I ran across an article written by Tanji Reed Marshall for the latest issue of Educational Leadership. The article is titled “The Power, Promise, and Practice of Student Agency.”
In the article, Marshall writes,
“’Kids today are different.’”
“This statement has been said to me more times than I can count. I once thought it was just adults forgetting who they used to be as young people. These past two years, however, have changed my perspective. School building closures, extended periods of remote learning, and ongoing uncertainties about what education means in modern times have shown us that kids today are indeed different. During the pandemic, they experienced more freedom and flexibility than ever before, choosing when to work, how much they wanted to work, and whether they wanted to be on camera, and navigating systems and processes once under the purview of adults. This level of educational autonomy has transformed the learning environment.”
“Student engagement no longer rests at the feet of teachers. For many educators, gone are the days of sage on the stage where teachers are the sole arbiters of information-dispensing and students are merely sponges. Classroom educators have been charged with assuming the role of facilitator and giving students more say in the process of learning design and implementation. With this shift comes the need for an adjustment in the relationship between adults and students.”
“Since the inception of formal schooling in our country, adult privilege has defined the teacher-student relationship. The structure has followed an in loco parentis framework, which literally means “in place of the parent” (DeMitchell, 2012). In its original structure, parents turned their rights and responsibilities for their child’s care over to the school. This century-old model mostly leaves students out, relegating them to bystanders in their education.”
“The in loco parentis model gives adults full control over the environment, curriculum, and instructional practices shaping what and how students learn. This has been particularly true for students of color, especially African American males, whose cultures and identities continue to require shelving (Reed Marshall, 2018), forcing them to choose between being what school expects of them and being their authentic selves. Such expectations create disenfranchising environments (Reed Marshall, in press) where students are completely disconnected from their learning as adults engage in practices that signal exclusion, low expectations, and, often, unacknowledged and unresolved bias and racism.”
“To shift away from this model, teachers today need to consider a variety of pedagogical moves that center students in the instruction. There needs to be a move toward a balanced approach whereby teachers and students partner to co-construct student learning. This is where agency comes in.”
Later, Marshall writes,
“While agency has become an increasingly important focus in K–12 education, there does not seem to be a clear understanding of it as applied to the school setting. Conceptually, agency is about the ability to choose and make self-directed, self-determined decisions. Narayan et al. (as quoted by Samman & Santos, 2009) define agency as an individual’s or group’s ability to make purposeful choices. Such choices depend a great deal on a person’s assets and capabilities, both social and psychological. Connecting this to the school environment means realizing that students come with a host of assets, which influences their approach to learning. The social components include a sense of belonging, identity formation and expression, and the capacity for and demonstration of leadership. The psychological components include self-esteem, self-confidence, and the ability to have a vision for the future. In recent years, schools have been investing time in making sure students feel a sense of belonging and building their self-esteem. What must be understood, however, is that focusing on belonging and self-esteem, without express development of a child’s understanding of what it means to be agentive, does not guarantee that self-esteem and belonging will lead to a child developing and exercising agency.”
“Samman and Santos (2009) extend Narayan’s definition of agency by including voice as part of an individual’s or group’s ability to advocate for their needs. Voice, they explain, is the ability and willingness to speak up for oneself and make ideas heard and needs expressed. Voice also relates to an individual’s capacity and willingness to see the needs of others and speak up on their behalf when the person is unable to do so. In a classroom context, this would include a student’s ability to behave in socially just ways on behalf of others.”
“When much of school continues to operate under the adult-centered model, student agency development increases to the degree to which an adult understands and believes children should be partners in their education. For some educators, this partnership concept remains elusive, especially with respect to children in younger grades where adults wield complete control over nearly all aspects of the learning environment, curriculum, and instructional delivery mechanisms.”
“A true learning partnership is what many educators are primed to say they want with their students. Unfortunately, students experience a narrower form of partnership. In an educational setting, agency primarily involves choice; however, what students experience in most school settings is more like “managed choice” as opposed to real agency. Students are allowed to exercise their agency to the degree that what they want to do fits within an adult-designed framework. I have heard teachers say they want to give students agency, only to find that they are allowing students to make choices from within a set of options they have designed. Think of activity and menu boards. Students are making agentive choices, but such choices are prescribed as opposed to self-generated.”
“Building agency requires focused effort on the part of educators. It is more than a matter of giving kids choice boards and allowing them to weigh in on classroom procedures and rules. It requires as much work on the adult side as it does on the student side. Often, when ideas enter education, the field goes right to what adults need to do for children while ignoring what adults must do for themselves to prepare what they need to do with and for their students. Building agency in students means adults need to have a clear understanding of agency. They must be willing to explore their underlying belief systems about the relationship between agency and power. A classroom where students are developing and exercising agency is one where the power dynamics shift.”
What Marshall presents here is the difference between learner-supported and learner-empowered practice. Schools support learners, but few empower them.
True learner empowerment depends on helping young learners define, plan, execute, and evaluate their own learning.
It takes time, but not as much time as you think.
At our personalized learning lab school, young learners attained the skill of planning their own learning within 6 weeks – 9 weeks tops.
And once our young learners learned how to define, plan, execute, and evaluate their own learning, they possessed a skill that no one – no one – could ever take away from them.
A true 21st century civil right – the power to own your own learning.
Til tomorrow. SVB
A Better Path to Learning 
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