Teachers’ psychological ownership as a lens for understanding the adoption of pedagogical innovations: A situated perspective

Abstract

Psychological ownership is frequently mentioned in connection to teachers’ appropriation of pedagogical innovations; despite the emphasis, the construct remains undertheorized and understudied, resulting in a vague and elusive concept. This study explores teachers’ psychological ownership as a situated phenomenon related to teacher learning. We propose an analytical framework -TeachOwn- for examining teachers’ psychological ownership as situated in their practice through two components: (a) dimensions of ownership (personal beliefs, outcomes expectancy, self-identity, belongingness, and sustained interest), which can be identified more easily in teachers’ reflective discourse, and (b) teachers’ enacted ownership, which can be more easily identified by examining teachers’ classroom talk and pedagogical actions. We demonstrate the relevance of the proposed analytical framework through a multi-case study of two secondary school science teachers, who participated in the co-design and enactment of a pedagogical innovation (a computer-supported inquiry learning module) with their 11th grade students. Data were collected during the co-design and enactment phases, and included videos of teacher-student interactions in each lesson, and reflective interviews with each teacher after each lesson. The findings contribute to a nuanced understanding of how to conceptualize and analyze teachers’ psychological ownership of pedagogical innovations, and can inform research and professional development to foster such ownership. The paper concludes with a reflective commentary, in which we discuss our positionality, the limitations, but also the implications of this work.