Agency

As an educator, it is important to offer students opportunities to write within class, but also write without the restrictions of project expectations. Giving them space to take ownership and agency of their writing through their stories, allows their voice(s) to open up in their work.

I believe strongly in the concepts organized by the Students' Rights to Their Own Language (SRTOL). There is an elitism that tends to hold academia within a certain type of standard that often refuses to acknowledge the evolution of language and the development of cultural differences within the general lexicon of so many people. What is most fascinating to me is how we as educators are supposed to engage with the academic "standards" and yet support and encourage the use of student language in their writing. It is a difficult balance, but one that I find important to address with my students head on. I am constantly reminding them of their value in this voice. Students, therefore, have something important to say and contribute to the conversation of our work.