The study matters because flexible learning systems are expanding rapidly across Indonesia and the Asia-Pacific region. Policymakers promote flexibility to prepare students for complex social and economic futures, but classrooms still depend on teachers’ daily judgments. How teachers interpret students’ choices determines whether flexibility empowers learners or creates confusion.
Flexible Learning and the Rise of Student Agency
Flexible learning ecosystems are designed to give students more choice over learning paths, pace, and methods. International research links such flexibility to stronger learner autonomy and motivation. In Indonesia, the Independent Curriculum encourages schools to adopt differentiated instruction and student-centered learning, particularly at the senior high school level.
Bali has emerged as one of the provinces most actively implementing curriculum flexibility. Schools in Denpasar and surrounding regions are experimenting with adaptive schedules, project-based learning, and differentiated assignments. Yet these reforms place new demands on teachers. They must constantly interpret whether a student’s choice reflects genuine agency, lack of readiness, or a need for guidance.
Previous studies have focused largely on students’ experiences or on technology use. Far less attention has been given to how teachers themselves understand and construct the meaning of student agency. This gap is critical, because teachers act as mediators between policy goals and classroom reality.
How the Research Was Conducted
I Ketut Surata used a qualitative research design grounded in Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. This approach explores how individuals make sense of their lived experiences. The study involved in-depth, semi-structured interviews with six senior high school teachers from three schools in Bali that had implemented flexible learning and differentiation for at least one year.
The participating teachers represented varied professional backgrounds and school contexts. Interviews focused on how teachers interpreted students’ learning choices, independence, and reflective behavior. The data were analyzed through repeated reading, thematic coding, and interpretive analysis to identify patterns in how teachers’ understanding of agency developed over time.
Key Findings: A Shift in Teacher Perspectives
The research identified a clear shift in how teachers understand student agency.
From compliance to autonomy At early stages of flexible learning, many teachers equated agency with discipline, obedience, or active participation. Over time, their interpretation evolved. Teachers began to see agency as students’ capacity to set learning rhythms, choose strategies, and explain the reasoning behind their decisions.
One teacher reflected that students showed agency not by always following instructions, but by managing their own pace and making informed choices aligned with personal learning needs.
Agency as a contextual and dynamic process Teachers no longer viewed agency as a fixed trait. Instead, they described it as something that develops differently for each student, depending on experience, confidence, and available support. Some students made quick decisions, while others needed time and reassurance.
Student readiness matters Teachers emphasized that agency depends on students’ emotional and cognitive readiness. Not all learners are immediately prepared to make independent choices. Teachers often provided gradual guidance, or scaffolding, to help students build confidence and self-regulation.
School structure enables or limits agency Institutional support emerged as a key factor. Schools that offered flexible schedules, open learning spaces, and supportive policies made it easier for teachers to encourage autonomy. In these environments, students were more willing to reflect on their choices and learning goals.
Professional experience shapes interpretation Teachers with longer professional experience were better able to interpret students’ choices as part of a learning process rather than as resistance. Experience helped teachers distinguish between productive exploration and genuine disengagement.
Why These Findings Matter
The study has important implications for education practice and policy. For teachers, it underscores that flexible learning is not simply about offering choices. It requires interpretive skill: reading students’ signals, understanding readiness, and adjusting support accordingly. Student agency grows through dialogue, reflection, and guided autonomy. For schools, the findings highlight the importance of structural support. Flexible schedules, differentiated assessment, and collaborative cultures give teachers the space to respond to students meaningfully. For policymakers, the research offers a reminder that curriculum reform cannot succeed through policy design alone. Teacher understanding and professional judgment are central. Training programs should therefore focus not only on instructional techniques, but also on helping teachers interpret student behavior and decision-making within flexible systems.
As Surata of IKIP Saraswati explains in ethical paraphrase, student agency does not emerge automatically from freedom. It is formed through continuous interaction between responsive pedagogy, student readiness, and supportive learning environments.
Author Profile
I Ketut Surata. is a lecturer at IKIP Saraswati, Indonesia. His academic expertise includes curriculum studies, flexible learning systems, and student agency in secondary education. His work focuses on how teachers’ professional interpretations shape learning autonomy in adaptive educational environments.
Source
Article title: Teachers
Interpretive Understanding of Student Agency within Flexible Learning
Ecosystems
Journal: Asian Journal of Applied Education
Publication year: 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55927/ajae.v5i1.15850
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