The global COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education systems worldwide, compelling English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers to rapidly adapt to digital teaching. While the challenges of this adaptation have been well-documented, the lasting impact of teachers’ purposeful choices and adaptations—as manifestations of teacher agency— after the COVID-19 pandemic remains underexplored. This study investigated how nine Indonesian senior high school EFL teachers exercised agency in digital teaching after the pandemic. Employing narrative inquiry, it captured teachers’ experiences through semi-structured interviews with visual prompts. The data were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2022) thematic analysis. Two key themes will be presented in this paper. The first theme, “selectively sustaining the integration of technology,” highlighted EFL teachers’ purposeful efforts to retain digital tools from the pandemic-induced teaching period, such as online assessments, digital teaching resources, and mobile platforms, to enrich their post-pandemic teaching. The second theme, “purposefully rebalancing the use of technology,” demonstrated how teachers cautiously and deliberately adjusted their technology use, prioritising pedagogical relevance and addressing concerns about student development in post-pandemic face-to-face teaching. Teachers’ intricate decision-making processes reflected their agency in aligning digital tool use with their beliefs, contextual realities, and evolving student needs. By exploring how teachers balance technology integration with pedagogical goals, this study offers valuable insights into the enduring legacy of the pandemic for teacher agency and underscores the importance of valuing teachers’ lived experiences in shaping the future of EFL digital teaching.

Authors:
Yogi Saputra Mahmud, The University of Western Australia, Australia
Jennifer Shand, The University of Western Australia, Australia
Mark Pegrum, The University of Western Australia, Australia

About the Presenter(s)
Yogi Saputra Mahmud is currently a PhD student in the Graduate School of Education, The University of Western Australia. He is also a lecturer at the Elementary Teacher Education study programme at President University, Indonesia.

Connect on Linkedin
https://id.linkedin.com/in/ysmahmud

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yogi-Mahmud-2

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