From Challenges to Innovations: Investigating Teacher Agency in Technologically Mediated ELT in Rural School Contexts

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-579-9_17How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Challenges; Teacher Agency; Technology Mediated ELT; Rural Schools

Abstract

This study examines rural and urban school environments to investigate how Indonesian EFL instructors exercise agency in integrating digital resources to mitigate ongoing classroom challenges. This qualitative multiple case study, informed by the Ecological Model of Teacher Agency and the TPACK framework, engaged twelve English teachers through online semi-structured interviews, online classroom observations, and reflective journaling, encompassing six junior and senior rural and urban schools across diverse geographic locations. Data triangulation, member verification, expert debriefing, and reflexivity were employed to assure the validity and reliability of the instruments and data analysis. The thematic analysis indicates that EFL teachers in both rural and urban settings encountered analogous challenges, including mixed-ability pupils and poor student enthusiasm and engagement; however, their experiences differed based on contextual factors. Urban EFL teachers required more advanced infrastructure, institutional ICT support, and a broader array of digital tools through organised platforms like Google Classroom and online video assignments. In contrast, rural educators demonstrated significant adaptive agency by utilising readily available resources such as offline media and WhatsApp, fostering participation through innovations that are culturally and locally relevant. Educators in all scenarios are likely to exert agency through strategic objectives for improving digital instruction, pragmatic responses to contextual factors, and reflective evaluations of prior experiences. The study offers valuable insights for policy and professional development tailored to local digital environments in EFL teaching and enhances theoretical comprehension by illustrating the varied practices of agency across different contexts.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Santi Farmasari
AU  - Hartati Suryaningsih
AU  - Desi Herayana
AU  - La Ode Alfin Aris Munandar
AU  - Yusril Aditia
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/21
TI  - From Challenges to Innovations: Investigating Teacher Agency in Technologically Mediated ELT in Rural School Contexts
BT  - Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Education and Social Sciences (ICESS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 212
EP  - 225
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-579-9_17
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-579-9_17
ID  - Farmasari2026
ER  -