The effect of EFL teachers' professional identity on their ecological assessment agency

EFL teachers' ecological assessment agency has been significantly influenced by the complex nature of learning and teaching as well as the high demands of globalized world. As a result of this, prescribed curricula and standardized student assessment can consistently challenge teachers' assessment agency. Despite the rising interest in the role of teachers' agency, there is a limited investigation on EFL teachers' ecological assessment agency. Besides, there is an emphasis on repositioning of teachers as assessors and teachers' role as responsible agents in assessment. Applying a correlational survey research, the study aimed to determine whether EFL teachers' professional identity has an effect on their ecological assessment agency. This research also examined whether EFL teachers' professional identity and their ecological assessment agency vary related to gender, academic degree, the type of school in which EFL teachers work, work experience, and EFL teachers' membership of a professional development community. This study involved 268 EFL primary, secondary and high school teachers working in state and private schools in Diyarbakır. These participating teachers were selected by the convenience sampling. Data were gleaned by "Personal Information Form", "Teacher Ecological Assessment Agency (TEAA) Questionnaire" (Ghiasvand et al., 2023), and "English Language Teacher Professional Identity Scale" (ELTPIS) (Mahmoodarabi et al., 2021). The collected data were analysed by SPSS 27. The findings of the study indicated that EFL teachers' professional identity significantly and positively affects their ecological assessment agency. The study found that EFL teachers' ecological assessment agency was significantly different regarding work experience, academic degree, and membership in a professional development community. The study also indicated that EFL teachers' professional identity was significantly different regarding academic degree and membership in a professional development community.