Comparing student agency in an ethnically and culturally segregated society: How Estonian and Russian speaking adolescents achieve agency in school

In this paper, the experiences and views of 16-year-old high school students are explored regarding their perceived agency in school related contexts in an ethnically and culturally segregated post-soviet school system in Estonia. Eight focus group interviews were conducted in spring 2021 with 37 students in schools with Estonian and Russian as the language of instruction (henceforth EIL schools and RIL schools). The study suggests that students in schools with a different instructional language experience agency in different ways, which reflect differences in their cultural, relational and economic resources. The forms of agency identified in this study manifested through the following themes: choosing responsibly; developing assertiveness; emancipation from teachers and parents; courage to express a different opinion; resistance to perceived injustice and freedom to make mistakes. In some of the most restrictive environments of RIL schools, a resistance or subversion dimension of agency was developed by students.