Measuring Student Agency Conditions

Abstract

This study defines student agency as the capacity to exercise control over the nature and quality of one’s school learning. Per Social Cognitive Theory, student agency is shaped by reciprocal relationships among individual psychology, behavior, and environment. To date, student agency research has primarily focused on the individual facet; I address a fundamental gap by formally measuring key aspects of the environmental facet. Because course instructors shape student agency conditions, I developed, evaluated, and applied three self-administered psychometric instruments for use with lead instructors of K-12 and higher education courses to measure self-reported provision of student agency opportunities (ELIPSA), agency-related decision latitude (IARDL), and general receptivity to student agency under hypothetically favorable conditions (GIRSA). The study employed a multi-phase design, including cognitive interviews and focus groups with educators and experts to refine the scales, followed by a survey of U.S. instructors (N = 797) to evaluate the scales’ psychometric properties and scale relationships. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the three scales are essentially unidimensional. Classical test and item response theories informed shortening of longer scales for practical use and precision while maintaining high information and reliability. Multiple-group graded response models accounted for differential item functioning between K-12 and higher educators to enable valid cross-sector comparisons. Correlation and regression using score estimates reveal that agency receptivity (GIRSA) and decision latitude (IARDL) predict the self-reported provision of student agency opportunities (ELIPSA) for K-12 teachers, while receptivity (but not decision latitude) predicts opportunity provision for higher educators. This finding is robust when using expected a posteriori scores and plausible values with Rubin pooling. That is, student agency opportunity provision is associated with instructor sentiments for all educators and institutional affordances specifically for K-12 teachers. Secondary findings from EAP models suggest possible interactions involving the three latent constructs, plus relationships between agency opportunity provision and student and teacher race in K-12 and between opportunity provision and instructor course experience and student wealth in higher education. This study contributes new tools to measure student agency conditions as well as findings that motivate future research and inform policy and practice.