16 A D&D Club: A Gateway to Student Agency
A D&D Club: A Gateway to Student Agency Sometimes, fostering student agency doesn’t require elaborate plans or school-wide initiatives. Sometimes, it just takes observing, listening, and giving students a chance. Last year, I worked with a group of students who faced significant challenges in finding motivation and purpose in their learning. Over time, many of them had developed a distant relationship with school, often seeing it as a place of routines rather than meaningful experiences. It was a complex starting point for both students and teachers, and it reminded me how essential it is to create learning environments where agency, voice, and purpose are at the center of everything we do. Then I noticed something: some of them had started reading Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) books. I decided to use that interest as a way in. I suggested they create a D&D club. My only condition? I would support and guide them in the process and supervise when I had time—but the club...
.jpg)
