Shared Epistemic Agency and Agency of Individuals - Collaborative Groups and Research Communities

Oct 22, 2026

This paper clarifies the concept of shared epistemic agency by identifying its constituting aspects and analyzing how it is expressed in research settings involving knowledge construction. Drawing on learning sciences, educational psychology, and sociology, it treats shared epistemic agency as a dynamic, emergent capacity for groups to perform collaborative, knowledge-based activities that yield shared outcomes. Comparative analysis of empirical studies highlights different expression patterns across individuals, collaborative groups, and research communities, emphasizing that creating intellectual interdependence is both an individual and group effort supported by structural contexts.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

The “Question” of Agency

Shared Epistemic Agency and Agency of Individuals, Collaborative Groups, and Research Communities Crina Damşa, University of Oslo, PO Box 1092 Blindern, 0317 Oslo, Norway, [crina.damsa@iped.uio.no](crina.damsa@iped.uio.no) Abstract: This paper aims to clarify the concept of shared epistemic agency, with its constituting aspects, and to examine research that illustrates how these are expressed indifferent settings that involve knowledge construction. Building on theoretical works from learning sciences, educational psychology and sociology, shared epistemic agency is conceived as a complex phenomenon that emerges in a dynamic way, and is defined as a capacity that enables groups to carry out collaborative knowledge-based activities that lead to a shared outcome. A comparative analysis of empirical studies of agency shows different ways epistemic agency is expressed in the context of individual and collaborative groups’ learning and research communities’ knowledge work. This discussion foregrounds the idea that creating intellectual interdependence, which is deemed necessary to co-construct knowledge, is an effort that can be assigned both to individuals and groups, but also to how the structural context affords and facilitates this interdependence. Introduction In recent years, constructive views of learning and knowledge work have put forward the argument that processes of knowledge construction require a particular type of engagement and conduct from participants (Bereiter, 2002; Valsiner & Van der Veer, 2000) . In this context, the discussion about agency has emerged stronger; consequently, there is more interest in research concerning what agency means and how it is expressed. This paper addresses the notion of shared epistemic agency and how agency that is related to learning and knowledge work is being expressed at the levels of individual, collaborative groups, and research communities. I argue for the thesis that epistemic agency can have a shared nature and is expressed differently in various contexts. In support of this, I first conduct a conceptual discussion of shared epistemic agency, by analyzing the constituting aspects of the notion. Ultimately, I aim at a synthesizing definition of shared epistemic agency. Second, I provide examples of empirical studies, which investigated epistemic agency in the contexts of learning and knowledge work. This analysis is used to create a better understanding and to provide an illustration of how epistemic agency, and shared epistemic agency in particular, is expressed in different settings. Before diving into the theoretical analysis, I present an example of two contrasting groups of students. Their characteristics were identified based on empirical analyses conducted in various research studies of collaborative learning. Figure 1. Contrasting collaborative groups In all likelihood, this appears familiar to anyone who has been teaching in higher education. If we were to choose, probably the majority of us would prefer to work with groups such as Group A. While that is clear, have we thought in depth what is, in fact, happening in these groups? What makes the collaboration productive and meaningful? What drives it? Is it individual intellectual qualities, or the interest for the knowledge content, or for the final grade? I address some of these issues in the following discussion, with a particular focus on what drives these groups to engage in collaboration the way they do. I associate that with shared epistemic agency, which is viewed as the “capacity that enables groups to carry out collaborative knowledge-based activities that lead to a shared outcome”(Damşa, Kirschner, Andriessen, Erkens, & Sins, 2010, p. 154) ICLS 2014 Proceedings 440 © ISLS The “Question” of Agency A quick look at the concept of agency, and how it has been theorized, shows that many of the present-day conceptions of human agency can be traced back to ideas of the Enlightenment. Origina

FAQs

What does the paper mean by shared epistemic agency?

Shared epistemic agency is defined as a capacity enabling groups to carry out collaborative, knowledge-based activities that lead to shared outcomes.

How does the paper compare agency across different learning contexts?

It presents a comparative analysis of empirical studies showing different ways epistemic agency is expressed in individual learning, collaborative groups, and research communities.

What role does intellectual interdependence play in knowledge co-construction?

The discussion foregrounds intellectual interdependence as necessary for co-constructing knowledge, supported by both individual/group efforts and the structural context.

Oct 22, 2026

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