Relational Agency Essay

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need to learn such skills very quickly. Edwards (2005) introduces the concept of relational agency as: -
“a capacity to align one’s thought and actions with those of others in order to interpret problems of practice and to respond to those interpretations” (Edwards 2005: 169-170)

Although I have suggested that relational agency is an essential skill for today’s leaders it is not a new skill. Such agency was and still is required to be successful in the deployment of distributed leadership for example. It is the capacity, which involves recognising that another person may be a resource and that work needs to be done to access that resource.
As a further reflection this is not unlike my argument regarding working more closely with children’s services in respect of the child in ‘need’.
“Relational agency shifts the focus from the system to joint action and the impact on those who engage in it between and across systems.” (Edwards 2005: 174)

How exactly does this ‘step aside’ link to my story?
Perhaps then greater importance can be given to agency as an active contribution to shaping my work practice. Biesta, Priestly and Robinson (2015) suggest that agency is not something that people can have such as capacity or competence. They say that agency is …show more content…

Poverty, working through health, housing and employment inequalities, acts directly upon the possibilities of benefiting from education in diverse and very immediate ways. There is no point in denying these things but they are not and must not become a basis for reducing expectations of student capabilities. Nonetheless, young people who are hungry, neglected, frightened or stressed do not learn well, and learning may not be a priority for them.” (Ball 2013:

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