A Culture of Agency: Fostering Engagement, Empowerment, Identity, and Belonging in the Early Years

by Lisa Burman

Overview

Deeply engage all young learners with a sense of agency and belonging

What gives some early childhood classrooms that special “buzz” of learning? How do those educators create the culture of learning for their students, where all children are deeply involved and drive their own learning with curiosity and care? Using her everyday research approach, in the tradition of the pedagogistas of Reggio Emilia, author Lisa Burman observed several special classrooms with children ages three to eight and identified some common threads: engagement, agency, identity, and belonging, which together combine to create a culture of agency. 

The term agency is widely used, but often misunderstood as “giving children choice.” Agency is far more than this, and the most powerful learning happens when personal agency is connected to community agency: we are only as strong as each other. These connections form the heart of a democratic education: one that values the rights of the child and empowers participation, shared power, respect for diversity, and self-efficacy.

Her framework for supporting a culture of agency has five pillars: Relationships, Rituals for belonging and identity, Language of agency, Environment, and Learning Contexts. Using this framework along with the book's guiding questions and goal-setting tool will help you bring intentionality as you build your classroom culture to support children’s agency and learning. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605547992
Publisher:	Redleaf Press
Publication date:	07/11/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	966,928
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Lisa Burman has been an educator for thirty-six years, twenty of these spent as an educational consultant. She is currently the Director and Principal Consultant of Lisa Burman Consultants, which is based in Adelaide, South Australia, and works internationally. Prior to returning to Adelaide in 2011, she was based in New York City for ten years, where she wrote first book, Are You Listening? Fostering Conversations that Help Young Children Learn, published by Redleaf Press in 2009. 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

 

Introduction

            Danni’s Young Authors

            Everyday Research

            How This Book Is Organized

Chapter 1 What Is a Culture of Agency?

            Belonging and Identity

            Engagement and Participation

            Self-Efficacy

            Democratic Values

            Internal Control

Chapter 2 Relationships Are Everything

            The Child-Educator Relationship

            The Child-Child Relationship

            The Educator-Family Relationship

            Continuity of Relationships

            Continuity of Place

Chapter 3 Rituals of Belonging and Identity

            Rituals That Build Group Identity

            Rituals That Support Transitions

            Rituals That Celebrate Each Other

            How Do Rituals Support a Culture of Agency?

Chapter 4 The Language of Agency

            Intentional Teaching

            Praise versus Encouragement

            Brave Learners

            Learning to Learn

            When Times Get Tough

            Nonverbal Language

Chapter 5 The Environment for Agency

            The Temporal Environment

            The Physical Environment

            All-Access Pass

Chapter 6 Contexts for Agency

            Complex

            Inclusive

            Social

            Active

            Process-Focused

Chapter 7 Educator Agency

            Qualities of the Agentive Educator

            Conditions for Educator Agency

            View of the Educator

            Leadership

            Navigating Challenges

            The Final Word from the Children 99

Appendix Reflection and Goal-Setting Tool

            Clarify Your Learning Culture

            Relationships

            Rituals of Identity and Belonging

            Language of Agency

            Environments for Agency

            Learning Contexts for Agency

 

References

Index

Editorial Reviews

All over the world, educators are increasingly recognizing the profound importance of agency in the life of the child. While there is much written about agency, there are precious few resources that are immediately accessible and speak directly to teachers. Reading A Culture of Agency feels more like a stimulating conversation with a colleague—one of those conversations that has you immediately wanting to get back into the classroom to put the many ideas into practice. Informed by a rich body of work in the field, combined with her own careful, classroom-based research, this book both validates and stretches the thinking of educators committed to championing the rights of the child.  

—Kath Murdoch, Teacher, Author, Education Consultant in Inquiry 

In A Culture Agency, Lisa Burman artfully shows teachers how to nurture agency, not only in their students, but also in themselves as teachers.  In today’s educational environment that is sometimes overly focused on test scores and standardization, Lisa provides a vision for educational experiences that respect teachers’ and students’ abilities to make important decisions. My greatest hope is this book inspires teachers to make thoughtful decisions themselves, rather than relying on someone, or some program, who has never met their students. This book is a must-read for all educators who care about children as thinkers. 

—Matt Glover, consultant and author of Craft and Process Studies 

I feel so honored to be asked to write this review for my friend and her wonderful, important book. It is because of Lisa that I first began to reflect on the importance of agency in the lives of children and their teachers. I am grateful for that spark and for all the theoretical and practical knowledge within the pages of A Culture of Agency. Built on relationships, the framework of rituals of belonging and identity, language of agency, environment, and learning contexts can be applied anywhere in the world, to any classroom. Read this book! It will be a transformational experience.  

—Dr. Diane Kashin, RECE

Now more than ever, children deserve a sense of control and joy as they learn. At a time when so many choices have been made for them, Lisa Burman invites us to recenter children. A Culture of Agency guides educators and caregivers alike to help communities of young learners build authentic relationships based on curiosity, connection, and self-worth. This timely reminder urges us to examine our intentions around engagement and build a true sense of belonging for children and ourselves. 

—Molly Wheeler, Assistant Professor, St. Catherine University's Early Childhood and Montessori Programs in St. Paul, MN 

From the Publisher