Youth media and agency

This article addresses how capacity is conceived of and understood in youth media/civic education programming, and how beliefs about agency, development, relationality and youth manifests in the discourses, programmes, and practices of organizations operating youth media programmes. Through attention to a youth media and development programme in rural Nicaragua, the article addresses a key gap in theorizing how capacity operates within discourses and related practices that constitute ‘youth media’ and, in particular, it critically investigates how youth media discourse rests on an assumed foundation where capacity is defined as agency, empowerment or voice. This article situates youth media production within modernist discourses about education, development and ‘change’, in order to re-conceptualize agency through a mobilities framework that more fully attends to the complex and affective moments in youth media discourses.     

Youth cultures,activism and agency: revisiting feminist debates

Following the invitation issued by the London Feminist Salon Collective in the pages of Gender and Education, this paper offers further theoretical suggestions for understanding agency. Based on an ethnographic study with young people engaged in activist politics, I offer a conception of agency that is at its core relational. I build this theoretical contribution upon a lineage of feminist theorising about the nature of agency, which began in debates about poststructuralism/postmodernism but have since moved to incorporate Pierre Bourdieu's cultural sociological approach. I suggest that while previous theorising has been enormously important for yielding insights into the possibilities for agency, it has not adequately accounted for the everyday means by which agency takes place. My empirical work highlights one of the modalities through which young people come to take political action – that is, through relational processes. I suggest that such an understanding about agency can further illuminate the means by which progressive and feminist goals might be reached.     

Learner agency and the curriculum: a critical realist perspective

Abstract

Agency, understood as the capacity to act independently and to make one’s own choices, is considered central to children’s development. Thus, education, and hence education curricula, have a role in the development of learner agency. While curriculum development is a key focus for educational theory, research, policy, and classroom practice, the potential implications of curriculum content selections for learner agency remain underexplored. Theoretically, this paper engages with critical realism, explaining how it can provide theoretical foundation for a more comprehensive view of learner agency and, by implication, more balanced curricula. Empirically, the paper draws on the findings from a content analysis of the national curriculum documents of four countries with relatively high scores in international comparative tables, England, Australia, Hong-Kong, and Canada, to develop a new typology of primary curricula. Based on the extent of emphasis placed on knowledge versus skills, values, and attitudes, three types of curricula were identified: knowledge-based, skills-oriented, and learner-centred. Due to its significant theoretical and practical influence globally, we focus on the knowledge-based model and its likely impact on students’ agency. We conclude by highlighting the importance of making learner agency a key orientation of the curriculum and suggesting directions for future research.     

Race-related service and faculty of color: Conceptualizing critical agency in academe

Based on a qualitative study of sixteen faculty of color at aprivate research university, this article argues that service,though significantly presenting obstacles to the promotion andretention of faculty of color, actually may set the stage fora critical agency that resists and redefines academic structuresthat hinder faculty success. The construct of `service,' therefore,presents the opportunity for theorizing the interplay of humanagency and social structures. The article suggests that facultymay seek to redefine oppressive structures through service, thus,exercising an agency that emerges from the very structures thatconstrain it. Faculty of color, in particular, may engage inservice to promote the success of racial minorities in the academyand elsewhere. Thus, service, especially that which seeks tofurther social justice, contributes to the redefinition of theacademy and society at large.     

Youth and the critical agenda: Negotiating contradictory discourses

Syllabus and policy documents in many states and countries around the world, and more specifically in Queensland are underpinned by an emancipatory agenda, in particular the principles of social justice. Educators are called upon to achieve this through a pedagogy which is immersed in the language of critical theory.     

The significance of critical incidents and voice to identity and agency

Human agency is significant to the understanding of professional identities and actions. It is through human agency that individuals can become powerful in changing or authoring their own identities. Stemming from a larger narrative inquiry focused on understanding the professional identities of public preschool teachers, this paper draws on cultural models theory to explore identity, agency and professional practice through the lived stories of CeCe, an African-American public preschool teacher from the United States. Findings demonstrate the influence of CeCe’s lived experiences to her developing sense of human agency and highlight the importance of critical incidents and voice to identity and human agency.     

Understanding adult education in community contexts: A critical realist perspective

Third-sector community organisations are important sites for learning, especially for the most excluded groups in society. However, scant attention has been paid to the various factors shaping educational provision in community contexts, and how these interact to shape the provision available to marginalised populations. This article presents new evidence addressing this gap, through drawing on interview data from practitioners working in the UK homelessness sector. It identifies a range of factors shaping educational provision in these community contexts. These are: service user need and demand; staff roles and capacity; organisational purpose and structures; national policies; support from other adult education providers; non-governmental finance; and volunteers. With some modification, and placed within an overarching critical realist framework, it is argued that these findings are consistent with Boeren’s comprehensive lifelong learning participation model. The article concludes that so long as government policy and related funding continues to ignore and fails to support educational provision in these settings, it will remain piecemeal and highly contingent on the contribution of volunteers and short-term funding.     

Referencing and identity,voice and agency: adult learners' transformations within literacy practices

Referencing skills contribute much to the emergence of voice in students' academic writing. Such skills have a bearing on the identity of learners as writers. In referring certain ideas to certain sources, the writer is able to distinguish voices of others and, in doing so, provide space for the hearing, or establishment, of their individual voice. However, an understanding of the rationale behind referencing and taking on the techniques required for its conventions often proves a complex, intimidating affair for students. Much fear is incited within learners by the convention of referencing, together with the scourge of plagiarism. Thus, rather than learners being ensconced within the academic environment through being able to relate to and engage with other voices, thereby acquiring agency in their writing, issues around referencing can actually serve to alienate them from the academic environment and deter them from their own agency. It may involve much practice and discussion before students see referencing as an asset in their writing. This process entails deconstructions, renegotiations and reconstructions of relationships with ideas and identities. This paper focuses on the relationship of agency and the issue of referencing in the development of an authorial identity for adult learners in the academic institution.     

Framing equity through a closer examination of critical science agency

Cultural Studies of Science Education - Science for all has been touted as the primary path to equity in science education in the USA. We argue that without attention to the power imbalances that...     

Youth science expertise,environmental identity,and agency in climate action filmmaking

Abstract

The Green Ninja Film Academy (GENIE) is an interdisciplinary curriculum development project that examines the efficacy of combining climate science concepts and practices with digital storytelling for middle school youth. We present findings from iterative enactments of this design-based research project in 2017 (N?=?296) and 2018 (N?=?539). On average, youth increased scores on assessments of science content and practices while demonstrating competencies in filmmaking and science explanations. Further, an inverse correlation was seen between initial identification with the environment and change in environmental identification throughout the unit. Results suggest that integration of creative filmmaking into a climate science curriculum aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards can increase engagement and science proficiency particularly for youth who initially show less engagement in environmental science.     

Making agency matter: rethinking infant and toddler agency in educational discourse

This article engages critically with the concept of agency in infant and toddler educational discourse. It is argued that agency, when conceptualised with emphasis on individuality and the autonomous self, poses a conceptual ‘dead end’ for those who are not-yet-in-language, such as babies and toddlers. In considering agency as an aspect of becoming that is inherent in all matter, the article seeks to explore new pathways for conceptualising agency in infant and toddler education. Methodologically, the article aims to generate complex questions and, following Nigel Thrift's call, ‘wild ideas’, rather than solutions by addressing the relationship between discourse and matter to open up new spaces for thinking and doing ‘agency’ in education, for babies and toddlers and beyond.     

“佛系青年”文化现象透视

"佛系青年"文化现象日渐成为一个社会焦点和热点,值得我们分析、研究、探索与反思。通过阐释"佛系青年"文化现象之表征,深刻探究"佛系青年"文化现象之生成逻辑,提出我们需要辩证地理解该文化现象,珍惜行进中的中国,放飞青春梦想,辨证看待"慢就业"。     

Reimagining adult education and lifelong learning for all: Historical and critical perspectives

International Review of Education -     

Youth Wages: A Note 1

Abstract

The record levels of youth unemployment experienced in recent years has led to a number of theories being advanced to explain this phenomena. Onesuch theory claims that youth labour is too expensive to employ; young people have priced the mselves out of a job. Young people are seen as unwilling to work for the wages employers can afford to pay. This note using data from two longitudinal surveys of the labour market experiences of young people seeks to challenge this view, and shows that the wages young people expect to earn and are prepared to work for in their first job are appreciably below actual earnings of young workers.

     

遮蔽与敞现:次元青年群像视窗

通过时间轴和空间轴两个维度进行次元青年的群像梳理,挖掘三代次元青年时代标签、次元习性和核心特质.运用认知窗口工具可探知次元青年的交往面具、情感面具、精神面具和潜能面具.对应四种面具的遮蔽性,结合次元壁的连通作用,敞现次元青年的群像图景.通过新次元青年群体的优势驱力,打开青年工作视窗以促进新时代次元青年群体涌现创新创造力量.     

The critical, relational practice of instructional design in higher education: an emerging model of change agency

This paper offers an emerging interpretive framework for understanding the active role instructional designers play in the transformation of learning systems in higher education. A 3-year study of instructional designers in Canadian universities revealed how, through reflexive critical practice, designers are active, moral, political, and influential in activating change at interpersonal, professional, institutional and societal levels. Through narrative inquiry the voices of designers reflect the scope of agency, community and relational practice in which they regularly engage with faculty in institutions of higher learning.

Structure and agency in learning: a critical realist theory of the development of capacity to reflect on academic practice

Theories of learning typically downplay the interplay between social structure and student agency. In this article, we adapt a causal hypothesis from realist social theory and draw on wider perspectives from critical realism to account for the development of capacity to engage in reflection on professional practice in academic roles. We thereby offer a theory of professional learning that explores how social and cultural structures and personal emergent powers combine to ensure variation in the emergence of such reflective capacity. The influence of these factors on professional learning is mediated through reflexive deliberation and social interaction, with the exercise of one's personal powers specifically identified as a stratum of social reality. We consider further the role of concerns, intention and attention in professional learning, drawing together issues that are rarely considered within the same theory. We thus offer a comprehensive account of professional learning, showing how a focus on structure and agency increases the explanatory power of learning theory.     

Balancing classroom ready with community ready: enabling agency to engage with community through critical service learning

Recent initial teacher education policy and regulatory frameworks privilege “classroom ready” discourses. Taking up “readiness” as technical skill requiring more “practice” leads to narrowing of teachers’ roles and efficacy with increasing pressure and regulation that marginalises ideals to equip pre-service teachers to be “community ready”. We argue that enabling preservice teacher agency to engage with community beyond notions of mastering bounded classroom practice is critical to teachers’ roles. Supporting teachers to teach in context as engaged global citizens requires a readiness of relational understanding and skills about the lived experiences of learners, and their wider community contexts. Data from a critical service learning case study highlight how preservice teacher agency to engage with community is conceptualised and experienced in simultaneously beneficial and challenging ways. These findings indicate the complex, yet necessarily significant contributions of service learning experiences to the development of preservice teacher “readiness”.     

父母参与、未来信心与青少年发展——本地和流动青少年的对比分析

探索影响青少年全面发展的因素具有重要的学术和现实意义.本研究基于科尔曼的社会资本理论,使用似不相关回归(SUR)分析父母参与对本地和流动青少年认知能力、心理和行为问题的影响.研究发现:第一,亲子沟通、父母监督和家校联系显著影响青少年发展,家庭间联系的影响并不显著.第二,亲子沟通和家校联系对本地和流动青少年的影响存在差异.第三,父母参与可以通过改变子女和父母的未来信心间接影响青少年发展.因此,应充分发挥学校在父母参与中的指导作用;同时,向弱势家庭尤其是流动家庭提供教育补偿计划,并努力完善配套改革以提升青少年和父母的未来信心.