Cultivating teacher agency for linguistic equity: negotiating dual language and inclusive pedagogy in a preschool centre

This qualitative case study examines how teacher agency is cultivated and enacted within Tiny Seeds, a Reggio Emilia-inspired public preschool serving linguistically and culturally diverse children, including dual language learners and dual identified children, those who are multilingual and identified with a disability. Drawing on ecological frameworks of teacher agency (Cong-Lem [2021]. “Teacher Agency: A Systematic Review of International Literature.” Issues in Educational Research 31 (3): 718–738.; Farmasari [2021]. Understanding teacher agency in practice: An ecological approach. In 2nd Annual Conference on Education and Social Science (ACCESS 2020) (pp. 224–229). Atlantis Press.; Priestley and Drew [2019]. “Professional Enquiry: An Ecological Approach to Developing Teacher Agency.” In An Eco-System for Research-Engaged Schools. Reforming Education Through Research, edited by D. Godfrey and C. Brown, 154–170. London: Routledge.; Sang, [2019]. “Teacher Agency.” Encyclopedia of Teacher Education.), we analyse how institutional, relational, and pedagogical structures, such as collaborative mentorship, partnerships with families, and curriculum planning meetings, support educators’ professional autonomy and decision-making. Data sources include interviews, classroom observations, and curriculum meeting transcripts. Findings highlight how teachers exercised agency through co-constructed learning experiences, child-centred curricula, and advocacy rooted in the preschool programme’s cultural responsiveness. However, we also identify missed opportunities in planning meetings to intentionally foreground language development goals, pointing to the need for continued integration of linguistic equity into collaborative practices. This study contributes to the growing literature on teacher agency by illustrating how early childhood educators working in inclusive, multilingual settings can act as transformative agents when supported by values-aligned school communities.