Navigating pragmatic and humanistic discourses: Chinese preservice teachers’ agency in the pursuit of professional goals

Student teachers’ agency related to their judgment and capacity in professional goal pursuit has garnered attention in teacher education programs and academia. Their agency is governed by the discourses in the educational and social fields in which student teachers are situated. This case study employs semi-structured interviews, informal discussions, and field immersive observations to explore how pragmatic and humanistic discourses across multiple fields have impacted the economic and moral agency development of 15 preservice master’s students in professional goal pursuit throughout their professional journeys. The findings confirm that pragmatic and humanistic discourses intertwined to affect participants’ acquisition of two different forms of agency. Pragmatic discourse, which emphasizes capital accumulation, competitiveness, and performative accountability, nurtured and continuously strengthened participants’ economic agency. However, this influence sometimes diminished their moral agency in advocating for changes in educational practices grounded in humanistic values. Participants’ moral agency was initiated and reinforced through the humanistic care in their situated educational fields, as well as collective and self-critical reflections on pragmatic rationales and transformative changes. Hence, this study advocates for the synergistic contributions of all relevant stakeholders to recognize the entanglement of pragmatic and humanistic discourses, critically reflect on, negotiate and mediate their interplay, and work collaboratively to support student teachers’ moral agency in ways that go beyond thin pragmatic aims.