From Possibility to Practice: Teacher Agency and the Classroom Enactment of Higher-Order Thinking Opportunities in Pakistan's Secondary English Education

Abstract

Higher-Order Thinking (HOT) in the modern English language curriculum. While contemporary English language curricula increasingly embed higher-order thinking (HOT) skills as central to language education, coverage of HOT skills by curriculum documents and textbooks does not alone constitute evidence of classroom enactment. Using as a foundation a previous Bernsteinian analysis of Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB) Grade 9 and 10 English textbooks, the paper further develops this through textual recontextualization toward enactment by teachers. Five published empirical studies on HOTS implementation, teacher agency, English curriculum implementation, and challenges faced at the classroom level were comparably synthesised. The evidence focused on English teachers in Indonesia and Pakistan and was based on qualitative case-study, narrative, interview, observation, and mixed-methods research. The synthesis demonstrated that teachers accept and value HOTS but that its implementation is mediated by teacher knowledge and competence, student ability and voice, resource availability, time, assessment pressures, and sociocultural factors. One significant finding was that teachers might adopt a hybrid approach to HOTS implementation through partial adoption, adaptation, or contextualisation, rather than wholesale rejection or acceptance. Drawing on Bernstein's theories of recontextualization and framing, the paper concluded by proposing a HOT Enactment Mediation Model, which maps out curriculum policy, textbook-mediated possibilities, and teacher-mediated enactment, within which the notions of agency and autonomy are subverted into professional judgements within context. Implications for English curriculum design, teacher professional development, and potential future classroom-based research are offered.