Agency and voice

Agency is about being in charge of your own decisions and having control over what happens to you. Agency is a right that allows young people to shape their own future (International Youth Foundation; https://www.iyfnet.org/youth-agency)

Agency is not simple. Rangatahi do not have full control over their situations and they cannot always control the things that make them vulnerable.

We can think of rangatahi as the heroes of their change journeys (Duncan, Miller & Sparks, 2007, 34). Our role is to make sure they get lots of chances to practice change in a safe way, learn by doing, and to learn from their mistakes. These things help with making change stick (Sparks & Muro, 2009).

Our relationship with them always has some power - we can take actions that they may not agree with and sometimes we have to have courageous conversations with them and say things they may not want to hear. We also sometimes have power over their situations and the things that make them vulnerable, that they do not. In these circumstances we should work with them to support changes to these circumstances (see Power; Structural thinking & PARTH in practice reflection sheet - Honesty ).

Hearing what rangatahi tell us, acting on that, and supporting them to make change helps us make sure our mahi is relevant and meaningful.

When we think about our mahi, we need to use our understanding of how power and structural factors influence relationships (Barker & Thomson, 2015) (see Power; Structural thinking). We need to think of rangatahi agency as ‘bounded’ (Aaltonen, 2013, Allard, 2007; Evans, 2007; Tomanovic, 2012). That is, there are limits around how much agency they have and how much we are able to hear and take account of their views. They may not see the things we do as giving agency and voice. Other people in their lives may also limit their agency and shut down their voice. To be effective, we need to learn about the people and things that limit their agency.

Sometimes circumstances mean that rangatahi exercise their agency by taking the ‘least bad’ option, or they respond to intervention in their lives with resistance; an obvious exercise of agency (see Working with resistance). Evans (2007, 93) explains that bounded agency is complicated by the actions of rangatahi, other people with power over them, and by their circumstances. This includes things like government policies, and practices such as institutional racism and discrimination (Tomanovic, 2012, 606).

This way of thinking about agency is helpful in relationship-based practice. It reminds us that, even when rangatahi do not have the capacity to make the best choices, they are nonetheless always actively making choices of some sort and they are actively trying to create the best life they can for themselves. The task for workers is to create positive opportunities for them to express their views, their hopes, and dreams, to speak their own truth and be heard, and to support them to make careful choices between different options. Agility by workers can play a positive role here (see Adaptability and being flexible & the PARTH in practice reflection sheet - Adaptable). They can adapt their responses so that young people can positively respond to critical moments because these unanticipated situations can open up opportunities that had not previously been seen (Munford & Sanders, 2015).

Working to support rangatahi to exercise agency means that we work with the coping capacities and resources of rangatahi, even those that may appear as resistance. We also ensure that these capacities and resources are in the forefront in the intervention. Authentic, respectful, and genuine relationships with young people, enable practitioners to harness all of these resources and in the process, social services add to the social capital available to vulnerable young people (Barker & Thomson, 2015; Bolzan & Gale, 2012).

Dore (2020, 2) suggests that workers adopt a position of ‘respectful uncertainty’ and ‘critical curiosity’ (Irizarry et al., 2016, 1861). Being observant and open to fresh perspectives are important steps in effective mahi.

Working with ‘respectful uncertainty’ requires us to feel comfortable with lack of clarity, with dissonance, and we need to suspend judgement and assumptions while we learn (Chappell Deckert & Koenig, 2019). When we practice “critical curiosity” (Irizarry et al., 2016: 1861) we become open to fresh insights and new solutions (see Curiosity and uncertainty). This takes patience and persistence. It also means we need to work collaboratively, respecting all knowledge and expertise (Chappell, Deckert & Koenig, 2019). When we adopt a respectful stance, rangatahi feel comfortable about talking openly and honestly. We show we want to hear their full story. Being open to different ways of understanding and seeing things and providing space for rangatahi to try out different activities and ways of coping (Munford & Sanders, 2015) supports rangatahi to imagine better futures. These ways of working help rangatahi to take advantage of new opportunities. Our being open to knowing about the impact that exclusion and marginalisation has on rangatahi also helps redress injustice and discrimination.

How can kaimahi encourage agency?

Client-directed change is the most sustainable change (Duncan, Miller & Sparks, 2007). Key ways to support youth agency include listening carefully, recognising and empathising with problems and challenges, and being curious and excited by examples of strengths and positive capacities (Duncan, Miller & Sparks, 2007; Hubble, Duncan, & Miller, 1999). Using positive solution finding skills and holding onto optimism and hope are also important. By listening for the pain and the strength, the disasters and the resourcefulness we support young people to be active agents who can reorganise their lives and relationships (Duncan, Miller & Sparks, 2007). When we work in these ways, we activate resources and capacities rangatahi can use in the future to create more change. Here are some strategies we can use to encourage agency.

How do I use these ideas in my mahi?

This practice story illustrates an example of promoting agency and voice.

I am a youth worker in an organisation that supports young people with high-risk behaviour, often labelled as delinquent. Part of this role is to prevent later offending. One rangatahi I worked with was believed to have ADHD by teachers and other adults in his life, although this was not an official diagnosis. Teachers complained that he never sat still for long and was easily distracted. Other adults noted his high-risk taking behaviour outside of the classroom, often taking on dares from other young people; the more outrageous the better. I spent time in our first few sessions together getting to know Jackson. As he became more comfortable with our sessions, I started to ask him what made him happy. He explained that he loved to push himself physically, that it gave him a sense of being alive. He also explained that running far, climbing high structures, jumping off high structures, helped him feel calm, that without this he felt like he might explode. He also loved being outdoors in nature, that he felt at home there. I then worked with him to explore opportunities to engage in high-risk behaviour, in nature, that would also provide more safety, strong learning opportunities, and legitimacy to his behaviour. We looked at volunteering with local conservation groups that worked in the mountains; and outdoor adventure and wilderness programmes focused specifically on rangatahi. In exploring these programs together, Jackson could review what each opportunity offered, he could meet with the people there to see if he would get along with them, and finally decide on a group that worked well for his interests.

Here are some places to look for more information

This site has great information on youth agency: https://iyfglobal.org/youth-agency
Aaltonen, S. (2013). ‘Trying to push things through’: Forms and bounds of agency in transitions of school-age young people. Journal of Youth Studies,16, 3, 375-390. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2012.733807
Allard, A (2007). Assembling selves. Choice and the classed and gendered schooling experiences of ‘marginalized’ young women. In: McLeod, J, Allard, A (Eds) Learning from the margins: Young women, social exclusion and education. (pp.143–156). Routledge, London.
Barker, J. & Thomson, L. (2015). Helpful relationships with service users: Linking social capital. Australian Social Work, 68, 1, 130-145. https://doi.org/10.1080/0312407X.2014.905795
Bolzan, N. & Gale, F. (2012). Using an interrupted space to explore social resilience with marginalised young people. Qualitative Social Work, 11, 5, 502-516. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325011403959
Chappell Deckert, J, Koenig, T L (2019) Social work perplexity: Dissonance, uncertainty, and growth in Kazakhstan. Qualitative Social Work, 18, 2, 163–178.https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325017710086
Dore, I. (2020). Seeing anew: Drawing on a psychosocial approach to consider vulnerability as a virtue for knowing. Journal of Social Work Practice, 35, 4, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2020.1835847
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We thank the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment for funding the research that created this resource (MAUX2006).

This resource was developed by Professor Jackie Sanders. It was refined with input from Donna MacNicol, Te Aroha Noa Community Services, Justina Webster, Dr Linda Liebenberg, Professor Robyn Munford, Dr Jayne Mercier, Davinia Abbott and the team at Dingwall Trust Launch Programme

Citation: Sanders, J. with MacNicol, D., Webster, J., Munford, R. Liebenberg, L., Mercier, J., Abbott, D. and the Dingwall Trust Launch Team (2023). Agency and voice. Relational Resources for Change, https://youthsay.co.nz/rbp-theories/agency-and-voice/

CC BY-NC-ND Licensed using Creative Commons Licensing. Relational Resources for Change Project. You are welcome to use this resource individually, in your teams and in supervision/coaching/critical reflection, you should acknowledge the source using the above citation. You may not change this document, use it to develop your own external training, or for commercial purposes (e.g by charging a fee).