Browsing by Author "Tervo, Veera"

My bachelor’s thesis is a descriptive review in which I aim to describe my topic based on research literature. Student agency is seen to depend on school norms, restrictions and spaces which create a certain type of student agency that often is taken for granted. That is why it is important to ask questions and concentrate on making research on student agency. Based on studies regarding student agency, I focused my thesis’ topic to space for student agency in education. I follow Simmel’s ideas on society where a society is seen to be born in social interaction. I aspire to examine and describe how student agency is being discussed in studies and how different spaces are available and achievable for a student as an agent. Moreover, I define space and ask how different spaces are visible in a school. I familiarised myself with educational and sociological literature discussing student agency. I defined space according to literature and articles based on gender studies and human geography. My focus on lower primary school students’ agency had an impact on the emphasis of the studies I chose to read and examine. In traditional education, spaces for student agency are seen as restricted and narrow. A teacher is a more powerful agent in school spaces than a student. Furthermore, a teacher is also seen as an enabler for student agency. The young age of a student affects in the way their agency is being experienced: a student is not a subject mastering their agency but an object needing guidance and participating when it is allowed. However, there are anarchistic and democratic educational ideas and schools aiming to liberate a student to be a holistic agent. According to these ideologies student agency is a high priority in itself.