From one of my favorite books, Matthew Crawford's Shop Class as Soul Craft, talking about agency:
"The idea of agency..is activity directed toward some end that is affirmed as good by the actor...it flows from an apprehension of real features of the world....
In activities that are directed toward some end...the goodness of the end in question isn't simply posited. There is a progressive revelation of why one ought to aim at just this, as well as how one can achieve it.
As you learn your trade, this particular end takes its place in a larger picture that is emerging, a picture of what it means to be a good plumber or a good mechanic. ....
The progressive character of revelation energizes your efforts to become competent--something about the world is coming into clearer view, and it is exciting.
The sense that your judgments are becoming truer is part of the experience of being fully engaged in what you are doing; it is a feeling of joining a world that is independent of yourself, with the help of another who is further along." (pp. 206-207)
It would be hard to find a better description, it seems to me, of what it is to teach--whether the learning is centered on plumbing or music, the incredible exhileration of active engagement in the teaching process arises directly from the experience of agency.
Now, to figure out how to incorporate this awareness, even more, into my classroom....
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