Data Analysis

4.9.3.1. Identifying Themes of Contradiction

The aim of the analysis was to assess the extent to which the CL supported the students’ transformational process with regard to their understanding of theory/practice (Bagarukayo, Ssentamu et al. 2016). This was through a process of identifying CHAT concepts and AS components to providing an understanding of the students’ practice settings, and identifying examples of expansive learning and the drivers for this expansive learning, primarily manifestations of contradiction (Sannino, Engeström et al. 2016b). This involved thematic analysis, for example, looking for discursive manifestations of contradictions, followed by a Critical Hermeneutic (CH) analysis from these thematic entry points. The purpose is to examine the texts produced in the process of the CL for hidden meaning. The role of the analyst plays an important role in CH and, as with CHAT, central to the development of meaning. Acceptance of the transformative role of the researcher is an important part of the overall methodology (this can be partially seen in Engeström 1999b).

The initial phase of analysis was based upon an in-depth examination of the texts produced by the CL and the intervention outcomes. There were 6 steps to this first phase:

1. Identify the components of the activity system(s) the students describe from both online discussion and posted documentation.

2. Identify contradiction types from the participant online discussion and the linguistic signifiers of the contradictions.

3. Identify expansive learning actions through participant online discussion, and the posted outcome documentation.

a. Identify critical encounters and characterise them. b. Identify volitional acts and characterise them. 4. Identify non-expansive learning actions (paralysis).

5. Identify deviations from the script to find where the students are taking control of the expansive learning experience

6. Develop a set of models/diagrams that emphasise the expansive learning actions, the contradictions that drive these, and the artefacts that mediated the action.

This process will then be framed through a 2nd phase of analysis using a Critical Hermeneutic framework.

4.9.3.2. Critical Hermeneutics

To shape human action requires an ability to interpret intention through the texts produced by human activity reflecting the authors’ intention. Critical Hermeneutics as proposed by Gadamer (1975) focuses a fundamentally reflective methodology on the interpretation of 'texts' through the consideration and fusion of 'horizons'. The text to be considered in hermeneutics can be any form of documents but has also been defined to include many other forms of

Work Placements. communication beyond the textual (Balfour and Mesaros 1994, Trede, Higgs et al. 2009). By horizons, Gadamer (1975) means the horizons of the text and the horizons of the analyst. The horizons of the analyst include their

prejudices - both the productive and unproductive - that shape their understanding of the text, and the horizons of the text are the underlying assumptions - both explicit and tacit. Through a fusion of these horizons driven by the analysts process of reflection, hidden meaning within the document that serves social, economic and political power is meant to be uncovered (Prasad and Mir 2002).

To understand a text is to appreciate the hermeneutic circle of the text - of the relationship between the construction of the text and the originator(s), the interpretation of the whole text and the recipient, and the recipient and the originator. The hermeneutic circle is a realisation of manifest tensions

between the intended activity by the originator(s) of the text and the inevitable activities mediated through interpretation by the recipient(s) of the text. There is a natural friction that arises due to the necessity of understanding the text as a whole through interpreting the various parts (and the sequence of those parts) - but that the parts and their sequence have, in turn, been determined by a purpose for the text as a whole. In other words the author(s) of the text have an intention, and can only communicate that intention through a specific sequence of parts that comprise the complete text. When that text is

subsequently interpreted through its parts, the sampling and remixing that the text goes through affect the recipients understanding of the intention of the

This is to reject authorial intent as reflected in the current sequencing of the text. Rejection of authorial intent can be interpreted in an aggressive sense, especially when dealing with texts relating to those in a position of power, but here it is meant in a more sympathetic sense recognising that in working towards a specific goal and expressing that through a text, more than the goal is revealed. The hermeneutic circle is therefore an acceptance of the tension that lies between the intended activity of the author(s) and the activities that arise through mediated interpretation of the text. The meaning of a text

therefore emerges through a dialogue between the analyst of the text and the text itself. However, understanding is not one-sided, and there is a necessary duality of understanding of both the text and self, and whilst many

hermeneutic studies focus on the text, there are those that emphasise the self (Zeiler 2009).

Building on the field of hermeneutics and a reflective approach to social conditions within which a text is embedded and reinforces power differentials, Phillips and Brown (1993) propose an approach to CH focused on five

characteristics of a text. These 5 characteristics could be described of aspects of meaning within a text that act as channels through which a message is conveyed.

• The Intentional Characteristic - A text is produced by someone for

someone, for a reason, it contains a message to be communicated.

• The Referential Characteristic - This characteristic allows the formal

Work Placements. how symbolic forms can impact the understanding of the recipients about the referents. This is fundamentally the relationships or power and culture.

• The Contextual Characteristic - Who created it, how it was created, and

how it was transmitted are important aspects of the contextual and provide a social and historical perspective to understanding the text.

• The Conventional Characteristic - The rules for the text and the

conventions by which it is encoded and decoded both act as an

inclusive/exclusive dichotomy drawing boundaries around participants in a dialogue.

• The Structural Characteristic - The relationship between the various

elements that comprise a text. The articulation of this structure says something more about the text than simply examining the elements themselves.

By spiralling out from the identified contradictions from the previous stage in the analytic process we can begin to develop a better understanding of how those contradictions arise, and how they are resolved - identifying points of expansive learning. This analysis will take place through the initial thematic analysis that will then be classified according to five characteristics of a text allowing for multiple readings and thorough organisation of the texts (Teras and Lasonen 2013). This analytic approach covered looking at the frequency of response, start dates of doing the activity sheets, as well as the response content. The way they respond is telling, of how they interpret a question and the language they use, the metaphors they use and even the typos and

crossing of three moments of a text (Phillips and Brown 1993). The 3 moments consist of a socio-historical analysis encompassing the first 3

characteristics of texts (from where has it arisen), a formal analysis consisting of the last 2 characteristics of texts (what are the abstract signs utilised for communication), and a moment of interpretation-reinterpretation that

combines the socio-historical and formal moments of analysis (what is the role in the social system).

A part of the hermeneutic process is to open up the horizon of the analyst - the researcher. For me the role of the placement is to help students better understand the materialisation of theory in the realms of practice. Theory is not the real world, but a distillation of the real world. It embodies a specific set of assumptions, variables, entities, actors and their relationships. The

specifics of any particular set of circumstances will affect the appearance of these theoretical constructs through experience. For students to realise this disconnect, and that theory isn't merely a set of mnemonics to be regurgitated in an exam is an important learning experience. In appreciating this tension between theory and practice they are better positioned to use theory to

intervene in their practices, both to determine a from of intervention, and then shape that intervention. The level of understanding reflects the state of the consciousness of the individual student. To understand and intervene in this process better is to understand the process of changing consciousness in the social context the students discover themselves in.

Work Placements. Moving from the methodological reflections to those of method this chapter has shown how I have developed the online CL from a more traditional face- to-face CL and the issues I had to consider regarding bringing together my participants, and the development of a Cycle of Expansive learning generating iterations of double stimulation. My approach to the data generated by the CL further demonstrates my intentional stance towards the text coproduced through interactions between the students and myself allowing the