The 8 Facets of Student Agency
Tuning in: as we continue to unpack the structures and frameworks that allow inquiry to thrive, it is important we also continue to centre the student in this work. Inquiry is about partnering with the learner to increase agency, engagement, and belonging in the school experience. But what is meant by student agency? Don’t all kids have agency? How can schools (and teachers) plan for learning experiences that create action, thinking, and ownership for our students? Trevor explores these ideas with you through the 8 Facets of Student Agency.
Learning objectives include:
to clearly define student agency.
to create a deeper understanding of the complexity and sophistication of student agency.
to reflect on ways in which teachers can plan for a more complete and wholesome approach to student agency.
Let’s define student agency as control over learning. When we explore student agency through this lens we can identify how this naturally occurs in the lives of our students as well as the ways in which schools can cultivate more spaces for agency to blossom.
You may be wondering how can control over learning exist when curriculum and assessments are mandated and standardized? The Types of Student Inquiry outlined in Session 5 ensures there is a balanced partnership to ensure all students experience agency in your curriculum.
You may be wondering my students aren’t ready for agency over learning. How can I help get them started? The specific competencies, dispositions, and learning muscles that students flex in the inquiry experience will empower them to be confident, competent, and successful in taking on more ownership over their learning. The classroom experience transforms to not just focus on what students learn but also how students learn. It is this balance inquiry teachers aim to strike.
You may be wondering how can I provide control over learning in my context, classroom, and curriculum? Consider reimagining your curriculum through voice and choice. What are your non-negotiables? What are your negotiables? Consider all elements of your unit planning and lesson design. Wherever there is room for you to level up the agency in your classroom, do so.
You may be wondering where do I even begin to relinquish control over learning? Ask yourself am I doing something for my students that they could be doing for themselves? Make a list of the things that surface. Whatever is on your list, begin to engage your students in taking on this heavy lifting of learning.
Pause and reflect: after viewing, please consider
what is a facet of agency that is a strength in your practice? What is the evidence of this strength?
what is your ongoing facet of agency goal? What are your next steps to implementing more of this facet into your practice?
in your context, what are your non-negotiables? What are your negotiables?
Share and make meaning together: consider coming together as a team/faculty to set a single facet focus as a collaborative goal for an extended period of time. For example, you could state “as a team/faculty we will focus on cultivating more opportunities for students to show and explain their thinking in different ways.”
Together you will meet on a regular basis to discuss and plan for ways in which students will show and explain their thinking in different ways. You will plan lessons with this in mind and during these lessons, you will capture evidence to bring back to your team/faculty discussions. Evidence could include student reflections, teacher observations, artifacts or samples from learning, or photographs from the classroom.
Over time you will reflect on how this team/faculty facet focus is developing and how, individually and collectively, you are nurturing more agency in your school for students. You may be called upon to share this collaborative work with your colleagues at your school to help shape their practice and build capacity for more of these facets to blossom.
Remember the visible goal setting structure from Holy Trinity Primary shared in 2.2 and consider implementing something similar with the 8 Facets of Student Agency.
Extend your learning: download and print off the sketchnote below and post it in your classroom, adding it to the collection of images that will help guide inquiry in your classroom.
It is important we help bring clarity to inquiry and agency to students and the sketchnotes included in this series help. Consider sharing these facets with your students and discussing them with your class. Keep these facets in mind as you plan your lessons. How do your lessons create experiences rich in these facets? How are you scaffolding towards more of each facet over time with your students?
Resources:
Read this article by Trevor titled How Can Teachers Nurture Meaningful Student Agency?
Download the Student Agency sketchnote here.
Bonus offering:
Watch this short reflection as Trevor shares thoughts with Press Play on Conferencing with Students in Inquiry.