Students’ beliefs about agentic engagement: A phenomenological study in urban high school physical science and engineering classes.

Abstract

Agentic engagement refers to students’ proactive and constructive contribution into the flow of classroom instruction and activities. Given its potential as a student-initiated pathway to promoting motivation and learning, the goal of this study was to describe agentic engagement from the perspectives of racially diverse students in urban high school science classrooms. A secondary goal was to consider the relation between belonging to an underrepresented group in science (i.e., female, Black, and/or Latino) and thoughts and behaviors pertaining to agentic engagement. We conducted focus groups and interviews with 68 students using phenomenological methods to examine what, how, why, when, and who questions regarding the use of agentic engagement in science classes. Results focused on the following themes. (a) Students identified a variety of strategies for enacting agentic engagement (e.g., suggestions), though their use was described as rare. (b) Students emphasized the importance of style or approach for enacting agentic engagement in constructive and effective ways, with Black and Latino students noting the importance of avoiding disrespect and approaching teachers privately and girls mentioning using a group approach. (c) Students identified three rationales for agentically engaging, including to elicit teacher support, support personal experiences of motivation and learning, and create a more desirable learning environment for the classroom community. (d) Students discussed a variety of factors that made agentic engagement more or less likely, including teacher factors (e.g., encouragement, discouragement) and student factors (e.g., personality). Boys mentioned teacher encouragement more frequently than girls. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.

Agentic engagement: Transcending passive motivation.

“…Qualitative and observational evidence also supports the validity of the agentic engagement construct (e.g., Montenegro, 2019;Zambrano et al, 2022Zambrano et al, , 2023. For example, focus groups and interviews with racially diverse high school students in urban U.S. schools have revealed that, across gender and race, students recognize the agentic engagement construct in a variety of behaviors that they or their classmates use, though rarely (e.g., Manzuoli et al, 2019), and believe it to have multiple important purposes, including to elicit motivation and learning support from teachers, to support one's own motivational experience, and to help create a more supportive classroom environment for the entire community of learners (Zambrano et al, 2022). Focus groups with teachers have similarly revealed that they too recognize the importance of agentic engagement strategies for supporting student learning and teacher planning but feel students rarely enact them (Zambrano et al, 2023).…”

“…The quantitative research conducted has demonstrated that agentic engagement is a distinct form of engagement, having modest correlations with the other engagement components, separating from them in factor structures, and uniquely predicting outcomes like achievement even after accounting for other components of engagement (e.g., Mameli & Passini, 2019;Reeve, 2013;Reeve & Tseng, 2011;Reeve, Cheon, & Jang, 2020). Qualitative and observational evidence also supports the validity of the agentic engagement construct (e.g., Montenegro, 2019;Zambrano et al, 2022Zambrano et al, , 2023. For example, focus groups and interviews with racially diverse high school students in urban U.S. schools have revealed that, across gender and race, students recognize the agentic engagement construct in a variety of behaviors that they or their classmates use, though rarely (e.g., Manzuoli et al, 2019), and believe it to have multiple important purposes, including to elicit motivation and learning support from teachers, to support one's own motivational experience, and to help create a more supportive classroom environment for the entire community of learners (Zambrano et al, 2022).…”

“…The construct reflects the notion that people have the capacity to act as agents, even in contexts like school, work, or the doctor's office, where they find themselves in a subordinate role. Moreover, it reflects the notion that when people go beyond passively responding to the intended motivation support of others in their environment and instead participate in shaping the support they receive, they function better (e.g., Reeve, 2013;Zambrano et al, 2022). Agentic engagement allows people to collaborate with those who would support them to reach important goals, ensuring that they have what they need to be successful and thrive.…”

“…Because instruction in most classrooms is relatively dominated by teachers, many secondary and tertiary students are not comfortable with being agentically engaged and activate it more rarely than other forms of engagement (e.g., Cook-Sather et al, 2021;Manzuoli et al, 2019;Zambrano et al, 2022). Qualitative research with students and teachers reveals PATALL that agentic engagement is relatively rare for a number of reasons, including students' personalities, existing beliefs and motivation, academic and behavioral background, social roles, and especially, teachers' encouragement or discouragement of agentic engagement with their strategies and in communication (e.g., Montenegro, 2019;Zambrano et al, 2022Zambrano et al, , 2023. Many of these antecedents are likely to apply to other domains as well.…”

“…In fact, some research has explicitly demonstrated the greater importance of context for promoting agentic engagement relative to personal dispositions and beliefs (Michou et al, 2023). Thus, a key challenge for encouraging agentic engagement is that those in positions of authority, like teachers and managers, or even parents, are sometimes not autonomy supportive (e.g., Minkin & Horowitz, 2023;Reeve, 2009) and may not encourage agentic engagement (e.g., Montenegro, 2019;Zambrano et al, 2022Zambrano et al, , 2023. Over time, people who are consistently provided with autonomy support in anticipation of or in response to agentic engagement are likely to use more of it and see themselves as collaborators with others, including teachers, managers, parents, and health care providers, as they persist through challenges together (Reeve & Shin, 2020).…”