Variations in Teachers’ Practical Conceptions of Epistemic Agency

While the goal of supporting students’ epistemic agency has gained attention in the literature, little empirical research has examined the complex work of teaching involved in doing so. This study examines four teachers’ practical conceptions of epistemic agency: the images of practice they associate with what “students participating with epistemic agency” looks like. To do this, we interviewed teachers before and after they enacted science units that they had designed with the goal of supporting students’ epistemic agency. We present four key constructs involved in teachers’ practical conceptions (coherence, flexibility, relevance, and student participation) and show how each teacher uniquely described these constructs in their teaching. This study is a starting point for characterizing the multidimensional work involved in supporting students as epistemic agents, including ongoing tensions that were raised. We discuss the implications of this work for supporting teacher learning.