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A Grounded framework for understanding the online habitus of educationists

EdD Progression Board paper – November 2011

David Noble, EdD student, University of Edinburgh

Research question

How might we understand the online habitus of educationists?

a) How are presence, actions and interactions described?

b) Which artefacts exist and are formed?

c) What is necessary to enter the field and what is brought to the field?

d) How does learning happen?

e) Which capitals are created and how are these maintained and used?

f) How are established forms of CPD related to the field?

g) What is being dealt with?

Introduction

In this paper, I establish the basis of my empirical, Grounded approach to

constructing a framework for understanding the online habitus of educationists. My

research question incorporates concepts from the overview literature that move

beyond ‘the online’ and dominant computer network metaphors. In constructing a

framework for understanding the online habitus of educationists, I am, despite

interview data being abstracted, conceiving of interviewees as complex social

actors who have capacities to make personal choices. Constructing habitus allows

us to conceive of intrinsic elements, in addition to extrinsic ones such as tools, data

sources, spaces and relationships, developed in my earlier Grounded analysis

(Noble, 2009).

I begin by outlining the educational and technological milieu in which I have worked

and studied since commencing the EdD, establishing that there is, prima facie, a

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new field to be studied, as certain contemporary notions of learning networks and

professional development appear to be converging.

In reviewing literature on theories of learning, including connectivism and ‘personal

learning networks’ (PLNs), I find that there is an absence of empirical research with

which to ground this new field. I conclude that persisting with computer network

metaphors would lead me to construct a definition of ‘personal learning network’ in

which the original interview talk of research participants would be disregarded in

favour of a term already common in the social world.

By incorporating concepts such as habitus, identity, capital and social artefacts into

the research questions, I can ensure that my Grounded analysis of data from the

sample of edonis project interviews (note 1) will lead to a humanised framework;

intrinsic and familiar to those actors in and around the field.

I go on to detail how I have ensured that I have operated, and will continue to

operate, within the College of Humanities and Social Science Research Ethics

Framework. I outline the principles of Grounded Theory and discuss how I have,

and will deal with applying these to data collected during two distinct ‘windows’ or

time periods. I show how the thesis will make a contribution to knowledge,

recognising limitations in terms of applicability and portability, nonetheless

illustrating the pursuit of objectivity, validity and reliability. The intention is to

construct an iterative framework, attractive to, for example, researchers in the

future.

The framework should also assist educationists and those within and around policy

circles concerned with the independent reports, ‘Teaching Scotland’s Future’

(Scottish Government, 2011a) and ‘Advancing Professionalism in Scottish

Teaching’ (Scottish Government, 2011b), in imagining possible futures. It may also

assist convergence between management, teachers, other educationists, and

technologies (Holmes et al, 2007). Readers of the thesis will be able to consider

how an online habitus may be adopted or learnt by those living through formal and

other educational sites, systems and structures.

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The thesis conclusion will include a visualisation of the online habitus of

educationists, including categories and concepts, and properties and dimensions.

This will be supported by an exemplification written in the style of a Grounded

memo (see Appendix A).

In deciding to construct a framework for the online habitus of educationists, I will

refer to the substantive focus of my research as a ‘field’ of activity, with perimeter

and barriers to entry. Unlike one’s presence within institutions or organisations of

employment, few restrictions appear to exist once one is ‘in’ the field.

Adding the notion of agency at this stage implies that social actors in the field will

construct their own common activities, etiquette, language and other codes. In this

field, agency (or autonomy) appears to equate with freedom of individuals, rather

than elsewhere and in the past where, for example, teacher autonomy was defined

in terms of interaction with, and focus on, students (Banathy and Jenlick, 2004).

The field metaphor implies that its periphery may be an interesting site of study,

where for example, those who ‘get it’ meet those ‘looking in’.

Research context: ICT supporting career-long learning of Scottish teachers

In the past ten years, I have developed roles across fields of education which

enable me to co-operate with educationists in Scotland, the rest of the UK, and

other countries (Appendix B). This involves: teaching, discussing policies,

exchanging articles and papers, creating educational audio, and engaging with

discourses on teacher development.

A recent, widely-regarded (note 2) independent report on the career-long

professional learning of Scotland’s teachers, ‘Teaching Scotland’s Future’, states

that information and communications technologies (ICT) ought to be introduced or

harnessed to improve continuous professional development (CPD) (note 3) and

associated processes such as professional review and development (PRD), and

‘professional update’ or re-registration of the teaching profession (see Appendix C).

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An earlier industrial agreement, ‘A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century’

(Scottish Executive, 2001) stated that all teachers be entitled to a minimum of 35

hours CPD per year. This arrangement has also been re-stated in the most recent

report, ‘Advancing Professionalism in Scottish Teaching’. As before, arrangements

for ongoing CPD are to be formally made through workplace-based PRD processes

or meetings. These have been criticised by many teachers as superficial and

unhelpful.

Since publication of ‘A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century’, several other

publications have exemplified the many activities which can ‘count’ as CPD

(Conlon, 2004), within the context of PRD. Presently, subject to the permission of

their head teacher, teachers are able to work and develop at a ‘time and place of

one’s choosing’. With widespread availability and reduced costs of broadband and

mobile web technologies, it is possible to engage in many continuous professional

development opportunities ‘anytime, anywhere’.

What else is ‘going on’? Changing professionalism, educational and web

technologies, and ‘personal learning networks’

I have come to understand that around the advent of ‘web 2.0 technologies’ (note

4), my mindset as a teacher was influenced, added to, or shifted by educationists

such as Ewan McIntosh. McIntosh (2007) writes of the world being changed forever

by new technologies; where young people are able to thrive as learners and

entrepreneurs. Educationists are able to break down traditional barriers, and

discover and work with new colleagues via educational and web technologies.

We appear to be living through an ‘age of participation’ (Dutton and Peltu, 2007),

where all can have a presence online, communicate swiftly around the world at no

marginal cost, and create, ‘mashup’ (note 5) or consume content at will. Thousands

of UK teachers use blogs and microblogs (note 6), and other supportive

technologies. Many of these educationists sense that they can construct, manage

and thrive within what some educational and web technologists have termed a

personal learning environment (PLE), comprising in part a PLN (Haskins, 2007;

Wilson, 2008).

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These emerging practices can be examined in the context of established, new, and

changing theories of learning and professional learning (see Appendix D). I have

found that reviewing literature on PLNs and online learning over the past four years

has enabled me to: be aware of rhetoric on ICT, contribute to discourses around

new iterations of learning theories, and place myself onto what I see as one of the

symbolic battlegrounds for the ‘future’ of education.

Early conceptualisation of online PLNs has primarily taken place alongside that of

connectivism (Siemens, 2005; Downes, 2008) (note 7). Common discursive spaces

include e-learning journals and conferences, and the blogs and microblogs of

educational and web technologists.

The term ‘PLN’ has been loosely applied to a new, technology-driven milieu of

personalised learning. The 2009 Horizon Report (in Johnson et al 2009:19) defines

PLNs as “customized, personal Web-based environments … that explicitly support

one’s social, professional, (and) learning … activities via highly personalized

windows to the networked world.” Learning through social and work oriented tasks

(Haythornthwaite, 2000) takes place in a PLN where relationships, spaces and

sources of data are personally maintained (Warlick, 2009). PLNs may enable

teachers to work convivially, exemplifying Illich’s (1973) concept of personal

interdependence (note 8).

Literature on PLNs often states that they are designed, managed and owned by

individuals. A range of supportive technologies are used to move beyond creating

and consuming web content; to navigating, positioning, communicating, co-

operating and collaborating online. Often building on long histories of engagement

with ICT and established social networks and connections, PLNs are said to feature

trustful relationships at the core, with many loose, fluid connections at the periphery

(Preston et al, 2009).

There may be constellations of PLNs through which artefacts such as: contact

details, groups, practices, messages and links, exist and can be shared. Artefacts

can be thought of as nodes within networks, around which people position

themselves and their PLN. As data, relationships and spaces can be filtered by

interest, and as interests are not fixed, there may be constant movement and

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change in intensity across and between networks. However, Tobin (1998)

recognises that PLNs can be tangible and exist in the physical world; embodied in

artefacts such as people and items.

Knowledge appears to be socially constructed within and between nodes. Activity

through public-facing, online-mediated networks and other websites generate,

deliberately or as a by-product, artefacts which can be discovered, shared, traded

or incorporated. It appears that the experience of collaborating or co-operating with

one’s PLN may lead to ‘learner satisfaction’, that is, a ‘win/win situation’ or ‘non-

zero sumness’ (Wright, 2000).

The above closely relates to an existing theory of learning, constructionism, which

is similar to constructivism (Papert, 1980; Kafai and Resnick, 1996).

Constructionism moves beyond youthful learning; from pedagogy to andragogy,

and self-expression and exchange between knowledgeable, mature individuals.

This theory recognises the influence and roles of media, and that self-directed

learners reside at the centre of their own network, with a collection of artefacts to

‘think with’ (Ackermann, 2004).

EdD progression and finding a focus among emerging criticisms of educational and

web technologies

As I commenced the EdD, I held a strong belief that sharing practice, ideas and

resources was ‘good’, and that feeling in possession of a personalised online

network or learning environment was a modern trait of enhanced professionalism.

With significant numbers of Scottish educationists becoming involved in these

emerging practices over recent years (ScotEduBlogs, 2011), I developed an

interest in educational talk and conversation, through creating and consuming

podcasts.

However, I sensed a low level of engagement among educationists, beyond those

teachers visible online. This included an absence of public responses to text and

audio being published online, which led me to begin to question the general,

positive claims made by many who communicate through educational and web

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technologies. I also began to consider which assumptions were being made by the

‘early adopters’.

Some argue that, where there is free choice and a disconnection from paid work,

the web is mostly used for safe, familiar interaction with those who are already

known. Also, that it acts as a buffer from wider social interaction (Turkle, 2011), or

exists as a ‘filter bubble’ (Pariser, 2011) similar to that which might be encountered

in an unfamiliar, physical space. Others refer to the anxiety experienced by those

who use services that ‘push’ data at them. There have been calls for (e)learning

experiences to become more ‘humanised’ (Tan et al, 2009).

I recently re-wrote an EdD paper, ‘An analysis of teacher professionalism, in light of

personal learning networks and an online habitus’ (Noble, 2011c), where I

considered identity, restrictedness and new performative action. I showed how

performativity (Ball, 2004) may exist online, as individuals and organisations seek to

grow and maintain capitals by engaging in, for example, those online activities most

likely to lead to an increase in subscribers and readers. I argued that as those with

a presence online are only able to show part or parts of themselves to others, one

might wonder whether the construction and maintenance of online identities is pre-

meditated, in other words a deliberate performance.

I further argued that an additional teacher habitus may exist or be emerging, where

the focus of autonomous teacher actions, online, may be on enhancing perceived

networks or capitals, and not directly the lives of those at sites of schooling within

their paid employment.

During the first two years of the EdD (and the edonis project), I was able to: practise

and experiment with data collection, play with early iterations of a research

question, and consider epistemologies and my ontology. I discovered Grounded

Theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) towards the end of this period. I also studied

literature which dealt with, on reflection, assumptions that I had made at the outset

of the edonis project around: hegemony and discourse, the neutrality or otherwise

of network theory and my role in the edonis project, and dichotomies such as

between virtual and physical worlds. At the same time, I rediscovered writings on

capitals and Bourdieu’s habitus.

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Also, through my ongoing reading I recognised a methodological gap in research

into connectivism, PLNs, and educational and web technologies. Theories had

developed without being exposed to empirical data from the social world. One

consequence has been that the first two notions above are presently inextricably

associated with online-mediated communication.

Sketching the field and replacing dominant metaphors

Notions and characteristics of ‘personal learning networks’, as stated in recent

literature, appear wedded to computer network metaphors. This enables simple

diagramming; illustrating nodes, connections and knowledge transfer, while

appearing transparent, open, and free from bias and resistance.

Associated processes appear rational, almost mechanistic, therefore the ways in

which networks are constructed become clear and possible. This has previously

been seen elsewhere in, for example, the ‘ladder of participation’ (Arnstein, 1969)

and ‘reader-to-leader’ (Preece and Shneiderman, 2009) frameworks. Here, human

beings are neither visible, nor regarded as complex.

However, learning networks can be traced to Socrates and the age of the ‘agora’,

the Ancient Greek marketplace. We could consider this as an alternative metaphor

for the field of study.

A key activity within PLNs, such as ‘sharing’, might instead be conceived of as

‘trading’. Therefore, nodes might be ascribed market values that change according

to supply and demand. Within a marketplace, convergence of artefacts must occur

before transactions take place. Buyers must know of, and understand, the ways of

interacting with sellers. There will be hidden artefacts, power, values and identities

which will affect the ability of the marketplace to operate efficiently.

Dominant ideologies, class and power may be present in PLNs. Access to this field

may be restricted due to technical requirements and language, and the high costs

of understanding or acquiring cultural and other codes. Unless we move away from

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the seemingly neutral metaphors of the computer network, we will be unable to

recognise complex human actions and interactions in the field.

Establishing a theoretical framework prior to Grounded analysis of research data

I have argued before that educationists who consider themselves as working or in

dialogue with others within online PLNs are challenging notions of autonomy,

service and collegiality (Noble, 2011c), and that an additional habitus appears to

exist but has not yet been framed by empirical research. By habitus, I mean the

structure of educationists’ minds; incorporating schema, dispositions and modes of

work (Bourdieu, 1985a). Habitus can be learnt or adopted by social actors. The

additional habitus in the field may be being created presently through actors’

engagement in constructivist or constructionist activities, using supportive

technologies (Noble, 2011c).

Warlick (2009) wrote of the ‘online collegiality’ of teachers-without-a-home.

Educationists may work across many sites, with roles spread across physical,

online and blended environments. The idea of a single habitus, focused on

classrooms and sites of schooling, has been challenged previously when

educationists’ complex lives and community roles have been considered (Noble,

2011c) (note 9).

The opportunity to participate in the construction of identities in a PLN (and more

widely the iterative construction of an online habitus) depends on the presence of

social capital (Wasko and Faraj, 2005). Bourdieu (1985b:248) defines social capital

as, “the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to

possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of

mutual acquaintance or recognition.”

Walton (2007:381) states: “The experience of dialogue builds trust and social

capital while providing space for exploring assumptions and creating new

meanings.” Siemens (2006) identifies the creation of currency, that is, accurate, up-

to-date knowledge, as the intent of connectivist learning activities within PLNs.

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Social capital is an important social construction that allows us to examine actions,

power, influence, and motivation around artefacts. My interpreted, iterative

framework should utilise this notion within the research questions to reflect the

complexity of human action and interaction within the field.

Epistemology and ontology

I will be approaching data from a relativist, as opposed to a positivist, stance. In the

social world I regard knowledge as tentative and socially-constructed. In the

absence of certainty, knowledge is context-specific and inconsistent across time.

All resources from the thesis, including the tentative version of the framework will

remain online for researchers and others to freely interpret, construct the next

iteration of, or use otherwise.

The term ‘educationist’ is used to encompass the variety of paid and other roles of

participants in the edonis project. Initial communications clearly stated that I was a

teacher studying a Doctorate in Education, seeking to attract people involved in

education, from wherever, to take part. Despite not having access to the register of

teachers in each country, I am confident that all or nearly all participants, other than

several ‘knowing agents’ (Reeves, 2007), are registered teachers.

The term ‘educationist’ is necessary, as teacher educators, ‘home school-ers’,

further and higher education lecturers, and private and public education

organisation staff were interviewed. This arrangement emphasises the

tentativeness of the framework when constructed and that I will be unable to refer to

teachers or the Scottish context in the thesis conclusion. The framework will only be

valid with respect to those participants whose interviews were included in the

sample.

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Methods and Methodology: using data from edonis project interviews to answer the

research question

I am an emerging researcher who could be considered to ‘know the field’, having

observed and participated in it for several years (Noble, 2011b) (note 10). Research

data comes from segments of interview audio and operational notes from a sample

of the research corpus; the edonis project interviews (note 11). Potential data was

collected through semi-structured (mostly telephone) interviews with seventy

participants in the edonis project, conducted between October 2008 and April 2011

(note 12).

I initially attempted to attract three distinct categories of participant to the study:

educationists in the residential special school sector, who appeared to have little

experience of educational and web technologies in their professional lives (these

people were known to me on email lists and were approached via personalised

email); educationists with a stake in the Chartered Teacher policy in Scotland, most

of whom appeared to have a brief but successful history of using educational and

web technologies, having studied for Chartered Teacher status online (these people

were known to me through my position as Vice Chair of a chartered teacher

association and were also approached via personalised email); and educationists

who had a visible presence and apparently lengthy history online, and would likely

talk freely about their engagement with educational and web technologies. These

three categories of participant have been shortened to: knowing agents (innovators,

early adopters), aware agents (early and late majority), and ignorant agents

(laggards), based on Rogers’ (1962) ‘diffusion of innovations’.

My ‘call for participation’ in the study briefly ‘went viral’, as it was ‘retweeted’ and

‘blogged’ about by several people who had been directly invited by email. In

addition, the invitation was forwarded to others by email. I had hoped that each

category of participant would contain 1/3 of all participants, however control over

this was lost almost immediately. Participants signed-up directly or were registered

by me via the edonis Ning website (note 13).

I divided those who signed-up into the three categories based on Rogers’

classification. Final assignment to a category was determined by their responses to

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questions posed upon signing-up, relating to actual use of educational and web

technologies (see Appendix E). This act ignored my earlier assumptions when

issuing invitations and ‘calls’.

The conversational nature of many of the interviews was essential, as there were

no body language clues from the video-less internet telephone calls. The approach

was also deliberate because I was considering what the needs might be of those

listening to the live stream or recording (note 14). I wanted the audience to have an

enjoyable experience, to learn from others’ talk on education, and to interpret their

own themes in advance of possible future involvement, either as interviewee,

‘lurker’ or interrogator of concepts and categories.

Since conducting the early interviews, my writing has moved away from description,

towards critical analysis of educational and web technologies. In interviews, I have

consciously played less of a role as ‘participant observer’ or fellow ‘knowing agent’,

and more as conversation coach, encouraging participants to talk originally about

what they do.

I reflected on the recordings and operational notes from each of the edonis project

interviews. I recognised that interviewees often engaged in original talk, that is,

prompted or otherwise, they talked about the field in a way that I interpreted, or they

stated, as being the first time they had done so. During these segments,

established learning theories and ‘in vivo’ codes were not referred to.

Resolving issues prior to sampling and finalising the research question

My paper, ‘Grounded Theory analysis of data from three edonis interviews’ (Noble,

2009), constructed early concepts and categories, and properties and dimensions

around new online data sources, spaces and relationships (see Appendix F). These

led to an alteration in the pre-interview text sent to interviewees during the second

‘window’ of data collection (see Appendix G) and provided an insight into some of

the actions and interactions in the field. Along with key concepts emerging from

literature, this paper somewhat informed the research questions, although I have

been mindful of the very small sample.

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I am not able to utilise Grounded Theory analysis in its purest form, as I bounded

research interviews through firstly sharing a set of pre-determined questions, and

latterly sharing broad areas as prompts for segments of conversation (also see

Appendix G).

I should have considered reducing significantly the bounding or structuring of

interviews. I could have done this by speaking with participants, ad hoc or at an

agreed time and place, around for example, the Scottish Learning Festival,

TeachMeets, and online events. Engagement in the field is implicit in being at these

locations and my podcasting, webcasting and audio recording expertise would have

assisted this less designed approach to collecting potential research data.

Interviews published before 1st March 2010 (these having been recorded at least

six month earlier) may have been considered for Grounded analysis for my 2009

paper. Data from only three of these interviews were coded, with the others now

excluded, temporally, from the Grounded analysis for the thesis. I now consider the

first of my two windows of data collection and analysis (the second being between

2010 and 2013) to have been generative in nature, in that I was able to write

several iterations of the research question, play with Grounded Theory, and

develop early concepts and categories which could be utilised or not during the

second window.

A small number of educationists signed-up for the study during the second window.

These people will have had a materially different experience from those who

signed-up during the first window, partly in terms of the nature and extent of

communication via email and the website. Although it is not possible to determine

their consumption and consideration of artefacts such as my EdD papers and

published edonis interviews, I will exclude these participants from the sample in

order to, post hoc, reduce the potential variation in the stimuli that participants

accessed prior to being interviewed. Of course some participants, most likely

‘knowing agents’, may have previously considered or conceptualised the focus of

their edonis interview, either in the ‘lead-up’ to the interview or through their own

professional or personal histories.

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Sampling edonis interviews and selecting segments of data to code

I am sampling temporally, by including only the twenty-five interviews published

after 1st March 2010. Furthermore, I will sample by participants’ ICT histories.

Literature on ‘technologies for learning’ show how individuals’ histories of ICT use

affect mindset, motivation and how the field is made sense of (Noble, 2011a). I wish

to recognise the wide variation in participants’ ICT histories by sampling from the

three groups of participants I established during the first ‘window’ of research

activity.

It is important to consider that I interviewed all willing participants, and did so at a

time and place of their choosing across the three year period of data collection

(note 15). Therefore, I did not sample participants before or during the data

collection phase.

Prior to coding segments of data from the sampled interviews, I will ensure that

there are at least five interviews from participants in each of the three categories.

Where there are less than five interviews in a category, I will reduce the number of

interviews from those in other categories. This may reduce the overall sample to

slightly less than twenty-five.

I will include segments of sampled interviewee talk relating to any one of the

research questions, (a) to (g), listed at the beginning of this paper. Each selected

segment of data will be matched with one of the research questions where it relates

to one or more of the three foci of talk, below, within that question. All data from

sampled interviews are eligible to be coded for one of the research questions.

Research question (a) embodiments

(a) actions

(a) interactions

(b) objects

(b) technologies

(b) peoples

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(c) dispositions

(c) histories

(c) possessions

(d) learning

(d) development

(d) change

(e) motivations

(e) accumulations

(e) expenditures

(f) elsewheres

(f) assimilations

(f) contrasts

(g) worry

(g) loss

(g) challenge

However, sampled interview data from the following segments will be excluded from

analysis, even if they meet the inclusion criteria, above. These are, segments:

containing ‘in vivo’ codes, other than those theories identified as relevant to

the field in the theoretical framework and overview literature

where I am talking about my experiences, or interviewees are responding to

them

initiated by interviewees and unrelated to the research questions or field

where ‘good practice’ is being spoken of.

Where interviewees’ talk appears to relate to areas of the social world not regarded

as online, it may be included for analysis under any one of the research questions,

providing talk is not for the purpose of comparison within the research field. If this is

the case, it should only be considered for inclusion for question (f).

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I recognise that it is difficult to isolate ‘the online’ from the rest of the social world. In

considering that there may be a false dichotomy between online and offline, it

becomes possible to envisage many instances in the social world where agents can

simultaneously be online and offline. Therefore, it is not necessary to construct the

online habitus of educationists only from segments of data that some might

consider relate only to ‘the online’.

Research data will come from those unedited edonis project interviews (Noble,

2011b) included in the research sample (note 17). Each interview will be

transcribed in full by someone other than myself, and all talk from me as interviewer

will be omitted from the transcription. I will then review all data as one file, including

operational notes, and segments relating to the research questions will be coded. I

will begin by coding data line-by-line; preserving actions, discounting my knowledge

of the individual, avoiding preconceptions, and working in an abstract and

disinterested manner (Charmaz, 2006).

Applying a Grounded approach to analysing research data

Through Grounded Theory analysis, I aim to understand a field of the social world

through coding particular actions and interactions. Concurrently, I will attempt to

recognise the potential for bias in my stance towards interviewees and data;

negating this through being reflexive (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). For example, by

recognising the dominance of computer network metaphors within field discourses,

I will be aware of ‘in vivo’ codes based on such metaphors during coding of data.

There are different ways of knowing, and a danger that certain knowledge will be

privileged by me, as researcher. To ensure reflexivity, I will code only data ‘in front

of me’. The process will be systematic and scientific, ensuring that knowledge is

based on justification, refutation and verification, while recognising the existence of

multiple statuses, identities, realities, discourses, actors, modes, locations and

audiences (Charmaz, 2006).

There is no formula for constructing knowledge through a Grounded approach.

However, I must be systematic and maintain an intact audit trail as I work in

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proximity to data (Charmaz, 2006). In constructing a valid and reliable analytical

framework from abstract data, I will require creativity when naming my

interpretations and a mindset that allows me to work in a conceptual mode (Strauss

and Corbin, 1998). Such conditions will lead to the development of concepts and

categories, with properties and dimensions, which recognise choices and possible

directions pertaining to the actions of educationists in this field.

When coding data, I will create terms which appear to me to be applicable to the

social world, beyond just ‘the online’. As educationists and education are part of the

social world, participants whom I ask to meet (see page 12) to interrogate concepts

and categories should still be able to recognise, for example, their actions and

interactions in my constructions.

In addition, I will name concepts and categories such that they are valid and

relevant not only to habitus where digital devices mediate, but may also apply to

those of actors across the social world. This will prevent the use of technical terms

that may bewilder, for example, readers from certain categories of participants.

Having first reduced data to codes, I will analyse the initial codes, making them

measurable. I will then look for similarities and differences, and begin to name

commonalities. At this point, it will be important to remain ‘in the abstract’ and close

to data; otherwise there is a risk of interpretation.

Through moving forwards and backwards between data, the act of coding, and the

naming of emerging concepts and categories, sub-categories may also emerge.

This process continues until the concepts and categories, and properties and

dimensions, appear ‘saturated’ (Strauss and Corbin, 1998).

Based on successful co-operation from research participants during my initial

Grounded analysis (Noble, 2009), and the primacy of valid and reliable construction

of knowledge, I will again work with some participants to ensure that my analysis

‘fits’ data. Participants will be asked if they ‘see themselves’ in my interpretation,

and I will discover if I have accurately and collectively represented their social

worlds. During these additional sessions, I will encourage participants to identify

where I may have ‘forced’ explanations and preconceptions onto data.

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However, there are dangers here. Participants are unlikely to have experience of

Grounded Theory methodology. They may bring their own misunderstandings and

preconceptions. Nonetheless, as the expert and owner of the work-in-progress

presented to these individuals, I will be highly sensitive to data, therefore any

alterations will be my prerogative. Valuing participants in the process of analysis,

and enabling some to co-operate with me further, could assist with future

dissemination of the framework.

I wish to reach a stage where concepts and categories: are useful, closely fit data,

have conceptual density, have been modified, and are durable in the face of

change. Although interpretivist research must involve judgements by the researcher

at certain stages, my reading of positivism, reflexivity and Grounded Theory has led

me to construct a methodology for this thesis which pursues objectivity.

Ensuring that research is conducted ethically

In all research activities, I have adhered to the relevant guidelines ((SERA (2005),

BERA (2004), and ESRC (2005)). My intention is to make “a worthwhile contribution

to the quality of education in our society” (SERA, 2005:i).

I stated to interviewees that their audio file would be available online at least in the

medium term, although it could be taken offline at any time, at their request.

Presently, this offer has only been ‘taken up’ by one interviewee. Many spoke of the

interview being a cathartic or learning experience that they would re-consider in

‘days to come’. For most, this was the first time they had spoken about their online

activities.

Interviewees’ full names, main job titles, and locations are embedded in the podcast

meta-data alongside mine as producer, indicating that each is a co-creator of their

interview audio file or podcast. Interviewees were also entitled to add details of their

main website to the edonis Ning website and to a Yahoo Pipe which provides a

regularly updated ‘feed’ of participants’ online postings.

19

Where I have carried out an interview and then published the recording online,

every action within my relationship with the interviewee must be deliberate and

open to scrutiny, and the participant must directly benefit or not suffer from their

involvement. I encouraged each interviewee to share an element of their practice or

that of their organisation. This was retained in the final, broadcast version and

would be listened to by hundreds of educators throughout the world when published

to the research websites (note 16).

Confidentiality is maintained within Grounded analysis as all data are treated in the

abstract and no participants or places are identifiable. Several interviewees

requested that their interview recording remain private. This has been ensured by

storing each on a password-protected drive (note 17). These interviews remain part

of the research corpus.

I have considered the extent to which my research may exploit or objectify

participants. However, there is the potential that others might exploit the talk of

interviewees. It would be difficult to recognise or deal with such behaviour, however

each interviewee was explicitly informed of the terms under which the recording

would be made and hosted, prior to permission being sought for publication online.

MP3 files are hosted on my professional and research websites, where permissions

have been given. These sites are owned by me and recognised by others as such.

Each file has an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 UK: Scotland (CC BY-

NC-SA 2.5) license (Creative Commons, 2011) (note 18).

Some interviewees appear to have circumvented the risk of being objectified

through their participation in the study by asserting their right to receive a copy of

the MP3 file of their interview. Often the files were then posted on the individual’s

own blog or website. I believe that in conducting semi-structured interviews, it is

likely that participants retained sufficient agency that other participants and the

audience would see them as a whole person and not only as, for example, a

blogger or research participant.

Despite concerns during the data collection period regarding future coding workload

during Grounded analysis, I did not actively restrict the length of any interview.

20

Therefore, as long as interviewees wished to continue talking, I continued to give

verbal prompts and feedback, closing by asking if they had anything else to add.

In conclusion, below is the thesis chapter timeline.

Introduction April – May 2013

Theoretical framework May – August 2012

Methodology and methods January – April 2012

Overview literature and key themes September – November 2012

Interviews with sample of edonis

participantsDecember 2012 – March 2013

Research question June – September 2013

Conclusion October – December 2013

21

Notes

1. Early in the EdD, I set-up the edonis project to attract educationists from

around the world to the early iteration of my study. edonis stood for

Educators Online Impact Study, though only the acronym is used.

2. ‘Teaching Scotland’s Future’ (Scottish Government, 2011a), on

educationists’ continuous professional development, and lifelong and

intentional learning, has been broadly welcomed across Scottish civic

society, including all major Scottish political parties. The report attempts to

set a common agenda for teacher education across local and central

government, educationists’ organisations and professional bodies, and

higher education.

3. Continuous professional development (CPD) is a term used in many

education systems. Commitment to practices and actions around notions of

CPD, by teachers, government and employers, is a feature of the terms of

employment for all teachers in Scotland.

4. Commonly found in e-learning and web technology discourses in the

previous decade, this term illustrates how the web has developed into a

collection of platforms, allowing people to work and socialise, and consume

and publish data.

5. The term is used in music and web development industries, indicating that

an artefact, for example, a song or application is materially based on the

previous work of others who have given permission for their digital code to

be utilised. I use the term here in relation to the act of using online data for

professional purposes, then incorporating it into online activity that is visible

online.

6. Blogs are websites which provide customisable space for individuals or

groups to post data, via any digital media. The central frame on the site is

chronologically ordered. Microblogs focus on enabling the publication of

short headline statements which may link to longer text or larger media.

7. Some writers on connectivism claim that it is a new theory of learning which

relates to a recent exponential growth in online activities of citizens around

the world with access to the internet. Learning is seen as a social activity,

managed by the individual.

22

8. Illich (1973) wrote of ‘learning webs’, envisioning a central role for networks

of computers.

9. Recent developments in Standards and career frameworks have begun to

challenge the singular teacher habitus. Discourses on enhanced, chartered

or accomplished teaching have begun to develop the idea of a sub-group of

the teaching profession, where there is an emphasis on one’s own

professionalism, development and competence.

10. I could be regarded as part of the social world that I am studying. I have over

one thousand, three hundred ‘followers’ on Twitter and use the service for

me-to-many, one-to-one and many-to-me communication. Having been

visible on Twitter for four and a half years and having podcast for six years,

many participants in the edonis project will have known of me and my work

prior to engaging around, for example, the research interviews.

11.Online dialogue was entered into with those who agreed to take part in an

interview. We negotiated to converse face-to-face or via Skype, and agreed

a time and date that was suitable. Final details, such the acceptability of the

broad topics, were checked with interviewees on two occasions as the

interview date approached. At this stage, I invited interviewees to suggest an

aspect of their practice that they would like to share and was relevant to the

broad focus of my research. This was designed to fit with a milieu of

practitioner-sharing, evident across Scottish education. It also allowed

interviewees to talk about themselves instead of in the abstract, as I would

often be asking them to do during the interview.

12.Several early decisions were made which illustrate my interest in using web

and new audio technologies to collect research data. I resolved to: record

interviews using internet telephony, namely Skype and Pamela Call

Recorder; on a fortnightly basis, and with permission release edited

interviews online at my established podcast website, Booruch and the edonis

project Ning website; and schedule a series of edonis interviews for live

broadcast online.

13.The website used by the majority of the one hundred and twenty participants

who signed-up to the edonis project contained statements from me similar to

those in my initial communication to those who signed-up via email. The key

messages were: the project related to doctoral research into educationists,

‘personal learning networks’, and the social web (subsequent iterations of my

23

research question were always prominently stated on the Ning website); that

participants would be sent ten e-questionnaires over a one-year period and

would be invited to schedule an interview with me (note 19); and that

participants would be encouraged to answer entry questions upon signing in

to the project’s Ning website, with the aim of participants introducing

themselves to each other (see Appendix E).

14. I played with generating an audience, one which could live through aspects

of the research process and be able to choose depth of immersion in the

journey of the creation of new knowledge. The audience, including research

participants, were able to email or ‘tweet’ during those interviews which were

broadcast live online. Some intimated that they listened to live or recorded

interviews prior to their own interview.

15. It is vital that disruption to participants is kept to a minimum during interview

processes. I invited each to suggest suitable time slots and I ‘worked around’

these. I travelled to the workplace of several interviewees based in central

and southern Scotland. Some problems arose with a small number of

participants based outside of the UK. Due to difficulties with time zones and

non-UK telephone codes, I was up to five minutes late in placing some calls.

Where I did not have an established relationship with the participant, I

invariably was unable to ‘get through’, my assumption being that they were

too busy to wait on my call and were not sufficiently interested in the study to

contact me to re-arrange a new time. For this inconvenience and loss of

data, I take full responsibility.

16. I consider the edonis Ning website to be a CPD resource, as I, interviewees,

project ‘lurkers’ and anyone else can read online posts by many of those

who have participated in the project. All can listen to edited versions of most

of the edonis interviews.

17.Recordings which were due to be released online were edited so that

conversation prior to my introduction, and following my thanks, was not

included in the final MP3 file. Unedited recordings remain on file and are

available for coding. Each edited MP3 file was uploaded to online servers

such as SkyDrive, Box.net or Dropbox for each interviewee to listen to prior

to them granting permission for full publication online.

24

18.Creative Commons licenses allow others to: copy, distribute, display,

perform the work and make derivative works, under the following conditions:

Attribution — one must give the original author credit

non-commercial — one may not use work for commercial purposes

share alike — if altered, transformed, or built upon, one may distribute the

resulting work only under a licence identical to this one.

19.At monthly intervals during the first two years of the project, I sent an email

to all notional and active participants. Here, I communicated some of the

quantitative data from the previous month’s questionnaire, collated by

Survey Monkey, and provided links to the next questionnaire and the latest

published interviews. Each email detailed how participants could withdraw

from the study.

20.Glow is an intranet (a private portal on the web) that enables many within the

Scottish education system to communicate and access data. Originally, it

had seven components: a national directory of users, Glow Groups, Glow

Meet (web conference), Glow Mail, Glow Learn (‘virtual learning

environment’), Glow Chat, and Glow Messenger. Further information is at

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/usingglowandict.

25

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Appendices

Appendix A – Memo to support poster presentation derived from ‘Grounded

Theory analysis of data from three edonis interviews’ (Noble, 2009)

Memo 25-11-09

The edonis participants spoke freely of networking and of feeling networked in a

communication landscape which has moved towards using more web-based

information and communication technology (ICT). Each has a long history of playing

with ICT and of utilising it within education; learning about new possibilities in a self-

directed manner, which appears to have moved from the reading of textbooks to

learning through their ‘personal learning network’ (PLN). This move to valuing

communication mediated by web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, web conferences

and Twitter, has occurred during a period of time in which the financial costs of

having close-at-hand access to the internet 24-hours-a-day have reduced

significantly. The participants stated that they are conversing with, reading, listening

to, watching, and being influenced by educators who are unconnected to their

workplace or previous episodes of professional development. They have enough

knowledge of online spaces and the paths of useful data, to enable them to

purposefully structure their time to consume or publish online educational content.

Many educationists now talk of having a ‘personal learning network’; particularly

those who actively use Twitter and associated ‘social web’ technologies. The

building of one’s PLN is regularly advocated in social, educational spaces;

particularly by those educationists who state that possessing such a network is

good for them, and by implication those colleagues and organisations who are part

of their network. However, each interviewee deeply reflected on their actions and

thoughts around their PLN; a term which, of interest, was never grounded by them

in any literature, for example ‘connectivism’ (Siemens) or ‘communities of practice’

(Wenger). The term PLN was used loosely to describe having great control over

what information was ‘pushed’ in their direction and from whom data comes. As

such, I find several properties and dimensions emerging which provide a framework

for analysing what is occurring (see poster presentation). The interviewees provide

33

a range of possible ways that one could be positioned in their PLN. As much of the

control over the composition of the PLN is theirs, it does appear to be educator-

centred and not child-centred. They may speak of themselves firmly at the centre of

the relationships and data flow, or within it; possibly recognising the multiplicity of

connections which may mean that they are unrecognisable and not acknowledged

by the owner of the PLN. It appears that the much-used term, ‘network’ may now be

inappropriate as educational data moves along established paths but also travels to

those who were previously unknown to the person making their text or other media

visible; or who remain invisible but are, nonetheless, affected by the published

artefact. It also involves accumulating connections as a potential audience for, or

collaboration around, self-published online educational content. It appears that

people fall in and out of someone else’s PLN according to whether they are

presently noticed by the owner, or are involved in the ‘pushing’ and ‘pulling’ of

valued educational data.

The interviewees were aware that relationships, data and spaces are delineated

differently now, and despite giving examples of powerful communication and

collaboration, anxieties surfaced around one’s standing in a network and in

education groupings such as the classroom or staffroom, populated by people who,

although often referred to as part of their PLN, are deficient in terms of not having

access to the knowledge, expertise, and service (commitment to support) in place

for the owner of the PLN. Opportunity costs of engaging with one’s PLN are

becoming noticeable, such as: relaxing away from work; family life; and meeting in

existing non-online spaces with old contacts. On occasion, moving from engaging

with online data sources, relationships and spaces to only ‘keeping an eye-on’,

meant having to cope with: missing constant new data; switching off from

performative learning-for-work; and the possibility of the number of valuable

connections shrinking.

34

Appendix B – Personal statement by David Noble

I regard myself as uniquely positioned within Scottish education as a direct result of

my recent history as an educationist. In playing several distinct and visible roles, I

inhabit several spaces, create and consume a variety of data, and sustain diverse

relationships. Active across several educational sites and discourses, I am

continually challenged as to my politics, assumptions, stances and values.

As Vice Chair and now Chair of the Association of Chartered Teachers Scotland

(ACTS), I have worked with my committee to position chartered teachers as active,

autonomous, enhanced professionals who collectively have a vision regarding

future professional learning; one that will see co-operation between the association

and other ‘players’ around the ‘Teaching Scotland’s Future’ agenda (Scottish

Government, 2011a).

As a classroom-based teacher of general subjects in a residential special school in

Fife, I have striven over the last ten years to fashion my pedagogies and curriculum

such that learning experiences, processes and outcomes are satisfactory to the

young people, purchasers of places at the school, ‘loco parentis’, and

inspectorates.

As a ‘street-level bureaucrat’ (Lipsky, 1980), I face daily frustrations due to the

imposition of managerialism and performativity (Ball, 2004), and the limitations of

technology. I am required to reconcile macro-level and systems-level thinking

deriving from my work for ACTS (a national body), with my intimate work with

troubled teenage boys who are ‘looked after and accommodated’, for whom the

quality of the ‘in between, between us’ (that is, the child and the worker) (Garfat,

2007) is paramount.

35

Appendix C – Main recommendations in ‘Teaching Scotland’s Future’ (Scottish

Government, 2011a) relating to ICT

Professional learning communities (PLCs) could have a broader

membership than only teachers, and they could focus on “knowledge

exchange” (Scottish Government, 2011a:70)

CPD should be facilitated through blended, personalised models of

delivery (Recommendation 40)

There should be more extensive provision of online CPD which will be

accessed through a ‘one stop shop’ (Recommendations 40 and 41)

“Very high quality (online) resources and easy access” (Scottish

Government, 2011a:98) would overcome resistance from some

teachers

Supporting online resources should be created, covering the

fundamentals of theories of pedagogy (Recommendation 12)

“Online mechanisms” other than Glow (note 20) could be utilised

(Scottish Government, 2011a:96)

Extra supported study online (Recommendations 2, 11 and 21).

36

Appendix D – Theories of learning providing an insight into emerging online

practices

Networked learning “promotes connections between one learner and other learners

… learners and tutors … (and) a learning community and its learning resources”

(Goodyear et al, 2004:1).

Learners engage in “legitimate peripheral participation” (Lave and Wenger, 1991)

around ‘communities of practice’. These are weak ties (Granovetter, 1973), which, it

is claimed, are sufficient for learners’ needs to be met. There is no need to become

immersed or familiar in a community and learners move on to other communities or

operate on the periphery of many simultaneously.

Dialogic pedagogy sees education as essentially dialogic (Matusov, 2009) and can

be traced back to Socrates, Plato and Freire. This theory appears to fundamentally

challenge connectivism, which stresses learning through dialogue, mediated online.

With its long history and traceable development, dialogic pedagogy is well-placed to

assimilate ‘the online’, without the need for new theories of learning.

Social constructionism suggests that artefacts are created as by-products of human

agency and interaction. These artefacts can include imagined worlds and perceived

social realities, meaning that knowledge and reality are always tentative and

shifting, as the maintenance of reality is based on its continual social renewal.

Where new people are interpreting the social world, there is, inevitably, change.

Social constructivism is rooted in educational psychology. It holds that group activity

creates shared artefacts and meaning-making, often through discussion and

negotiation. A learning community is a “social process for turning information into

knowledge” (Hargreaves, 2003:170), where problems can be examined from

multiple contexts and viewpoints (Murphy and Laferrière, 2003).

Each individual within a community can be conceived of as a knowledge worker

(Drucker, 1999) and knowledge creator. They may be involved in: auditing

professional working knowledge from practice, managing the process of creating

37

new professional knowledge, and validating and disseminating the professional

knowledge created (Hargreaves, 1999).

Distributed cognition (Cole and Engeström, 1997) asserts that knowledge is

scattered over any number of artefacts and that when embarking on a challenge or

trying to solve a problem, an initial task is to identify where cognition lies or may lie,

and how social interaction could create or reveal knowledge, subsequently leading

to its distribution. The theory implies an ecosystem of cognition, embodied by

artefacts throughout the social and natural world. Cognition is said to reside in

mental spaces or in external representations.

Cuthell (2008) describes a model of voluntary collaborative online professional

learning which takes place via platforms spanning international contexts. Teachers

may participate in online sharing of project-based self-directed learning (see also

Day, 1999 and the notion of ‘responsibilisation’ (Peters, 2001)). Cuthell’s model is

“based on the importance of ‘learning by doing’” (in Daly et al, 2009:35). It has been

termed ‘braided learning’ (Haythornthwaite, 2007), embodied in Daly et al’s

(2009:54) call for “a shift to a model of bottom-up … innovation coming from

practitioners themselves to ensure a sustainable culture of change and

development.”

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Appendix E – Questions posed to edonis project participants upon registering with

the edonis Ning website.

1. Please tell the group about your work in education.

2. Briefly, in what ways do you presently use the internet in an education

context?

3. What do you wish to get out of participating in edonis over the next 3 years?

4. Finally, if applicable, please give the address of your own website. The link

will be listed on the main edonis page.

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Appendix F - Early concepts and categories, properties and dimensions around

new online data sources, spaces and relationships, from ‘Grounded Theory

Analysis of Data from Three edonis Interviews’ (Noble, 2009)

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Appendix G – Copies of emails send to edonis participants who agreed to be

interviewed either during data collection ‘window 1’ or ‘window 2’.

‘window 1’ email

Dear xx

I would like to confirm details of the telephone interview which you will hopefully be free to take part in on xx, from xx. Can you confirm a telephone number for me to call? I will record our conversation using Pamela call recorder.

The following are areas I would like cover during the interview:

Brief background about you and your career your experiences of ICT-related training and professional development whether you regard yourself as having a 'learning network' uses of the web which you have been attracted to the extent to which you see your use of ICT changing over the next 3 years.

Please let me know if there is anything you would like to be added to the list, or have removed.

I look forward to speaking with you on xx.

RegardsDavid

‘window 2’ email

Dear xx

Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed for the edonis project. I will phone on xx at xx, for around

xx minutes. I will call you via Skype. Can you confirm a Skype name or telephone number for me to

call? The interview will be recorded using Pamela call recorder installed on my laptop.

The interview will concern professional work which you conduct, have conducted, or intend to

conduct, online. My questions and prompts will focus on how you are dealing with:

* Learning online

* online relationships

* talking online

* online roles

* being visible online

* online experiences

* data management.

The interview will be semi-structured, and my questions and prompts will be sensitive to your

previous survey responses, so don’t worry about being ‘cornered’! In saying that, please let me know

if there is anything you would like added to the list, or have removed.

Kind regards

David