Individual agency and sustainability initiatives in STEM careers and education: a scoping review

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Abstract Individual agency—the capacity to make purposeful choices and enact change—plays an important role in advancing sustainability in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education and professional careers. However, a clear, consolidated understanding of how this agency is conceptualized, operationalized, and enacted across STEM fields is lacking. This scoping review systematically maps the existing literature to answer the question: What is known about the ways in which individuals in STEM careers and education exercise agency to promote sustainability initiatives within STEM fields? Following the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology for scoping reviews, Scopus and Web of Science databases were systematically searched. After de-duplication, 274 records were screened using Elicit for systematic review screening and data extraction of systematic review management and manual verification by two reviewers. This process resulted in the inclusion of 59 studies for full data extraction and synthesis. A supplementary content analysis on 264 documents was also performed, from which 17 were thematically analyzed to explore how the concept of “agency” is framed in STEM literature. Thematic analysis identified five primary domains where individuals exercise agency for sustainability: (1) educational agency and curriculum integration, (2) research-based sustainability initiatives, (3) institutional and organizational change efforts, (4) professional development and capacity building, and (5) interdisciplinary collaboration. The supplementary analysis of 17 articles revealed “agency” is most frequently linked to student empowerment, teacher agency, and equity. The evidence base is variable and largely concentrated on pedagogical interventions rather than sustained professional practice or systemic change. This review concludes that while individual agency is recognized as essential, it remains insufficiently theorized and empirically grounded within STEM sustainability research. A major implication is that individual agency would benefit from being more clearly theorized and empirically grounded to better support systemic sustainability change in STEM.

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