CONTRIBUTION OF THE STUDY

This study was directed towards evaluating a programme used to train adult learners in computer- based skills in the workplace at this particular mine. The activity theory (AT) was the theoretical framework for the study. Engeström’s AT (Figure 2.4) was used in the analysis and communication of the findings to establish the impact of the computer-based programme on the mine workers’ learning and to address the emergent tensions and contradictions in the context of the study. Each transcribed interview was reviewed in detail. Annotations were made on the transcriptions to classify the discussions of each activity system element and the relationships among those elements. Often, interviewees focused on the tensions within or between the elements of the AT.

The main contribution of the study thus emerged from the revealed tensions and contradictions through the interviewees’ responses and observations in systems analysis in tandem with the impact that the computer-based programme made on the mine workers’ learning. The claim that this study therefore puts forward is that the activity system tensions provide rich insights into system dynamics and opportunities for the evolution of the system. The contribution of the study is further unpacked in the sub-sections that follow.

5.3.1 Contradictions between activity system elements

Contradictions are defined as historically accumulating structural tensions within and between the activity systems and they are the driving force of change (Engeström, 2001:137). The study creates awareness in the field about the context-based tensions and contradictions that may deny a smooth applicability of the activity system in the context, in this case the mine context.

5.3.2 Zone of proximal development

There was minimal evidence of Vygotsky’s (1978) zone of proximal development (ZPD) and the notion of mediation in the computer-based learning environment in most of the AET learning centres at the mine. The contradictions revealed the connections between AT and the community of practice in the ZPD in the teaching and learning of adult learners. Instead of mediation, where a more competent peer or adult assists performance, bridging the gap between what the students know and what they can do, and what the student needs to know, this study revealed the participants’ own understanding and experiences as a point of departure, mostly in face-to-face teaching rather than in the computer lab. Two categories of learners’ thinking and problem solving were identified, i.e. those learners who were able to perform independently, and others who performed with some assistance from the facilitators.

Those learners who lay beyond the ZPD were those who could not perform even with assistance, and were registered at AET Basic Oral, where the mother tongue was often used to give clarity and to assist in the delivery of instruction. Learners’ understanding at Own-Time and Full-Time classes in the mine was developed by means of activities, classroom discussions and exercises that were done outside and inside classrooms. The old practice of learning was expected to be part of the new practice of learning, since the new practice was represented by the tools, artefacts and computers for participants in this study (Chaiklin, 2003:98). This new practice led to the new disruptions and tensions which induced the new practice in learning. Participants were able to demonstrate the ability to select tools relevant for the object of the activity in Own-Time.

The teaching and learning situations in the mine investigated in this study put a critical demand to the applications of the ZPD and AT. By implication, this creates a need for a needs analysis prior to teaching adult learners in a computer-based programme, who mostly regard themselves as the

“borns-before-technology” (BBT). The conventional mining activities were characterised by a sophisticated technology, suggesting that employees needed to be equally brought up to speed technologically. However, in the southern world conventional industry meets with indigenous realities, and indigenous people. Thus, for learners from indigenous environments to cope well with exogenous interventions, and thus to rise to the ZPD, it is necessary for existing theories such as Vygotsky’s and Engeström’s to make space for these realities. The study teaches us not to put everyone on the fast track of development contained in conventional means, given their unique contexts. That calls for the rethinking of exogenous intervention programmes in which needs analysis and slower pace (especially in instances which involve adult learners) take precedence.

5.3.3 Subjects versus the Object

The findings during this investigation at Own-Time and Full-Time classes in the mine revealed varying degrees of uncertainty from adult learners as to why they were not using computers for learning. However, those who used computers for learning experienced contradictions in listening to the narratives of others on the computer-based lesson. It is the view in this study that Engeström’s perception of AT might fall short on taking cognisance of the cultural backgrounds of adult learners who in the case of this research site were mostly migrant workers from the neighbouring indigenous contexts. Simply put, as indicated in 5.3.1.1, in today's technological society I could not comprehend how education could divorce itself from the culture in which adult learners were brought up and how they could view the technology-based kinds of intervention. Engeström’s AT seems divorced from such realities.

Thus, the study casts insight onto the programmes that may disregard the background realities of those they target. The facilitators can be credited for the work that they have achieved with learners. Where they used the computer as a tool for teaching and learning, they seemed so blindfolded by the Media Works programme that they often disregarded the realities of the learners’ contexts. For the programme to rob them of the use of their own language through enforcing English only for the sake of communication with their supervisors strengthens this claim. Efforts could have been made to expand the programme to train the supervisors and other seniors in the mine in indigenous languages as well. This is an ideal proposition for transformation in a democratic South Africa.

5.3.4 Full-Time and Own-Time attendance: A unique feature in a learning context

The use of AT as an analytical framework in this study was crucial in illuminating the different levels of appropriation in learners. Personal learning experiences and placement assessment at the beginning of the programme impacted the learners’ level of appropriation. Intra-conflict as a contradiction was mainly evident in the Own-Time classes as learning was not compulsory. Despite the high enrolment, poor completion and poor attendance were reported by facilitators and centre managers. Possible reasons for this kind of conflict from the perspective of the participants were diverse: some participants had strong opinions about the efficacy of non- compulsory learning which resulted from shift work, overtime work and the biased selection process of learners’ by management, and which prohibited some participants from attending the training. They felt that it was a deterrent to learning. The complexities of the situation at the mine, which compelled the training to be channelled according to these two groups, have a bearing on the AT as well. Accommodating these groups might not be easy. The dynamics are not the same, as can be seen in the findings. Therefore, in contexts such as the one in the mine under study, adopting any theory as is has the potential of breeding certain tensions and contradictions informed by the background and life experiences of learners.

5.3.5 Knowledge transfer

In this study, participants’ development was identifiable during their interaction with the computers in one Own-Time class, both as individuals and as a collective. This suggests a shared object in the activity system. Participants’ involvement was used as a platform for collaboration and meaningful transfer of knowledge and skills attributed to the development transfer that took place among learners. Participants in the study were exposed to the tensions and contradictions in their individual activity system, for instance lack of keyboard and mouse skills. They relied solely on facilitators for assistance in the beginning as the curriculum did not include an introduction to computers. AT was relevant for knowledge transfer as it provided the understanding of the activity of learning as a continuous engagement in which learners participated.

Based on the critical reflections on the AT presented above, therefore, I suggest a few theoretical modifications in the AT reflected in Figure 5.1. These are added to the expanded version of the

AT which was discussed in Chapter 2. In this study, Engeström’s (1987) original concept of transformative learning by the co-construction of an object attracts some modification.

Engeström’s (1987) concern that the individual and the collective human behaviour accompanied by the present and future do seem to merge, needs to be modified for one reason: pre-designed software operates from the individual conception of the designer, which may not always give the intended outcome, depending on the subject matter expertise and transformative thinking. Leontev (1978) contends that an activity is always anticipated for individual learners whereas Engeström (1987) argues that the form of an activity is projected for a collective. I argue that the individual subject expands the environment in which the activity takes place by creating the new context.

Lastly, Engeström’s (1987) opinion that it is the projection from object to outcome that functions as the motive for this activity and gives meaning to the actions of individual learners requires modification. This study suggests that it is actually the projection from the subjects to the object that provides such motivation and facilitates the outcome. This is crucial, especially considering the need to design a computer-based programme from the point of view of a learner’s needs, rather than only based on the needs of the mine.

Activity participants are defined as subjects that are interacting with objects to achieve desired outcomes. Leontev (1981) in Kaptelinin and Nardi, (2012:12) argues that human activities are directed towards their objects, as stated in the principle of object-orientedness. Furthermore,

In this study it is understood that subjects have needs which, when appropriately addressed, would enable them to carry out activities in order to satisfy their desire to engage with computers for learning. Learners carry out activities as they interact with objects in the AET programme. In other words, an action or activity is not only prompted by the characteristics of the object, but it is mainly driven by the attributes of the subjects.

The object component depicts the purposeful nature of human activity, which allows individuals to control their motives and behaviour when carrying out the activity. The AT is therefore about how subjects transform objects, and how the various components of the system mediate

transformation as an outcome. This suggested modification translates into the revised AT framework as presented in Figure 5.1. Used in such contexts, AT has implications for theory and practice and acknowledges not only processes and technology, but also people as subjects in the activity system.

Figure 5.1: Revised expanded triangular model of Engeström Key (T: Tool, S: Subject, R: Rules, C: Community, DL: Division of labour)