Agentic Engagement: Sociocultural Supports and Thwarts

• In Event: Fostering Engagement for All: Advancing Socioculturally Inclusive Theory, Research, and Practice in Student Engagement

Abstract

An agent is someone who intentionally and proactively acts to change their surrounding circumstances for the better (Bandura, 2006). In the classroom and in the school, agentic engagement is the personal initiative a student undertakes to change their functioning and surrounding environment for the better, as by speaking up to make a suggestion, to offer their input, or to let the teacher know what they want, prefer, and are interested in (Reeve, 2013). The purpose of such agentic engagement is to improve, enrich, and personalize the circumstances, environment, resources, and interpersonal relationships under which one learns and develops. When students are able to do this, they become increasingly able to learn and develop in ways that satisfy their personal motivations (e.g., interests, personal goals, psychological needs, self-efficacy), attain their personal goals, develop their skills, improve their relationships, and become their desired future selves (Patall, 2024; Reeve et al. 2025).

Agentic engagement produces multiple benefits for students, classrooms, and whole schools, so it is an important question to ask what relationship and sociocultural forces support vs. restrict its expression. To answer this question, we integrate a self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2017) and a social-cognitive approach (Bandura, 2006) to conceptualize agentic engagement and the sociocultural forces that affect it. Agentic engagement can be supported to a high level—both for the individual student and for the whole class, by autonomy support from the teacher, from one’s peers and the prevailing classroom climate, and from the larger national ethos (Cheon et al., 2025). Alternatively, agentic engagement can be restricted and suppressed to a low level by interpersonal control from the teacher, from one’s peers and the prevailing peer-based classroom climate, and from the larger national ethos.

We consider three discussion points. First, if students’ agentic engagement is crucial to fulfill the goals of 21st century education, then why would teachers, peers, and whole nations restrict or outright suppress students’ agentic engagement? Second, alternatively, why would teachers, peers, and whole nations encourage and support students’ agentic engagement? Third, how—specifically—can teachers, schools, and whole nations encourage, support, and enrich students’ agentic engagement?

The presentation will highlight the following provocative/novel insights:
● Educational psychology cannot have a full understanding of engagement without including agentic engagement as a necessary and fundamentally important aspect.
● Agentic engagement can be supported to a high level—by the teacher, by one’s peers and the prevailing classroom climate, and by the national culture.
● Agentic engagement can be thwarted to a low level—by the teacher, by one’s peers and the prevailing classroom climate, and by the national culture.

Authors

• Johnmarshall Reeve, Australian Catholic University

• Hyungshim Jang, Hanyang University