What gives some classrooms that special "buzz" of learning? How do those educators create the culture of learning for their students? Using her everyday research approach, in the tradition of the pedagogistas of Reggio Emilia, author Lisa Burman observed several special classrooms and identified some common threads: engagement, agency, identity, and belonging, which together combine to create what she terms a culture of agency. Her framework for supporting a culture of agency has five pillars: 1. Relationships 2. Rituals for belonging and identity 3. Language of agency 4. Environment 5. Learning Contexts Using this framework will help you bring intentionality as you build your classroom culture to support children's agency and learning. The term agency is widely used, but often misunderstood as "giving children choice." Agency is far more than this, and the most powerful learning happens when personal agency is connected to community agency: we are only as strong as each other. These connections form the heart of a democratic education: one that values the rights of the child and empowers participation, shared power, respect for diversity, and self-efficacy.