Giddens indicates that human agents are flexible and that they act and recreate their actions within a particular time and space (Schafer, Ferraro, & Mustillo, 2011). They can monitor an ongoing flow of activities and structural conditions, and they can adapt their actions depending on the time and space (Stone, 2005). As a result, time and space will actually change human activities. However, people can position themselves by remembering and sometimes preserving that which is significant to their present life. Sometimes what they consider important in future
78 will be invested in their present time, and their action will be directed and purposive. As agents, they set goals and aspire to achieve the goals which will stimulate present actions.
It is clear that both time and space can have an important effect on human agency but it should also be remembered that the action or interaction in a particular time and space is purpose-bound. Giddens (1984) indicates that the capacity to express reasons for one’s action is one aspect of agency. This entails what Giddens (1987) called discursive consciousness – that conscious reason that individuals give to explain their experiences and motivation for engaging in certain practices in different time and place. As Stone (2005) puts it:
The rationalisation of action thus draws attention to the existence of plurality…plurality could include a range of elements from moral, religious, political, economic…desires. How an agent [acts]… will depend partly upon how, and the extent to which, the various elements have affected each other in the process of cohabitation (pp. 103-104).
Speaking broadly, it is clear that time and space can have effect on the actions and activities of human beings. This can take many forms, from introspection to projection, making alternatives, or changing actions and creating new ones. In line with this it is clear that human agency is not just free will within given time and space.
An interesting example is found in Sibahle, a 23 year old girl from Khayelitsha, a township in the Western Cape, South Africa (SABC 1, November 9, 2013) (Yolwa, 2013). Sibahle was crowned winner of “2013 You Think You Can Dance”. Sibahle defines herself as a contemporary choreographer and she exercised her agency to attend the dance competition auditions. When she was entering the competition she indicated that if she won, she would build her mother a house and move out of the shack they were living in. She would also build herself a studio and teach disadvantaged children in her community how to dance. Sibahle demonstrated agency and constructed her agency as continuity being influenced by structural conditions in a certain place and time. Sibahle’s example indicates that agency is a product of a complex interplay of personal and social realities in which one lives at a particular point in time, but also shows continuity in agency. Bandura, however, points to “proactive agents versus onlookers”, and rejects the idea that human agency can be generalised (Bandura, 2006, p. 168).
79 Giddens’s structuration theory is thus driven by the three dependent constructs of agency, structure, and time and space. The theory rejects any dichotomy between individuals and society, and postulates the interconnectedness of structure and agency (Maclure & Denov, 2006). Of importance in Giddens’s work is the analogy that structures are not permanent and external only, but are sustained, constructed and modified by human action.
Structuration theory has been used in several studies with different groups ranging from children to adults to professionals. However, there is a paucity of research in how the theory has been used in rural education (RE) especially in rural school systems (RSS) and I discuss its utility on a variety of issues related to well-being. Poku (2006), for example, examined women’s vulnerability to HIV because of poverty in Ghana. Structuration theory was used to examine risk factors as well as women’s coping strategies in their challenging situations. The study employed individual interviews, focus group interviews, as well as observation with men and women as key informants. The study revealed that the predominance of masculinity as the dominant mode in the society has made women dependent on men and this constrains them from exercising their agency in finding jobs and even negotiating protected sex. Gutsa (2011), in another study, examined the issues of sexuality, access to information, education and communication (IEC) campaigns among elderly people in Harare. This ethnographic study made use of interviews to access life stories from a group of key informants. The theory of structuration was used as an analytical tool and revealed that the elderly are incorrectly regarded as sexually inactive and less likely to contract the HI virus. The theory was positioned as a tool that could be used to develop agency to access IEC campaigns so that their knowledge and experiences as sexual beings can influence and increase the usefulness of HIV and AIDS campaigns for people in Harare. Asfaw (2004), in another study, examined a paradox in which people’s high level of correct knowledge and awareness of sexual practices did not influence the adoption of safer sexual practices among people in Ethiopia. The data was generated through individual face-to face interviews, focus group discussion (FGD) as well as informal discussions. The study applied structuration and risk theories and revealed that the majority of people consciously constructed their own knowledge about HIV, as well as the way to avoid HIV infection. Exercising their agency, they created barriers to the implementation of protective strategies which they felt were imposed on them. Structuration theory enabled the development of a better understanding of how and why these participants engage in unprotected sex. It was also used in other studies of a similar kind focused
80 on encouraging people to reflect and confront the limitations they face in applying their knowledge and awareness and rejecting the knowledge provided by the experts in the HIV field (Asfaw, 2004; Gutsa, 2011).
Structuration theory has also been used in studies of children. Maclure and Denov (2006) explored the process of becoming a boy soldier in Sierra Leone and they identified two issues – the impoverished socioeconomic status caused by the urban elites and the formation of opposition movement to such injustices. Structuration as it was applied in this study indicated that though all boys were compelled to join the opposition movement, they learnt the practices imposed on them to fit into the movement, but with time, they reflected and made independent choices and recreated themselves. Structuration, it would appear, can be used to advance knowledge and self-reflection (Bandura, 2006). A study by Naidoo (2009) analysed the refugee action support program aimed at refugee students in Sydney. The study made use of responses from co-ordinating teachers and pre-service teachers through semi-structured individual interviews, focus group interviews, and a questionnaire. The data covered teachers’ experiences (socially and academically) within the Refugee Action Support Program. Results revealed that small group tutoring contributed to closer interactions between the refugee students and their teachers, thereby increasing trust, faith and confidence. The closer they got to their teachers the more the teacher gained access to the students’ lived experiences. This created an opportunity for teachers to also reflect on their teaching, to construct other alternatives, and use appropriate pedagogies for teaching refugee students. Therefore, framing the study within structuration theory created a “multi-layered array” (Campbell et al., 2007, p. 413) of interactions for both students and teachers to engage in dialogue and reflect, which in turn, gave rise to new and/or alternative ways of teaching refugee students. This shows how structuration can be used to enhance human agency, and offset dependency and experiences that limit human agency. Essentially, while the Refugee Action Support program remained intact, the findings highlight the possible limit of human agency because such programs in which neither the teachers nor the students have control over them reproduce the rules that best serve the program. In this case, structuration theory provided an opportunity for continuous debate on the Refugee Action Support program in Sydney and beyond.
81 A study by Beringer et al. (2006) used structuration to explore the process of care co-ordination in children’s in-patient health care in the United Kingdom and Denmark. This ethnographic study employed a questionnaire, interviews and observation with key informants. Giddens’s structuration was used as analytical tool to explain care co-ordination. The findings revealed that the overall care came from different sources, material and non-material. However actions were guided by macro influences such as the UK National Service Framework for Children. The prescribed rules influenced the staff’s action about care co-ordination thereby producing and reproducing microsystem rules and regulations. However, the use of structuration theory provided an opportunity for reflection, questions, and debates so that care could be tailored to the diverse needs of patients. Johnson (2008) mapped out how structuration theory is appropriate to understand children’s resilience in school. In particular the theory was used to frame students’ reflections on teachers’ actions that promote students’ resilience at school. The study adopted a qualitative approach and used semi-structured interviews with 9- to 12- year-old children and their teachers from a school in a disadvantaged suburb in Australia. The findings revealed that students were able to identify dynamisms of actions towards resilience. Johnson (2008) provided evidence that the teachers’ actions were more conventional and authoritative and were in accord with the policies. Furthermore, Johnson (2008) also felt that such authoritative regimes became a barrier to student resilience. We can see, therefore, that structuration theory is relevant and useful for micro-level analysis of a school and can be used to disrupt actions that seem to threaten the well-being of the students.
As I have explained, structuration theory is applicable in many fields that involve human beings. It is not possible to discuss all these in this study and I referred only to some of those that could inform how I might use it in my study. The theory, more importantly, provides necessary concepts for reflecting, questioning, and challenging rules and practices as well as action, all of which create and recreate structures that, in turn, regulate and influence actions.