This study investigates manifestations of professional agency in teacher educators’ (TEds) perceptions of being in changed work circumstances during higher education’s transition to emergency remote work. This analysis applies the subject-centered sociocultural (SCSC) approach to professional agency.

In this approach, agency is understood as exercised, and the social context (the sociocultural conditions) and the individual’s agency (professional subjects) are mutually constitutive but analytically separate. Fourteen semi-structured interviews with Swedish teacher educators at five universities were analyzed using directed content analysis. The analysis shows that in an acute transition, the TEds exercised agency when trying to frame a blurred context, a connected space, and a screen identity. They exercised agency for many purposes, from retaining professional pride to transforming the teaching practice, which involved coping with the “good enough” discourse shaping their professional appearance but was foremost for the individual’s well-being.

The associated actions were in a social context containing, for example, expectations of availability and feelings of being in control. The study’s results contribute to understanding university educators’ and teacher educators’ professional agency and professional development in an ever-evolving digital work environment.