What is an epistemic agency?



sourced from monochrom.at

A very powerful concept if you can get your head around what it means. A simplistic and efficient explanation of an epistemistic agency is really important because it underpins a large part of the philosophy of the knowledge building pedagogy. 

This was the best explanation I could find sourced from http://ikit.org/fulltext/2002AERAAnn.pdf

Socio-cognitive dynamics : Participants set forth their ideas and negotiate a fit between personal ideas and ideas of others, using contrasts to spark and sustain knowledge advancement rather than depending on others to chart that course for them. They deal with problems of goals; motivation, evaluation, and long-range planning that are normally left to teachers or managers.
Technological dynamics: Knowledge Forum provides support for theory construction and refinement and for viewing ideas in the context of related but different ideas. Scaffolds for high-level knowledge processes are reflected in the use and variety of epistemological terms (e.g., conjecture, wonder, hypothesize, and so forth), and in the corresponding growth in conceptual content.