Samenvatting

Teacher research is expected to bridge the gap between educational research and educational practice on the one hand and to improve the quality of education on the other hand. The impact of teacher research on school development is however limited. One of the reasons may be the lack of professional space teachers experience to achieve agency and contribute to school development. This study aims to gain insight in the professional space teachers experience and the agency they achieve in the context of a PhD scholarship to contribute to professional development and school development. During one school year, data were collected from twenty teachers with a PhD scholarship through semi-structured interviews and digital logs. The results show that teachers experience professional space for professional development but that they differ greatly in the extent to which they experience professional space for school development. For teachers who do experience professional space to contribute to school development, both personal (e.g. motive to do research, professional history) and contextual factors (e.g. active involvement of the school leader, learning culture) in combination make a positive contribution. In follow-up research, professional agency can be a useful perspective for interventions that improve the coordination between (PhD) research by teachers and school practice.