Avoimen yliopiston kautta tutkintoon – toimijuutta kasvatustieteen opiskelijoiden opinpoluilla
Keywords:
agency, Open University, lifelong learning, agency narrativeAbstract
The aim of the research is to identify activity and interpret the concept of agency in narratives produced by students. The article is based on interviews of six students, ended up in the Faculty of Educational Sciences via Open University path. We focused on the students’ paths: how agency manifests itself in their narratives — partly within the individual, but also relative to externally generated values, goals and preconditions. As the theoretical frame, we introduced the diverse concepts of agency and lifelong learning. We read the data, which the students produced in semi-structured interviews, as narratives and built an analytical framework based on Hitlin and Elder’s model with four analytical types of agency, and the actantial model by A.J. Greimas. The analysis revealed six agency narratives, located in three ways: as the paths of managed agency, goal-directed agency and strengthened agency.
