The concept of agency and narrating agency

Agency is a central concept in philosophy and sociology. It is often used in everyday discourse and in dictionary definitions to refer to the capabilities of an agent to act in his or her world. The ‘voluntaristic discourse’ and the individual dimension of agency are connected to an actor’s autonomy and choice (see Barnes, 2000, p. xi). Agency is viewed as intentional action, an agent having control over his or her acts and behavior. Within social theory it is highlighted that an individual agent engages with the social structures.

Barnes (2000) explains that

---the key characteristic of human beings for social theory – the characteristic that allows them to live, as invariably they do, in social units – is not their individual agency but their collective agency, and agency of this kind implies non-independent individuals who routinely, as a matter of course, affect each others’

actions in their encounters. (Barnes, 2000, p. 2)

Thus, as suggested by Barnes (2000), “human beings are not independent individuals”

but “interdependent social agents, who profoundly affect each other as they interact”

(Barnes, 2000, p. 64). This also resonates with Bruner’s (1996) view of constant learning with and of others and of the self. This interdependency is present in the everyday life of schools, for instance, in the ways in which student agency and teacher agency are related.

Bruner (1996) proposes that agency and collaboration are closely intertwined in a narration in which a person learns to “construe interpretively the human Present, Past and Possible” (p. 94). This entails the viewpoint that a person constantly learns while interacting with others about oneself, others, and the world. Such identity construction is seen to be central in the framework of narrative approaches in which the narration of one’s actions and experiences is emphasized.

55 Elliott (1995, p. 220) states, however, that there are many examples of original and significant contributions from school music education because of musical music educators.

For instance, Bruner (1993) views that we construct ourselves and our identity in the autobiographical narratives that we tell ourselves and others (see also, Atjonen, 2008).

Hänninen (2004) distinguishes between the ‘inner’, ‘told’, and ‘lived’ narrative. The inner narrative structures time and the focus of what is meaningful and further constructs the person’s narrative selfhood, which produces the meaning of life. It can be seen as one’s interpretation of his/her life. When one narrates one’s experiences, one inevitably chooses what to tell. Therefore, the narratives of one’s life are to be seen as narrated constructions of life. In turn, the narrations that one tells influence the conception of oneself in the lived narrative (see Hänninen, 2004, also Atjonen, 2008).

Student agency in an educational situation may be both constructive and unconstructive.

A student agent may focus on activities that support the educational aims or choose to act against these for one reason or another. For instance, when a student, let’s call him Kalle, deliberately chooses to make noise and hit his classmate during the lesson, he is having

“an influence in the course of events” (Barnes, 2000, p. 25), being an active agent, but in ways that are not constructive from the point of view of the teacher or the other students.

Kalle’s agency may be seen either as harassment or resistance to the school’s overall structure. Through his choices and actions, Kalle also potentially reduces his possibilities to experience constructive social agency at school. If the unproductive, disturbing behavior dominates, it may lead to a vicious circle in which both the learning and his relationships with others may suffer. However, Kalle’s seemingly unconstructive behavior may be an indication of a social situation that he experiences as discouraging, unfair, or perhaps even oppressive. By acting out against the norms he at least becomes somehow noticed by others. ⁵⁶

Student agency does not necessarily require one to be perceptibly acting along or against educational goals. One may also choose to regulate one’s agency by taking part in an educational situation as a ‘peripheral participant’ (see Lave & Wenger, 1991). This form of participation may appear to be a withdrawal from the common task, but the person is still able to acquire experiences that can be built upon in later situations. At the same time, what the teacher perceives to be enthusiastic participation may be perceived to be something else by the student in the experience. Additionally, a person’s agency can manifest itself differently in different situations and social contexts.

56 For instance, within the feminist framework and postmodern discussions agency has been often understood “in terms of resistance to norms and to the social power” (Rozmarin, 2011, p. 10). In these discourses agency is not seen only as a “reactive account”, but it also strives toward some new, potentially better horizon, and “working to realize it.” (Rozmarin, 2011, p. 20).

This may also be Kalle’s intention in his actions, but with the questionable means.

For instance, Kalle may act as a domineering person in one situation but withdraw from another. Therefore, from the teacher’s perspective, as Karlsen (2013) reminds us, “it is necessary to be aware of the diversity of peoples’ various ways of acting in and engaging with the world” (p. 163). As some situations and social relations support the experience of individual and social agency better than others, interaction in the social context of school (teacher-students, student-student) is of great importance. An active and “agentive mind”

(Bruner, 1996, p. 93) seeks out collaboration, “dialogue and discourse with other active minds” (Bruner, 1996, p. 36). Concerning teacher agency, teacher plays a central position in coordinating the interactive situations in ways that these active minds would work towards positive aims. Campbell (2012) has examined the issue of teachers’ moral agency and sees the teacher interrelatedly as a moral person and professional. This includes being a model and exemplar. She further states, that

--- as an extension of their own agency, teachers need to respect the agency of their students as autonomous human beings. In asking themselves what they are trying to achieve in their classroom interactions, teachers need also to consider this from the point of view of cultivating and fostering student agency --- they need to reflect on both of these perspectives in terms of the question, “Agency for what?” What do they strive for as a result of their own agency and what do they similarly aim to facilitate in their students’ ongoing development of agency?

(Campbell, 2012, p. 184, emphasis added).

A community, whether a classroom community or a teacher community, in which the initiatives and constructive impulses of its actors are recognized and taken into account has the potential to support agency and risk-taking in subsequent situations, which are both important for creativity and collaborative creation. Barnes (2000) explains that within this social dimension, susceptibility must exist so as to enable the agents’ “coordination of actions and their coherent ordering around collectively agreed goals” (p. 74).⁵⁷ Each individual must be considered accountable in order to achieve collectivity. Thus, agency is called into play both at the level of individual and collaborative work. In addition, recognition within one’s community holds important meaning for one’s sense of agency, and therefore the atmosphere within the learning community is crucial. A community that supports its participants’ agency is favorable for new ideas and change, although, as previously mentioned with the example of Kalle, agency and change are not always positive.

57 Barnes (2000) sees accountability and susceptibility as “two closely intertwined components of responsibility” which constitute together “a necessary basis for social interaction.” (p. 74).

It is the important and demanding task of an educator to acknowledge each student’s skills, ideas, and impulses; take them into account in ways that each students’ agency may be supported; and strengthen the skills and abilities of each student to enable him or her to act as agents at present and in the future. The ability to collaborate and to experience oneself as an agent implies the “capacity for initiating, but also for completing our acts”

(Bruner, 1996, p. 36), thus connecting agency to one’s skills, where “[s]uccess and failure are principal nutrients in the development of selfhood” (p. 36). If skills and know-how are tied to the agency of decision making and acting, an ethical question arises regarding how agency may be positively supported in education by taking these issues into account.

This further suggests that emphasizing action-orientated teaching and learning-by-doing methods would strengthen student agency (see Sintonen, 2012, p. 43). The issue of skills is also important when talking about teacher agency. It is likely that if the teacher has insufficient skills in some areas of the curriculum (e.g., composing), it will affect which practices he or she utilizes.⁵⁸

As this discussion has shown, the definition of agency used in this inquiry refers to the intertwined individual and social dimensions of human life. Each person’s individual and social experiences of agency are seen to build his or her content-related agency, as is the case, for instance, within music. Methodologically, the issue of narrating agency provides an interesting point of discussion, namely, how narrating one’s agency affects on the narrator and his or her conception of oneself. Some literature suggests that, for instance, an interview situation in which one narrates one’s experiences may be even therapeutic.