Interactional Ethnography and the Learning Sciences

Abstract

This presentation examines the potential of new methodologies and analytic tools for the Learning Sciences in moving forward with its theoretical and empirical work, specifically Interactional Ethnography (IE) which takes its roots from ethnography, interactional sociolinguistics, ethnomethodology and discourse analysis in education. In this presentation, I will examine the confluences between Interactional Ethnography (IE) and the Learning Sciences movement by examining similarities between the origins and emerging constructs foundational to both. In particular, I will focus on two shared interests, interdisciplinary and systemic research, and will explore how these are manifest in our ongoing HKSAR-funded Interactional Ethnography which is examining the role of educational technologies in problem-based health sciences curricula. By doing so, I will explore how the collaborative theoretical and empirical work between the University of Hong Kong (S. Bridges et al.), The University of California (J. Green, Director, Center for Education Research on Literacy & Inquiry in Networking Communities) and Indiana University (C. Hmelo-Silver, Barbara B. Jacobs Chair of Education and Technology and Professor of Learning Sciences) is bringing IE into new fields of investigation aligned to core constructs in the Learning Sciences.