Negotiating Tensions: Teacher Cognition, Student Feedback and Teacher Agency in an EFL Translation Classroom

Teacher cognition develops through multiple sources, yet less is known about how student feedback is interpreted in relation to teachers’ cognition and instructional decisions. Drawing on sociocultural theory and an ecological perspective on teacher agency, this qualitative case study examines how an EFL translation teacher at a Chinese university interpreted, evaluated and responded to student feedback on her teaching. Data were collected over three months through teacher and student semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and stimulated recall interviews. The findings show that the teacher’s initial cognition provided the basis on which feedback was understood and evaluated. Rather than producing immediate and uniform change, student feedback functioned as a mediational resource that brought the tensions between the teacher’s established cognition and classroom realities into sharper view. The teacher then weighed this feedback against her existing beliefs, contextual constraints, and future-oriented concerns. Her responses followed a selective pattern: she preserved some priorities, made bounded instructional adjustments and became more open to further professional learning. The study suggests that student feedback can play a bottom-up role in teacher development by making underlying tensions more visible and opening space for cognitive reconsideration and instructional decision-making.