PHOTO CREDIT:
A student raises her hand to share her work with her teacher. images.all4ed.org/PHOTO CREDIT: Photo by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages ; Downloaded from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/all4ed/35694614063
Written by Dr Sean Durbin
The question of ‘what is agency’ is likely to generate different responses depending on who is asking the question and why.
In this blog, Dr Sean Durbin, a LASAR Research Fellow with the Epistemic Insight Initiative identifies four contexts where the word agency is being used, beginning with the social science literature and moving through to the epistemic context of ‘knowledge about knowledge’ where the EI Initiative does its work.
Structure and Agency in the Social Sciences.
In the social sciences the terms structure and agency are used as short hand for social structure and individual agency. One of the founders of sociology, Émile Durkheim (1858 – 1917) thought of social structures as something akin to the skeleton of a body of the frame of a building—ways of acting and thinking that are general throughout societies which act as constraints on its members. Agency, on the other hand is conceived of as the active elements within a society. It is the ability of individuals or groups to makes things happen and exercise their own self-determination within the constraints and opportunities of a given social structure (Stones 2007, 4869-4870).
In the social sciences structure and agency are paired together as part of a long standing debate and point of focus that can be summarized in brief as: When it comes to shaping human behaviour what is more important social structure, or individual agency? In other words, do we as individuals have more of a role in shaping our own behaviour and outcomes or does the social structure in which we find ourselves, with its various constraints imposed upon us that limit the choices we are able to make, have more influence on our behaviours and opportunities (Stones 2007)?
These concepts and the continued debates surrounding them are relevant for the classroom—not just as concepts that make their way into the curriculum for students to learn, but also as concepts that define how students learn.
Student Agency
The OECD has recently published a brief that focuses explicitly on student agency as a positive force and mindset to instill in students. They define student agency as:
“the capacity to set a goal reflect and act responsibly to effect change. It is about acting rather than being acted upon; shaping rather than being shaped; and making responsible decisions and choices rather than accepting those determined by others” (OECD 2018b).
As they put it, “Education has a vital role to play in developing the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that enable people to contribute to and benefit from an inclusive and sustainable future” (OECD 2018a, 4). A vital part of this encouraging students to develop their own agency
in their own education and throughout life. Agency implies a sense of responsibility to participate in the world and, in so doing, to influence people, events and circumstances for the better. Agency requires the ability to frame a guiding purpose and identify actions to achieve a goal.” (OECD 2018a, 4)
Educators also have a role in enabling agency in students by recognizing learners individuality (agency), as well as “wider set of relationships – with their teachers, peers, families and communities – that influence their learning” (structure) (OECD 2018a, 4)
Inspiring Students to cultivate agency
In this respect, when a student develops agency in their own learning, they not only influence how and what they will learn, they also are more likely be engaged with their learning. At an event dedicated to the Future of Knowledge, that the LASAR Centre organized at the Royal Society of Chemistry in London this past September, we were joined by Dr Suzanne Dillon, the governmental representative for Ireland in the OECD Future of Education 2030 project. Here is how Dr. Dillon (2022) explained student agency to an audience at that event:
“In a classroom where student agency is encouraged, students feel they have a purpose in learning, they can direct their attention to that purpose and they can be engaged and excited by it, and above all else they can learn that by asking questions and continuing to question their understanding of the world – and that’s at the core of flourishing.”
Thus student agency is not simply about getting students to ‘take responsibility’, it is about inspiring them to think beyond their exams and tests so that their questions, interests and intellectual curiosity transcends the classroom and follows them wherever they find themselves in the world.
Epistemic Insight and learner agency
Within the context of the Epistemic Insight Initiative, epistemic insight is about instilling knowledge about knowledge in secondary school students so that they can not only strengthen their understanding of science as a discipline but also begin to see how a range of academic disciplines interact and work together to understand and solve Big Questions.
One of the indicators we use to say that students are developing agency in the context we use it is when they begin to recognise and express how science and other disciplines can contribute to solving real world problems and Big Questions. In countries like England this is an indicator of agency because it demonstrates how students are moving beyond the siloed spaces of their school subjects. By connecting different academic disciplines, students are exercising their agency in that they are not responding based on what they think the answer is or following the model learned in school, (i.e. what is the answer for the exam?) but are expressing their own ideas and understanding of how disciplines work.
Yet it is also important to emphasize, as the OECD has, that the concept of student agency varies across cultures and develops over a lifetime (In Brief – Student Agency for 2030, n.d.). The Epistemic Insight Initiative is exploring the space for research into epistemic agency within this bigger picture. This could include a project to gather a global perspective on epistemic agency, developed via case studies by researchers and teachers within and across different regions. It’s an important issue for the OECD teaching compass because different regions of the world are likely to value different balances of individual agency and ‘learning together’.
References:
Dillion, Suzanne (2022). Epistemic Insight in the Classroom, Epistemic Insight Exhibition, Royal Society of Chemistry. London.
Epistemic Insight in the classroom – YouTube
OECD (2018a), Education 2030: The Future of Education and Skills. OECD Publishing, Paris. https://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/about/documents/E2030%20Position%20Paper%20(05.04.2018).pdf
OECD (2018b) In Brief – Student Agency for 2030. https://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/teaching-and-learning/learning/student-agency/in_brief_Student_Agency.pdf
OECD (2018c) Student Agency – OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030. www.oecd.org. https://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/teaching-and-learning/learning/student-agency/
Stones, R. (2007). Structure and Agency. In The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, G. Ritzer (Ed.). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405165518.wbeoss293
PHOTO CREDIT:
A student raises her hand to share her work with her teacher. images.all4ed.org/ PHOTO CREDIT: Photo by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages ; Downloaded from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/all4ed/35694614063