Verso un programma di ricerca sull’agency in accordo al capability approach

Abstract

The concept of agency is increasingly mentioned in policy documents and its use in education according to a capability approach is particularly recent. This paper sets to review the studies on the matter to identify theories, instruments on how to promote agency in teachers according to a capability approach. It presents three perspectives on agency in professional contexts, these are the sociocultural studies originated from Vygotsky, the identity and life-course notions, and the social realist theory. In the conclusions the paper integrates the ecological model with the social realist theory, and eventually hypothesizes two research streams to study agency according to the capability approach. These concern, on the one hand, the development of forms of agency for active participation and positive social change, while the other pertains to the identification of the specific factors that in each context allow for its substantial achievement