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The use of language is central to the constituting and expressing of academic understanding. The theme of this article is set against the background of previous and ongoing phenomenographic research, with a theoretical approach presented as an alternative to main cognitive and socio-cultural approaches. One main characteristic of this research is a focus on the relation between the learner as an agent and the external situation the learner relates to, especially the subject matter, and the knowledge involved in this relation. It is suggested that to fully understand the constituting and expressing of academic understanding one has to consider the immediate personal and situational context, and to see the learner as an agent mediating the relation to, and the significance of, broader cognitive and socio-cultural contexts. This means considering the personal context in a more complete way than is done in either cognitive or socio-cultural orientations. Three cases, selected from previous interview research, are presented to demonstrate the importance of the agency of the learners, using a contextual phenomenographic approach which proved useful in discerning and clarifying the personal, situational, cognitive and socio-cultural contexts within which academic understanding develops.