‘We can only do addition’: An ecological perspective on Chinese EFL high school teachers’ agentic use of the new senior high school English textbooks

Abstract

With the launch of the Senior High School English Curriculum Standards (2017) and the nationwide implementation of newly compiled English textbooks, Chinese teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) face heightened expectations for adapting instructional materials in ways that support student-centered and competency-based learning. Against this backdrop, this study investigated three Chinese high school EFL teachers’ agentic engagement with a newly published set of English textbooks and identified factors that facilitated or constrained their materials-use practices. Drawing upon ecological agency theory, this multiple-case study employed qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and teaching-related documents. The findings reveal that although teachers relied on the textbooks as core instructional resources, they engaged in selective and extensive adaptations through the dynamic interaction of teacher-related, student-related, and contextual conditions. Rather than identifying new categories of influencing factors, the study shows how these interrelated influences are negotiated in practice, shaping teachers’ situated enactment of agency in the use of curriculum materials. This study concludes with practical implications for teacher education, school leadership, and curriculum development, highlighting the importance of fostering supportive institutional conditions that enable agentic and effective textbook use.