Navigating teacher agency: implementing an innovative literacy teaching model in Indonesian classrooms

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indonesian Ministry of Education introduced the Kurikulum Merdeka (Emancipated Curriculum) to accelerate learning recovery. Under this new curriculum, teachers are strongly encouraged to expand the use of learning media beyond school textbooks. Due to its strategic role in fostering literacy and a love of reading, children’s literature is highly recommended as a learning tool in the curriculum.

The new literacy teaching approach, centered on children’s literature, requires training for Indonesian teachers who have traditionally relied on textbooks as the primary medium of learning. This chapter discusses three case studies of literacy teachers in Indonesia, each from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. It aims to understand these teachers’ agency in implementing a new literacy teaching model centered on children’s literature.

Using an ecological perspective of teacher agency, this case study research examines the cultural, structural, and material factors that support these teachers, motivating their decision to teach using the new literacy teaching model. The three focal teachers selected for the study were among the first Indonesian teachers to receive government-sponsored literacy master teacher training focused on the use of children’s books in reading and writing workshops.

The findings reveal key motivating factors in the teachers’ decision to exercise their agency, helping them overcome literacy learning challenges, especially in the post-pandemic context. Discussions of research borrowing an ecological perspective from different countries offer insights into the findings that resonate globally.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indonesian Ministry of Education introduced the Kurikulum Merdeka (Emancipated Curriculum) to accelerate learning recovery. Under this new curriculum, teachers are strongly encouraged to expand the use of learning media beyond school textbooks. Due to its strategic role in fostering literacy and a love of reading, children’s literature is highly recommended as a learning tool in the curriculum.

The new literacy teaching approach, centered on children’s literature, requires training for Indonesian teachers who have traditionally relied on textbooks as the primary medium of learning. This chapter discusses three case studies of literacy teachers in Indonesia, each from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. It aims to understand these teachers’ agency in implementing a new literacy teaching model centered on children’s literature.

Using an ecological perspective of teacher agency, this case study research examines the cultural, structural, and material factors that support these teachers, motivating their decision to teach using the new literacy teaching model. The three focal teachers selected for the study were among the first Indonesian teachers to receive government-sponsored literacy master teacher training focused on the use of children’s books in reading and writing workshops.

The findings reveal key motivating factors in the teachers’ decision to exercise their agency, helping them overcome literacy learning challenges, especially in the post-pandemic context. Discussions of research borrowing an ecological perspective from different countries offer insights into the findings that resonate globally.