Rethinking Educational Ethnography

Researching on-line communities and interactions
The Fourth Annual Conference
University of Copenhagen
Copenhagen 3-4 June 2014

Exploring the learning context

The fourth edition of Rethinking Educational Ethnography: Researching on-line communities and interactions is organized by the Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, the section of education and the network at VIA University College, Faculty of Health Sciences, in collaboration with ECER Network 19.

This conference forms part of a long-term discussion that began in Helsinki at ECER 2010, when participating researchers discussed emerging concerns about virtual ethnography and discovered a shared interest. In 2011 this debate gave rise to the first annual Rethinking Educational Ethnography: Researching on-line communities and interactions, conference, held at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Porto and organized by Educational Research Centre(CIIE), and to a second gathering within the ECER Network 19 in Berlin. In 2012, the second annual Conference organized by the Centre for the Study of Change in Culture and Education (CECACE) and the Department of Educational Management, and held at the University of Barcelona permitted the circulation and the debate on emergent practices in the field of online educational ethnography. The third edition was organized by the Institute of research on population and social policies of the National Research Council of Italy (IRPPS-CNR) and the network of Sociology of Education of the Italian Association of Sociology (AIS-EDU), at the University of Napoli 'Federico II'.

The fourth edition, while building on the knowledge generated in the previous meeting, will invite ethnographers in different fields of research in education and learning to discuss the challenges of researching the it-based learning context, strategies for organizational and pedagogical development, on-line learning and new patterns in communication and interactions, by promoting opportunities and exchanges at the epistemological, methodological and theoretical level.

In particular, the third edition proposes to reflect on the multi-sited research design in ethnography covering and coping with the learning context and the shifting online offline settings. In many respects, the shift between online offline setting and the new tendencies to blend learning strategies are a challenge and leads to complex restructuring of the inner world of classroom, teaching and learning. At the same time, we may notice an increase of interest for on-line learning as a part of the educational and organizational development combined with interest for research based evaluation of the online learning in practice. Important possibilities for the subjects of educational and social research to be involved in the ethnographic evaluation and investigation as active co-producers of data, empirical overviews and close up analysis. This involvement in the phases of collecting, analyzing, writing ethnography permit genuine networking during the investigation. The involvement in research based evaluation and the process of networking raises basic questions to ethnographers: How to explore the learning context and the shift between online and offline in the fields of practice? How to observe and collect data about formal/non-formal learning profession oriented learning? How to analyze the learning space and processes? What is the status of the ethnographical in depth knowledge?

The fourth edition invites paper proposals that may explore the development and consolidation of these questions and reflect on the production of new knowledge and understanding of the it-based learning context and the practical processes. The discussion on these issues may contribute to enhance the design of qualitative and empirical learning research in digital ethnography, and also to understand the current strategies for organizational and pedagogical development to promote active participations to ethnographic investigation of educational innovation and dynamics.

Call for papers

This conference encourages both scholars and PhD students to submit their research, and welcomes submissions that discuss completed studies, field work, or work in progress. We specifically invite paper proposals, which address one or several of the following issues:

• Multi-sited exploration of the learning context and the challenge and possibilities of research participants as co-producers of educational ethnographies.
• Multi-level case studies and investigations of it-based strategies for organizational and pedagogical development.
• On-line learning and new patterns in communication and interactions.
• Research based evaluation of digital innovative education and online learning in practice.
• The process of networking promoting opportunities and exchanges at the epistemological, methodological and theoretical level.

Language

The general language of the conference is English. Abstracts, as well as the full paper, should be submitted in English.

Contact

Karen Borgnakke professor, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, karenb@hum.ku.dk

Faculty of Humanities
University of Copenhagen
Karen Blixens Vej 4
DK-2300 København S

Planning team

Anita Lyngsø, PhD student, Vibeke Røn Noer, PhD student and Karen Borgnakke