How Teachers' Agency is a Path to Generational Change
How Teachers' Agency is a Path to Generational Change
Growing up in an inner-city public school district and later working as an instructor for students fresh out of high school, I noticed a disconnection between students and their education. Learning conditions and school systems play a large role in their social, emotional, and academic performance. According to Hargrove M. Leopold, S. Marrone, and other contributors in the Student Change Agent Model, marginalized students are often disempowered through inequitable practices and policies enforced by the educational culture (2024). Therefore, teachers should have more agency in their pedagogical approaches. This freedom can improve learning for students of color by creating a more inclusive, affirming, and supportive classroom environment, which will, in the long-term, develop a path of generational change.
The Importance of Learning Conditions
The learning conditions of a classroom are important to how students perform in and out of the classroom. Teachers, who hold primary responsibility, are guided by specific factors that end up either “supporting or hindering students’ ability to learn.” (WestEd Math Practical Measurement Study) Learning conditions that encourage positive developmental growth in students impact their academic, social, and emotional performance. As young students, my classmates and I would have opportunities created by our teachers that would spark our desire to learn. Whether it was class elections, creative writing sessions, or creating inventions, our teachers used their limited resources and still encouraged growth that surpassed their curated curriculum and built on our social, emotional, and creative skills. Instilling positive learning conditions in the classroom environment can also alleviate racial and other inequities students could face. PERTS Elevate 2019 study shows in positive learning conditions, students are 35% more likely to perform well, earning an A or B, and 86% will more likely feel a higher sense of belonging. This is especially evident for students of color in these improved environments.
Incorporating Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)
One way to enhance the learning conditions of the classroom is to incorporate Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). SEL creates “affirming, supportive, and inclusive learning environments that meet a child’s developmental needs.” (Education First, 2023) Through SEL, teachers use their agency to design adaptable and culturally vital curricula, relationship-building activities, service components, and inclusive assignments/assessments. By including these design features in the classroom, students' social and emotional development and academic learning will improve and frame their overall life outcomes, even beyond school. These tools would help their direct path in life and continue to other generations.
Practical Steps for Empowering Teachers and Students
Since educators hold primary responsibility for students' learning conditions, they should be free to tailor their teaching methods to better serve their students. Integrating student interests, cultures, and communities into the classroom can allow them to feel like they belong. (Education First, 2023) I couldn’t see reflections of my interests and cultures until I pursued higher education. Only then did it become visible how crucial it is to introduce these elements earlier.
At times, there seemed to be a disconnection between school and my personal life, which felt discouraging, as if a need was not being met. Implementing dialogues that touch on students’ interests and education can ensure their voices are heard and valued, fostering a sense of belonging and engagement.
Now, what practical steps can teachers take to create a supportive environment and influence a path toward generational change?
Design Culturally Relevant Curriculum: Teachers’ curriculum should reflect the local content and context of their students, including using SEL-related language and integrating students’ interests, culture, and community into their learning experiences.
Promote Student Agency with Teacher Agency: With their power, teachers can allow students to take ownership of their learning through assignments assigned while monitoring and guiding their progress.
Create Safe and Brave Spaces: Their agency can be used to develop an environment of trust and openness with the students, centering their voices. Allow conversations of social issues, like race, to be held and students to feel heard as they learn and reflect with one another (Wellington & Walker, 2023).
Long-Term Impact on Generational Change
Teachers who are given more agency in the classroom will allow their students from diverse backgrounds and cultures to be taught with compassion, care, and cultural responsiveness, which will impact their lives later on. An environment built on being inclusive and supportive of students of color can help them develop the confidence and skills needed to succeed academically and beyond, breaking the cycle of inequity and disempowerment. These approaches not only benefit individual students but also contribute to a broader path of generational change, fostering a more just and equitable society (Fraser-Burgess, 2020).
If teachers lead with this level of openness and develop a set of lenses to see the world that fosters the learning conditions that all students- especially children of color- have to endure and address the evident inequities, this could let students explore their education and celebrate who they are. This helps the classroom environment become a place of enrichment; a supportive environment where all students drive the learning as opposed to one-size-fits-all solutions, contributing to a learning environment that shifts how students learn, and future generational, systems change for future schools and educators.
Bibliography
Fraser-Burgess, Sheron. “Accountability and Troubling the Caring Ideal in the Classroom: A Call to Teacher Citizenry.” Educational Studies (Ames) 56, no. 5 (2020): 456-481.
Jones, Brittany, et al. “On ‘Ceding Space’: Pushing Back on Idealized Whiteness to Foster Freedom for Students of Color.” Reconceptualizing Social Justice in Teacher Education, 2022, pp. 85–104, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16644-0_5.
Leopold, M., Hargrove, J., Marrone, S., Jennings, G., & Max, R. (2024). Student Change Agent Model: How School Counselors Can Operationalize the Advocating