Participatory culture of education as a space for developing student agency: the case of english as a foreign language teaching

Abstract

Introduction: Student agency is widely recognised as a key concept in contemporary pedagogy and is understood as a relational and situational phenomenon emerging within everyday educational practices. In English as a Foreign Language teaching, it is shaped by the tension between institutional constraints and the need for active student participation. Research Aim: The aim of the study was to reconstruct the areas and forms of student agency emerging in English as a Foreign Language lessons conducted within a participatory culture of education, and to examine how students interpreted their participation in relation to influence, responsibility, communication, and further independent language learning. Method: The study was qualitative and interpretative in nature. It was conducted as teacher research grounded in close-to-practice inquiry. Data were collected through focus group interviews with secondary school students participating in a pedagogical innovation. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: The findings indicate that student agency manifests itself in multiple interrelated dimensions, including decision-making agency, reflective agency, responsibility-based agency, agency in pedagogical communication and agency in dealing with errors. Students perceived their participation as meaningful involvement in organising and co-constructing the learning process. Conclusions: The results confirm that student agency is a relational effect of teaching practice. The study highlights central role of teacher autonomy in creating conditions for student participation and suggests the need to reconceptualise foreign language teaching as the deliberate design of participatory learning environments.