The effect of teacher agency support, students’ personal perseverance and work experience on student agency in secondary schools with Estonian and Russian instructional language

Abstract

This article explores how teacher agency support, students’ perseverance and work experience outside of school are related to student agency in the context of Estonia, where Estonian and Russian-speaking students are often educated separately in schools with either Estonian or Russian instructional language. The student-level data (n = 9060) were collected after piloting the survey instrument in 2022. To ascertain the factors and common causes that correlate with student agency, which is measured in a scale constructed by factor analysis, a structural equation modelling analysis was conducted. Besides the main positive effects of teacher agency support, students’ perseverance and work experience on student agency, other statistically positive covariates were found to be Estonian instructional language, male gender, higher school stage and students’ socio-economic background as measured in number of books at home. Among different types of work experience, working on holidays, in student work camps, doing other paid work (i.e., working in their own business), and voluntary unpaid work were significantly positively correlated with the agency. Therefore, students learned many specific and generic skills while working. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of teacher support and work experience in fostering student agency. The type of agency measured in this scale, which combines agentic engagement in the classroom with capacity for resistance to perceived injustice, is more articulated by male students in higher school stages.

Keywords:

• Student agency
• learning at work
• generic competences
• ethnic minority

REVIEWING EDITOR:

• Hengtao Tang, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA

SUBJECTS:

• Theories of Learning
• Educational Research
• International & Comparative Education
• Middle School Education
• Secondary Education
• Sociology of Education
• Education Policy & Politics

Acknowledgments

The authors want to thank Leena Sirp for her help in quantifying the qualitative categories of work experience.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Estonian Research Council under Grant PUTJD1031 and European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant 101079237.

Notes on contributors

Maria Erss

Maria Erss is a researcher and associate professor of curriculum theory at Tallinn University, Estonia. The current research article is related to her postdoctoral research project ‘Understanding the concept of student agency among Estonian and Russian speaking students: What is the experience and attitude of students towards agency in upper secondary schools in Estonia?’

Krista Loogma

Krista Loogma works at Tallinn University, Estonia as distinguished professor of vocational and professional education. Maria Erss and Krista Loogma are currently collaborating on a Twinning project on ‘Enhancing Research on the Integration of Formal Educational Programmes and Workplace Learning’ (FEWL) by conceptualising formal, non-formal and informal learning as vital factors for students’ agency development in constructing their sustainable individual learning paths.

This article combines both insights from student agency and integration of formal education and workplace learning research.

Anna-Liisa Jõgi

Anna-Liisa Jõgi is a researcher and associate professor at Tallinn University. She has a background in educational sciences and teaches quantitative research methods on masters’ and PhD level.