A review of literature in the fields of education and psychology describe “agency” as more than just one’s internal world, but also impacted by and working in conjunction with the social world (Bandura, 2001; Vygotsky, 1978). One’s sense of agency involves how one authors ideas in learning environments, but can also reflect how one sees learning as connected to creating change in one’s life and world around oneself (Calabrese Barton & Tan 2010; Clapp et al., 2017). Within making contexts, such agency comes to life in the intentionality with which youth pursue an idea or plan, personalize projects and products, take intellectual and creative risks without a blueprint, persist through challenges, and direct their own learning (Petrich, Wilkinson, & Bevan, 2013; Bevan, Ryoo, Vanderwerff, Petrich, & Wilkinson, 2017). Based on these definitions of agency, we recognize that agency can be difficult to measure, but may be most visible when examining shifts in youth’s perceptions of their projects and self while making over time. Thus, the suite of tools regarding agency offers educators a variety of approaches to measuring and assessing agency through: portfolios (that allow youth to author their own stories of agency with making projects over time with both visual tools and reflections on various stages of their work), interviews (that educators can conduct with youth, or youth can conduct in peer-to-peer conversations), surveys (that capture snapshots of youth perspectives on their own senses of agency before and after a making project), and post-project reflections (that allow youth to voice the ways they see their sense of agency at the end of creating a project). The tools can be used collectively or singly, but are packaged in a kit that 1) defines agency based on research literature in education, psychology, and making; 2) offers detailed steps for how to create portfolios with youth that specifically get at issues of agency in their design/build processes; 3) provides context and methods for conducting interviews with youth about their projects in relation to agency; 4) offer two different survey scales related to agency and guidance on how to rate them; 5) lists various reflection questions that can be used to surface student agency at the end of a project; and 6) provides a list of references and further resources for understanding and measuring agency in making contexts.
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