<p>Cognition has for a long time been viewed as a process that can be described in terms of computational symbol manipulation, i.e. a process that takes place inside people’s heads and is largely unaffected by contextual aspects. In recent years, however, there has been a considerable change in the way researchers look at and study human cognition. These changes also have far-reaching implications for education and educational research. Situated learning is a theoretical framework in which sociocultural aspects of cognition and learning are strongly emphasised, that is, the context in which learning takes place is an important part of learning activity. The concept of activity is central to situated learning theories, but activity has been considered an exclusively sociocultural process in which the body only plays a minor role. In embodied cognition research, on the other hand, there is an increasing awareness that mind and body are inextricably intertwined and cannot be viewed in isolation. Findings in cognitive neuroscience provide additional evidence that cognition is tightly linked to perception and action. The aim of this thesis has been to investigate the role of the body in situated learning activity by integrating these different perspectives on cognition and learning. The analysis suggests that, like individual human conceptualization and thought, situated learning is in fact deeply rooted in bodily activity. In social interactions the body provides individuals with a similar perspective on the world, it functions as a means of signalling to others what cannot (yet) be expressed verbally, and it serves as a resonance mechanism in the understanding of others.</p>

<p>This thesis addresses computer game play activities from the perspective of embodied and situated cognition. From such a perspective, game play can be divided into the physical handling of the game and the players' understanding of it. Game play can also be described in terms of three different levels of situatedness "high-level" situatedness, the contextual "here and now", and "low-level" situatedness. Moreover, theoretical and empirical implications of such a perspective have been explored more in detail in two case studies.</p> / Report code: LiU-Tek-Lic-2008:17.

My research for this thesis focusses on the concepts of representation and space in order to demonstrate their theoretical and practical co-implications. Discussing various theorists of space in the first part and analyzing a number of artists and artworks as case studies in the second part, I elaborate a critique of the representational imaginary in order to articulate an alternative notion of representation by means of which a relational, qualitative and performative spatiality can emerge. I specifically focus on technospaces, which I consider a privileged field for observing the intersections of representation and spatiality; it is a field in which the use of spatial metaphors abounds, very often relying on a series of dichotomies (such as location and mobility, the real and the virtual) that have employed and, in most cases, reinforced the traditional idiom of representational. Drawing on the lessons of feminist theory, particularly on approaches to the politics of location, from Adrienne Rich‘s initial formulation to the situated knowledge theorized by Donna Haraway, I elaborate a situated aesthetics of technospaces in which the observer‘s engagement with representational practices replaces the view from a distance of traditional representation, so that her/his position is accounted for together with the history of the production of space and its multiple representations. For this reason, I also formulate an articulatory turn in representation based on Haraway‘s semiotics in order to propose a non-reflexive notion of representation in which invention and factuality eventually meet.

Triple Learning: The Journey from Student to Scholar emanates from a phenomenological exploration of the lived experiences of six international graduate students studying at the University of Saskatchewan. Grounded in the knowledge of the growing numbers of students studying at post-secondary institutions, I aimed to unearth and re-present the daily lives of the selected participants to shed light on the experience of being an international graduate student. A phenomenological inquiry through in-depth and semi-structured interviews and observations, undergirded by an interdisciplinary culture, allowed me to explore their daily experiences. Exploring and airing their daily practices, though difficult, illuminated the worlds of international graduate students as they study in and negotiate communities of practice overseas. Furthermore, by examining and ventilating their stories I was able to portray and clarify the essence or meaning of being an international graduate student at a Canadian university in a new way. This research reaches into the lives of the selected students uniquely, revealing their personal and academic experiences while studying at the university. To date, such experiences have been minimally addressed by university officials and prior qualitative research. The anecdotes and reflections shared by participants bordered on and were based in lingua-cultural, social, and academic adaptations, and, ultimately, transformation. Participants were enthralled by the adaptive process of living in a new community. Being newcomers, these students viewed themselves fundamentally as outsiders within the community of practice. Yet their stories encapsulated change from being dependent “scholars to be” to becoming independent scholars. Essentially, findings pointed to the international graduate experience being similar to advancing from student to scholar. Through participation in the academic community of practice, they were learning to become independent scholars in the university. Participant accomplished the non-linear movement from student to scholar by seeking to engage in the communities of practice through situated learning and a process of triple learning. Triple learning emerged as a lingua-cultural phenomenon and was a significant finding borne of participants’ storied experiences. Qualitative data revealed that, in learning, participants were constantly weaving around and through three distinct registers of English lingua-cultures. They were negotiating the English lingua-culture acquired in their home countries, which positioned English as a formal language; that of the provincial community, which seemingly was less formal; and the academic English language specific to their area of study in the university. The academic language includes a variety of discipline-specific language skills, such as vocabulary, syntax, and discipline-specific terminology, and rhetorical conventions that allow students to acquire and develop knowledge and academic skills. These lingua cultures differed significantly, so students constantly shifted among the three to make approximations deemed appropriate for their academic purposes. A significant implication of this research is that it highlights the daily experiences of international graduate students, their perceptions, and conceptualized meanings of these experiences. Findings from this study also have implications for social learning theories and places learning as lingua-cultural in nature. In addition, an understanding of the phenomenon of being an international student can inform universities’ policy makers, recruiters, faculty members, and other staff of the daily plights and experiences of international students as they study. This knowledge has the potential to inform policies and plans to attract and retain a diverse international student body.

In this thesis, I explore the tensions and contradictions of being African, feminist and activist within sexual and gender minority social movements. I ask how an African activist with multiple backgrounds negotiates the different personal and political landscapes, tensions she encounters, as well as the implications this has for activism work. This study is meant to complement the growing body of activism publications, which, though varied and rich, tend to shy away from depicting and critically analyzing the internal problems experienced in groups, because of differences of ideological perspectives, backgrounds and power differentials. Using an autoethnographic methodology I analyse how a lesbian feminist activist, engages in self-reflections on life outlook, belonging, art and contentious online African and international activism. My materials include extracts of email conversations within two online discussions, my own art pieces and memories of my experiences. The theoretical framework includes situated partial perspectives, disidentification and unlearning. My analysis shows that my situated Kenyan - Swedish backgrounds have affected not only my art, but my thought processes which in turn affect how I engage in different activist contexts. Tensions and contradictions with other activists show how ideological differences, situated perspectives, age and power differentials determine the outcome of some activism agendas. My findings also suggest that activism encounters can lead to partial affective distancing, disidentifications, multiplicitous and holographic identities. Furthermore our origins, and experiences matter a lot in shaping our feminism ideals and ways of working. These ways of working reveal various instances of oppression, subjugation and privilege, effected by maternal affiliations, online invisibility, ethnic and indigenous identities and language. In conclusion, I argue that much more self-reflection, self-revelation, accommodation for individual differences and analysis of our ways of oppressing is required, for activism work to be successful and mutually beneficial.

O presente estudo apresenta indícios de um aprender como ato a partir de um trajetar da pesquisadora nos ambientes escolares e, em especial, em turmas do segundo ano do Ensino Fundamental, numa escola municipal localizada no Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. Com uma proposta vinculada ao projeto Civitas – LELIC/PPGEDU/UFRGS, as tessituras do escrito dialogam com a produção do filósofo russo Mikhail Bakhtin, tendo como objeto de análise os enunciados produzidos pelos sujeitos atuantes na pesquisa (alunos/as; professorapesquisadora). Nessa perspectiva, a metodologia utilizada, singularmente, se apresenta como um ato ético-estético que se entrelaça, acolhe e enuncia modos singulares de ver, conceber e sentir o processo de aprendizagem e, mais precisamente, ao ato de aprender, revelando o inusitado de novas vizinhanças: e, neste sentido, aponta para as possibilidades da invenção fugindo do hábito para leituras originais do que se dá “às vistas” e “às escutas”, aos acabamentos estéticos provisórios possibilitados pelos excedentes de visão, também, como plano de produção de si numa arquitetônica coletiva de produção do conhecimento. Uma tessitura ao mesmo tempo ética (pelo encontro com o outro) e estética (na busca de lhe dar, à experiência, um acabamento) pelos quais os sujeitos situados se relacionam e produzem a sala de aula como lugar coletivo. / This study presents evidence of learning as an act from the researcher's transit in school environments and in particular in the second year classes of an elementary school, a public school located in the Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. With a proposal linked to the Civitas project - LELIC / PPGEDU / UFRGS, the interwoven of the written dialogues with the production of the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin, which has as object of analysis the utterances produced by the acting subjects in this research (students; the teacher-researcher). From this perspective, the methodology used is uniquely presented as an ethic-aesthetic act that intertwines, welcomes and sets unique ways of seeing, and feeling the learning process development, and more specifically the act of revealing the unusual learning of new neighborhoods. And in this sense it points to possibilities of the invention escaping from the current, original readings of what gives "the sights" and "the listenings" the provisional aesthetic completion made possible by the exceding vision as well as a production plan in itself, an architectural collective production of knowledge. A fabric that is at the same time ethic (in the meeting with the other) and aesthetic (in the quest of giving the other the experience, a completion) in which situated subjects relate and produce a classroom as a collective place.

The purpose of this research is to address ongoing challenges in American education that relate to student engagement, retention, and achievement. The intent is to examine current high school language arts pedagogical practices and to explore journalism's potential to make a broader and more positive difference in the overall learning process -- in previously unconsidered ways. The study employs a multimethod approach. Through qualitative fieldwork, it examines the award-winning scholastic journalism program at Palo Alto High School, in Northern California. Quantitatively, this study surveys 664 high school language arts students from 10 high schools across the United States. Specifically, it investigates how journalism and non-journalism students self-report motivational beliefs and learning strategies, after controlling for school and student demographics (community type, class-standing, or socioeconomic status). Further, the study compares journalism students with Advanced Placement Literature students to investigate why they enroll in their respective courses. This study fills several significant gaps in the literature surrounding journalism and educational research. First, it applies situated-learning and communities of practice theories to journalism pedagogy by specifically looking at peer-to-peer mentoring within student publication staffs. Second, it applies self-determination theory to high school journalism students to explore variables that can catalyze intrinsic motivation and enhance learning. Finally, it examines the lived experiences of high school journalism students to explore how this course of study affects their personal growth, sense of self, and group affiliations. / 10000-01-01

O presente estudo apresenta indícios de um aprender como ato a partir de um trajetar da pesquisadora nos ambientes escolares e, em especial, em turmas do segundo ano do Ensino Fundamental, numa escola municipal localizada no Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. Com uma proposta vinculada ao projeto Civitas – LELIC/PPGEDU/UFRGS, as tessituras do escrito dialogam com a produção do filósofo russo Mikhail Bakhtin, tendo como objeto de análise os enunciados produzidos pelos sujeitos atuantes na pesquisa (alunos/as; professorapesquisadora). Nessa perspectiva, a metodologia utilizada, singularmente, se apresenta como um ato ético-estético que se entrelaça, acolhe e enuncia modos singulares de ver, conceber e sentir o processo de aprendizagem e, mais precisamente, ao ato de aprender, revelando o inusitado de novas vizinhanças: e, neste sentido, aponta para as possibilidades da invenção fugindo do hábito para leituras originais do que se dá “às vistas” e “às escutas”, aos acabamentos estéticos provisórios possibilitados pelos excedentes de visão, também, como plano de produção de si numa arquitetônica coletiva de produção do conhecimento. Uma tessitura ao mesmo tempo ética (pelo encontro com o outro) e estética (na busca de lhe dar, à experiência, um acabamento) pelos quais os sujeitos situados se relacionam e produzem a sala de aula como lugar coletivo. / This study presents evidence of learning as an act from the researcher's transit in school environments and in particular in the second year classes of an elementary school, a public school located in the Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. With a proposal linked to the Civitas project - LELIC / PPGEDU / UFRGS, the interwoven of the written dialogues with the production of the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin, which has as object of analysis the utterances produced by the acting subjects in this research (students; the teacher-researcher). From this perspective, the methodology used is uniquely presented as an ethic-aesthetic act that intertwines, welcomes and sets unique ways of seeing, and feeling the learning process development, and more specifically the act of revealing the unusual learning of new neighborhoods. And in this sense it points to possibilities of the invention escaping from the current, original readings of what gives "the sights" and "the listenings" the provisional aesthetic completion made possible by the exceding vision as well as a production plan in itself, an architectural collective production of knowledge. A fabric that is at the same time ethic (in the meeting with the other) and aesthetic (in the quest of giving the other the experience, a completion) in which situated subjects relate and produce a classroom as a collective place.

Cognition has for a long time been viewed as a process that can be described in terms of computational symbol manipulation, i.e. a process that takes place inside people’s heads and is largely unaffected by contextual aspects. In recent years, however, there has been a considerable change in the way researchers look at and study human cognition. These changes also have far-reaching implications for education and educational research. Situated learning is a theoretical framework in which sociocultural aspects of cognition and learning are strongly emphasised, that is, the context in which learning takes place is an important part of learning activity. The concept of activity is central to situated learning theories, but activity has been considered an exclusively sociocultural process in which the body only plays a minor role. In embodied cognition research, on the other hand, there is an increasing awareness that mind and body are inextricably intertwined and cannot be viewed in isolation. Findings in cognitive neuroscience provide additional evidence that cognition is tightly linked to perception and action. The aim of this thesis has been to investigate the role of the body in situated learning activity by integrating these different perspectives on cognition and learning. The analysis suggests that, like individual human conceptualization and thought, situated learning is in fact deeply rooted in bodily activity. In social interactions the body provides individuals with a similar perspective on the world, it functions as a means of signalling to others what cannot (yet) be expressed verbally, and it serves as a resonance mechanism in the understanding of others.

While (big) data promises immense opportunity, initiatives focused on using data to pursue insight have mixed outcomes. The Management Support Systems (MSS) model summarises what we currently understand within Information Systems (IS) about the implementation and use of systems to improve organisations’ use of data. Adopting an ethnographic approach to observe how practitioners in two contrasting organisations actually generate insight from data, this research challenges the implicit information processing and implementation logics of the MMS model. The pragmatic messiness of pursuing insight is described in two monographs, which reveal the socially constructed nature of data in relation to phenomena, and the importance of data engagement to produce insight. Given that this PhD study also seeks to generate insight from data, it is compared and contrasted reflexively to the two cases observed. While the inquiry logic pursued in this study was made explicit, and was regularly reviewed and challenged, the two cases left this largely implicit. The use of tools is shown to facilitate and constrain inquiry, with related data acting as boundary objects between the different practitioner groups involved. An explanatory framework is presented and used to suggest various enhancements to the MSS model. First, the Problem Space is reframed to reflect the distinct, though interdependent logics involved in inquiry versus realising envisaged benefits from insights. Second, the MSS artefact itself is contextualised and Data Engagement rather than MSS or Tool Use is positioned as central. Third, Data are disentangled from the wider MSS artefact, as a critical, distinct construct. Fourth, an Alignment construct is introduced to address the boundary spanning nature of data initiatives. The thesis also highlights the value of using Wenger’s (1998) Communities of Practice (CoP) situated learning framework to study data initiatives, and the related value of mapping groups as a technique for further development. Some questions are provided for practitioners to gain a better understanding of data initiatives. Wider implications are also noted for the socio-material theorising of Data, and distinguishing between Data, Information and Knowledge concepts within the IS discipline.