Why grit is not enough
Grit, commonly understood as perseverance and sustained commitment toward long-term goals, has become an influential concept in educational research and practice. Yet emphasizing individual perseverance can obscure the structural inequalities that shape students’ opportunities to succeed.
My research offers a complementary sociological perspective: understanding educational success requires examining not only motivation and persistence, but also agency and the social environments in which agency develops.
In “Grit and Agency” (2017), I examine how students facing socioeconomic disadvantage navigate obstacles and exercise agency. My book The Power of Student Agency: Looking Beyond Grit to Close the Opportunity Gap (2020) develops this argument for educators, researchers, and policymakers.
What is student agency?
Student agency concerns young people’s capacity to make purposeful choices, navigate challenges, and act toward meaningful goals.
A sociological perspective recognizes that this capacity is neither developed nor exercised independently of social conditions. Relationships, institutional expectations, access to resources, and educational opportunities influence what students can realistically accomplish.
This approach moves beyond asking whether students possess sufficient grit. It asks how schools and other institutions can create conditions in which students’ agency can flourish.
From individual perseverance to structural opportunity
This research connects student agency to several areas of educational scholarship:
- Sociology of education: How social class, institutional environments, and unequal resources influence educational trajectories.
- Opportunity gaps: Why unequal outcomes cannot be explained solely through individual motivation or effort.
- Social and cultural capital: How relationships, knowledge, and institutional resources help individuals navigate educational and occupational opportunities.
- Educational leadership: How leaders can challenge inequitable practices and create environments that support agency and meaningful change.
Implications for researchers and educators
A focus on agency encourages researchers to examine the interaction between individual action and structural conditions. For educators and institutional leaders, it shifts attention toward creating environments that expand students’ opportunities rather than expecting students to overcome systemic barriers through perseverance alone.
The central question becomes not simply how to make students more resilient, but how to build educational environments in which their aspirations, capacities, and actions can translate into meaningful opportunities.