Towards a research program on agency through the capability approach
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7346/SIRD-012020-P84Keywords:
Teacher training; Capability approach; Agency; Vygotsky; Qualitative inquiry.Abstract
The concept of agency is increasingly mentioned in policy documents and its use in education according to a capability approach is particularly recent. This paper sets to review the studies on the matter to identify theories, instruments on how to promote agency in teachers according to a capability approach. It presents three perspectives on agency in professional contexts, these are the sociocultural studies originated from Vygotsky, the identity and life-course notions, and the social realist theory. In the conclusions the paper integrates the ecological model with the social realist theory, and eventually hypothesizes two research streams to study agency according to the capability approach. These concern, on the one hand, the development of forms of agency for active participation and positive social change, while the other pertains to the identification of the specific factors that in each context allow for its substantial achievement
References
Alkire, S. (2005). Subjective quantitative studies of human agency. Social Indicators
Research, 74(1): 217-260.
Archer, M.S. (2000). Being Human: The Problem of Agency. Cambridge University.
ASviS (2019). L’Italia e gli obiettivi di sviluppo sostenibile. Rapporto 2019.
Roma: Agenzia per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile.
Benozzo, A. & Piccardo, C. (1996). Etnografia organizzativa. Una proposta
di metodo per l’analisi delle organizzazioni come “culture”. Milano: Raffaello
Cortina.
Biesta, G. & Tedder, M. (2007). Agency and learning in the lifecourse: Towards
an ecological perspective. Studies in the Education of Adults, 39(2):
-149.
Biesta, G., Priestley, M. & Robinson, S. (2015). The role of beliefs in teacher
agency. Teachers and Teaching, 21(6): 624-640.
Biggeri, M. & Santi, M. (2012). The missing dimensions of children’s wellbeing
and well-becoming in education systems: capabilities and philosophy
for children, Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 13(3):
-395.
Boni, A. & Walker, M. (2013). Human Development and Capabilities: Reimagining
the university of the twenty-first century. New York: Routledge.
Burchardt, T. (2009). Agency Goals, Adaptation and Capability Sets. Journal
of Human Development and Capabilities, 10(1): 3-19.
Clandinin, D.J. & Huber, J. (2010). Narrative Inquiry (Eds: Penelope Peterson,
Eva Baker, Barry McGaw). International Encyclopedia of Education,
Elsevier, 436-441.
Cleaver, F. (2007). Understanding Agency in Collective Action. Journal of
Human Development, 8, 2: 223-244.
Coleman, P. T., Deutsch, M. & Marcus, E. C. (Eds.). (2014). The handbook
of conflict resolution: Theory and practice. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Czarniawska, B. (2000). Narrare l’organizzazione. Torino: Edizioni di Comunità.
Demopolis (2019). Gli italiani e la povertà educativa, in https://www.conibambini.
org/wpcontent/uploads/2019/11/CartellaStampa_18_NOV_Pre
sentazione_Demopolis_Con_i_Bambini-002.pdf (verificato 14 maggio
.
Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (2018). The Sage handbook of qualitative research
(Vol. 5). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Dozza, L. & Ulivieri, S. (2016). L’educazione permanente a partire dalle prime
età della vita. Milano: Franco Angeli.
Engeström, Y. (2011). From design experiments to formative interventions.
Theory & Psychology, 21(5): 598-628.
Engeström, Y. (2015). Learning by expanding. Cambridge University.
Engeström, Y., & Sannino, A. (2010). Studies of expansive learning: Foundations,
findings and future challenges. Educational research review, 5(1):
-24.
Eteläpelto, A., Vähäsantanen, K., Hökkä, P., & Paloniemi, S. (2013). What
is agency? Conceptualizing professional agency at work. Educational Research
Review, 10: 45-65.
European Union (2020). Supporting Key Competence Development: Learning approaches and environments in school education. Directorate-General
for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture 2020 Education and Training.
Bruxelles, UE.
Fedeli, M., Grion, V. & Frison, D. (eds.) (2016). Coinvolgere per apprendere.
Metodi e tecniche partecipative per la formazione. Lecce-Brescia: Pensa MultiMedia
Galliani, L., & De Rossi, M. (eds.) (2014). Videoricerca e documentazione
narrativa nella ricerca pedagogica. Lecce-Brescia: Pensa MultiMedia.
Goldman, R, Pea, R., Barron, B. & Derry, J.S. (eds.). (2009). Videoricerca
nei contesti di apprendimento. Teoria e metodi. Milano: Raffaello Cortina.
Haapasaari, A., Engeström, Y., & Kerosuo, H. (2014). The emergence of learners’
transformative agency in a Change Laboratory intervention. Journal
of Education and Work, 29(2): 232-262.
Lackéus, M., Lundqvist, M., Williams Middleton, K., & Inden, J. (2020).
The entrepreneurial employee in the public and private sector - what, why,
how. Luxemburg: Publications Office of the European Union.
Lanzara, G.F. (1993). Capacità negativa. Il Mulino: Bologna.
Leont’ev, A. N. (1978). Activity, consciousness, and personality. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Lindvall, J., & Ryve, A. (2019). Coherence and the positioning of teachers
in professional development programs. A systematic review. Educational
Research Review, 27: 140-154.
Margiotta, U. (2019). La costruzione sociale dell’insegnante. Capability Approach
e contesto professionale. In G. Alessandrini (ed.), Sostenibilità e
Capability Approach (pp. 45-55). Milano: Franco Angeli.
Morselli, D. (2019a). The Change Laboratory for teacher training in entrepreneurship
education. A new Skills Agenda for Europe. Cham: Springer.
Morselli, D. (2019b). Testing the Vygotskian model of double stimulation
in a formative intervention. The contribution of educational research.
Formazione & Insegnamento, 17(1): 39-58.
Mortari, L. (2007). Cultura della ricerca e pedagogia. Prospettive epistemologiche.
Roma: Carocci.
OECD - PIAAC (2019). Skills Matter. Additional results from survey of adult
skills. Paris: Oecd Publications.
ONU (2015). Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.
Retrieved from https://unric.org/it/agenda-2030/
Otto, U-H. & Ziegler, H (2006). Capabilities and Education, Social Work &
Society, 4(2): 269-287.
Priestley, M., Biesta, G.J.J. & Robinson, S. (2015). Teacher agency: what is
it and why does it matter? In R. Kneyber & J. Evers (eds.), Flip the System:
Changing Education from the Bottom Up (pp. 134-148). Abingdon: Routledge.
Ravitch, S. M., & Carl, N. M. (2019). Qualitative research: Bridging the conceptual,
theoretical, and methodological. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Rodriguez, G. M. (2013). Power and agency in education: Exploring the pedagogical dimensions of funds of knowledge. Review of Research in Education,
(1): 87-120.
Sannino, A. (2015). The principle of double stimulation: A path to volitional
action. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 6: 1-15.
Sannino, A., & Sutter, B. (2011). Cultural-historical activity theory and interventionist
methodology: Classical legacy and contemporary developments.
Theory & Psychology, 21(5): 557-570.
Sannino, A., Engeström, Y., & Lemos, M. (2016). Formative interventions
for expansive learning and transformative agency. Journal of the Learning
Sciences, 25(4): 599-633.
Santi, M. (2019). Problem solving collaborativo e Philosophy for Children.
Scuola Democratica. Learning for Democracy, I: 83-102.
Saroijni Hart, C. (2014). The Capability Approach in the educational research.
In C. Saroijni Hart, M. Biggeri, B. Babic (eds.), Agency and participation
in childhood and youth (pp. 17-44). London: Bloomsbury
Publishing.
Sen, A. (1999). Development as Freedom. Oxford University.
Sen, A. (2010). La Disuguaglianza. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Stewart, F. (2008). Horizontal Inequalities and Conflict: Understanding Group
Violence in Multiethnic Societies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Sumner, L. (2006). Utility and capability. Utilitas, 18(1): 1-19.
Tappan, M. (1998). Toward a Dialogic Conception of Human Development.
Narrative Inquiry, 8(2): 391-396.
ul-Haq, M. (1999). Reflections on human development (2nd ed). Delhi: Oxford
University Press.
Varpanen, J. (2019). What is children’s agency? A review of conceptualizations
used in early childhood education research. Educational Research Review,
: 1-10.
Virkkunen, J. (2006). Dilemmas in building shared transformative agency.
Activités, 3: 44-66.
Virkkunen, J., & Newnham, D. S. (2013). The Change Laboratory. A tool for
collaborative development of work and education. Rotterdam: Sense (trad.
it. Il Change Laboratory. Uno strumento per lo sviluppo collaborativo nelle
organizzazioni lavorative e in ambito educativo, Armando, Roma, 2019).
Vygotskij, L. S. (1974). Storia dello sviluppo delle funzioni psichiche superiori.
Firenze: Giunti Barbera.
Walker, M. (2006). Towards a capability based theory of social justice for
education policy making. Journal of Education Policy, 21(2): 163-185.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Daniele Morselli, Piergiuseppe Ellerani
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The authors who publish in this magazine accept the following conditions:
- The authors retain the rights to their work and give the magazine the right to first publish the work, simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons License - Attribution which allows others to share the work indicating the intellectual authorship and the first publication in this magazine.
- Authors may adhere to other non-exclusive license agreements for the distribution of the version of the published work (eg deposit it in an institutional archive or publish it in a monograph), provided that the first publication took place in this magazine.
- Authors can disseminate their work online (eg in institutional repositories or on their website) before and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges and increase citations of the published work.
