Teachers’ subjectivities in responsive instruction: when ambitious practice encounters challenging teaching situations

Abstract In the pursuit of inclusive classrooms, educators have identified the importance of teachers’ responsiveness to the particular students they teach. To date, research on responsive teaching has emphasized students’ subjectivities. In this study, we use a situative perspective on teacher learning to examine teachers’ subjectivities as they learn and sustain responsive instructional practice. Using fieldnotes, video, and interviews from two critical events, we analyze what happened when teachers encountered students who challenged something core to their visions of teaching, asking, how do contextual resources shape teachers’ responsiveness to students in challenging teaching situations? Through the case analysis, we show that contextual resources shape teachers’ agentic responses in challenging teaching situations, offering different possibilities for their epistemic and relational agency, which, in turn, shapes their interpretations of student behavior. We highlight the emotional labor involved in maintaining responsive teaching, particularly in challenging situations. This paper underscores how teachers’ capacity for responsive instruction can be amplified or reduced by the complex systems and multiple relationships in their schools.