Student Agency in the Classroom

While student agency is considered an important aspect of classroom learning, opportunities to support and promote agency can be easily missed. This book addresses the inner dimensions of student agency to show what it is, why it is needed, and how it can be translated into instructional practices. In Part I, Locating Student Agency, Vaughn offers a model of agency that can become a core remedy for educators looking for new and better ways to support the learning of historically marginalized students. Part II, Growing Student Agency, illuminates opportunities during instruction where teachers can build upon student contributions. The book includes the voices of teachers who have transformed their classrooms, as well as compelling case stories rich with ideas that teachers can adopt in their own instruction. Student Agency in the Classroom will provide educators at every level, and across all disciplines, with the underlying research and theoretical rationale for this key educational force, along with the practical means to incorporate it into instruction and curriculum.

Book Features:

• A comprehensive framework that outlines three core dimensions needed to cultivate student agency: dispositional, motivational, and positional.


• Detailed strategies and ideas for creating a culture of agency in the classroom and schoolwide.


• A collaborative way of thinking about how teachers, teacher educators, and school leaders can promote and cultivate agency.


• The authors experience as a classroom teacher, professional developer, and researcher.


• Classroom vignettes, teacher interviews, and conversations with students.


• Extension sections and discussion questions at the end of chapters.