The Power of Student Agency: Looking Beyond Grit to Close the Opportunity Gap

by Anindya Kundu, Pedro A. Noguera

Overview

How can we promote the learning and well-being of all students, especially those who come from some of the most disadvantaged backgrounds? Anindya Kundu argues that we can fight against deeply rooted inequalities in the American educational system by harnessing student agency—each person’s unique capacity for positive change. To make his case, Kundu draws powerful narratives from a population of individuals who beat the odds to become academically and professionally successful. These strivers have overcome challenges such as broken families, homelessness, unexpected pregnancies, forms of abuse, incarceration, and more, to make it in the world. But it wasn’t simply individualism, tenacity, resilience, or grit that helped them. Rather, as Kundu illustrates, it was a combination of social and cultural supports that paved the path towards their dreams, harnessing the inherent power of their agency.

Book Features:

• A counter-narrative to the popular misconception that all students need is “grit.”
• A strengths-based approach to education that is sensitive to students’ communities and cultures.
• Rich, first-person quotes from individuals who have overcome immense odds.
• Useful diagrams for educational stakeholders on the relationship between grit and agency.
• Descriptions of dense sociological concepts presented in plain terms.
• Inclusion of fundamental and new waves in psychology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807763889
Publisher:	Teachers College Press
Publication date:	07/17/2020
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	403,664
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Anindya Kundu is currently a senior fellow at the City University of New York Graduate Center. His work has appeared in NPR Education, MSNBC, the Huffington Post, and he has given two TED Talks with millions of views.

Table of Contents

Foreword Pedro A. Noguera ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Prologue: Welcome to American Dilemmas xv

Introduction: From Seeing Roses in Concrete to Believing Schools Are Gardens 1

1 Rugged Individualism and the Co-option of Grit 11

Individual Outcomes Are Largely Products of "Social and Cultural Reproduction" 13

Swim Tests and Afro-Puffs 16

Getting to Agency: Limitations of Grit in Fully Explaining Achievement 19

Conceptual Framework 20

2 Agency as a Foundational Sociological Concept 24

A Classic Sociological Debate and Finding a Balance Through Grit and Agency 25

Studying Exceptional Cases to Broaden the Understanding of Disadvantage 28

Agency Redefined and Operationalized 33

3 The Home and Family 40

Parenting Amid Structural Limitations 41

"Growing Up Too Soon": Immense Responsibilities and Nuanced Effects on Agency 51

Young Parents: An Amplifying Effect on Agency and Grit 54

Conclusion 59

4 The Social Environment and School Settings 62

Social and Cultural Capital Revisited: Essential Ingredients to Success 62

Mentors and Networks: Improving Students' Worldviews, Senses of Self, and Help-Seeking Behaviors 69

Conclusion 78

5 The Ever-Evolving Human 81

Purpose: A Component of Passion and a Basis for Developing Grit and Agency 82

Giving Back to Make Positive Change: A Form of Positive Resistance 82

Faith: Reaffirms Purpose, Hones Focus, and Fuels Agency 86

Mental Health, Wellness, and Fulfillment Benefit from Monitoring and Social Supports 92

Understanding Burnout from a Social Perspective 96

Guided Self-Reflection Can Help a Person Re-realize Their Passions and and Reignite Their Agency 102

Conclusion 104

6 Conclusion: Fighting the Normalization of Failure 107

Shifting Paradigms About What's Possible 109

Recommendations for Fostering Grit and Agency 115

Appendix: Positionality, Research Design, and Conceptual Framework 125

Why I Research 125

Research Positionality 127

Methodology 128

Addressing Limitations and Looking Forward 135

Notes 139

References 143

Index 154

About the Author 165

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Kundu’s book is much more than simply an academic contribution to the vast literature on education and social mobility. If his core ideas are taken seriously, this book can serve as a resource to educators, policymakers, community advocates, and others who seek to address the educational needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged students."
—From the Foreword by Pedro A. Noguera, dean, USC Rossier School of Education

"One of my favorite thinkers on the structural and personal opportunities all children need to thrive."
—Angela Duckworth, author of the bestseller Grit

“Whether you are an educator, a youth organizer, a theorist, or a researcher, you will appreciate Kundu’s commitment to representing ‘strivers of color’ from low-income communities in all the complexity they deserve. You will meet young people of vision and appetite. You will read of the academic hunger and the yearning for recognition that propels these young people forward. You will bear witness to the legacy of Medgar Evers, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, and others in the lives of young people who take on too much, try too hard to be perfect, burn out, and rise up again. Kundu offers a powerful counter-narrative to caricatured stories of deficit and romantic narratives of grit. He refuses to equate disadvantage with damage, but also refuses to meritocratize the steep climb for working class youth of color.”
—Michelle Fine, distinguished professor of critical psychology, The Graduate Center CUNY

"The Power of Student Agency is not only about what students can do. It is precisely a recognition of how we must see students, moving our gaze beyond the deficit perspective and toward a profit perspective that reveals not only the agency but power inherent in all human beings."
—David E. Kirkland, professor of urban education and executive director of NYU Metro Center

“Agency is the antidote to hopelessness and despair. Kundu’s exploration of this essential element of our humanity must be attended to if we hope to build schools that support the wellness of our children.”
—Jeff Duncan-Andrade, professor of ethnic studies, San Francisco State University

"Anindya Kundu pushes us to disrupt the way we understand grit and resilience to actually equip students with knowledge, skills, and experiences that further develop their own strengths and talents. During these unprecedented times, we must ensure that students have a social-political consciousness beyond thriving in unjust systems."
—Maurice R. Swinney, Chief Equity Officer, Chicago Public Schools

Editorial Reviews

Kundu’s spirited writing encourages practitioners at all levels to move toward a strength-based model that affirms students and their capacity, and he challenges readers to examine their own beliefs about student success and demystify individualist ideologies that suggest success if one simply tries hard enough.”

—Teachers College Record

“Expertly written, organized and presented, The Power of Student Agency: Looking Beyond Grit to Close the Opportunity Gap is an extraordinary and highly recommended addition to school district, college, and university library Teacher Education collections.”

—Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher