Search results for "Agency"

Stepping up to strike: a union mobilization case study of Polish migrant workers in the Netherlands

2015

This article examines a union mobilization of Polish temporary agency workers in the Netherlands. The case study contributes to the migrant organizing literature a micro-level account of the dynamics of mobilization from the viewpoint of the migrants and organizers involved. The findings emphasize the importance of key actors in building solidarities within and between different groups of workers in fragmented workplaces, with implications for unions seeking new ways to respond to changing employment practices. This study highlights some of the possibilities and limitations of organizing among contractually fragmented workforces.

It takes the Entire University Community to Educate Students in Becoming Academics

2018

Development of scientific thinking is considered an essential but challenging aim of academic studies. In practice, this challenge becomes evident when students begin preparing their theses. Therefore, proper guidance combined with suitable guidance methods are needed. The staff of university libraries face this daily challenge through students’ questions, which often start as ‘what’ questions and morph into ‘how’ questions. Based on these genuine necessities, a new collaborative model to implement guidance for students was developed at the Open Science Centre, Library at Jyväskylä University, Finland. The model is constructed of three intertwined principles: 1) strengthening student agency…

It takes the Entire University Community to Educate Students in Becoming Academics

2018

Poster at The 8th Edition of The Future of Education International Conference. Florence, Italy, June 28-29, 2018. Development of scientific thinking is considered an essential but challenging aim of academic studies. In practice, this challenge becomes evident when students begin preparing their theses. Therefore, proper guidance combined with suitable guidance methods are needed. Based on students’ genuine necessities, a new collaborative model to implement guidance for students was developed at the Open Science Centre, Library at University of Jyväskylä, Finland. The model is constructed of three intertwined principles: 1) strengthening student agency, 2) producing diverse but explicit op…

Toimijuus ja asiantuntijaksi kasvaminen monimediaisessa kielenopettamisessa

2011

This case study investigates the role of agency in the development of two students’ expertise during their participation in the year-long KOO-KIT program (Language Technology for Language Teachers) for pre-service language teachers at the Centre for Applied Language Studies of the University of Jyväskylä in the 2000s. The curriculum of the program was organized around project-based learning, with theoretical and pedagogical lessons and hands-on technology courses alternating with practical team work in web-based design. The data consist of the teachers’ observations and narrative assessments of the students’ performance, and the students’ self-reports during the one-year course. The finding…

Agency and Motivation to Achieve Language-learning Objectives among Learners in an Academic Environment in France

2014

Personal agency within the area of learning may be construed as a process wherein learning objectives are achieved through volitional direction and tacit involvement in learning. Within the present study, perceived agency is the degree to which learners believe that the efforts they are putting into the language-learning process is sufficient with respect to the learning objective. Some learners assume that attending classes assiduously generates an entitlement to pass the course, thereby believing that the learning goal has been achieved. In other words, their perception is that they have displayed a high degree of agency in spite of what may sometimes prove to be a very low degree of pers…

Autonomy and Agency

2021

This chapter reviews autonomy and agency as related to second language (L2) learner and teacher psychology. It discusses the significance of the two constructs in understanding the personal, yet socially mediated nature of L2 learning and teaching processes. Psychology and education seem to be the main disciplines that have influenced developments in fostering on autonomy in second language acquisition (SLA). Research on autonomy has typically been conducted on the initiative of a teacher or groups of teachers working in their specific educational contexts and with their specific groups of students. Compared to agency, autonomy has had a much longer history in SLA, and it has been researche…

Toimijuutta, refleksiivisyyttä ja neuvotteluja - muistisairaus yksinasuvan naisen arjessa

2014

Professional agency in a university context: Academic freedom and fetters

2020

Professional agency is an urgent topic in academic contexts, albeit relatively unexplored, and elaborated with contradictory conclusions on its extent and characteristics. To contribute to the discussion, this multimethod study investigated professional agency within a Finnish university. We utilised questionnaire data and interviews to explore agency, as manifested in influencing at work, developing work practices, and negotiating professional identity. We found that overall, these three dimensions of agency were manifested fairly substantially, and in a similar manner among the academic staff. The study further emphasises the social nature of professional agency, and presents theoretical …

Students’ experiences of their agency in whole-class playing

2022

The agency of primary school students has been studied increasingly in recent years; yet, we know relatively little about student agency in music educational settings or how students experience their participation in joint musical action. This study explores sixth-grade students’ experiences of their agency in whole-class playing. Qualitative content analysis of 11 pair interviews identified vulnerability as an essential element of participating in whole-class playing, highlighting the intrinsically emotional nature of the process, the immediacy of the musically shared moment and the safe place of entrainment. This study elucidates the enactment of agency and the resources facilitating and …

“I want to speak like the other people” : Second language learning as a virtuous spiral for migrant women?

2017

This article contributes to scholarship on migrant women’s second language (L2) education in North America and Europe. Questioning reductionist understandings of the relationship between female migrants, their receiving communities and L2 education, the authors consider existing literature as well as their own qualitative work to investigate the challenges, opportunities and agency of migrant women. Weaving together and thematically presenting previous scholarship and qualitative data from interviews, participant observations and classroom recordings from a mixed-gender L2 adult migrant classroom in Austria and an all-women L2 migrant classroom in the United States, they trouble conceptuali…