Chapter 24
The Paradox of Teacher Agency
in a Glocalised World
Tom Are Trippestad
24.1 Introduction
The article presents the concept of rhetorical agency to understand, and analyses the
parallel and paradoxical agencies teachers are offered, and limited by, under dis-
courses of globalisation within education. The paper identifies typical arguments,
reactions, narratives and metaphors of globalisation. It discusses some of the
consequences these have on the premises of teacher agencies locally, nationally and
globally. The article raises normative questions on the kind of agencies that are
necessary for teachers in an open and glocalised world. It suggests new interpre-
tations of the bildung—tradition as a constructive rhetorical agency to respond to
and balance the needs of local, national and global interest in education.
24.2 Rhetorical Agency
In classical rhetoric theory, sovereignty is primarily located in the speaker. Rhetoric
is considered an art and a craft of persuasion—to be used on an audience in a public
sphere in order to achieve specific aims. Post-modern theories of the subject and
modern approaches to discourse have resulted in many analyses of how the modern
subject is far from being sovereign as speaker. The concept ofrhetorical agencyis
an analytical compromise allowing both for analysis of deterministic perspectives
on discourse; and for the agency of skillful and strategic rhetorical subjects. Agents
are those with the ability to persuade others. In a rhetorical culture, agents exercise
influence and yet they are also being acted upon by the rhetorical culture of the
community. Agents are shapers being shaped.
T.A. Trippestad (&)
Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway
e-mail: [email protected]
©Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017
M.A. Peters et al. (eds.),A Companion to Research in Teacher Education,
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-4075-7_24
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