How is agency possible Towards an ecological understanding of.pdf

WORKING PAPER 5 How is agency possible? Towards an ecological understanding of agency-as-achievement. Gert Biesta and Michael Tedder February 2006 Copyright lies with the authors. If you cite or quote, please be sensitive to the fact that this is work in progress. Contact author: Prof. Gert Biesta School of Education and Lifelong Learning St Lukes Campus The University of Exeter Heavitree Road Exeter, EX1 2LU Email: g.biesta@exeter.ac.uk Telephone: +44 (0)1392 264750 The Learning Lives Research Project The Learning Lives research project began in June 2004, and runs until the end of January 2008. The project is a collaboration between the University of Exeter, the University of Brighton, the Univesity of Leeds and the University of Stirling, all in the UK. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of it Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP). The award number is RES-139-25-0111. The focus of the research is on the interrelationships between learning, identity and agency in people’s lives. There are two strands to the data collection, involving the integration of three different methodologies. The first strand is a qualitative study of around 120 people, drawn from different walks of life, living in different parts of the country, and of different ages, gender and ethnicities. Each of the university partners has its own sub-sample, with different core interest