EAP Teachers’ Agency in Flux and Transformation: A Longitudinal Study in the GenAI Context

Abstract

This qualitative multiple case study follows two EAP teachers: one novice and one experienced over 24 months to explore how they enacted professional agency during significant educational reforms at a Sino-British university in China. The study is situated within a context of “flux and transformation” , a period marked by the cancellation of Year 2 EAP courses and the rapid integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). The study traced the co-evolution of emotions, identity negotiations, and agentive actions over 24 months (2023–2025) using critical reflective narratives, semi-structured interviews, and informal communication logs. The findings reveal that agency is jointly mediated by emotion and identity. The experienced teacher demonstrated adaptive agency, reframing anxiety as a catalyst for professional growth and constructively integrating the teacherresearcher identity. In contrast, the novice teacher exhibited strategic compliance coupled with internal resistance, as negative emotional turbulence and identity fragmentation blocked meaningful identity negotiation. The study proposes the “Emotion-Identity-Agency Nexus in Flux,” a non-linear model illustrating how macro-political forces (e.g. neoliberal Key Performance Indexes (KPIs), curriculum cuts, GenAI disruption) are filtered through teachers’ emotional and identity resources, shaping whether agency manifests as adaptation, compliance, or resistance. Our findings point to the need for emotional scaffolding for novice teachers, differentiated performance evaluation policies, and a reconceptualization of the teacher-researcher role in EMI contexts.

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