Growing Like Ivy: Exploring EFL Teachers’ Transformative Agency in the GenAI Context Based on the Double Stimulation Principle

Abstract

The double stimulation principle explains how individuals resolve conflicts by introducing auxiliary stimuli to solve problems. Drawing on this principle, this study investigated how three English‐as‐a‐foreign‐language (EFL) teachers developed transformative agency through the integration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools into teaching. The study was conducted in a junior high school that had organised a four‐day GenAI training programme for its teachers. Data were collected through interviews, classroom observations, and authentic teaching materials that reflected the teachers’ practices. The findings indicated that the teachers who had the same training experience adopted diverse GenAI‐integrated teaching practices and developed transformative agency along divergent trajectories, analogous to ivy branches growing in different directions from a common root. The training requirements served as the first stimulus, triggering motivational conflicts between the teachers’ concerns regarding the quality of GenAI output and their desire to enhance work efficiency. GenAI tools served as the second stimulus, helping the teachers resolve these conflicts and complete the training tasks. After the training, the teachers integrated GenAI into authentic teaching contexts for instructional improvement and, in doing so, gained awareness of the growing demand for teacher expertise in the context of GenAI. The findings suggest that schools can support teachers’ agentive engagement with GenAI by providing opportunities to explore GenAI tools and guidance on how to integrate them into teaching practices.