Research about Learner Agency

Learning is an important part of being a human, we couldn't survive without the ability to learn and adapt to the environment. Learning within the formal education system is a special kind of learning, as schooling helps students to gain culturally essential knowledge and skills, like reading, wirting, math, basic knowledge of history, geography and siences. Advanced skills and knowledge include becoming capable for independent judgment, understanding principles and higher level concepts, and being able to support one's opinion with facts.

Agency in any given social situation refers to the intentionality of one's actions and the opportunities to make choices. Choosing is a skill that requires independent judgment, but also personal agency to be capable for individual actions within a social structure like school or classroom. Agency also includes the aspect of time, as the continued engagement in the process of choosing combines one's actions in the past, present, and future.
 
In the school environment, learner agency denotes the quality of students' individual engagement, related to their personal goals and interestes. In the classroom, students may choose to engage in their own learning, or just strategically or ritually comply with the tasks and activities presented to them. This research aims to understand and describe the qualitatively different ways students perceive their learner agency.