Student Agency and Empowerment

This week’s article summary is Developing a Sense of Agency and it builds upon what I spoke about at  Wednesday’s faculty meeting. 

As part of our ongoing enhancement of our program and pedagogy (so critical to SAIS accreditation),  we need to continuously revisit how well we are balancing traditional and progressive elements of education to develop the following in our students:

• Foundational knowledge base: Proficiency in basic skills and exposure to wide base on general knowledge
• Solid character base: Strong emotional intelligence (agency and communion)
• Engagement, curiosity, and confidence towards continued learning: Comfort solving and creating by themselves and with other

The article below focuses on how one teacher had dealt with the practical question of whether kids should miss recess as a punishment for not completing school work. I have had many conversations with other teachers about this topic—some were adamant that no matter what, kids needed and deserved recess (the more progressive extreme) while others believed strongly that losing recess was an appropriate consequence for not completing school or homework (a more traditional extreme).

In this particular situation, the teacher found that balance of traditional and progressive through student agency and empowerment in real-life problem-based learning. 

The fair and practical solution developed (and owned by the students) had an extrinsic structure that provided accountability (a more traditional quality) while allowing for the development of intrinsic habits and choice (a more progressive quality). 

Clearly, not all solutions in school can find this 'sweet spot’ balance, yet that needs to remain our goal.

Joe

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An experienced teacher who was new to my school came to me with a dilemma. A parent of one of his students had voiced her very strong feeling that recess was a necessity for all students. This teacher, however, had used recess as leverage for his students completing their work: those who had, earned recess, while those hadn’t, used recess time to complete their assignments.

This practice had “worked” for him for many years, and he was having difficulty imagining how to manage his classroom without it. Although I believed that recess was a necessity and not something to be earned, I refrained from telling him what to do, because I respected his autonomy as a teacher for managing his classroom. I did, however, recommend an approach that had always “worked” for me: Share the problem with the students; work with them on understanding it and developing a solution to it. We discussed some ways to structure the discussion and he said he would give it try.

A week later he came to me with a smile on his face. His students had reached consensus on a solution to his dilemma: All students would get a certain amount of guaranteed recess time, but those who hadn’t finished their work would get 10 minutes less. He was amazed at how the students weighed the pros and cons of each solution and the manner in which they reached consensus on what to do. He also reported that they agreed to try this for two weeks and then meet again to evaluate how it worked.

As the school year progressed he reported that all his students consistently completed their work more than any other class he ever had. For the very few times a student didn’t complete the assigned work, there were no complaints or protests about missing the extra recess time. He also reported that he continued to share all classroom problems with his students and how he no longer felt that he had to control his class the way he had in previous years.

What he discovered and what he had allowed his students to experience was a sense of agency for designing their learning environment.

This result shouldn’t be a surprise; it only reveals something most teachers already know. Students love to help. Most problems are eagerly embraced.

Students’ desire to help and solve meaningful problems is too often an untapped resource hidden by the assumption that the teacher needs to always be in control of the classroom. 

When educators shift the paradigm from controlling to empowering, students experience the type of learning needed for success beyond school and throughout their lives; they will develop a strong sense of agency.

Although it is important for students to feel that they can meet their goals and solve their problems, agency extends the concept beyond individual needs to the world itself.

Students, who experience what it is like to change their classroom and their school, will be the people who will believe that world is not a given and will begin to change it for the better.

Conversely, education that is not guided by developing a sense of agency in students remains stuck in a perpetual tug of war where learning is dependent upon teaching and teaching is dependent upon controlling students.

Education, therefore, should be the process for instilling a sense of agency in every student and helping them gain the confidence for doing whatever it takes to improve their life, their community and ultimately the world.

Although this concept of student agency should radically change the vision and mission of education, it can begin to grow in every student in any classroom, without new programs or curricula. It can start with the simple act of a teacher turning to students and saying: “Here is a problem we are having and I need your help with it.”

Educators who ask instead of tell, invite instead of direct, involve instead of instruct, are really flipping the switch of teaching and learning toward agency. Students are waiting to be asked and given these opportunities even though they don’t know that they are.