A Blended Learning Course as a Context to Support the Democratic Expression of the Self

In this article, we use a dialogical approach to discuss the relationship between learning and democracy. In particular, we conceptualize the democratic aspects of the Self based on the Bakhtinian theory of Magistral, Socratic and Menippean dialogues, and on Herman’s conceptualization of the dialogical self. Using these theoretical resources, we aim at building a framework that allows to examine the emergence of democratic selves from learning interaction. In particular, we explore how the three forms of dialogue characterize the Self during a blended course and how students move from Magistral power identity positions to Menippean dialogues. We interpret these movements as revealing the emergence of a democratic expression of the Self.Peer reviewe

Using chronotope to research the space-time relations of learningand education: Dimensions of the unit of analysis

In this paper, we examine the emergent concept of chronotope and its deployment for the examination of space-time relations in research on learning and education. Chronotopes have been defined in terms of socially emergent configurations of space-time, where space and time are considered as interdependent social constructions. Chronotope is seen as a conceptual and analytical tool that allows reaching a sociocultural and dialogical understanding of human action and interaction in space-time. We argue that the existing chronotopic research has not been sufficiently explicit concerning how units of analysis are selected and conceptualized. To facilitate a wider adoption of this concept, we introduce and discuss four dimensions of chronotopic units of analysis (foregrounding processes, dialogicality, material-discursive features of spacetime, and interdependency of space-time). We illustrate these dimensions by discussing how they were implicitly or explicitly included in the conceptualization of the unit of analysis in exemplary studies. In particular, we show how including one or more of these dimensions enabled to make “visible” educationally relevant phenomena and to discuss significant aspects of pedagogical practice. In all, our article contributes to make explicit and discuss the methodological foundations for using chronotope to research the space-time relations of learning.In this paper, we examine the emergent concept of chronotope and its deployment for the examination of space-time relations in research on learning and education. Chronotopes have been defined in terms of socially emergent configurations of space-time, where space and time are considered as interdependent social constructions. Chronotope is seen as a conceptual and analytical tool that allows reaching a sociocultural and dialogical understanding of human action and interaction in space-time. We argue that the existing chronotopic research has not been sufficiently explicit concerning how units of analysis are selected and conceptualized. To facilitate a wider adoption of this concept, we introduce and discuss four dimensions of chronotopic units of analysis (foregrounding processes, dialogicality, material-discursive features of space-time, and interdependency of space-time). We illustrate these dimensions by discussing how they were implicitly or explicitly included in the conceptualization of the unit of analysis in exemplary studies. In particular, we show how including one or more of these dimensions enabled to make “visible” educationally relevant phenomena and to discuss significant aspects of pedagogical practice. In all, our article contributes to make explicit and discuss the methodological foundations for using chronotope to research the space-time relations of learning.Peer reviewe

Kollaborative Bildungsräume – Digitalität als strukturelles Element des Pädagogischen

Der Beitrag geht der Frage nach, inwiefern das Digitale im Kontext kollaborativer Lernprozesse als ein strukturelles Element des Pädagogischen zu begreifen ist. Dafür wird die Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie mit ersten Erkenntnissen eines Lehrentwicklungsprojekts zusammengebracht, in dem ein kollaboratives Tool zur Erstellung von E-Portfolios im Kontext dualer Studiengänge erprobt wurde. Der Beitrag zeigt damit die Bedeutung von Lehrentwicklungsprojekten für eine grundlagentheoretische hochschuldidaktische Reflexion auf und schließt mit einem Ausblick auf Perspektiven der weiterführenden empirischen Untersuchung auf Basis von Lehrentwicklungsprojekten

Ambientes virtuales de aprendizaje y producción de identidad en la formación inicial docente

Este artículo tuvo como objetivo analizar la producción de la identidad docente a través de posicionamientos, en actividades en ambientes virtuales de aprendizaje. La identidad docente, como fenómeno social, se refiere a un conjunto de posicionamientos organizados en semiosis, interpretaciones de sí mismo y tensiones entre yo-otros. Se desarrolló un estudio de caso con un estudiante de formación inicial docente, que realizó cinco actividades virtuales: dos realizadas en Moodle y tres en Facebook. Todas ellas fueron sometidas a análisis dialógico-temático, a partir del cual se elaboraron tablas y mapas de posicionamientos. Los resultados indican que las posiciones yo-otro-mundo varían de acuerdo al ambiente virtual y a la especificidad de las consignas de las actividades, y se ponen en evidencia en las relaciones dialógicas en múltiples planos: construcciones colectivas <> individuales de conocimiento; diferentes posiciones yo <> otro; actuaciones dirigidas yo-estudiante <> mundo-actividad. Las actuaciones fueran clasificadas como reflexivas y/o prácticas con sentidos de: (a) incentivador, (b) creador de estrategias, (c) tradicional, (d) experimentador y (e) mediador. Se concluye que las actividades promueven nuevos posicionamientos y que la identidad docente emerge en el interjuego entre ser estudiante en el presente e ir convirtiéndose en profesor

Dialogical experiences in, for, and from technologically mediated contexts in teacher education

This work proposes an analysis of pedagogical experiences developed in the context of university teacher education in dialogue with two different chronotopes: habitual face-to-face teaching modality and exceptional non-face-to-face teaching modality due to the COVID lockdown. We consider here two cases of Language and Literature teacher education courses in two universities in Argentina. Both experiences share the search for an equitable, dialogical interaction, in which there is a recovery of the students’ opinions and criteria for the progressive and collaborative elaboration of knowledge. From a qualitative perspective, we resorted to autoethnographic narratives elaborated by the responsible teaching teams of the courses. In the approach we propose, there is a dialogue among different elements of our inquiry: a dialogue between the conceptions that we assume as teachers and researchers about teaching in face-to-face and virtual environments; a dialogue between the conceptualizations and concrete teaching-decisions; between the contexts of performance and the possibilities offered by virtuality; between the pedagogical experiences and the narratives; between the records and other materials that allow us to reconstitute these experiences; and between our voices and the voices of students and graduates who give us back evaluations and sustain the continuity of the dialogue. The analysis accounts for the definition of different chronotopes in the experiences and moments addressed. In both cases, the differences observed respond to contextual factors, particularities of the courses and the previous experiences that the teaching teams have had with ICT. Beyond the above-mentioned differences, for the exceptional non-face-to-face proposals, a greater stability in the proposed sequences and in the dynamics involved is observed in the two experiences, which seeks to generate greater predictability

Cultural ways of constructing knowledge:the role of identities in online group discussions

Learning scientists and the CSCL community have argued that knowledge construction is a process of collective thinking; a process that is simultaneously personal and social that requires group cognition. However, while CSCL researchers have investigated situated knowledge in the process of collective thinking, little work has been done to fully understand how different identification categories play a role in sense-making and knowledge construction. This research, therefore, explores in detail how individuals operationalize identification categories when they engage in group discussions in online learning environments. Results demonstrate that individuals do not experience online learning through only one aspect of their identity. Rather, learning experiences evoke different elements of their identities that are used continuously and simultaneously when they collaborate with each other in the phases of knowledge construction

Dialogical positions as a method of understanding identity trajectories in a collaborative blended university course.

Recent learning sciences literature proposes to conceive learning as changes in the 12learner ’s identity trajectory. In this paper, we use the analysis of dialogical positioning as a 13method to track down and understand shifts in identity trajectories. The Bakhtinian concepts 14of “polyphony” and “chronotopes” are considered as dialogical indicators of the identity 15positions, and are the basis of our method. A qualitative/quantitative nature is featured in this 16method, which is composed of three steps: a) reading of the data; b) definition of a tailored 17list of dialogical indicators; c) quantitative analysis. A highly collaborative, blended univer18sity course, drawing on socio-constructivist principles, was used as the context to test the 19method. Indeed, we believe such a course would foster dialogical identity development. All 20the notes posted online during the course by two selected students were used as the corpus of 21data. The students were selected because of their diversity in terms of level of participation 22and initial technology propensity. The application of the method revealed the uniqueness of 23the trajectories, the correlations between indicators, and their sensitiveness to the activities of 24the course and to the students ’ personal circumstances