What affects the teaching agency of university instructors? A social realist perspective

This study uses China as a case country to investigate the factors that influence university instructors' teaching agency by drawing on experiences in the engineering field using Margaret Archer's social realist framework. With survey results including 659 valid responses, the findings reveal that instructors' delivery of contextual instruction and use of multiple assessment methods to measure student learning are both directly influenced by two reflexivity-related factors, namely, intrinsic motivation for teaching and instructors' self-efficacy with regard to engaging students in engineering classes. However, one's intrinsic motivation for teaching, as an internal reflexive factor, is also influenced by the institutional provision of resources for teaching and the effects of the training activities organized by institutions, which are structural factors associated with the working context. Although one's self-efficacy in engaging students in engineering classes is not directly influenced by the effectiveness of pedagogical training, it is influenced by the resources provided by the institution to support teaching. Furthermore, the effects of organized training activities to support teaching are also found to have a direct impact on instructors' use of multiple assessment methods in their teaching practices. This study advances our understanding of how teaching excellence can be achieved at the university level.