgeoning of international schools worldwide (Starr, 2014). These teaching contexts are characterized by the cultural plurality of the teaching staff. The rich cultural heritages and diversities the staff bring with them afford great potentials for teacher professional learning. Scholars have applauded the teaching experience in such contexts for its promise in stimulating and supporting teacher professional growth

* Corresponding author. 623 Meng Wah Complex, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. E-mail address: [email protected] (C. Lai). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2015.11.007 0742-051X/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

(Clifford, Henderson & Montgomery, 2013; Hoare, 2013). For one thing, interactions with different cultural norms of being and knowing are likely to generate dissonances that would stimulate the identification, critical reflection and questioning of (unconscious) assumptions and beliefs about teaching and learning and taken-for-granted practices, which in turn promotes transformational learning (Montgomery, 2014; Smith, 2009). For another, the co-existence of the multitude of cultural beings are conducive to the development of new, transcultural pedagogies and hybridized educational and cultural discursive practices that surpass the originals (Feng, 2013; Keevers et al., 2014) and may facilitate mutual understanding across cultural boundaries (Knight, 2011). However, all these affordances are conditioned upon teachers' critical awareness of the ontological and epistemological foundations of their own views and the views of the cultural others as well as upon their acknowledgment that no one way of being and knowing is superior to another (Andreotti, 2009; Djerasimovic,

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2014). Thus, to realize the promises that the internationalization of education brings to teacher professional learning, promoting the “mutual responsibility for, as well as mutual benefit from, collective sharing and contribution of expertise and resources among teachers” (Bovill, Jordan, & Watters, 2015, p. 19) on the premise of “cultural pluralism without hierarchy” (Gay, 1995, p. 103), is essential (Howe & Xu, 2013; Keay, May, & O’Mahony, 2014). Unfortunately, findings on the hegemony of Western knowledge systems and practices and one-sided learning abound in the existing literature on transnational education (Keay et al., 2014; Montgomery, 2014). Researchers have found that interactions in transnational education programmes are often characterized by unequal power relations among, and disproportionate contributions from, teachers of different cultural backgrounds (Djerasimovic, 2014; Pyvis, 2011). These programmes are fraught with a predominant one-way transmission of the pedagogical practices of the “developed”, with the local ways of being and knowing being marginalized and subdued (Kanu, 2011; Lee, 2012), which leads to either blind and uncritical one-sided learning or stereotypical attitudes towards different practices (Keay et al., 2014; Montgomery, 2014). For instance, Zhang (2015) found that, in a hybrid Sino-Canadian dual-diploma curriculum, Chinese-related subjects and teachers were marginalized, and the Chinese-related literacies and their heritage teaching methods succumbed to the Englishrelated literacies and teaching practices. The lack of reciprocal, two-way exchanges and mutual respect among the multicultural teaching staff have led to transnational education programs being criticized for being ‘knowledge capitalism’, ‘linguistic and cultural imperialism’ or ‘ideological imperialism’ (Olssen & Peters, 2005; Pyvis, 2011; Zhang, 2015). Researchers are hence calling for more research into how an important professional development source in the internationalization of educationdmutual and reciprocal learning among teachers of diverse cultural backgroundsdcould be maximized (Keevers et al., 2014). Scholars have proposed various measures to promote reciprocal learning in transnational education. The measures include advocating pluralistic approaches that celebrate or hybridize the diverse ways of knowing and being (Djerasimovic, 2014; Feng, 2013; Zhang, 2015), building communities of practice that enhance interactions among staff of different cultural backgrounds and fosters collegial relationships and a sense of connectedness and belonging among them (Keay et al., 2014; Keevers et al., 2014), and encouraging a critical and questioning stance among the dominant groups towards their own practices (Bovill et al., 2015; Howe & Xu, 2013). These measures primarily focus on nurturing school cultures and creating structures to encourage and support mutual learning. However, mutual learning is premised upon teachers' being agentive actors. Whether teachers could contribute to and benefit from mutual learning and thus maximize the professional learning opportunities in transnational education contexts depends not only on the empowerment mechanisms but also on the agency of the teaching staff, especially the under-privileged teaching staff (Djerasimovic, 2014). An investigation into how teachers exert agency to utilize their funds of knowledge (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992) and the diverse ways of knowing and being in their surroundings to influence their own and others' practices would shed new insights into our current understanding of mutual learning in cross-cultural teaching contexts (Djerasimovic, 2014). Thus, this study aimed to unravel the relationship between teachers' professional agency and professional learning in the cross-cultural teaching contexts of Hong Kong international schools.

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1.1. Research background Professional learning is critical to schools' sustainable improvement. Individual teachers' capacities and funds of knowledge are significant sources for professional learning. Pooling teachers' expertise and strength through both formal and informal structures helps capitalize on the human capital within schools and maximize opportunities for teacher professional learning (Hargreaves, 2001; Harris, 2003). Current professional learning literature has attested to the power of co-learning for teacher professional growth (Avalos, 2011; Vescio, Ross, & Adams, 2008). Co-learning is found to be an important condition for effective professional development in that it promotes the deprivatization of practices and fosters collaborative critical reflection over daily teaching practices and collaborative sharing, which facilitates the grasp of professional knowledge (Levine & Marcus, 2010; Postholm, 2012). Thus, nurturing school cultures that promote mutual learning are beneficial to teacher individual and collective capacity building. Co-learning could take place via formal structures, such as professional learning communities and lesson study, and via informal venues, such as collegial informal exchanges and interactions (Avalos, 2011; Jurasaite-Harbison & Rex, 2010). Frost (2012) proposed the concept of non-positional teacher leadership to maximize both venues of co-learning. Non-positional teacher leadership refers to the process where individual teachers, regardless of formal positions and designations, contribute to, individually and collectively, the remaking of school practices through influencing others (Frost, 2012; Harris, 2003; York-Barr & Duke, 2004). Thus, it could marshal resources and mobilize the intellectual capital throughout the schools, to the maximum, for teacher individual and collective growth (Hargreaves, 2001; YorkBarr & Duke, 2004). In the context of cross-cultural teaching, the reciprocity of non-positional teacher leadership across different cultural groups is particularly needed to help mobilize the cultural capital at schools (Bovill et al., 2015). As non-positional teacher leadership requests active involvement of individual teachers, empowerment and agency are the two pillars (Harris, 2003). Whether teachers' intellectual and cultural capitals could be maximally harnessed to benefit professional learning depends critically on the school cultures, structures and capacity building mechanisms that could empower teachers to exert agency to lead and to learn (Frost, 2012; Jurasaite-Harbison & Rex, 2010; York-Barr & Duke, 2004). 1.2. Theoretical framework Agency is an important concept in the academic discussion of professional learning in the workplace. Professional learning is a constructive process, and agency is needed to drive the construction and reconstruction of one's professional knowledge, competencies and identities and to influence and transform work €pelto, Va €ha €santanen, Ho € kka €, & practices (Billett, 2011; Etela €h€ €pelto, Va €ha €santanen, Paloniemi, 2014; Va asantanen, 2015). Etela € kka €, and Paloniemi (2013) defined professional agency as the Ho practices where “professional subjects and/or communities exert influence, make choices and take stances in ways that affect their work and/or their professional identities” (p. 61). Unlike the individualistic views that define agency as a set of context-free individual capacities and efficacies to act upon the world or the social deterministic views that define agency as totally bounded and constrained by the cultural systems and social €pelto et al., 2013; Priestley, Edwards, Priestley, & structures (Etela Miller, 2012), current conceptualizations of agency highlight the interdependency between agency and structure. Human agency is

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shaped by the social conditions and also may reshape the social realities (Archer, 2003; Biesta & Tedder, 2007; Emirbayer & Mische, 1998). It is achieved through the interactions of the personal capacities to act and the contingencies of the social contexts (Biesta & Tedder, 2007). Teachers' exercise of professional agency is subject to the influence of not only school structures but also school cultures. In addition, the power relations at schools, both official hierarchical or status-based sovereign powers and unofficial powers embedded in social discourses and practices, could both constrain and resource €pelto et al., 2014; professional agency (Allen, 2002; Etela €santanen, 2015). The exercise of agency is also intertwined V€ aha with personal interests, identities and subjectivities (Archer, 2003; Billett, 2006) and is influenced by past experiences and habits, orientations towards the future and engagement with the present (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998). Personal interests, identities and subjectivities may influence individuals to exercise agency selectively with different degrees of engagement, which impact what gets learned or changed through their engagement (Billett, 2006). €santanen (2015) concluded, from a synthetic analysis of V€ aha several studies on the manifestation of professional agency, that professional agency is influenced by both individual resources and sociocultural resources. Moreover, the influences of individual resources and social suggestions (i.e., social structures, socio-cultural norms and practices, power relations) on professional agency are relational. The strength of the exercise of social suggestions may vary in different situations and the intensity of individual engagement with social suggestions may vary as well depending on individual interest and intentionality (Billett, 2011). Consequently, professional agency may vary in its manifestations across individuals and situations and €pelto et al., in different aspects of a person's professional work (Etela €h€ 2014; Va asantanen, 2015). Researchers have found individual variations in the manifestations of professional agency (Billett, 2006; Lipponen & Kumpulainen, 2011). For instance, €santanen, Saarinen, and Etel€ V€ aha apelto (2009) conducted openended narrative interviews with 16 vocational teachers on their experience of collaborating with professionals in the workplace, and identified five different forms of agency: some took the initiative to advance the existing practices in the workplaces and others took more passive and uncritical stances. Researchers have also identified the multi-leveledness and context specificity of the €pelto et al., 2014; manifestation of professional agency (Etela €santanen, 2015). For instance, Ho €kka €, Etela €pelto, and RaskuV€ aha Puttonen (2012) interviewed eight university teacher educators and found that they demonstrated strong individual agency in the construction of teacher- and developer-identity but weak individual agency in the construction of researcher-identity. Giving that professional agency is multi-leveled and context specific, researchers are calling for studies to examine the nature and manifestations of professional agency in different professional contexts so as to better support the exercise of professional agency for €pelto et al., 2013). professional learning (Etela This study extended this line of inquiry to examine how a group of Chinese language teachers, the less-advantaged minority group, exercised professional agency in a cross-cultural teaching context. Specifically the study aimed to unravel how professional agency interacted with institutional and personal circumstances to shape the two complementary components of professional learning, selftransformation and the development of work practices (Etel€ apelto et al., 2014): 1) How do Chinese language teachers exercise professional agency to shape their professional learning from Western colleagues? 2) How do Chinese language teachers exercise professional agency to remake work practices through exerting influences on Western colleagues?

2. Methodology 2.1. Research context and participants The study was situated in Hong Kong, which had been a British colony for more than 100 years before being handed over to China in 1997. This historical background has created complex sociocultural and linguistic situations in Hong Kong. According to the latest population census in Hong Kong in 2011, 93.6% of the whole population of Hong Kong was ethnic Chinese, and 6.4% consisted of ethnic minorities. Cantonese is the dominant daily language used by the majority of the population, and English is an official language in Hong Kong, with great symbolic and instrumental values. Mandarin is also given more importance at school, although remaining “a somewhat peripheral language” in society (Gu & Patkin, 2013, p. 132). The school system in Hong Kong can be summarized as comprising two broad patterns: local schools and international schools. The local schools operate either with or without government subsidies and prepare students for the local examinations. The international schools are mostly self-funded and adopt nonlocal curricula such as the national curricula of the US, Australia, Canada, and the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum. They mainly cater for students from expatriate families, and in 2011, the proportion of non-local students in international schools was around 76% on average (EDB, 2012). Both local and expatriate families value the international school sector primarily for the “more flexible/interactive learning” approaches, local families also value it for “opportunities to improve English proficiency”, and expatriate families value it for providing “better bridging to educational systems overseas” (EDB, 2012, p. 18). In the majority of international schools, Mandarin is studied either as the first language or as a compulsory second language until secondary school. The authors were university researchers who have had constant interactions with Chinese language teachers at international schools as part of their university work. From their interactions with the teachers, they repeatedly got the message that Chinese language teachers, in varying degrees, felt belittled, undervalued and powerless at their teaching contexts but have also encountered Chinese language teachers who thought otherwise. Such an observation sparked the researchers' interest in delving deeper into these teachers' perceptions and experience. The participants were fourteen Chinese language teachers from thirteen international schools in Hong Kong. The only criteria for recruiting the participants was that they came from a wide variety of international schools with different student demographic profiles and organizational structures, and that they were full-time teachers with full teaching responsibilities in their schools. The reason for targeting full-time teachers only and excluding teaching assistants and supply teachers was that we wanted to make sure that the participants' work relationships represented the social structures that teachers would normally encounter in the schools, and that the participants' posts allowed for the exercise of agency in their work practices. Email invitations were sent to Chinese language teachers that the researchers had contact with or had acquaintance with at different professional development events to elicit their voluntary participation, and consent was obtained prior to the interview. All the participants were female except for one male. Their average teaching experience in international schools was eight years, with only five of them having less than five years of teaching experience. The participants consisted of primary school teachers and secondary school teachers from schools with a wide range of local-expatriate student proportions. The participants were all ethnic Chinese, with some teaching Chinese as a second language and others teaching both Chinese as a second language and Chinese

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as a first language. The majority of the participants came from schools with English as the medium of instruction and whose teaching staff were mainly from Western backgrounds. Only three participants were from bilingual schools, where around half of the teaching staff were from Western backgrounds and half were from Chinese ethnic backgrounds. 2.2. Data collection and analysis Given the intentionality and reflexivity of human agency €pelto et al., 2013), open-ended interviews were adopted in (Etela this study to register the participants' subjective perceptions and accounts. Gubrium and Holstein (2003) highlighted that interview is an interactive, co-constructive process of meaning making where the interviewee is constructively shaping his/her perception and understanding in the process of sharing his/her lived experience with the interviewer and the interviewer is contributing to the construction. In a similar vein, Mishler (1986) suggests designing interviewing in ways that could help the interviewee's voice come through in greater detail and allow questions to be “formulated in, developed through, and shaped by” the conversation (p. 52). Thus, the interviews were framed around several general topics that allowed rooms for the interviewees to talk freely about their own experiences and views and the interviewer to delve deeper into each interviewee's accounts. During the interview, the following topics were addressed: teaching experiences, current school culture and the status of Chinese language teachers in the school; perceived changes in their teaching practices and beliefs under the influence of their Western colleagues; aspects of their teaching practices and beliefs that remained unchanged and the reasons behind the changes or non-changes; their perceived relationships with their Western colleagues; and their perceived influence on their Western colleagues' teaching practices and beliefs and the reasons behind the influence or lack thereof. Individual interviews were conducted with each participant in their native language, Mandarin, so that they could express themselves more freely. Each interview lasted around 40 min to 1 h. Interview questions were piloted with one Chinese teacher not included in the study to identify potential wording problems, and the interview guide was revised accordingly. The interview guide was emailed to the participants two days prior to the interview. Participants were given a few minutes at the beginning of the interviews to jot down their perceived changes under the influence of their Western colleagues, the aspects that remained unchanged, and their perceived influence on their Western colleagues. Their notes were then used as a prompt for the interview, and the participants were encouraged to elaborate freely on their jotted notes in their preferred order. The interviewers asked follow-up questions to elicit more in-depth responses, and clarification questions to confirm the intended meaning of the participants. To protect the participants' privacy, the interviews were conducted outside the schools at places that were proposed by the participants. The interviews were audio recorded, and field notes were taken during the interviews. The researchers discussed the interesting points that emerged from the interview after the interviews, and field notes were taken to record their observations and immediate responses. The field notes were consulted to assist the generation of the coding categories. The interview data were transcribed word-for-word in Chinese by research assistants and double-checked for accuracy by one of the researchers. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data and the data were hand coded. The interview data were first categorized into organizational themes according to the research question and the interview guide. Four organizational themes were adopted in respect to the two dimensions of professional learning, self-

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transformation and development of work practices and the impact forces: (1) professional learning (changes and non-changes) under the influence of Western colleagues; (2) reasons for transformed and untransformed beliefs and practices; (3) their influence over their Western colleagues; and (4) the reasons for the influence or lack thereof. The excerpts under each organizational theme were then coded and recoded to generate concrete categorizations. Transcriptions were read through reiteratively, and bits of data that struck the researchers as interesting or important to the theme were first coded using the interviewees' original words, and then similar codes were aggregated into analytic categories. For instance phrases such as “combine Chinese approaches and Western approaches”, and “use traditional approaches to build strong foundations and use Western approaches to develop thinking skills” were grouped into the analytic category, “balanced approach”. The initial coding of analytic categories was then compared across interviewees to find repeating ideas to saturate categories with supporting evidences, and for cross validation of the categories that emerged. Annotations and memos were used during the data analyses to record immediate comments and reflexive thinking on the data, and the annotations and memos as well as interview field notes were used to assist the generation of analytic categories. Then the analytical categories were examined in reference to the theoretical framework to form the overarching themes that categorized the relationships between the analytical categories, which are reported in the Findings section. Pseudonyms are used when presenting the results. All the supporting quotations were translated verbatim from Chinese to English by the first author, and checked with other researchers with expertise in both English and Chinese. Nonetheless, we were aware that the transcribing and translating of the interviews are social acts and are intertwined with the transcribers' and translators' own perspectives and language ideology, which suggests no absolute ‘objectivity’ in the process (Roberts, 1997). 3. Results 3.1. Professional learning under the influence of Western colleagues: agency shaped by social suggestions and personal particularities The participants reported three aspects of learning from Western colleagues: teaching pedagogy, relationships and interaction with students, and relationships and interaction with colleagues. Their interview responses showed that the participants actively engaged in exercising agency to shape their professional learning, and demonstrated different forms of agency in different aspects of professional learning. 3.1.1. Learning about teaching pedagogy: critical and balancing agency All the participants reported changing from teacher-directed curriculum planning and teaching towards more pedagogical considerations of students' preferences and needs. Teacher F recalled her changes after switching from a 3-year experience at a local school to international schools: In the past, I always thought about what I wanted to teach them, and how I was going to deliver the content to them, and how to assess whether they grasped the content. I did not care what the students liked when I designed the curriculum. Now, when I design the unit, I'd consult with students on what they want to know and let them choose how they want to demonstrate their learning … There is greater consideration of students' perspectives now.

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This change towards student-centered curriculum planning was also reflected in their approaches to textbooks. Teacher A recounted that rather than following textbooks strictly, she started to take students' needs, “what they are interested in and what are related to their life”, as the starting-off point in curriculum and activity design. The participants also felt the urge to adopt more studentcentered teaching approaches. As Teacher C commented, “these students are used to the Western style of teaching. If we forced them to sit still and repeat after us 10 times, they wouldn't do it”. Teacher D recounted how her opportunities to co-plan lessons with the foreign language department head, a French teacher, and observe his class made her add more student-centered activities into teaching, which she felt raised her “receptivity among the students” and enhanced “the rapport with the students”. Notwithstanding, the participants also reported a high level of criticality and selectivity in their adoption of student-centered curricular and pedagogical approaches. For instance, Teacher D talked about how she had moved from an undiscerning acceptance of Western approaches to a more critical view through observation, reflection and experimentation. Teacher D: During the first year, I blindly followed their approaches, viewing their approaches as full of merit. In the second year, I started to view them more critically. Is engaging students with all sorts of student-centered activities all the time really effective? Interviewer: What made the change in the second year? Teacher D: When I first joined the school, I subconsciously felt that the Western teachers' pedagogies were in the forefront and were more advanced than ours. But in the second year, I found the English language teachers' student-centered teaching did not lead to salient improvement in students' English proficiency. I started to suspect that their approaches may not be as good as I had imagined. I started to experiment in the second year. For some classes, I adopted student-centered teaching, and for others I followed the traditional approaches Interviewer: Traditional approaches Teacher D: Yes. And I didn't see big differences. So I started to be more critical. I feel we do need some student-centered activities, but not in every class. All the participants talked about preserving some traditional pedagogical practices such as repeated tracing and copying of Chinese characters, frequent use of dictations and repeated practices, classical and exemplary text recital and choral reading to develop language sensitivity, and regular tests. Teacher N found that engaging students in repeated read-aloud and choral reading helped reduce students' grammatical errors. Teacher K talked about how she had once abandoned the traditional practices of bombarding students with drill and practice, only to find that it led to poor Chinese learning outcomes. She felt that these traditional practices were necessary. The participants believed that these traditional pedagogical practices complemented Western approaches nicely: Traditional approaches help build a strong knowledge foundation and the Western approaches help expand their thinking skills …. I adopt the general Western pedagogical framework but leave a few places within the framework for traditional instruction and drilland-practice. (Teacher F) But they further felt that given the characteristics of the students, traditional pedagogical practices may need to be “packaged” into fun activities. Teacher K integrated some games that Western teachers often used to spice up the traditional pedagogical practices. Teacher A reported “varying the format of the activities to

engage students with these pedagogical practices”. The participants reported adopting a flexible approach towards Western and traditional pedagogical practices. Teacher E talked about how she chose project-based learning only when the topics lent themselves to such an approach. Teacher B balanced the use of technology-enhanced learning activities that engaged students with creative, authentic language use and the paper-based activities that asked students to copy Chinese characters and practice stroke orders. Teacher H shared the story of one teacher in her department who used primarily student-centered activities in his class, and how the other teachers who received this teacher's students complained that those students “basically learned nothing in the whole year”. She advocated for a compromise that combines the strength of both approaches: I often ask myself about the possibility of combination. Could the Chinese teachers not be too traditional, giving dictations and pushing students to do homework all the time? For the Western teachers who engage students in interaction and inquiry all the time, although interesting, somehow these approaches are not very effective. So, if all of us could balance slightly, that would be perfect. (Teacher H) Thus, the participants took a critical approach to traditional and Western pedagogical practices and used them selectively to strike a delicate balance between the two, demonstrating a postmodern “integrative approach to teaching” (Murray, 2009). The participants' critical and balancing agency was shaped by the two contrastive culturally-shaped educational norms: the beliefs of their students, parents and Western colleagues vs. the beliefs of the participant teachers. On the one hand, the dubious attitudes of students, parents and Western colleagues towards the value of homework, recitation of classical texts and the meaningfulness of repeated tracing and copying of Chinese characters induced the participant teachers to adjust these pedagogical practices. For example, Teachers H and J took a compromising approach by keeping the traditional practices but reducing the frequency slightly, while Teachers B and E varied the frequency and intensity of these practices in response to different student populations and learning needs. On the other hand, individual participants' beliefs, values and identity mediated the influence of social suggestions, which in turn shaped the level of criticality in their exercise of agency. Teacher A talked about how her cultural belief that a teacher is conscientious and responsible for students' understanding of the knowledge system influenced her in insisting on employing some traditional pedagogical practices that focus on accuracy. Furthermore, 9 out of 14 participants' responses indicated that the emphasis they placed on students' exam results and their tendency towards taking students' exam results personally contributed to their insistence on some traditional pedagogical practices. Teacher K attributed this preoccupation with students' assessment results to her and her Chinese colleagues' concept of good teachers: We believe good teachers are the ones who can help students get good grades. This is our priority …. We often associate students' grades with our personal ability and achievement. Not only the teacher participants' beliefs about teacher roles but also their teaching goals shaped their attitudes towards, and implementation of, the traditional approaches. Teacher B set his teaching goal as raising students' long-term interest in Chinese culture and learning, and consequently, he chose not to enforce frequent drill and practice of Chinese characters to prevent it from

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dampening students' enjoyment of Chinese learning. In contrast, Teacher C set her teaching goal as helping students grasp Chinese language, and thus, she insisted on intensive copying exercises and teacher-led instructions to achieve that goal despite the principal's call for more student-centered activities. 3.1.2. Learning how to interact with students: unreserved adaptation agency The participants' description of learning how to interact with students showed that the participants exercised agency to adapt their practices through unreserved and uncritical adoption of Western classroom management techniques and styles of interaction with students. One salient change the participants perceived among themselves was that they now treated students as equal partners rather than claiming unconditional obedience. Teacher H observed that “the Western teachers tend to treat students as equals and, unlike Chinese teachers who tend to order students around, Western teachers respect students as equal individuals”. Similarly, Teacher K's experience taught her that talking down to students and threat- or punishment-oriented class discipline could not help her earn respect from her students. But rather, the approach of treating students as equals who can be trusted to be reasonable and to take responsibility for their behaviors was much more “effective” (Teachers D, K, J). Consequently, the participants reported embracing the Western style of interaction with students. As Teacher D reflected, During my first year of teaching, when students misbehaved, I tended to scold them, threaten them with punishments, and so on. Now, I would follow my Western colleagues' approaches, to set up rules with the students in advance and use the rules to guide selfdiscipline. (Teacher D) A related change was the participants' tendency towards finding virtues among the students to praise rather than flaws to reprimand. Teacher A's Chinese panel head made arrangements for Chinese teachers to observe Western colleagues' classes and encouraged them to learn from their Western colleagues. The observation that “Western education focuses primarily on individual development” induced changes in Teacher A's interaction with students towards “not dividing students into good students and bad students” and “always trying to find the virtues among people”. The participants were unanimous in their positive perceptions of the Western approach to studenteteacher relationship, and all reported changing their practices by following the suit of their Western colleagues. The interview responses further showed that this change was shaped largely by the social suggestions that the participants perceived in the teaching contexts, namely, the expectation to build a studenteteacher relationships based on respect and trust. Teachers H, J, K and L remarked that the sociocultural environment in Hong Kong and the school culture in the international schools are largely in favor of Western culture and Western teachers. As Teacher A pointed out, “Using authority to demand unconditional obedience does not work. Western approaches rely more on reasoning. Reason with the students and guide them to discover what is right and what is wrong and then lead them to the solution”. Thus Chinese studenteteacher relationship norms which granted teachers with unconditional formal authority carried little discursive power in the school community and the Chinese teachers needed to adapt to the Western cultural practices. Teacher C pointed out that “students were used to this [Western] style of interaction with teachers. This kind of studenteteacher relationship meant that they did not perceive the teacher as formidable, nor as someone who kept them at arm's

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length; rather, it made them regard the teacher as someone they can play with and engage in mutual learning”. Chinese cultural norms of the studenteteacher relationship losing discursive power at the school community enabled some teachers to inspect it from a distance and view it afresh with critical eyes. Teacher C commented: “We [Chinese teachers] focus too much on students' flaws. Western teachers focus more on locating the good things in students' work”. And Teacher H engaged in critical reflection: I would ask myself whether the Chinese cultural norms make sense. Are teachers necessarily always right? When teachers are not right, can't students have the right to fight back? … I now treat my students quite equally. (Teacher H) The critical reflections on their assumptions and beliefs may potentially lead to perspective transformation (Mezirow, 2000). 3.1.3. Learning how to interact with colleagues: varied agency The participants' responses concerning their changing style of interacting with colleagues indicated an intense exercise of agency that was characterized by varied levels of adaptation and manifestation of Western philosophy in a variety of practices that aligned with teacher self-positioned identity and cultural values and social behaviors. The participants observed a tension between their inarticulateness and docility when interacting with Western colleagues and the need to speak up in the schools. The participants described themselves as being “quiet”, “introverted”, “humble” and “low key” (Teachers B, F, H, N). But at the same time, they reported feeling the pressure to speak up and be more assertive in their interaction with Western colleagues at the school. They found keeping a low profile and being humble were not valued in the international schools. For instance, Teacher F commented: “In international schools, you need to speak up. It's different from Chinese schools, where you need to keep a low profile”. Teacher J also felt that pressure to be more expressive: “The school leaders seem to notice only the people who are expressive … Only when you present your work will people acknowledge your contributions. If you do things quietly, people will think you've done nothing and know nothing”. Teacher H further pointed out: “Years of working experience in international schools made me start to view Confucian ideologies afresh … The virtues of being docile, modest, and compromising are not valued in international schools. People rather look down upon you”. However, despite the unanimous observation of the incompatibility of the Chinese approach to relationships with colleagues in international schools, the participants responded differently to this revelation. For some, this revelation drove them to become more expressive. For instance, Teacher B reflected: “In the past, I was very introverted. But now, I'd try to express my opinions when needed … If I kept being too introverted and shy and did not get my opinions through to colleagues and the management team, it might not be fair to the students and parents”. For others, this realization alone was not sufficient to cause changes among them. As Teacher J acknowledged, “I wanted to change. However, till now, I still don't want to speak up during meetings”. The participants' different responses were partly shaped by their self-positioning. For instance, Teacher J positioned herself as a teacher whose responsibility and priority was to teach the students well, and this professional identification influenced her not to respond to the perceived demand to speak up: I know that if I voiced my opinions, people would be more likely to notice me and acknowledge my work, and the management team would have a better impression of me. However, I don't care whether people like me or not. As long as I am a responsible teacher

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in my students' eyes, that's enough. Anyway, I normally don't speak up. (Teacher J) But at the same time, teachers' positioning also intertwined with the power relationship at the schools. Teacher M shared the practice at her previous school in Shanghai where the principal required every department to collaborate with the Chinese team on one project each year. She observed that the heightened visibility and status of the Chinese team caused some salient changes in her Chinese colleagues' engagement with school affairs: “I found that our Chinese team spoke out more and more frequently during school meetings in those years. In the past, Chinese teachers often just sat there and kept silent”. Thus, school culture and structures and the associated power relationships could shape Chinese teachers' social engagement with Western colleagues. Teachers' approaches to participation were further found to be mediated by the Chinese cultural norms of social behavior. To be more at ease in participation, Teacher D chose to adopt a culturally familiar communication styleda more implicit and indirect styledto interact with the management team: I admire my Western colleagues for being outspoken with the school management team. However, my cultural background does not allow me to be so direct. I won't voice my opinions during meetings, but I would express my opinions to the management team in private and usually in indirect ways. (Teacher D) Some teachers also took collective acts to renegotiate their power positions. For instance, Teacher A adopted a more collective approach to social participation: “I would express my opinion, but I wouldn't venture to voice my opinions without careful thinking. We often go back to discuss within the Chinese team and voice our opinions as a group”. In summary, we found that the Chinese teachers' professional learning from their Western colleagues was manifested in different dimensions, including pedagogical, teacherestudent relationships and interactions with colleagues. Their professional learning was sourced by school professional development events led by Western colleagues and the experience of either co-teaching with or observing Western teachers' classes, and reinforced by the participant teachers' self- and social-positioning as learners whose pedagogical and social practices were less valued at the school contexts. The nature and degree of learning in different dimensions was determined by the intensity and form of agentic reactions that were mediated by social structure, cultural norms and the associated power relations, as well as personal beliefs and professional identity.

3.2. Remaking work practices through influencing Western colleagues: agency shaping social structure In contrast to the multiple dimensions of professional learning from Western colleagues, the participants perceived themselves as imposing a limited degree of influence on their Western colleagues to remake their work practices and social structure. Although the participants talked about the importance of complementing Chinese ways of teaching with Western ways of teaching, 11 out of 14 participants did not feel that they influenced their Western colleagues very much, and none of them reported actively exercising agency to influence their colleagues either. They attributed their lack of agency or inability to exercise agency to factors at both the individual teacher level and the institution level.

3.2.1. Limited agency to influence Western colleagues: individual teacher factors The interview responses from the participants showed that teacher professional identity and social-positioning might have constrained their agency to influence Western colleagues. 9 participants reported the tendency for Chinese teachers to identify themselves as subject teachers whose primary responsibility was to teach the subject matter rather than as school teachers who were actively involved in all kinds of school affairs. Teachers I and N observed that such a professional identity meant that some of their colleagues were not interested in becoming involved in school affairs or taking on responsibilities outside the Chinese classroom, such as organizing House activities or serving as class advisors. Teacher I felt that this professional identification restricted Chinese teachers from “capitalizing on the opportunities to exert influence on their Western colleagues”. In addition, this professional identity also constrained their willingness to exercise their agency to exert this influence. Teacher K reflected that Chinese teachers normally did not regard influencing Western colleagues with Chinese cultural heritage and values as of personal relevance; rather, they focused more on teaching well and helping students to gain good grades in exams. Accordingly, she chose not to exercise agency proactively to remake work practices through influencing Western colleagues. In addition to professional identity, the participants' socialpositioning also mediated their lack of agency in shaping the social realities. Teacher A pointed out that her Chinese colleagues tended to cede the rights of decision making to the more powerful members of staff, which might have constrained their potential influence on Western colleagues: “Chinese teachers often do not get involved in decision making. They feel that decision making belongs to the senior management team”. Thus, she and her colleagues chose not to become actively involved in school affairs. Teacher E positioned herself more as the receiving party than as the giving party. She felt that Chinese teachers had a lot to learn from their working experience in international schools. However, when asked whether she ever thought about influencing her colleagues with her cultural values and traditions, she was dubious about what Chinese teachers could contribute. This mentality of positioning oneself as a passive receiver was also echoed in Teacher K's response, where she identified herself and her Chinese colleagues as the “executors” of “whatever policies and practices the management team stipulated”. In addition, some participants' positioning of their relationship with Western colleagues also constrained their opportunities to exert influence. Teachers H and J did not feel it necessary to develop their relationship with Western colleagues at the personal level. For instance, Teacher J said: “I did not make much effort managing my relationship with my Western colleagues. I minded my own business and they minded their own. As long as I did my job well, that would be fine”. Similarly, Teacher H remarked: “I try to be professional in teaching, but in the social dimension, I don't need to force myself to make the effort to socialize with them”. Unfortunately, it is through such informal interaction that mutual trust could be built, and “trust is the basis for exerting Chinese influence” (Teacher I). The participants' responses further showed that they might have lacked the relevant abilities and confidence to exert influence on their Western colleagues. Interactions with Western colleagues at various pedagogical and interpersonal levels provide opportunities for mutual learning, but demand Chinese teachers to go beyond their teaching duties. Teacher I and M remarked that collaborations with Western colleagues in organizing school events enabled them and their Chinese colleagues to build interpersonal relationships with their Western colleagues, which were critical to exerting their influence. Teacher A's Chinese colleagues used to

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take on the role of class advisors at the school. However, some of them found it challenging to perform these functions effectively. Consequently, the school now seldom invited Chinese teachers to take on such roles, and even when opportunities arose, the Chinese teachers lacked the confidence to volunteer for these roles. Not being involved in functions other than classroom duties limited the Chinese teachers' opportunities to engage with their Western colleagues in in-depth discussion of, and mutual learning about, issues related to teaching and learning. The challenges in performing varied school functions were partly due to their discursively disadvantaged position as English was the lingua franca at the schools. Teacher E pointed out that English enjoys linguistic and cultural superiority in the international schools, and Chinese teachers may easily be dismissed and disrespected by their students for not being able to express themselves well in English. And this discursive powerlessness affected their abilities and confidence to perform at different school functions and hence limited their potentials in influencing others. The challenges also came from the fact that their cultural practices were not the dominant behavioral norms, which made them seemingly deficient in various school functions. The lack of cultural capital also affected teachers' abilities to influence Western colleagues through informal interactions. Teacher I's school encouraged the Chinese teachers to organize events to enhance their Western colleagues' understanding of Chinese culture. The inferior position of Chinese culture in international schools demands extra efforts in making such events attractive enough to entice their culturally privileged counterparts. Unfortunately, Teacher I lamented that her Chinese colleagues most often organized information sessions on Chinese culture or festival celebration events. She remarked: “Informal interaction outside the classroom is a great venue for cross-cultural influence. However, Chinese teachers do not know how to organize interesting activities to attract their Western colleagues”. Thus, the participants' professional identification and socialpositioning influenced their willingness and opportunities to exercise agency in influencing their Western colleagues. Their level of confidence and abilities in assuming school functions other than classroom teaching also limited their opportunities to exercise agency, and the lack of confidence and abilities intertwined with power relations at the teaching contexts. 3.2.2. Limited agency to influence Western colleagues: institutional factors The interview responses also indicated that 11 out of 14 participants, with the exception of the three teachers who taught on EnglisheChinese bilingual programs, had limited interaction and exchange with Western colleagues on daily teaching issues at the pedagogical level. Analyzing the reasons behind the one-way influence from Western colleagues, Teacher A commented: “It might be due to my limited power to influence. I had very limited opportunities to collaborate and work together with my colleagues. We most often just said hello to each other and had some casual exchanges”. The unbalanced sovereign and discursive power relationship at schools further inhibited Western teachers' willingness and incentive to reach out. As Teacher D pointed out, “I approached them much more often than they did”. And this lack of in-depth interaction at the pedagogical level might be partly due to the imposed social roles of Chinese teachers in the international schools. Teacher J felt that her school identified Chinese teachers as specialist teachers who did not hold equal positions and were not valued as equally as the English and math teachers. She compared her relationship with Western colleagues to big gears versus small gears in that, although both moved together to keep the school running, only the big gear was visible to the school. This imposed social role constrained her opportunities to engage in in-depth

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interaction with Western teachers on pedagogical issues. In contrast, the opportunity to join a cross-disciplinary interest group on inquiry-based teaching helped Teacher F exert her influence on Western colleagues' pedagogical thinking. At one meeting, Teacher F talked about the difficulty she felt in conducting open inquiry in Chinese teaching and highlighted the importance of teacher guidance throughout the inquiry process. She was happy to find that the term ‘guided inquiry’ frequently appeared in subsequent discussions among the team members. Teacher F hence concluded that involvement in cross-disciplinary pedagogical interaction could enable Chinese teachers to exercise agency to exert influence. Teacher N concurred that the cross-disciplinary curricular and pedagogical collaboration arrangement at her previous school provided her with the opportunity to influence her Western colleagues. Unfortunately such opportunities were lacking in her current school. Teacher A observed a similar phenomenon of a lack of opportunities for crossedisciplinary interaction: “Our Chinese teachers seldom serve as the class advisors. Only when they don't have enough volunteers would they give Chinese teachers the opportunity”. In addition to the mediating effect of pedagogicalelevel interaction, social structure that gave or denied Chinese teachers the opportunities to share their practices also shaped their ability to exercise agency. Almost all participants reported that their schools seldom invited Chinese teachers to hold school professional development events, and the only school events where Chinese teachers were asked to play the major role were Chinese festival celebration events. This imposed social role of Chinese teachers as cultural agents rather than as pedagogical or curricular experts constrained the ability of Chinese teachers to exercise agency to influence Western colleagues. Teacher N felt that acknowledging Chinese teachers' pedagogical expertise and giving them opportunities to share effective pedagogies to the whole school could help boost Chinese teachers' social image and enhance their influence. Teacher K's school, in response to parents' increasing emphasis on Chinese learning, recently gave the Chinese teachers a greater presence in school newsletters and bulletin boards, involving them in compiling the newsletters in Chinese and adding students' Chinese works and Chinese after-school society activities in school displays. Feeling that Chinese teachers' work was recognized and valued in the school, Teacher K became more optimistic about her ability to exert an influence on her Western colleagues' practices. Teachers B's and I's schools invited Chinese teachers to serve as team leaders or house captains, and the teachers felt that the school's acknowledgment of Chinese teachers' expertise beyond the cultural dimension enhanced the opportunities for Chinese teachers to share their views on different occasions and exercise agency in remaking work practices. Thus, the teacher participants reported exercising limited agency in influencing Western colleagues with Chinese cultural heritage. This limited agency was shaped by the interaction of individual factors (i.e., the participants' professional identity, their social positioning and confidence, and their abilities to perform different school functions) and institutional factors (i.e., social suggestions from the school structure and culture, the imposed social roles, and the opportunities for cross-cultural disciplinary interactions in the school). 4. Discussion Concurring with current research findings, this study found that professional learning in the international school context was characterized by a predominant one-way influence from the West to the East (Lee, 2012; Kanu, 2011; Keay et al., 2014). The teacher participants in this study exercised much greater agency in learning

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from Western colleagues than contributing their cultural heritages to influence their Western colleagues and remake work practices. Their greater agency in learning was shaped by their selfpositioning and socially imposed identity as learners, boosted by the availability of social venues and resources for learning and reinforced by the sovereign and discursive power at the school context. Similar professional and social positioning, socially imposed identity and social roles and their intertwinement with the school structure and the sovereign and discursive power shaped their limited agency in influencing. School professional development events and school events being dominated by western colleagues, the prevalence of western pedagogical and social practices at the school contexts, and the positioning of Chinese teachers as learners, receivers and subject specialists interacted with and reinforced one another and contributed to the contrasting agency in learning and influencing reported by the participant teachers. Thus, the findings highlight that, to create and facilitate mutual learning in transnational education, activating teachers' agency, especially the underprivileged teachers' agency, in contributing to mutual learning was critical. Current literature suggest enhancing mutual learning through hybridized discourse that value different cultural practices, through building community of practice and through developing critical stances among both the Western and Eastern colleagues towards their own practices (Bovill et al., 2015; Djerasimovic, 2014; Howe & Xu, 2013; Keay et al., 2014; Keevers et al., 2014; Zhang, 2015). These measures may very well help create a favorable school culture, structure and power relations to enable and facilitate teachers' exercise of agency. However, what schools need to work on simultaneously is boosting teachers' willingness, confidence and abilities to exercise agency. €pelto et al.'s (2014) assertion that individual variConfirming Etela ation in the exercise of agency is linked to teachers' professional identities, competencies and relations with other professionals, this study found that teachers' professional identification as specialist teachers who focus only on subject teaching related issues, their social positioning as receivers not givers, and their lack of confidence and abilities to reach beyond their classroom duties all shaped their professional agency. Thus, in addition to building favorable school structures to elicit, respect and value Chinese teachers' contributions, schools may need to work on the following aspects: (1) managing Chinese teachers' professional identity; (2) guarding against potential social suggestions from schools that Chinese teachers are specialist teachers whose practices are not relevant to other teachers or are cultural agents who do not hold pedagogical expertise relevant to other teachers; and (3) managing Chinese teachers' expectations regarding, and identification of, professional roles beyond classroom teaching. At the same time, schools may also need to help Chinese teachers to develop the abilities and boost confidence to assume professional roles beyond classroom teaching through establishing capacity building mechanisms and embracing the Chinese ways of being. This study also found that the participant teachers not only exhibited different manifestations of professional agency in learning from their Western colleagues and in influencing their Western colleagues, but also exercised different forms and intensity of agency in the three aspects of learning: critical and balancing agency in pedagogical learning, unreserved agency in adopting the dominant studenteteacher relationships, and restricted and selective agency in learning how to interact with colleagues. Their agentic actions in learning how to interact with students were most unanimous and their agentic actions in learning how to interact with colleagues showed the greatest variation. Thus, the findings agree with the arguments that teacher professional agency is multifaceted and varied in different situations and across in€ha €santanen, 2015). The study dividuals (Etel€ apelto et al., 2014; Va

supports Billett’s (2011) view of the relational interdependence of personal agency with social suggestions and personal particularities in different aspects of professional learning. Moreover, this study found that the relational influence of social suggestions and personal particularities might be due to the teachers' identity commitment and projections. The Chinese teachers' selfidentification as teachers who lacked both “sovereign power” and €pelto et al., 2014, p. 663), and who could “discursive power” (Etela only assert themselves through using professional expertise to help students achieve good learning outcomes and exam results affected the relative strength of social suggestions in mediating their professional agency. This self-identification as disciplinary experts and the primary focus on exam results might have shaped their agency in persisting with traditional Chinese pedagogical practices despite the social suggestions to the contrary. It might also have contributed to their limited agency in changing towards being more outspoken and expressive in front of Western colleagues despite the strong social suggestions in favor of such a change. Thus, it attested to the strong shaping force of professional identity in the intensity and nature of the exercise of professional agency and how €pelto it intertwines with power relations in the working place (Etela €ha €santanen, 2015). et al., 2013; Va 5. Conclusions The internationalization of education has brought with it opportunities for mutual learning in teacher professional development. It provides not only rich social sources and experience for teachers to engage in professional learning from their peers with different cultural backgrounds but also the opportunities and venues for teachers to serve as cultural agents to stimulate learning in their peers and provide support for their learning. This study suggests that the realization of the potential of mutual learning in the contexts of international education rests heavily on teachers' individual professional agency to engage in learning crossculturally from their peers and to exert influence on their peers. And the exercise of agency is subject to the interaction between social suggestions, including school structure, cultural system and the associated power relations, and personal resources, including professional identity, self-imposed roles, and confidence and competencies shaped by their past and present experience. This study attests to the value of an agency-oriented approach to professional learning and suggests maximizing mutual learning in cross-cultural teaching contexts through not only changing social structure and cultural system but also managing the underprivileged teachers' professional identity and self-positioning in social relationships. Although this study examined collaborative professional learning from the extreme case of the underprivileged teachers in cross-cultural teaching contexts in Hong Kong, the findings have implications for the development of non-positional teacher leadership in different contexts. Because power relations, despite in different forms and intensity, exist in any types of collaborative learning and there are always the ‘underprivileged’ and ‘undervalued’ parties. How to activate the agencies of the underprivileged parties to share their funds of knowledge and to learn from others is an issue of concern in any professional development endeavors. This study examined how the agency of ‘underprivileged’ or ‘minority’ teachers shaped workplace learning in the cross-cultural teaching contexts. It would be interesting to incorporate the voices from the ‘dominant’ Western teachers to examine how they perceived the learning opportunities in the teaching contexts and the factors that mediated their agency in learning from others and in influencing others. Such a dialogic approach to the issue could give us a more comprehensive picture and more nuanced

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understanding of the agency-oriented approach to professional learning in transnational teaching contexts. Furthermore, this study only examined Chinese language teachers whose views and agency were subject to the social position of the subject matter in the sociocultural environment and the school contexts, and who could not, therefore, fully represent the view of the ‘minority’ teachers. It would be meaningful to examine the views of Chinese teachers of other subject matters to filter out the factor of subject matter and draw more meaningful conclusions related to cultural influences. This study included primarily teachers with extensive teaching experience in international schools and could, therefore, only represent the views of a particular sector of teachers in the international school sector. Whether the findings could apply to novice teachers in international schools is worth investigating. Further research may examine teachers with different teaching experience and examine not only individual teacher agency but also teachers' €pelto et al., 2014; Va €ha €santanen, 2015) in collective agency (Etela shaping professional learning in cross-cultural teaching contexts. References Allen, A. (2002). Power, subjectivity, and agency: between Arendt and Foucault. International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 10(2), 131e149. Andreotti, V. (2009). Engaging critically with ‘objective’ critical analysis: a situated response to Openshaw and Rata. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 19(3e4), 217e227. Archer, M. S. (2003). Structure, agency and the internal conversation. Cambridge University Press. Avalos, B. (2011). Teacher professional development in teaching and teacher education over ten years. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(1), 10e20. Biesta, G., & Tedder, M. (2007). Agency and learning in the lifecourse: towards an ecological perspective. Studies in the Education of Adults, 39(2), 132e149. Billett, S. (2006). Relational interdependence between social and individual agency in work and working life. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 13(1), 53e69. Billett, S. R. (2011). Subjectivity, self and personal agency in learning through and for work. In M. M. Cairns, L. K. Evans, & B. O'Connor (Eds.), The sage handbook for workplace learning (pp. 60e72). UK: Sage Publications. Bovill, C., Jordan, L., & Watters, N. (2015). Transnational approaches to teaching and learning in higher education: challenges and possible guiding principles. Teaching in Higher Education, 20(1), 12e23. Clifford, V., Henderson, J., & Montgomery, C. (2013). Internationalising the curriculum for all students: the role of staff dialogue. In Cross-cultural teaching and learning for home and international students: Internationalisation of pedagogy and curriculum in higher education (pp. 251e264). London: Routledge. Djerasimovic, S. (2014). Examining the discourse of cross-cultural communication in transnational higher education: from imposition to transformation. Journal of Education for Teaching, 40(3), 204e216. EDB. (2012). Study on the provision of international school places in primary and secondary levels in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Education Bureau. Emirbayer, M., & Mische, A. (1998). What is agency? American Journal of Sociology, 103(4), 962e1023. €pelto, A., Va €ha €santanen, K., Ho € kk€ Etela a, P., & Paloniemi, S. (2013). What is agency? conceptualizing professional agency at work. Educational Research Review, 10, 45e65. €pelto, A., V€ € kk€ Etela ah€ asantanen, K., Ho a, P., & Paloniemi, S. (2014). Identity and agency in professional learning. In S. Billet, C. Harteis, & H. Gruber (Eds.), International handbook of research in professional and practice-based learning (pp. 645e672). Netherlands: Springer. Feng, Y. (2013). University of Nottingham Ningbo China and Xi’an JiaotongLiverpool University: globalization of higher education in China. Higher Education, 65(4), 471e485. Frost, D. (2012). From professional development to system change: teacher leadership and innovation. Professional Development in Education, 38(2), 205e227. Gay, G. (1995). Building cultural bridges: a bold proposal for teacher education. Multicultural Education: Strategies for Implementation in Colleges and Universities, 4, 95e106. Gubrium, J. F., & Holstein, J. A. (2003). From the individual interview to the interview society. In J. F. Gubrium, & J. A. Holstein (Eds.), Postmodern interviewing (pp. 21e50). London UK: Sage Publications. Gu, M. M., & Patkin, J. (2013). Heritage and identity: ethnic minority students from South Asia in Hong Kong. Linguistics and Education, 24(2), 131e141. Hargreaves, D. H. (2001). A capital theory of school effectiveness and improvement. British Educational Research Journal, 27(4), 487e503.

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