What is Agency and how is it exercised

In literature agency is defined as a personal capacity. It is the feeling of gaining control over ones action. When a person has a good understanding, feels confident about something and is able to make decisions is an agentic person. However agency is exercised and enacted in a context where other factors like the structure, the rules, other people and the norms of the context affect our ability to take action or make a decision.

In the research field people are generally referred to as ‘actors’ or ‘agents’. In my opinion, actors are those who follow rules and are good followers. In our context ‘actors’ are generally those who ‘act’ in a TV drama or film or theatre. These people act on a script written by someone else, usually the script writer. So the ‘actors’ act upon it. In research particularly in educational research, actor are used for those people (school management, or teachers) who enact an educational policy or curriculum. So actors generally follow rules and implement policies.

Agents on the contrary are people with a potential of their own to act. These are called agentic. They go beyond the rules and norms and act using their personal capacity. However this personal capacity is not a free will. There are societal structures which can prevent agency. For example teachers are generally restricted to teach the curriculum. The curriculum is the structure which restricts agency. The classroom norms can also limit agency. For instance if students ask questions in the classroom, they are agentic. However if the teacher discourages their questioning, their agentic capacity is reduced.

Society works more or less the same way. There are actors in a society. These are generally seen as good people who follow the rules and norms of the society. These are followers. Whereas in a society, when people exercise their agency, and become agentic, they are not encouraged. Agentic actions require something beyond rules. Agentic actions require confidence and courage. That does not necessarily means breaking the rules or not respecting the rules. It simply means doing something which was not in the rule or norms.

While we understand that society rules and norms are to protect everyone from harming each other or even themselves. There are something within the norms that are actually harmful for some segments of the society. For instance if a woman is tortured physically or emotionally, the society norm for her is to keep quiet. In this case of the norm the woman suffers and at times harms herself. Then the society norm becomes questionable. But power is involved in developing these norms and rules. So if the woman (or anyone who suffers) is weak, and they suffer. On the contrary if the woman (or minor) still goes on and raises her voice about her abuse and cares less about the society norms, she is agentic.

There is a misperception of agent in our society which needs addressing. We generally think that agents are people who work for other people like external agencies. This is a very wrong perception and should be addressed. If a person is working for an external organization, they should be ‘actors’ not ‘agents’. Agents and agentic actions are positive and useful for a society’s progress. So we need to change this definition of agents and understanding it as ‘someone’s capacity to act’. Someone has to be brave enough to decide and take actions.

Playing agentic role is not always easy. We should also be careful to exercise our agentic role. Agency is creativity. It is critical thinking. It is doing something that is progressive. But we need to play it with responsibility. While exercising our agentic role we should be careful that we do not harm others. We need to be ethical.