DEVELOPING THE AGENCY OF PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS THROUGH ARTISTIC ACTIVITIES

Abstract

The article provides a theoretical reflection on the problem of developing agency in primary school students in the context of modern education. The national spectrum of scientific research is analyzed, which made it possible to identify its limitation, mainly focused on sociological, language-educational, and career-oriented aspects of agency. At the same time, the directions of studying agency in foreign scientific discourse are systematized, in particular sociological and anthropological, which reveal agency as a multidimensional phenomenon associated with the interaction between the individual and the social environment. The article states that the regulatory foundations of the New Ukrainian School create a conceptual basis for the development of students’ agency despite the absence of explicit consideration of this phenomenon. Certain content components of student competencies and cross-cutting skills are directly correlated with the understanding of agency as an individual’s ability for conscious choice, self-regulation, and influence on the educational process and personal development. It is proven that an important factor in the development of agency is a child’s belief in their own abilities and in the impact of their thoughts and actions on society. Once formed, the belief in one’s own effectiveness regulates expectations, the choice of behavioral strategies, the mobilization and maintenance of effort, as well as affective reactions. The article pays special attention to the potential of artistic activity as a means of developing agency in younger schoolchildren and presents practical experience in implementing pedagogical conditions for its formation in students in a private school. Such conditions include: creating a comfortable and variable educational space for initiating student activity; pedagogical facilitation of expressing opinions in the process of joint activity; integration of children’s ideas into collective creative work. These conditions contribute to the development of students’ subject position, their initiative, responsibility, and awareness of their own significance in joint activity, which forms the basis for the development of agency. The peculiarities of organizing the educational process are revealed, which involve active student participation in choice, discussion, creative self-expression, and decision-making. Examples of the use of facilitation practices, the mapping method, and the joint creation of a creative product (stories, musical accompaniment, floral compositions) are provided, ensuring the involvement of each child in the activity and forming experience in influencing its process and outcome.