Tara Fenwick

Actor-network theory in education

1. A Way to Intervene, Not a Theory of What to Think 2. Knowledge, Innovation and Knowing in Practice 3. (De)naturalizing Teaching and Learning 4. (En)tangling Curriculum-making 5. (Net)working Technologized Learning 6. (Un)making Standards in Education 7. Educational Reform and Planned Change 8. (Ac)counting for Education 9. (De)centring Educational Policy 10. Messy Research 11. Translating ANT in Education

Expanding Conceptions of Experiential Learning: A Review of the Five Contemporary Perspectives on Cognition.

This article offers a comparison of five distinct currents of thought apparent in recent scholarly writing addressing experiential learning, defined here as a process of human cognition. These five perspectives were selected for their heuristic value in expanding conventional notions of experiential learning, ranging from conceptions of reflective constructions of meaning to psychoanalytic, situated, emancipatory, and ecological theories of learning. A rationale for this typology is outlined, and the problems of classification and comparison of multiple perspectives are discussed. The five perspectives are each described briefly, outlining their view of knowledge, learning, and teaching; their understanding of relations between knower, culture, and knowledge; and critiques and questions raised by other perspectives. Caveats about the limitations and presumptions of such a typology are declared along with invitations for response and critique.

Toward a Critical HRD in Theory and Practice.

Drawing from critical management studies and critical pedagogy, this article proposes principles and practices to support the emerging critical human resource development (HRD) field as one stream among existing theories and practice of HRD. A critical HRD would challenge the subjugation of human knowledge, skills, and relationships to organizational or shareholder gain and focus on transforming workplaces and HRD practice toward justice, fairness, and equity. Because both HRD practices and critical perspectives themselves are so diverse, a critical HRD must be formulated in sufficiently broad terms to encourage a variety of conceptual developments including discursive, gendered, materialist, and anti-racist lines of analysis. Theoretical dilemmas of a critical HRD are discussed, such as ideological contradictions between the radical orientation of critical theory and the managerialist or performative frames to which much HRD practice is accountable. Possible configurations of a critical HRD are described, as these might play out in contexts of HRD practice.

Re‐thinking the “thing”: Sociomaterial approaches to understanding and researching learning in work

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare theoretical conceptions that reclaim and re‐think material practice – “the thing” in the social and personal mix – specifically in terms of work activity and what is construed to be learning in that activity.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is theory‐based. Three perspectives have been selected for discussion: cultural‐historical activity theory (CHAT), actor‐network theory (ANT), and complexity theory. A comparative approach is used to examine these three conceptual framings in the context of their uptake in learning research to explore their diverse contributions and limitations on questions of agency, power, difference, and the presence of the “thing”.Findings – The three perspectives bear some similarities in their conceptualization of knowledge and capabilities as emerging – simultaneously with identities, policies, practices and environment – in webs of interconnections between heterogeneous things, human and nonhuman. Yet each illuminates ver...

Emerging approaches in educational research : tracing the socio-material

1. Introduction: Why Socio-Materiality in Education? 2. Emergence and Perturbation: Understanding Complexity Science 3. Complexity Theory in Educational Research 4. Contradiction and Expansion: Understanding Cultural-Historical Activity Theory 5. Cultural-Historical Activity Theory in Educational Research 6. Translation and network effects: Understanding Actor-Network Theory 7. Actor-Network Theory in Educational Research 8. Spatiality and Temporality: Understanding Cultural Geography 9. Spatial Theory in Educational Research 10. Socio-Material Approaches: Contributions and Issues for Educational Research

Reclaiming and re-embodying experiential learning through complexity science

Abstract At a time when ‘informal’ and ‘practice-based’ learning are receiving unprecedented emphasis in lifelong learning debates, this article offers an apologia for experiential learning (EL) in adult education. Taking the position that the signifier of experience allows a foregrounding of the problematics of experience and the centrality of embodiment in learning, the argument does not deny theoretical weaknesses plaguing the experiential learning discourse. In fact, four problems are described in EL theory and practice: ontological splits that ‘lose’ the body; disciplines that control the body; educational management that schools experience; and resulting exclusions. Towards reclaiming a more productive discourse of EL, an argument is presented for conceptually ‘re-embodying’ EL, drawing from complexity science. Three themes of re-embodiment (co-emergence, desire, and struggle) are presented. Pedagogic practices and reconfigured roles for adult educators suggested by these themes are discussed in the final section.

Innovation: examining workplace learning in new enterprises

Innovation is argued here to be a significant and complex dimension of learning in work, involving a mix of rational, intuitive, emotional and social processes embedded in activities of a particular community of practice. Dimensions of innovative learning are suggested to include level (individual, group, organization), rhythm (episodic or continuous), and magnitude of creative change (adaptive or generative) involved in the learning process. Drawing from a study of women who leave organizational employment to develop an enterprise of self‐employment, this article explores these dimensions of innovative learning. Two questions guide the analysis: what conditions foster innovative learning; and what are the forms and processes of the innovative learning process? Findings suggest that innovative processes involve multiple strategies and demand conditions of freedom, patience, support, and recognition.

(un)Doing standards in education with actor‐network theory

Recent critiques have drawn important attention to the depoliticized consensus and empty promises embedded in network discourses of educational policy. While acceding this critique, this discussion argues that some forms of network analysis – specifically those adopting actor‐network theory (ANT) approaches – actually offer useful theoretical resources for policy studies. Drawing from ANT‐inspired studies of policy processes associated with educational standards, the article shows the ambivalences and contradictions as well as the possibilities that can be illuminated by ANT analysis of standards as networks. The discussion outlines the diverse network conceptions, considerations, and sensibilities afforded by the ANT approaches. Then, it shows four phenomena that have been highlighted by ANT studies of educational standards: ordering (and rupturing) practice through ‘immutable mobiles,’ local universality, tensions among networks of prescription and networks of negotiation, and different co‐existing ontological forms of the same standards. The conclusion suggests some starting points, drawing from these ANT‐inspired network analyses, for examining the policy processes associated with educational standards.

Emancipatory potential of action learning:a critical analysis

Action learning (AL) methods are popular technologies in programs of organizational learning (OL). However, from the perspective of critical studies, they are instrumentalist, managerialist, exclusive in design, decontextualized and apolitical. A critical analysis of the oppressive potential of AL is presented along these dimensions. To realize better ALs emancipatory potential, four enhancements are suggested: focus AL purpose more on workers’ interests; confront organizational practices that unjustly marginalize or privilege different people; acknowledge the complexity, context and contested nature of learning; and facilitate AL using democratic “power with”, not “power over”, approaches to working with people towards emancipatory change.

Developing organizational practices of ecological sustainability: A learning perspective

Purpose – This article aims to discuss issues and strategies of developing practices of ecological sustainability in organizations. Three questions guide the discussion: how are practices of social responsibility and ecological sustainability developed and maintained in organizations? What learning in particular is involved in developing practices of ecological sustainability in organizations? How might this learning be fostered by organizational leaders?Design/methodology/approach – The article draws from literatures in ecology, ecological learning and corporate social responsibility to describe the nature of ecological sustainability, intents and approaches of organizations developing it, and their challenges. Case examples drawn from studies of small business are examined to explore successful strategies of developing practices of ecological sustainability. These examples are analysed from a learning perspective.Findings – Challenges that hinder adoption of ecological sustainability practice include lo...