Dear Parents,

You just returned from “Back to School Night”. Your child’s new teacher seemed kind, passionate and knowledgeable but there was one thing they mentioned that has left you feeling uneasy, “Agency”. The teacher talked about giving your child “voice and choice” in their routines, their schedule, the classroom set up, even learning activities.  

I’m a parent too. I get it.  You love your child more than anything and are proud of him/her but they are only a child and the last time you gave them choice on what they would like for dinner they asked for a dish of donuts and candy canes with a side of ice cream. You need the adult in the room to teach your child what to do. They don’t have the knowledge or self-control to make good choices on their own.  Your child doesn’t need choice they need structure. You worry that all of this push towards agency will mean your child always gets whatever they want whenever they want it and will leave your child feeling entitled.

Let me ease your doubts a bit.  The first thing you need to understand is that “Agency” isn’t just about “Voice and Choice.”  It is about building up your child’s self-efficacy. It is about “Ownership”. “Voice and choice” are just a pathway toward ownership.

What your teacher is going to help your child develop this year is self-efficacy.  Psychologist Albert Bandura explained self-efficacy as.

The higher the self-efficacy a person has the more agency they will display. The more they own their choices. For your child, it means they will not be a passive participant in school. They will set meaningful goals and work hard to achieve them.  Eventually, they will develop lifelong skills that help them through future life challenges and opportunities.

Picture it this way.  Your child’s life is like being on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Sometimes the wind will come and push him/her along quickly in the direction he/she wants to go. At other times the waves may come crashing hard in the wrong direction. As a parent that may sound scary. But this safe school environment is the perfect place to learn to navigate the waves.  Your child’s classroom is more like practicing in a pool. The teacher will be right there to direct your child, push them forward and help them up when they need it. What your child will begin to learn this year is that they not only hold the oars to the boat. They have the ability to build their own sail. Without efficacy, your child will grow into an adult who is tossed and turned by whatever waves life brings but with efficacy your child has the ability to adjust to those waves and push forward. 

But how exactly will the teacher help your child develop self-efficacy and agency?

 Every classroom will be different but in a classroom truly focused on developing agency there are some common components. Keeping with our boat metaphore I visualized the PYP’s approach to developing agency below.

Your child’s teacher will get to know your child and their strengths and areas for growth really well and they will work to structure and adjust the learning environment in a way that pushes your individual child to meet their goals at their own pace. Your child’s learning will be personalized to their own needs. This is because if your teacher wants your child to own their learning then they need to be able to guide them towards what they still need to learn and to truly build efficacy they also need to build on their strengths. Building on strengths and overcoming challenges is one of the quickest paths to developing agency (Bandura 1994).

Or it might be other simple things such as asking the class to design a solution to a problem within the class such as “We keep losing all of our pencils behind the bookshelf. Does anyone have any ideas on how we could solve that?”

The important thing is that over and over again your child will receive messages that they own their choices, that they are capable students, mistakes are important learning opportunities, all students in the class have strengths and they can all help each other achieve their goals.

Your child is going to love learning this year.  The reason is not just because it will be fun but because it will be purposeful to them. Your child’s teacher will make sure that he/she is not just setting goals and doing work because he or she is told to but because they care about it and want to improve at it.  Some ways they might do this are by finding and building on your child’s interests and questions, giving them choice in their learning, maker-centered learning opportunities and project-based learning.

The idea of goal setting is not new but this type of authentic goal setting might be new to you. Your child won’t just sit down twice a year and fill in a goal-setting sheet of paper and then forget about it. They will combine feedback from their teacher with their own knowledge and interests to develop personally meaningful goals on a regular basis. For example, they might set a new Math goal each week and then at the end of the week reflect on how they did at their goal or they might set a goal that they want to improve at a particular skill and then work with their teacher to create a plan of action for achieving that goal.

Choice is definitely a big aspect of developing true agency. This will look different in every classroom but the Voice and Choice should be meaningful to the students and it should impact their learning. It might be choice in how to set up the classroom or where to sit or how to solve a class problem.  For example, I build choice into my weekly routine by having my students help create their schedules each week. Every Monday my students have a schedule filled in with the times that I will be teaching set lessons and empty slots for when various workshops are offered. Students can then sign up to attend workshops that they would like to attend based on the goals that they set and other interests. They can also sign up to lead workshops to each other.

Remember when you first heard the word agency and pictured your kid choosing ice cream for dinner and you knew your child needs guidance. You were right, your child does need structure and guidance. In order to develop agency, your child will be given consistent and purposeful feedback on their choices, their goals, their achievements. This feedback will take many forms, from conferencing to peer editing to self-reflection. The important thing is that it will be timely and specific so that it builds your child’s self-efficacy and therefore their agency.

After reading all of this, agency still might sound a little scary to you. That is alright, it is a little scary. It means letting go of control.  Every time I have to let go of my child’s hand and watch them go it squeezes my heart a bit. We are parents, we can’t help it. We just want to protect our kids and take care of everything for them and we want the other adults in their life to do the same.  But trust me on this one and trust your child’s teacher. When we hold our kid’s hand too tight in the end we are really just making them work one-handed. Let go and see what amazing things they can create with both hands. It might just be a sailboat.

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