Agency of School Students and their Participation in Supreme Student Government

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2025.9.4.362

Abstract

A key challenge for contemporary education systems is to foster young people’s sense of agency, or their ability to implement constructive and socially positive changes. Participation in the Supreme Student Government (SSG) is one of the core practices that facilitates this agency among students. However, there is limited quantitative research on this practice, and its connections to other expressions of agency have not been thoroughly explored. This study examines the level of general agency among school students involved in SSG activities, as manifested in such areas as family, educational process, school life, peer interaction, and finances. Based on a survey of 592 students (grades 7–11, aged 13–18) across 18 regions in the Russian Federation conducted between May and October 2023, we found that students primarily join the SSG for individualistic reasons, including the desire to develop new skills and enhance social mobility and career prospects. There is a significant correlation between the level of general agency among students and their involvement in SSG initiatives, with those demonstrating higher agency often achieving significant structural outcomes in their activities. However, the proportion of respondents exhibiting such characteristics is small. The results emphasize the important role of the SSG in encouraging young people to actively participate in social change, while also revealing the limitations of its implementation within the education system.

Author Biographies

Mikhail E. Goshin, HSE University, Moscow

Mikhail E. Goshin is a Research Fellow at HSE University, where he conducts research in the fields of human potential and education. His work focuses on the socio-economic development of the educational system, with a particular interest in factors that foster student agency and initiative. He possesses a diverse academic background, having earned a specialist degree in Biology from Yaroslavl State University (2002), a Cand. Sci. degree (Chemical Sciences, 2006), and later a Master's degree in Psychology from HSE University (2014). This multidisciplinary foundation supports his research in education. He actively enhances his qualifications, having completed professional development courses in social innovation research (2014) and artificial intelligence (2024), alongside a series of English language courses. M. Goshin is a recognized researcher, having received awards for his publications that contribute to HSE's international scientific reputation. Research interests: agency of schoolchildren; parental involvement in education; extracurricular education; supreme student government; new technologies in education, Independent assessment of education quality.

Boris V. Kupriyanov, Moscow City University, Moscow

Boris V. Kupriyanov, Dr. Sci. (Pedagogical Sciences), Leading Research Fellow, Professor. He participated in the development and implementation of monitoring of the education economy during the 2013–2017 period (National Research University Higher School of Economics); in the development of draft programs of general basic and secondary education (2015–2016, Moscow  City University, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation), the development of a model for the formation of financial literacy among students (2017–2019, Moscow City University, Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation), the development and implementation of the concept of school participatory budgeting in educational organizations (Financial Research Institute of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, 2021–2024). In 2023-2025, Dr. Kupriyanov served as an expert on the programs of student self-government of the Russian Union of Youth. His research interests span across institutional problems of the socialization of the younger generation; theory and methods of educating adolescents in child-adult communities; social and pedagogical anthropology of childhood in the twentieth.

Pavel S. Sorokin, HSE University, Moscow

Pavel S. Sorokin, Cand. Sci. (Economic Sociology and Demography, 2013), Associate Professor, Leading Research Fellow and Head of the Laboratory for Human Capital and Education Research, Centre for Vocational Education and Skills Development, Institute of Education, HSE. His research encompasses renovating theoretical and methodological tools of the current international social science and humanities with a focus on understanding the positive potential of the human agency. He is the author of the neo-structuration theory, which argues the emerging constituting role of (transformative) human agency for both individual and collective well-being in the current stage of societal evolution. He also carries out extensive empirical research into the related issues, including in the fields of education, management, youth studies, etc. He is the author of more than 100 publications, including more than 50 in Scopus-indexed journals. His research interests embrace theory and methodology of sociology; agency (with a specific focus on its transformative potential); neo-structuration theory and its applications; the role of human agency in individual and collective well-being; sociology of dducation (e.g., developing student autonomy and initiative); youth studies.

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Published
2025-12-29
How to Cite
Goshin, M., Kupriyanov, B., & Sorokin, P. (2025). Agency of School Students and their Participation in Supreme Student Government. Changing Societies & Personalities, 9(4), 987-1014. doi:10.15826/csp.2025.9.4.362
Citation Formats
Issue
Vol. 9, No. 4 (2025)
Section
Articles