The power of student agency: looking beyond grit to close the opportunity gap

Prologue: welcome to American dilemmas --

Introduction: from seeing roses in concrete to believing schools are gardens --

Rugged individualism and the co-option of grit --

Agency as a foundational sociological concept --

The home and family --

The social environment and school settings --

The ever-evolving human --

Conclusion: fighting the normalization of failure --

Appendix: Positionality, research design, and conceptual framework.