This activity considers the meaning and significance of ‘agency’, both for ourselves as teachers and our students. The previous activity (Thinking about the impact of contexts on teaching and learning practices) reviewed circumstances, and this activity focuses on how people respond and act in relation to these circumstance. In particular, it is about how we can identify possibilities for positive change whatever the circumstances we are in.
An interesting way of approaching this is to share one’s educational biography with a colleague with whom one feels secure. Taking it in turns, take time to provide a narrative of how you moved through your education, meeting different teachers, growing up, finding some learning difficult but succeeding in others … Identify and focus on some key episodes or turning points which enabled your to progress. Explore, if you can, the actions you took and the encouragement or support you received from others.
Does consideration of such narratives and key moments enable you to see the significance of agency, in the form of your determination to succeed or the judgement by others to encourage you?
You could also consider the learning of a small number of students. To what extent are they able to exercise agency in relation to their circumstances and goals, and in what ways might you be able to help?
