中国青年志愿者扶贫接力计划研究生支教团派遣具备保送研究生资格的应届本科毕业生到贫困地区开展一年的支教。为了更好地了解支教英语教师的教学实践情况，从而提高外语教师教育质量，本研究以中国三名支教英语教师为研究参与者，采用叙事研究的方法描述研究参与者的支教经历。以生态视角下的教师能动性为研究框架，解释了三名支教教师的能动性是如何发生的以及有哪些因素影响了这一过程。研究收集的数据包括访谈、叙事框架和教案、课件、照片等实物资料。这些实物资料用于辅助呈现支教教师能动性的发挥过程。

研究发现：1）支教教师的能动性是在参与教学实践中发展出的现象。教师利用当下环境中的资源以及相关过去经历，对当下情境做出反应，以达到预期目标。本研究的三名参与者的能动性产生于主动开展教学的过程中，在支教学校里参与者根据所处情境的需求，利用过去积累的学习和教学经验采取不同的教学策略，进而达成教学目标； 2）支教教师过去的英语和专业学习经历促使其能动性产生。在本研究中，三名参与者有相似的英语学习经历和专业学习经历，即她们的能动性在迭代维度上相似。在支教过程中，三名参与者均参考过去的英语学习技巧和英语教学法知识设计课堂，开展教学；3）在遇到教学相关的困难时，教师积极采取措施，根据具体情况在所有备选方法中选择最佳教学方法；4）自我与他人的互动、当地情况、个人信念和工作态度会影响支教教师的能动性。支教教师与领导、同事和学生的关系影响到教师的动机。当支教教师的教学理念和当地教学理念有冲突时，他们容易体会到割裂感，这促使他们采取措施应对这种冲突。教师本身的工作态度直接影响教师在应对挑战时的主动性。

以上结论表明支教教师可以提高自身快速适应各种教学环境的能力，大学也可以向支教教师提供额外的专业支持，如定期了解支教教师的工作情况，提供有针对性的帮助等。

The Poverty-alleviation Project of Young Volunteers in China sends recommended exam-exempt graduates to impoverished areas to volunteer for one year’s teaching. Under this background, in an effort to understand more about volunteer English teachers’ practice and thereby improve the quality of foreign language teacher education, this study focused on teacher agency of three volunteer English teachers in China. Narrative inquiry was adopted to portray the participants’ teaching practice. The ecological model of teacher agency was drawn on to explain how the teachers’ teacher agency occurred and what factors influenced this process. Data were collected through interviews and narrative framework. Artificial materials including teaching design, learning guides for the students, and photos of the teaching environment were also collected to demonstrate the development of their teacher agency.

       Specifically, the study revealed that: 1) the volunteer teachers’ teacher agency was an emergent phenomenon that took place in their engagement in the teaching practice. To achieve their goals, teachers made reference to their past English and professional learning experiences and the environmental resources to respond the immediate context. Three of the participants’ teacher agency emerged in the engagement of their teaching practice. They referred to the  accumulated knowledge and experience in their life and adopted specific teaching methods in order to achieve their teaching objectives; 2) the teachers would take actions actively to face challenges. They would choose the optimal teaching action among all the alternatives according to the specific situation. The three participants had similar English learning experiences and professional learning experiences. Their agency was similar in the iterational dimension. Through the teaching process, the three participants designed teaching activities with reference to their prior English learning skills and knowledge of English teaching methods; 3) the development of agency involved the use of available resources, such as their professional knowledge, colleagues’ suggestions and the like; 4) interaction between self and others, the local situation, and personal beliefs and attitudes towards work would influence the achievement of agency of the volunteer teachers. Teachers’ relationships with their leaders, colleagues and students influenced their teaching initiative. When volunteer teachers’ teaching beliefs conflicted with the those of the local community, they would feel huge discrepancy, requiring them to take measures to deal with that conflict. Teachers’ attitudes towards this volunteer work directly affected the initiative of teachers to respond to challenges.

       The study suggested that volunteer teachers learn to adjust quickly to various environments. Additional professional support from university could be provided to the volunteer teachers. For example, the university could regularly ask questions about the teachers’ current situations and provide targeted advice.