Examining Social Positioning Across Settings in an Undergraduate Education Course

Abstract

The benefits of learning across in-school and out-of-school contexts have been widely documented in educational research literature. Much of this research focuses on P-12 learners engaged in loosely-connected learning experiences across in-school and out-of-school settings. What has been less explored are the affordances and constraints of more formally-constructed learning experiences occurring across in-school and out-of-school contexts for students learning at the post-secondary level. Accordingly, this study explores students’ positioning vis-a-vis the various structural, material, and social arrangements of a designed learning environment in higher education that builds on the connections and tensions between in-school and out-of-school contexts. Broadly informed by a sociocultural theoretical perspective, and bringing together analytical insights from positioning theory (Davies & Harre, 1990; Harre et al., 2009; Harre, 2012; McVee; 2011) and social practice theory (Dreier, 2009; Holland et al., 1998; Urrieta Jr., 2007), this dissertation takes seriously the ways in which power shapes students’ learning experiences. Research questions examine the unique structural, material, and social arrangements of each setting of an undergraduate education course as they relate to how students were positioned or ascribed positions to others in and across the course settings. A qualitative case study approach, in which three focal students’ experiences in the course were examined, was used as the basis for the study design. Major findings from this study suggest that not all students were positioned similarly in and across the course settings. Rather, different students were positioned differently by the structural, material, and social arrangements of each setting. These positions were not static, but changed depending on the fluid arrangements within and across the different contexts and timescales of the course. Most importantly, the design of this course appeared to disrupt some of the traditional powered relationships often seen in typical undergraduate courses. Implications that emerged from this study include the need for educators and instructional designers to carefully consider the various arrangements within and across the settings in which students learn in order to create more inclusive and democratic learning opportunities.