Cultivating student agency through teachers’ professional learning

Abstract

Thoughtfully planned professional development (PD) that fosters teacher agency has the potential to impact student agency in the literacy classroom. Drawing on a body of research with 82 teachers across multiple schools and clinical settings, this article first presents findings from a variety of PD contexts that are synthesized to highlight four guiding principles for designing professional learning that encourages both teacher and student agency. Then, the article illustrates one vignette of agentive literacy teaching, which was subsequently facilitative of students’ agentic engagement with vocabulary learning. Throughout, the case is made that intentional and embedded opportunities for co-construction of knowledge and reciprocity between PD providers and teachers, teachers and leadership, and teachers and students are important ingredients for an agentic learning experience. Finally, conclusions are drawn emphasizing that teacher and student agency are forces of empowerment, critical to student and teacher well-being.