S3E3: Jenny Anderson - Rethinking the Disengaged Teen

<p>In this episode of <em>Leading Voices in Education</em>, we sit down with award-winning journalist and author Jenny Anderson, co-author of <em>The Disengaged Teen</em>, for a thought-provoking conversation about why so many young people are disconnecting from school — and what educators, parents, and schools can do differently.</p><p>Jenny challenges some of the common assumptions we make about teenagers, including the idea that disengaged students are simply lazy, unmotivated, or too distracted by technology. Drawing on years of research and conversations with young people, she explores what is really happening beneath the surface of disengagement.</p><p>We dive into the four modes of engagement — Passenger, Resistor, Achiever, and Explorer — and how students can move between these modes depending on their environment, experiences, relationships, and sense of agency. Jenny also explores what happens when a mode becomes an identity and why we need to be careful about labelling students based on how they show up at school.</p><p>We talk about the difference between achievement and genuine engagement, the pressure placed on high-achieving students, and why a student can appear successful while not actually being deeply engaged in their learning. Jenny shares practical ways parents and educators can support students without taking away their autonomy or making decisions for them.</p><p>The conversation also explores choice, agency, curiosity, resilience, and productive struggle. Jenny explains why giving students meaningful choices is so important if we want them to develop the ability to make decisions for themselves — and why schools may need to rethink how much of the learning experience is something that is <em>done to</em> students versus something they can actively shape.</p><p>We discuss what an engaging school experience might actually look like, including more opportunities for students to apply their knowledge, participate in meaningful experiences, move beyond simply sitting and listening, and see a real-world impact from their learning.</p><p>And finally, Jenny shares an important challenge for educators: if we want to build resilience, we may need to become more comfortable with discomfort in classrooms and create opportunities for students to experience productive struggle.</p><p>This is a conversation about teenagers, but the questions reach far beyond adolescence: How do we create environments where young people have agency? How do we move