A reflection on research design and methodologies used in the social learning literature
- Authors: Rodela, Romina , Cundill, Georgina , Wals, Arjen
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , report
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436584 , vital:73284 , ISBN 978-1-919991-81-8 , 10.13140/2.1.1855.3285
- Description: This paper reviews the social learning research literature related to natu-ral resources management. It provides an overview of the social learning discourse and then comments on methodologies used by social learning researchers. The present study is part of an activity that looked at the so-cial learning methodological agenda. As such it is a companion study to the analysis reported in Rodela, Cundill and Wals (under review) where aspects of knowledge production and validation in social learning re-search were considered. The present analysis adds to this a deconstruc-tion of the research designs used and a reflection on methodologies that can best support the study of learning processes in a natural resource management context.
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- Date Issued: 2012
A search for coherence: Social learning in natural resource management
- Authors: Cundill, Georgina , Rodela, Romina
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , report
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436597 , vital:73285 , ISBN 978-1-919991-81-8 , https://transformativelearning.education/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/reviews-on-social-learning-literature.pdf
- Description: This paper presents the results of a review process that sought to disen-tangle the different ways in which social learning is conceptualised in nat-ural resource management. We begin with an historical review that seeks to reveal the roots of social learning theory in natural resource manage-ment. Based on this analysis, we develop typologies of statements about the processes that support social learning, and the outcomes of these processes. We then conduct a systematic review of the literature to as-sess the extent to which there is an emerging consensus around these typologies. We conclude that a key source of the confusion currently prevalent in the literature, stems from the fact that the same term is used to refer to quite different processes, which have different outcomes as their goal. To find our way out of the current confusion in the literature, researchers must be explicit about the definitions that they adopt for so-cial learning, and locate these definitions within the historical develop-ment of thinking around social learning in this field. Active debate about appropriate definitions for social learning, based on empirical studies and experience, should form the basis of this field of research in the coming years.
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- Date Issued: 2012
Educational perspectives on social learning theory: antecedents and starting points for research
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Mukute, Mutizwa , Belay, Million
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , report
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436612 , vital:73286 , ISBN 978-1-919991-81-8 , https://transformativelearning.education/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/reviews-on-social-learning-literature.pdf
- Description: This paper contributes to the social learning literature. It argues that there is a need to give attention to the antecedent literatures that inform understandings of the social in social learning; and the learning in social learning. These antecedent literatures (drawn mainly from sociocultural psychology, learning theory and realist social theory in this paper) are necessary in social learning research, if we are to avoid the problem of ontological collapse in social learning research. The concept of ontologi-cal collapse (after Sfard, 2006) refers to a tendency in modern sciences to objectify social processes. It is used in this paper to draw attention to the need to understand the complex social processes involved in social learn-ing (and the antecedent literatures that may enable us to do so). As such, it warns against reification in social learning research; and also warns against turning social learning into an object, devoid of complex learning processes and agentive reflexions, decision making and practices. To clar-ify this concept, the paper shares examples of instances of ontological collapse, showing that at times, the social learning literature itself can fall victim to the problem of ontological collapse. Drawing on the literature review work in two cases studies of social learning research that work carefully with the antecedent literatures, the paper demonstrates the im-portance of engaging carefully with these literatures to avoid ontological collapse in social learning research in the fields of environmental education and natural resources management.
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- Date Issued: 2012
Introducing the monograph and the (re)views
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , report
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436623 , vital:73287 , ISBN 978-1-919991-81-8 , https://transformativelearning.education/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/reviews-on-social-learning-literature.pdf
- Description: This monograph, entitled (Re) Views on Social Learning Literature: A monograph for social learning researchers in natural resources manage-ment and environmental education provides four different reviews on the social learning literature. Rather than seeking to be comprehensive, the reviews seek to provide views on the social learning literature, from dif-ferent perspectives. The purpose of the monograph is to scope aspects of the social learning literature, providing access to a wide body of litera-ture(s) on social learning for emerging researchers interested in social learning in the fields of environmental education and natural resources management.
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- Date Issued: 2012