Lack of agency can be a stressful condition.
As an example in professional careers, the lack of decision making power among nursing staff can lead to a stressful work environment (Hirsch, 1985). Efforts to build collaborative decision making between nurses and physicians leads to less stress for both groups. In addition, building social support networks in workplaces can mitigate at least some of that stress because social support is a powerful tool for coping with stress.
In academic life, particularly among marginalized students, cultural integration is a stressful endeavor because not fully understanding the culture around us deprives us of much of our agency and ability to self-express. Feelings of community and belonging reduces acculturation stress in international and resident immigrant students. Faculty can help students build networks of support outside of the classroom if students have not been able to develop those networks on their own. In fact, it may be entirely possible that the main reason culture shock even happens is simply because it disrupts our social support structure.
There are many opportunities for faculty to help students develop agency. Giving students the freedom to use all of their language resources develops agency while building skills in multiple languages. Faculty can include projects that require student knowledge to promote agency and combat deficit-thinking. The power of Socioacademic Relationships should also not be overlooked. Students can benefit from taking the time to map out their socioacademic support networks and being coached on how to ask those resources for help.