The Role of Agency in Shaping the Educational Journeys of Care‐experienced Adults: Insights from a Life Course Study of Education and Care

Abstract

Research examining the low educational attainment of children in care and care leavers tends to underuse social theory (Berridge, 2007). To contribute to addressing this gap, we use life course theory to explore the role of agency in shaping the educational pathways of 18 Irish adults (aged 24-36 years) with care experience. Findings suggest that agency is a valuable conceptual tool for examining the nuance and complexity of how individual actions shape the education of care-experienced adults throughout the life course and interact with contextual and structural factors over time.

Embedded in relations—Interactions as a source of agency and life opportunities for care‐experienced young adults

“…In accordance with findings from other studies, this scenario underlines the importance of the interactional responses that these young people receive from social workers (caseworkers, residential‐care workers) or others with everyday responsibilities, such as foster parents, residential‐care workers or teachers (Brady & Gilligan, 2020; Paulsen & Berg, 2016). Adults in these key professional roles can encourage and cultivate positive agentic capacities by their responses and by showing their commitment to these young people, who have a strong need for emotional and practical support, both when in care but also after formally leaving care (e.g.…”

“…While such empirical work is no doubt important, scholars (e.g. Brady & Gilligan, 2020) have pointed out the need for the application of wider social theory and more sophisticated explanations. A growing body of studies now use sociological theories of human agency as a lens when analysing children and young people who are or have been in care.…”

“…In his study, he highlights how young people are agentic and make choices that wider society, or key adults in their lives, may deem to be good or bad. In a more recent publication, Brady and Gilligan (2020) used a life‐course conceptualisation of agency to investigate how agency helps to shape educational experiences. They analysed how small agentic actions and positive and negative expressions of agency occur across the life course in relation to education and affect educational pathways over time.…”

Agency for Learning: Intention, Motivation, Self-Efficacy and Self-Regulation

“…Planfulness involves the extent to which individuals report making rational, rather than impulsive, decisions (Hitlin and Elder, 2007). Students exhibit planful competence if they have the capability to select social settings that best match their goals, values, and strengths (Shanahan, 2000;Brady and Gilligan, 2019). This competence helps students to project their agency in an organized way over time.…”

Young people looking forward: Imagined future and normative tensions in urban Norway

“…People actively draw from available ‘tool‐kits’ (Lamont & Small, 2008; Swidler, 1986; Wertsch, 1998,) and use them in their narratives when making meaning of their lives (Bruner, 1990; Gulbrandsen, 2014; Hundeide, 2005). Children also have agency as active meaning makers (Brady & Gilligan, 2020; Kirby, 2020). In this meaning‐making process, the relation between agency and structure is dialectic, not binary; children have capabilities of changing, producing and reproducing their social worlds (Oswell, 2020).…”