Dissemination
Academic Publications
- Harteis, C., Goller, M. & Gerholz, K.-H. (2022). Digitalization of work: Challenges for workplace learning. In L. Cairns, M. Malloch & B. O’Connor (Hrsg.), The SAGE Handbook of Learning and Work (S. 329-341). London: Sage.
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Maria Erss, Krista Loogma & Anna-Liisa Jõgi (2024) The effect of teacher agency support, students’ personal perseverance and work experience on student agency in secondary schools with Estonian and Russian instructional language, Cogent Education, 11:1, 2314515, DOI: 10.1080/2331186X.2024.2314515.
This article explores how teacher agency support, students’ perseverance and work experience outside of school are related to student agency in the context of Estonia, where Estonian and Russian-speaking students are often educated separately in schools with either Estonian or Russian instructional language. The student-level data (n=9060) were collected after piloting the survey instrument in 2022. To ascertain the factors and common causes that correlate with student agency, which is measured in a scale constructed by factor analysis, a structural equation modelling analysis was conducted. Besides the main positive effects of teacher agency support, students’ perseverance and work experience on student agency, other statistically positive covariates were found to be Estonian instructional language, male gender, higher school stage and students’ socio-economic background as measured in number of books at home. Among different types of work experience, working on holidays, in student work camps, doing other paid work (i.e., working in their own business), and voluntary unpaid work were significantly positively correlated with the agency. Therefore, students learned many specific and generic skills while working. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of teacher support and work experience in fostering student agency. The type of agency measured in this scale, which combines agentic engagement in the classroom with capacity for resistance to perceived injustice, is more articulated by male students in higher school stages.
- Näkk, Anne-Mai and Timoštšuk, Inge, The Relationship between Learning Context and School Burnout at the End of Primary Education. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction. Available at SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/
ssrn.4733532.
Conference Presentations
- Maria Erss presented her research titled "Student agency as cultural and gender phenomenon: The role of teacher support and work experience in predicting agency" on August 22nd at Europe's largest education conference ECER in Glasgow. The presentation was part of a symposium on the agency of children and young people which had participants also from Germany and the UK. The research of Maria Erss revealed that teacher support and previous work experience of students are positively correlated with student agency. Further, student agency is influenced by school culture and gender. Students from schools with Estonian instructional language and boys expressed higher levels of agency and rated the support of teachers to their agency higher than students from schools with Russian instructional language and girls. In order for the youth to have the courage and will to be proactive and make independent decisions in school, students' choices and the freedom to express their opinions and make suggestions have to be supported. The self-confidence that is attributed to agency can also be increased by work experience. Therefore, opportunities must be offered for the youth to gain work experience.
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FEWL in the Media
- Maria Erss discussed on January 31st in the Tallinn University talk show "Expert on air" among other topics student agency and its relationship with work experience which is also the focus of the project "Enhancing research on formal educational programmes and workplace learning". Watch the recording in Postimees TV here. More detailed discussion of the relationship between student agency and work experience will be available in the soon to be published research article of Maria Erss, Krista Loogma, and Anna-Liisa Jõgi (2024) "The effect of teacher agency support, students’ personal perseverance and work experience on student agency in secondary schools with Estonian and Russian instructional language". Cogent Education. DOI - 10.1080/2331186X.2024.2314515
Repository for FEWL Documents