scholarly journals Adults’ numeracy practices in fluid and unstable contexts—An agenda for education, policy and research?

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-356
Author(s):  
Keiko Yasukawa ◽  
Jeff Evans
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
Activity Theory ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity Theory ◽  
Social Trends ◽  
Educational Provision ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Historical Activity ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity

Abstract Numeracy practices are always dependent on the social context in which they emerge. These contexts, however, are unstable because of a range of technological and socio-political changes. How does this instability affect people’s agency in the world? After reviewing key approaches to numeracy practices research, we distil key findings from recent numeracy studies. We introduce the concept of the numerate environment to examine the context in which opportunities, supports and demands present themselves for people’s numeracy development, explaining how cultural-historical activity theory can be used to analyse the effects of changes in numerate environments. We consider examples of social trends likely to effect such changes and conclude with implications of shifts in people’s numerate environment for future educational provision, policy and research.

Working Collaboratively to Build Resilience: A CHAT Approach

2007 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Activity Theory ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity Theory ◽  
Professional Practices ◽  
Capacity To Act ◽  
The World ◽  
Historical Activity ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity

Evidence from two studies of social exclusion based in England are drawn on to suggest that responsible agency can be seen as a feature of resilience. I argue that this agency, or capacity to act effectively in the world, is developed relationally and is evident in people's thoughtful actions in their worlds, but is also contingent on the affordances for such action in any environment. That is, resilience can be seen as responsible engagement with one's world as well as a capacity to withstand difficulties. The theoretical basis of this argument is Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) which proposes that we are shaped by but also shape our worlds. The implications for professional practices are discussed.

scholarly journals The Emotions in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory: Personality, Emotion and Motivation in Social Relations and Activity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Burkitt
Keyword(s):  
Social Development ◽  
Activity Theory ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity Theory ◽  
Human Emotion ◽  
The Social ◽  
Historical Activity ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity

AbstractThis article conceptualizes human emotion as formed within the cultural and historical development of each individual within their society, using theories of emotion created within cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT). It examines how the process of the cultural formation of emotion takes place as part of the social development of the personality, intimately tied in with motivation, need and desire. In doing this I review ideas about emotion in the work of the two founding thinkers of cultural-historical activity theory, L. S. Vygotsky and A. N. Leontyev; however, for different reasons their work has its limits in creating a contemporary understanding of emotion. Moving forward, I draw on more recent work on emotions in the field of CHAT, as well as on the work of M. M. Bakhtin, to create a more embodied understanding of the cultural-historical formation of the emotions as part of the dynamics of personality as a whole, including its conscious and unconscious elements.

scholarly journals The theory-practice gap: epistemology, identity, and education

2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 521-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolff-Michael Roth ◽  
Tim Mavin ◽  
Sidney Dekker
Keyword(s):  
Activity Theory ◽  
Airline Industry ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity Theory ◽  
High Fidelity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World ◽  
Practice Gap ◽  
Historical Activity ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity ◽  
Theory Practice Gap

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to theorize the theory-practice gap and to provide examples of how it currently expresses itself and how it might be addressed to better integrate between the worlds of thought and praxis. Design/methodology/approach – Two empirical examples exemplify how the theory-practice gap is an institutionally embodied social reality. Cultural-historical activity theory is described as a means for theorizing the inevitable gap. An example from the airline industry shows how the gap may be dealt with in, and integrated into, practice. Findings – Cultural-historical activity theory suggests different forms of consciousness to exist in different activity systems because of the different object/motives in the world in which we think and the practical world in which we live. A brief case study of the efforts of one airline to integrate reflection on practice (i.e. theory) into their on-the-job training shows how the world in which pilots think about what they do is made part of the world in which pilots live. Practical implications – First, in some cases, such as teacher education, institutional arrangements can be made to situate education/training in the workplace. Second, even in the training systems with high fidelity, high validity (transferability) cannot be guaranteed. Originality/value – The approach proposed provides a theory not only for understanding the theory-practice gap but also the gap that exists even between very high-fidelity (“photo-realistic”) training situations and the real-world praxis full of surprises.

scholarly journals Critical Challenges in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory: the Urgency of Agency

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-18
Author(s):  
A.P. Stetsenko
Keyword(s):  
Activity Theory ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity Theory ◽  
The Core ◽  
Dialectical Approach ◽  
Full Credit ◽  
The Social ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
Historical Activity ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity

The article addresses the challenge of conceptualizing agency within a non-dichotomous, dialectical approach that gives full credit to the social roots of agency and does justice to it being an achievement of togetherness possible only in a communal world shared with others. Critical steps in this direction are undertaken by the Transformative Activist Stance (TAS) approach advanced by this article’s author and further developed and applied to various topics by scholars from many parts of the world. This approach is firmly rooted in cultural-historical activity theory yet also moves beyond it in overcoming some of its impasses. The core elements of TAS are discussed to reveal how they coalesce on the nexus of social practices of self- and world-making. Agency is the process that enacts this nexus of ongoing, ceaseless social-individual transformations whereby people simultaneously, in one process, co-create their world and themselves so that each individual person makes a difference and matters in the totality of social practices. Ethical-political entailments of TAS are discussed to combat the legacy of passivity and inequality still permeating psychology and neighboring fields.

WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE? COMPARING INTERSECTIONAL IDENTITY TRENDS IN ASEE AND CEEA-ACEG USING NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING AND REVIEW OF PROCEEDINGS

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Rogalski ◽  
Eric Mikulin ◽  
Deborah Tihanyi
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Activity Theory ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity Theory ◽  
Original Question ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Historical Activity ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity

In 2018, we overheard many CEEA-AGEC members stating that they have "found their people"; this led us to wonder what makes this evolving community unique. Using cultural historical activity theory to view the proceedings of CEEA-ACEG 2004-2018 in comparison with the geographically and intellectually adjacent ASEE, we used both machine-driven (Natural Language Processing, NLP) and human-driven (literature review of the proceedings) methods. Here, we hoped to build on surveys—most recently by Nelson and Brennan (2018)—to understand, beyond what members say about themselves, what makes the CEEA-AGEC community distinct, where it has come from, and where it is going. Engaging in the two methods of data collection quickly diverted our focus from an analysis of the data themselves to the characteristics of the data in terms of cultural historical activity theory. Our preliminary findings point to some unique characteristics of machine- and human-driven results, with the former, as might be expected, focusing on the micro-level (words and language patterns) and the latter on the macro-level (ideas and concepts). NLP generated data within the realms of "community" and "division of labour" while the review of proceedings centred on "subject" and "object"; both found "instruments," although NLP with greater granularity. With this new understanding of the relative strengths of each method, we have a revised framework for addressing our original question.  

Σχεδιασμός και ανάλυση δραστηριοτήτων των φυσικών επιστημών για μαθητές ηλικίας 5-9 ετών με τις σύγχρονες θέσεις της θεωρίας της δραστηριότητας (cultural- historical- activity theory - CHAT)

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Χαρίκλεια Θεοδωράκη
Keyword(s):  
Activity Theory ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity Theory ◽  
Historical Activity ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity

Η παρούσα διατριβή, οργανώθηκε και πραγματοποιήθηκε βασισμένη στις αρχές, στα χαρακτηριστικά και στις διαδικασίες της έρευνας-δράσης. Η παρούσα έρευνα, καλείται να γεφυρώσει το κενό που παρατηρείται στη διδακτική των Φυσικών Επιστημών στην προσχολική και στην πρωτοσχολική ηλικία. Οι συνεχείς εξελίξεις στο χώρο της επιστήμης και της τεχνολογίας, δημιουργούν την αναγκαιότητα εξέλιξης της εκπαιδευτικής διαδικασίας και, ταυτόχρονα, τον εκσυγχρονισμό των εκπαιδευτικών μεθόδων. H απόφασή μας για χρήση της Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) ενισχύθηκε, καθώς η CHAT ως εργαλείο σχεδιασμού και ανάλυσης, προσφέρει έναν δυναμικό μηχανισμό για να εξερευνήσουμε τους πολλαπλούς ρόλους, τα καθήκοντα και τα εργαλεία που χρησιμοποιούνται μέσα σε μια δυναμική κοινωνική και εκπαιδευτική διαδικασία. Βασικός στόχος της παρούσας έρευνας αποτελεί ο εντοπισμός των αλληλεπιδρώντων συστημάτων που διαμορφώνονται κατά τη διδασκαλία θεμάτων των Φυσικών Επιστημών, καθώς και ο εντοπισμός των δευτερευόντων παραγόντων που αναδιαμορφώνουν αυτά τα αλληλεπιδρώντα συστήματα. Επιπλέον, οριοθετείται ο ρόλος του εκπαιδευτικού στο μεθοδολογικό πλαίσιο της Θεωρίας της Δραστηριότητας.Για την παρούσα διδακτορική έρευνα έγινε ο σχεδιασμός των δυο διδακτικών παρεμβάσεων με τίτλους: «Ο παππούς Αρχιμήδης και η Άνωση» και «ο θείος Θαλής και οι Μαγνήτες». Επιπροσθέτως, αποτυπώνεται η αναλυτική πορεία εφαρμογής της έρευνας και η επιλογή των βασικών εργαλείων ποιοτικής ανάλυσης. Συλλέγχθησαν τόσο ποιοτικά όσο και ποσοτικά αποτελέσματα. Κάνοντας ένα σύντομο απολογισμό των αποτελεσμάτων της παρούσας διατριβής, κατανοούμε ότι, οι κοινωνικοπολιτισμικές θεωρίες και η Θεωρία της Δραστηριότητας ειδικότερα, βρίσκουν πρόσφορο έδαφος εφαρμογής, οριοθέτησης, σχεδιασμού και ανάλυσης, στην εκπαίδευση, αλλά κυρίως στη Διδακτική των Φυσικών Επιστημών. Η εφαρμογή της Θεωρίας της Δραστηριότητας στις πρώτες βαθμίδες της εκπαίδευσης, εξασφαλίζει ευελιξία και καινοτομικότητα, σε ένα χώρο που είναι απαραίτητη η συνεχής εξέλιξη και αναθεώρηση του τρόπου εργασίας τόσο των εκπαιδευτικών, όσο και η ανατροφοδότηση και αναδιαμόρφωση του εκπαιδευτικού πλαισίου των μαθητών. Η εφαρμογή του σχεδιασμού δραστηριοτήτων στην παρούσα διατριβή, μέσω της Θεωρίας της Δραστηριότητας, με τη χρήση του τριγώνου του Engestrom (1987) αποδεικνύει ότι η φαινομενική πολυπλοκότητα του σχήματος καταρρίπτεται εκ του αποτελέσματος. Ο σχεδιασμός και η ανάλυση δραστηριοτήτων με τη χρήση του τριγώνου, ξεκινάει από το διδακτικό τρίγωνο Δάσκαλος – Μαθητής – Γνώση, το οποίο αποτελεί βασικό πλαίσιο σχεδιασμού και ανάλυσης των εκπαιδευτικών προγραμμάτων που διαμορφώνονται. Διαπιστώνουμε λοιπόν, εκ του αποτελέσματος, ότι η χρήση του τριγώνου του Engetsrom στη διδακτική διαδικασία περισσότερο μας βοηθάει, μας κατευθύνει και μας οριοθετεί, παρά μας δημιουργεί προβλήματα.Επισημαίνουμε ότι, μέσω της παρούσας διατριβής, επιτυγχάνεται η σύνδεση της Θεωρίας της Δραστηριότητας με τη μαθησιακή δραστηριότητα, τόσο σε επίπεδο σχεδιασμού, όσο και σε επίπεδο ανάλυσης. Τοποθετώντας τον εκπαιδευτικό και τον μαθητή μαζί, τη γνώση απέναντι και στην κορυφή όχι την ύλη, αλλά τα εργαλεία που έχει στη διάθεσή του τόσο ο εκπαιδευτικός όσο και ο μαθητής, ώστε να επιτυγχάνεται η προσέγγιση του στόχου και κατά συνέπεια της γνώσης. Προϊόντα της διατριβής θα είναι η νέα ερευνητική μέθοδος, ένα καινοτόμο curriculum για τις Φυσικές Επιστήμες, και πρότυπο εκπαιδευτικό υλικό (website, e-book). Η διατριβή έχει συνέργεια με συνέδρια, προγράμματα, καινοτομίες στο πλαίσιο της δια-βίου μάθησης.

Leading by virtual interaction: an application of cultural-historical activity theory

BMJ Leader ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. leader-2021-000485
Author(s):  
Ana Sjaus ◽  
Krista Corinne Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Activity Theory ◽  
Team Leadership ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity Theory ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Medical Community ◽  
Activity Systems ◽  
Group Activities ◽  
Pandemic Response ◽  
Historical Activity ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity

Introduction The pandemic spread of SARS-CoV-2, a novel, highly contagious and easily transmissible pathogen, has profoundly affected all aspects of human interaction. Guided by the need to reduce face-to-face contacts, medical organisations have rapidly shifted group activities to virtual platforms. Over 1 year into the pandemic, the necessity to maintain public health restrictions ensures that virtual meetings will be the norm for the foreseeable future.It has yet to be understood how virtual technologies shape healthcare and academic cultures, affect interactions, or influence strategic decisions and policies within these systems.Conclusion In this article, the authors reflect on the move from historically situated activity systems of team leadership in healthcare to ones that now exist in virtual formats. Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) is a framework that explains complex human actions, and how they unfold over time through interaction with mediational tools (eg, technology) and various people representing their own communities, roles and perceived divisions of labour. The authors use the lens of CHAT as a framework to understand the shifting dynamics at play and offer strategies for leaders to co-establish activity systems with team members to make goals of group activities explicit and to deliberately work toward them. Five specific strategies proposed are: (1) use software platforms that fit your needs and give voice to all attendees with technical support present in meetings; (2) converse explicitly about roles and emerging role fluidity during times of change and pandemic response; (3) co-construct something new intentionally; (4) engage in implementation science at this time; and (5) lead intentionally while honouring cultural norms and values. It is imperative that any changes, even the ones that are a part of the pandemic response, are made consistent with the core shared values of the medical community as this necessary new way of coming together is embraced with collective wisdom.

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