We say we want student agency, yet many classrooms are built on adult control—often unintentionally. This post looks at how compliance culture shapes teaching habits, how agency gets quietly centralized through routines and evaluation, and what it might take to redesign learning so children experience real ownership, choice, and voice.
We often speak about Student Agency as a key goal. It’s the bridge from observation to voice and choice. Might there is a silent hurdle we rarely discuss?
Teachers are products of the system they’re working to change.
Think about the traditional classroom tools: book, worksheet, test, and rigid grading scale. In these moments, who holds the power?
· The person assigning the activity has the agency.
· The person administering the test holds the agency.
· The person giving the grade keeps the agency.
The challenge isn't just "giving" agency to students; it’s learning how to share it.
If an educator’s journey from K–College was defined by compliance--doing what was given or assigned--and if that suppressed their own agency, they enter the classroom facing two massive problems:
1. A lack of modeling: They’ve never seen shared agency in action.
2. A need for recovery: They may be subconsciously trying to affirm the power of their own voice.
It may sound harsh, but we must ask: Does the "top-down" classroom in part result from a teacher finally saying, “I get to be the one in charge here; I get to be the one in control, heard”?
True exploration requires a settled sense of self. A good listener is usually someone who was well-listened to. If we want students to enjoy being at the top of the instructional pyramid, we must stop treating teachers like they are at the bottom. We cannot expect educators to model a sense of agency they are still fighting for.
Questions:
· How do we move away from the "agency-hoarding" of assigning and judging to power sharing?
· How do we help teachers "recover" their agency, so they feel settled enough to let student voices lead?
• Does this "recovery of agency" resonate with your experience? Let’s discuss below.