abstract - aarejohn-steiner (2003) point out, creativity involves the creation of two symbol-based...

. Paper Code: 00518

AARE 2011 Conference Proceedings | 1

Activity, Engagement and Meaning-making:

Revisiting Activity Theory to Examine Creative Practice using ICTs

Susan Davis, CQUniversity, [email protected] Abstract

This paper will outline research which explored student engagement and creative practice using Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in a secondary school Drama education context. An activity systems approach was applied to data analysis drawing on Vygotskian theoretical frames and more specifically Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to understand the importance of contradiction to creative practice using ICTs. The CHAT theoretical frame has emerged from concepts drawn from Vygotsky’s work (1978) and other cultural-historical theorists such as Leontiev (1978, 1987). The original concept involved an understanding that learning emerged from human interactions with the environment mediated by tools and signs. CHAT has since been developed through the work of theorists such as Cole and Engeström to take into account the polyvocal nature of collective activity (2003, 2005). This paper will outline how activity theory informed case study research and documents the activity system, participant experiences and meaning making involved in a specific school-based drama project involving the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs). What emerged were contradictions related to the introduction of the ICT tools and significant differences in subject level meaning making and learning from the same collective activity. Subject identity and engagement influenced how activity was read and what was learnt. How the interactions and feedback were responded to, accepted or rejected related to subject notions of the creative self and this led their activity and learning. The findings of the research resulted in a modified version of activity theory to take into account features of creative practice, including subject motivation and engagement, the importance of feedback and how it is processed, and versions of self as outcomes of creative practice. Key Words

Creative practice, Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, Drama, ICTs, Arts Education Practice & Research, Socio-cultural Theory

Introduction

Within education policy and discourse, various claims are made about the need for education programs to embrace creativity and the use of Information and Communications Technologies (or ICTs) to help prepare students for the future. These two discourses about aspiration and preparation for the future, one about increased use of ICTs in education and the other concerned with creative education, are both significant in regard to the research study this paper discusses. The research focused on how ICTs and drama could be used to facilitate creative practice and as experienced through a school-based drama project. The application of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) was identified as useful for providing the means for framing and analysing research within a natural setting which involved multiple players. To understand change and development in these types of settings, Activity Theory and Activity Systems Analysis (Engeström, 1999, Yamagata-Lynch, 2010) has been increasingly used within education and teacher education research (Arnseth, 2008; Daniels, 2004; Ellis, Edwards, & Smagorinsky, 2010; Feldman & Weiss, 2010; Kostogriz, 2000; Lee, 2010; Levine, 2010; Roth & Lee, 2007; Yamagata-Lynch & Smaldino, 2007). Accounts have identified how CHAT provides a tool for analysing collective activity and interactions within a community of practice and possible structural change and development. This study contributed to more recent work which has applied these frames and methodologies to creative practice in learning contexts. Several other studies have focussed on dramatic play and on early childhood settings (Gulpa, 2007; Van Oers, 2008) and more general application of cultural-historical analysis to the analysis of playworlds and arts-based practice (Connery, John-Steiner, & Marjanovic-Shane, 2010). This paper explores the application of an Activity Theory frame to a school based cyberdrama project which incorporated the use of ICTs and online spaces. An overview of key concepts and the theoretical frame is included, as well as accounts

Paper Code: 00518


arising from the research and analysis. A final proposition is made that adapts the commonly used model for activity to account for creative activity and learning. Theoretical background and history

Activity theory builds on concepts from Russian theorist Lev Vygotsky’s work and other cultural-historical theorists such as Leontiev (1977, 1978). A key premise from Vygotsky’s work is that development and learning emerges from human interactions with others and the environment and these are mediated by tools, signs and artefacts. Activity theory began with Vygotsky’s notion of mediation involving subject, object and tool (see the top part of the triangle in Figure 1). Activities in this sense involve subjects or participants working towards achieving objects and outcomes, through mediated action involving signs, tools and artefacts. What this means is that the object or idea of what they want to achieve may be held within a subject’s mind, however, realisation relies upon mediation and interactions with various tools and these include culturally learned processes and signs such as language. Human activity is identified as the basic unit of analysis and relates to individuals in interaction with others and their surroundings acting to realise goals or intentions. There are some significant issues to consider when the realm of creative practice is considered in relation to these terms. Creative work often involves subjects making or creating objects that are new or different. These involve work of the imagination where the outcome may be imagined by the subject or subjects, but the exact form may not be completely known in advance. Creative practice draws on physical tools and objects but also on conceptual tools, social practices, experiences and interactions which participants engage in for creative purposes. In Vygotsky’s view creative and imaginative work for children and adolescents was essential for a number of reasons (Vygotsky, 1930/2004, 1998). Importantly he saw that through creative activity adolescents were able to explore and consider how they wanted to be in the world and in the future:

… the adolescent’s emotional and intellectual aspects of behaviour achieve their synthesis in his creative imagination, and how longings and thinking become combined in a complicated new way, in the activity connected with the creative imagination. (Vygotsky, 1931/1998)

The notion of subject-producing activity arises as important as well as the more formal or discipline specific learning that may arise from creative activities. Creative practice in this case is important for providing students with opportunities to build concepts and tool facility, but also the means to express ideas and emotions and explore who and what they can be in the future. As Moran and John-Steiner (2003) point out, creativity involves the creation of two symbol-based forms, personality and culture. The personality is a conceptual tool that enables and constrains future activity; the cultural meaning is expressed through symbols and artefacts which embody meaning. There can be a duality or plurality of meaning about the activity for a subject. For children to be able to develop artistic or creative work Vygotsky asserted that they needed to be able to develop skills in different artistic realms and conceptual understanding of different art forms. He critiqued views that creative expression should be only about uncontrolled free expression and the “overestimation and idolizing of the works of children’s creative efforts” (Vygotsky, 1926/1992, p. 13). He believed that children could benefit from interaction with the work of artists and the culture. He also believed that there was value in being exposed to the technical skills of specific artforms and the laws of the form, that art was not just about mystical inspiration but techniques, labour and work. Finally he believed that this education should include a focus on apprehending and experiencing art works and culture. This approach recognises the cultural and historical aspects of human activity and development. CHAT and contradictions

Paper Code: 00518


Contemporary activity theory pays homage to the work of Vygotsky, though Leontiev’s work is also identified as foundational (Leontiev, 1978, 1981; Tolman, 1988). Leontiev explained the circular nature of activity and consciousness, external and internal processes. He identified reflection as a core process whereby the external practical activity is made sense of by the subject. Activity system analysis must therefore be concerned with not only the physical activity, but the mental activity of specific subjects. What Leontiev called the subject’s personal meaning (Leontiev, 1977) is specific to the individual, but it is shaped by the external activity, the social relations and the overall object meaning of the activity. Individual subjects may subscribe to the overarching collective objective for an activity while still having their own personal motive and hence personal meaning or mental image of the activity and how it is understood. Subjects, meditational means and outcomes are not constituted in a fixed, singular way but realised through ongoing dialectic interactions. What is now called second generation activity theory, or Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), has been developed through the work of Cole, Engeström and others (2003, 2005). To help understand how a community engages in collective activity, the bottom half of the activity triangle (see Figure 1) in CHAT includes other key components. Collective activity involves subjects acting as part of communities, with those actions mediated by rules. For the community to achieve their goal and outcomes a division of labour is required to help identify various subject roles and responsibilities.

Figure 1 The structure of a human activity system (based on Engeström, 2001)

CHAT analysis often describes the activity of a group with the components and actions represented through activity triangles. These are useful for mapping the components of an activity system though it needs to be recognised that activities are dynamic and shift and change in action, and the interactive experience of activity and learning is not well represented by such static diagrams. The activity model as described in second generation activity theory identifies key aspects of the activity system at a macro level. However, each participant may experience a different version of it. How these differences are negotiated is of major concern for group activities. Engeström has proposed that in action this activity system is replicated for each participant and that interactions involve the negotiation of various features of the activity system. For example, individual subjects may have different personal objects or goals, or they may have different rule structures they wish to operate within. In a third generation activity theory model, different objects are recognised for different subjects with an anticipated overlap. A collective learning activity would therefore aim to have as much overlap as possible to be able to achieve a common outcome or goal. One of the strengths of using activity theory for this research study was its recognition of the importance of contradiction to learning processes. Within activity theory, responses to interventions

Paper Code: 00518


in the form of disruptions and contradictions are seen as key opportunities for learning. As Engeström explains:

Contradictions are historically accumulating structural tensions within and between activity systems… When an activity system adopts a new element from the outside (for example, a new technology or a new object), it often leads to an aggravated secondary contradiction where some old element (for example, the rules or the division of labour) collides with the new one. Such contradictions generate disturbances and conflicts, but also innovative attempts to change the activity. (Engeström, 2009, p. 57)

In terms of using activity theory for analysing a system it therefore becomes important to identify and analyse possible contradictions, particularly when new tools or practices are introduced into an activity system. Rather than these being dismissed, these sites of tension are investigated and potential new models considered. Engeström asserts, however, that contradictions are not the same as problems or conflicts, but are structural ruptures and in response, organisational shifts can occur. There have been minimal applications of this theory to arts education research. Activity system analysis is readily applicable to arts educational research though. The research methods used are similar to other qualitative methodology including case study, utilising mixed methods such as document and artefact analysis, interviews and classroom observations and data analysis techniques including thematic analysis and discourse analysis. Research accounts arising from Activity Theory analysis often take the form of narratives with a particular focus on subject and communal responses to specific interventions. These methods and forms of analysis are already often used in arts-based research. The following section will therefore outline the project and research context before elaborating on the application of the theoretical frame drawn from activity theory. The research context and project

For this research study, key questions were concerned with how ICTs and drama could be used to facilitate creative practice and learning. The focus was on student experience and learning in the context of community and school-based drama project. The form of drama that was utilised was one that involved the use of digital recording tools, online communication with participants co-creating e a range of live and mediated material that helped build a collective narrative. This form of drama can be identified as cyberdrama. Janet Murray described cyberdrama as a reinvention of storytelling through digital story forms, using different formats and styles that allow for participation (Murray, 1997). Features of cyberdrama may include participants taking on role, engaged in a fictional world with the potential for interaction in the development of a story or narrative in a digital space. The project and case-study was conducted within a metropolitan secondary school context as part of the formal school curriculum for a Drama subject. I played an active role as a co-artist and researcher in creating and managing the project that the case was based on. Students were in year 10 (15-17 year olds) at the time of the study. Data was collected throughout the project and included interview transcripts, journals, fieldnotes, surveys, computer-mediated communications and video footage of creative works. The data was coded and analysed, with a focus on identifying aspects of engagement, interaction, learning and the impact of ICTs. To contextualise the key concepts from activity theory, the components of the activity system are identified in Figure 2 as they related to the cyberdrama project which was entitled The Immortals.

Paper Code: 00518


Figure 2 Activity system for The Immortals cyberdrama project

For this project the main subjects or participants were nineteen students enrolled in a drama subject for that semester. The teacher and I were also subjects, especially in relation to our decision to scaffold and model the learning through creating whatever we asked students to create. The overarching object of the activity was to create dramatic products and evidence that could be counted as assessable work within the formal education system. This was underpinned by many other specific purposes and contexts throughout related to learning concepts required to be able to complete the tasks. The tools and artefacts included the primary tools of the drama process which were the bodies and experiences of the participants. They also included cultural tools such as literary texts and scaffold texts that were created to stimulate the work. In particular literature drawn from the wider culture was used including poetry and mythology about immortality. The key intervention tools were technology-based tools and cyberspaces that were used within the project. The students were brought together to form one class community and this was broken down into smaller working groups of three to five students. Groups each had to form and negotiate their own community rules and dynamics. These communities were operating within the wider context of the school community and the rule structures of this particular school and government schools in general. Rules regarding Internet access and use were of particular relevance. The roles and division of labour operated on different levels as well. In the overarching context the teacher and I designed the task parameters and the requirements for the student activity. The tasks were open-ended though and students were able to create their own responses within flexible constraints. Each group was set up to ensure a spread of skill sets but the actual division of labour was negotiated within each group (they decided who would act, record action, edit it, post material to the Internet and so on). Of relevance to this being a drama project, was that roles and division of labour can also be considered within the context of a dramatic frame. Students and teachers took on multiple roles inside and outside the dramatic frame throughout the course of the project. Nature of the intervention The project was situated within the formal curriculum for a Drama subject. The intention was to provide students with experiences in an emerging form of drama (or cyberdrama) utilising technology and multi-media in a variety of ways to create contemporary performative work. The shift of focus from the performative space being predominantly in the live face-to-face mode to mediated performance through the Internet and cyberspace indicated a key shift and intervention into the usual activity system for a drama classroom. Digital technologies used for this project included video cameras and Macbook computers. The Macbooks had multi-media creation programs and software which allowed the students to record,

Paper Code: 00518


edit and create media products. Students also used their mobile phones and wanted to use iPods and other music storage devices to help create mediatised dramatic products. The requirement to work across a range of online spaces was introduced throughout the first week and within each group different people had responsibility for uploading material and maintaining specific spaces (e.g. Blackboard wiki, Blackboard blog, Ning site). An overview of the different online spaces, their purpose and who contributed to them is detailed in Figure 3.

Online space/ tool

Purpose Contributors

Blackboard wiki space

Build pages for each character and allow for comments from others (in-role)

Members from each group contributed to profile building. Some commented in-role on each other’s profiles Teachers in-role

Blackboard blog Allow for all participants to post comments in-role within a common space, to comment and hence build relationships

One or two participants per character group Teachers in-role

Blackboard discussion forum

Students invited to post responses to questions out-of-role. They could also comment on the process and ask questions

Students and teachers

Blackboard Story, Task and Resource sections

Provide texts and tools to scaffold student activities and learning

Teacher posted the content, students could use as required

YouTube Upload video clips in response to each module. Work able to be shared with an external audience

Student developed content, generally uploaded by teachers

Ning Groups to build character profiles with facility to add images, videos, music and stylise the space. Allowed for interactions between characters and an external audience

One student per group posted material in-role Teachers also developed profiles in-role

Figure 3 Online spaces and tools used for The Immortals

At the start of the project, I conducted a familiarisation session with the students where we discussed their creative interests and experiences as well as the ways they used digital technologies. The teacher and I decided to conduct an audit of student background skills and experiences (or technological and cultural tool facility) at one sessions focussing on drama and performance skills and another looking at experience related to Internet use and digital media. This audit was conducted verbally with students individually identifying their creative interests and experience. I made notes of what they said and later checked these with the teacher. From this audit it was evident that there were a number of students with extensive performance experience, though not necessarily in drama. There were also about a third of students with some film-making experience and were studying a film subject (see Figure 4).

Paper Code: 00518


Figure 4 The Immortals student prior creative experience

At another session we sought to identify the ICT skills students had and some details about their Internet access and activities (see Figure 5, note that half the class was not there on that particular day). This revealed that all students that attended had Internet and broadband access at home, however not all of them were allowed access all week, or their access to certain sites was restricted (for example one student said she was not allowed to access any social networking sites during the week). Key Internet activities were using MSN messenger to chat to friends and using and managing MySpace sites. Most students also used the Internet to download music, upload photos and a majority indicated they had uploaded video content. Several students indicated more specific engagement with online roleplay games and creating animations. This evidence was useful for identifying the different kinds of skill sets (or cultural tools) that students brought to the project and was considered in the project design.

Figure 5 The Immortals project - student internet use

Paper Code: 00518


We noted from this audit that many of the students had creative preferences that involved live performance with the human body and the primary interests in using technology creatively were in ways to complement live performance, or for recording and sharing live performance. Whilst interested in our project possibilities, students were quite negative about having to use the educational e-learning site and spaces. They explained the ways Blackboard had been used with their teachers in the past – mainly for loading material for them to read and some use of discussion boards. When students were shown the range of spaces we would use it was clear that students had not used wiki and blog spaces on Blackboard before and some students could see the potential of input and collaboration. They were disappointed to find there were not many options for self-styling pages and visual creativity within the e-learning spaces. They were not impressed to find they could only upload small photographs, change font colour and add emoticons. We showed students The Immortals Ning space that we had created and a number of them were quite excited by the possibilities. However, whilst the teacher could access Ning at school, students could not, and so student volunteers from each group had responsibility for looking after their Ning page. Here, they created a profile page, uploaded photos, video and communicated in-role. Students were also motivated by the idea of being able to upload their work to YouTube and hence find a wider audience for their performance. The institutional technology system within the schooling sector prevents students being able to do this though, and opportunities for students to share their creative multi-media work online (outside of the school network) while at school were limited.

Contradiction and crisis

From early on in the implementation of the research project, certain issues and problems began to emerge. Initially these related to the introduction of new tools and technologies. Rather than being downplayed or dismissed, however, these were acknowledged as sites of contradiction and analysed and discussed. The identification of possible fractures or blocks were seen as opportunities for development and learning, in some cases shifts in activity were possible, though in others it was limited. The Immortals project was almost derailed before it even began and some strategising was required on behalf of the teacher and me to ensure we were able to go ahead. I attended the school for several planning meetings and introductory lessons at the beginning of the project. During one of these lessons, a student who we will call Harrison1 was called to the office. Other students revealed that they believed it would be about the latest clip Harrison had posted to YouTube. They excitedly told us about how there was an online rivalry going on between their school and another and that Harrison had recently posted a very funny clip to YouTube. After the lesson Harrison came back and spoke to the teacher about what had happened and revealed that he would perhaps be suspended from the school because of his YouTube postings. Harrison showed us the clip he had uploaded as well as other student clips. We could see that his video was quite amusing and clever in part, but it was also problematic. He had clearly identified the names of both schools and had used the logo and colours of his school throughout the film clip. Some of the language was also quite derogatory and it was clear that it could be viewed as offensive by members of the other school community. Harrison was concerned that he might be suspended from school but that the Principal was providing him with the opportunity to made amends. The teacher encouraged Harrison to work out a strategy of how he might address this crisis and for him to take the initiative. This involved him saying he would take the clip down from YouTube and apologise to the Principal from the other school. He was also going to promise his school Principal that he would no longer make clips with any reference to either school and would not use the school logo, name or uniform in any other clips.

1Harrison is a pseudonym selected by the researcher to meet the parameters of the ethical clearance processes and

protect the identity of the student. The names of all other students included in the rest of the study are also

pseudonyms.

Paper Code: 00518


After this incident, the teacher suggested that we would have to rework our proposal for the cyberdrama project and reconsider the use of YouTube and any other social networking spaces outside of The Learning Place. As the school had received a number of proposals from people wanting to conduct research, any requests had to be formalised through the submission of a proforma to the school’s management committee. The teacher had drafted a version of this which had included explicit mention of the use of YouTube and other social networking spaces. The idea had been to promote the use of available web 2.0 applications to engage students in creative production and real world creative practice. In light of the incident with Harrison the teacher suggested we modify the proposal. This involved prioritising the use of the official educational spaces and downplaying references to YouTube and other outside spaces. She proposed that we still might be able to use them but that we would have to upload video material and moderate content. In terms of the activity system, what occurred was a contradiction in relation to the rules for possible ICT tool usage. There was also a contradiction between the tools and the object of the activity for creative practice. What was apparent was that the kinds of tools and spaces that Harrison was familiar with using for creative purposes outside of school hours were problematic for use within an educational context – with his tool preferences and objects not matching those valued by the educational system. Contradiction was emerging largely from the context of the project being situated within the organisational setting and authoritative power structures inherent therein. The system and its rule structure were not going to change and so shifts had to occur at a subject operational level. We were able to negotiate some shifts to enable the activity to occur. The shift involved modifying the use of some tools, and a division of labour which saw teachers/leaders playing a gate-keeping role.

Figure 6 Contradiction in activity for Harrison Contradiction also emerged about tool use in another way. About half way through the project it became apparent that the focus on using ICTs was leading to some shifts in social practices for the drama classroom. The teacher indicated to me that she believed that students were feeling isolated in their groups. The weekly tasks required students to work in small groups to write on wikis and forums and create media clips, and had led to minimal whole class interaction and co-present physical engagement – a significant change in tool use and social practices for drama learning. After discussing possible shifts, the teacher felt that we needed to re-engage the whole group, and to physically collaborate and engage. She proposed that we create some live process drama experiences and work in-role with the students and leave the computers to the side for a while. This live interaction in a face-to-face context proved to be a powerful one, with many students commenting at the end of the process that this had in fact been their favourite part of the whole process.

Paper Code: 00518


Sian: Yeah, the live interaction. The way we sat down in our room and all of a sudden our Principal came in and gave this serious speech about what was going on and how our teacher had been taken away. …. and then the teachers burst through the door in character and then we all got thrown into this big improvisation process which really helped in the end … (Interview transcript, 4 December 2008 lines 228-240)

What emerged was a contradiction in the activity system, once again over tool use, social practices and expectations about the outcomes that many subjects believed should emerge from creative practice in drama. The teacher was able to negotiate a shift in the tools used and the social practices. This led to a process drama style lesson which focussed on using the corporeal body and the whole group as a community. The technological tools were still used (the lesson was videoed and material from this was edited and made into a video clip that was uploaded online) however the focus shifted and the live drama and the face-to-face interactions determined the next stage of activity. In the final focus group interview other participants also acknowledged that this was a powerful experience for them and that they preferred these type of experiences to those involving the online technologies. Whilst these students said they found the unit and the use of technologies interesting, in the end they would have preferred to do a straight live drama unit and performance largely because of their personal creative preferences.

Julie: To be honest I didn’t really enjoy cyberdrama … I didn’t like the whole making of it, I prefer to just perform. Sue: So try to identify what it is that you didn’t really like about it. ….. Lexi: I think because we were not expecting that kind of thing – I think I was expecting performance and more traditional acting and performance. (Immortals debrief transcript, lines 767-782)

For many of these students their creative preferences and visions of the future self related to themselves as performing artists who wanted to work in an embodied, live performance realm. They saw themselves as creative people who loved the experience of performing on a stage for an audience. Many of them had considerable prior experience in this creative realm and received acknowledgement for their talents, skills and achievements. The preference for a number of participants in drama was for the live experience and dramatic forms with activity framed by the use of multi-media tools and digital technology. In this case expansive learning was possible in response to the contradiction through the manipulation of tools and social practices. However, learning outcomes were not wholly determined by the manipulation of external interactions and this was clearly demonstrated through the accounts of learning and perceptions reported by some students. Expansive learning – self as a leading activity A consideration of responses from a student identified here as Jaida, highlights how personal motives, related to visions of the future self, impacted on her engagement and perception of learning. Jaida saw her future self engaged in creative practice of a particular kind with a strong personal interest in live performance through the artform of ‘opera’, and so she could perhaps be regarded as a soma-aesthetic. Her desire to perform, with the body as the primary mediation tool, defined her engagement and experience of the activity. It meant that she had defined her personal object in such a way that she was not really open to learning through tools and forms that she regarded as inferior and she therefore blocked some opportunities for expansive learning.

Paper Code: 00518


From Jaida’s journal and interactions in class it was apparent that she never accepted the validity of the learning goal. She believed that the use of the online components – the tools and the space - was something that was somehow ‘below’ this student cohort:

I don’t think I’ll like it very much because it looks a little too much like drama backing mainstream schools, which I really hated because it was all fun and games and wasting time etc. So, I really don’t know what this is going to turn out like, but from the outset, I may not actually like it very much. (Jaida’s Journal, 19/10/07)

Whilst sometimes students might begin with a negative perception of an activity’s object, there is the potential for this to change throughout the course of a unit or project. In particular I had expected that she might change her perceptions as she became the main character for her group and her character’s actions ended up dominating the final stages of the entire project’s narrative. Her journal comments from the beginning and the end of the process did not change, though, with entries throughout her journal reiterating similar sentiments:

Cyberdrama is becoming a real chore. I hate it. I really, really think that this is something that should be used in mainstream schools where it would teach something other than lousy drama games. (Jaida’s Journal, 9/11/07)

Jaida was more interested in live performance experiences and dramatic forms and did not feel that the unit would extend her in any way, commenting on how she did not value the mediated (video) forms. Her notion of self at that time was quite fixed. Some other students were more open to the possibilities, even though they also had preferences for embodied, performative creative practice and forms. These students were willing to engage with the activity and collective object and consider expansive learning which included possible shifts in visions of the self. This indicates the importance of self as a leading activity and how visions of the future self or preferred self, impact on subject motives, interactions and outcomes from an activity. Stetsenko and Arievitch suggest that socio-cultural theory needs to acknowledge that accounts of activity need to recognise the concept of self as a leading activity:

… the self appears as having to do with the world and what the person aims to change and transform in it, sometimes by stifling and resisting change. This can be any aspect of life, including its narrowly personal aspects (e.g. one’s body), but only in so far as such aspects happen to represent the leading level at which an individual’s connections to the world, to other people and to oneself are realized. (Stetsenko & Arievitch, 2004: 494)

In this account the self is what leads activity, is constituted by activity, but also determines how activity is perceived and made sense of. The constitution of the self may be such that various activities may be blocked or ignored if they do not progress the leading activity. What is significant in regard to the notion of creative learning is the degree to which their self project is open, flexible, in transition or closed. For someone like Jaida whose self project was quite fixed at this stage, creative learning opportunities afforded from this project were limited. Drawing on a term used by Hundeide (1985) it could be said that Jaida’s perspective was somewhat particularised and concretised to a large degree. This was not because of the actual experiences she had, when in fact her character determined the final outcome of the performance project. It could have been possible for her to have experienced the most creative learning experience, however that is not what she took from the activity and internalised. In a case such as Jaida’s her constitution of self as a leading activity meant that she was not particularly flexible or open to feedback and change. It seemed that for Jaida and some other students the collective goal orientation of the unit could not be shared because they had defined their self by the type of creative person they wished to be. By seeing themselves as creatives whose preferred tools were primarily the human body, students like Jaida were not necessarily open to learning through using the digital technologies and online spaces. For some of them the activity space of drama meant live physical drama, polished and performed for a co-present audience. For Jaida and some other students, the use of digital tools and spaces were seen as having limited benefit, only in so much as they might extend the

Paper Code: 00518


opportunities for having an audience for their work. Jaida in particular wanted to focus on her personal tool preferences – and these were somatic tools. It would seem apparent that what students learnt, and especially the possible creative learning that students experienced was defined by their personal objects, their version of self as a leading activity and some flexibility in this conception of self.

Revisioning activity theory for creative practice Activity theory identifies the significance of contradiction as being a stimulus for learning. Whilst contradictions may arise from historically accumulating structural tension, it is often manifest at an individual level and these can contribute barriers to learning and development. The subject’s response to that may be to block or withdraw. Responding to the experience or the feedback involves reflection and insight and intrapsychological processes, working with the ‘voices of the mind’ (Wertsch, 1991; Wertsch & Stone, 1985). It involves an internal dialogue as well as external dialogue and interactions for processing experiences and determining future action. Creative practice and learning does not mean blocking off the experience of crisis and critical feedback, but processing it and using it to inform the next stage of the creative practice, for both individuals and groups. The findings from this study suggest there are other elements that may be considered in a model of activity to reflect the nature of creative practice. In this revised model (see Figure 7), entry to the activity is represented over to the left, and indicates the importance of the subject becoming connected or engaged in goal oriented activity. The objects and outcomes of such activity can vary and be collective and individual. Subjects have personal objects which may or may not align with the collective ones. The outcomes may take various forms - including work of the imagination, but also artefacts, ideas, versions of the self and the community. As a collective creative activity, the potentially shared outcomes for this research study were performance products. A creative product could, however, also be a version of the self. So there are different kinds of products that can emerge from creative activity. These different outcomes draw from cultural concepts, tools and artefacts. In creative practice, these are then combined with imagination and mediated through a range of tools and signs into various expressive forms. The creative form that the outcome is expected to take is a key feature of creative activity and mediates the expression of ideas and emotions. What carries the subjects through the activity is experience and interactions with the various components of the system, including other subjects, technologies and tools. The interactions involve different responses - which include accepting or rejecting at their most basic levels, but also resistance, adaptation, reinforcement and extension. The activity may lead to a range of different experiences, including a sense of flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996) or that of contradiction and crisis. Experience may be transformed into meaning and learning, but this relies on how feedback is received and responded to by subjects.

Paper Code: 00518


Figure 7 Activity system for creative practice and learning

The nature of activity shifts and continues until a state of fulfilment or resolution is reached. The activity system on paper appears static and is not able to accommodate the dynamic nature of activity in its moment-by-moment enactment and transformation. Some attempt has been made to indicate the interactive nature of the activity system (in Figure 7), but it is acknowledged that a still image does not do it justice. This model attempts to take the ideas and components of the general activity theory model and incorporates aspects which the research indicated were significant for learning and development in specific contexts. This therefore exemplifies what Engeström calls the use of ‘intermediate-level’ concepts and models “which provide a two-way bridge between general theory and specific practice” (Engeström, 1999, p.36). Creative practice and learning therefore involve processes of engagement, varied tool use, interactions, expression through different forms, feedback, evaluation and adaptation. Feedback processes are crucial, and these include feedback from external sources as well as internalised feedback and critique. The feedback impacts on the subject and on the work. For the subject to receive and respond to the feedback involves a range of internal interactions. This involves a filtering process which screens what information the subject or system is open to receiving, and how flexible they are in their response. Therefore feedback needs to be included in an activity system for creative learning. This all occurs within a contextual field that is made up of overlapping frames which impact upon all aspects of the activity – with institutional tool provision, rules about tool use and exercise of authority having particular impact within a formal educational setting. To encourage creative practice and learning, ideally the concept of self needs to remain somewhat flexible and permeable, with the capacity to change in response to various information and feedback within the activity system and the environment. Conclusions

This case study focussed on exploring possibilities for creating a cyberdrama within a school context using a range of digital technologies and online spaces. Through the analysis of data regarding student involvement and learning, it was identified that the introduction of digital technologies and use of online spaces within a drama curriculum project represented a significant intervention into the usual activity system for drama learning. The ways that various participants and the institution responded to the intervention led to sites of contradiction and experiences of crisis for some participants but also for expansive learning.

Paper Code: 00518


Learning for students seemed to relate to what kind of creative they saw themselves as, their version of self as a leading activity and how flexible their concept of self was. For some students their engagement with the activity, their experiences and interactions confirmed for them what their tool preference for creative practice was and they were not very open to new learning. For others their creative practice and sense of identity expanded as they encountered interventions and contradictions and enacted shifts to embrace opportunities for expansive or creative learning. What this case also signalled was that for many students, drama activity involves engagement with particular tools, with preferences shown for live, corporeal or face-to-face human interaction. The importance of self as a leading activity which impacts on personal meaning making and potential learning also emerged. For some students, therefore, the ICTs were vehicles for realising their creative practice, but others saw ICT use in a more instrumental or social sense. This finding would seem to confirm assertions by Vygotsky (1998) and Moran and John-Steiner (2003) that adolescence is a time of crisis and dis-equilibrium and identity is a major creative project. What personal learning emerges from an activity therefore depends on how young people see themselves as being in the world and their notions of the future self. This is a social and cultural self; in constant dialogue and interaction with others, the environment, action and expressive forms. What this research also confirmed was that activity theory is useful for analysing challenges and learning possibilities within different educational contexts. In this case activity theory has been helpful for understanding the experiences of contradiction and identifying what intermediate-level concepts and components might need to be considered in relation to creative practice and learning. It was clear that the incorporation of educational ICT usage was not unanimously welcomed by young people who valued creative practice in Drama using the body as the primary creative tool. The findings from this study also suggest there are other elements that might be considered within models of activity for creative practice, including subject motivation and engagement, the importance of feedback and how it is processed, the shaping of experience through expressive forms and versions of self as outcomes of creative practice. .

References

Arnseth, H. C. (2008). Activity Theory and Situated Learning Theory: Contrasting Views of Educational Practice. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 16(3), 289-302. doi: 10.1080/14681360802346663

Connery, M. C., John-Steiner, V., & Marjanovic-Shane, A. (Eds.). (2010). Vygotsky and Creativity: A Cultural-historical Approach to Play, Meaning Making, and the Arts. New York: Peter Lang.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: HarperPerennial.

Daniels, H. (2004). Activity Theory, Discourse and Bernstein. Educational Review, 56(2), 121-132. doi: 10.1080/0031910410001693218

Ellis, V., Edwards, A., & Smagorinsky, P. (Eds.). (2010). Cultural-Historical Perspectives on Teacher Education and Development. Hoboken: Routledge.

Engeström, Y. (2003). Cultural-historical Activity Theory, the Activity System Retrieved 2 March, 2009, from http://www.edu.helsinki.fi/activity/pages/chatanddwr/

Engeström, Y. (1999). Activity Theory and Individual and Social Transformation. In Engeström, Y., Miettinen, R. & Punamäki, R-L. (Eds.) Perspectives on Activity Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Engeström, Y. (2005). Developmental Work Research: Expanding Activity Theory in Practice Retrieved 10 September, 2008

Engeström, Y. (2009). Expansive Learning: Toward an Activity-Theoretical Reconceptualization. In K. Illeris (Ed.), Contemporary Theories of Learning. Abingdon & New York: Routledge.

Paper Code: 00518


Feldman, A., & Weiss, T. (2010). Understanding Change in Teachers' Ways of Being Through Collaborative Action Research: A Cultural-Historical Activity Theory Analysis. Educational Action Research, 18(1), 29-55. doi: 10.1080/09650790903484517

Gulpa, A. (2007). Vygotskian Perspectives on Using Dramatic Play to Enhance Children's Development and Balance Creativity with Structure in the Early Childhood Classroom. Early Child Development and Care(1-13).

Hundeide, K. (1985). The Tacit Background of Children's Judgments. In J. V. Wertsch (Ed.), Culture, Communication, and Cognition: Vygotskian Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kostogriz, A. (2000). Activity Theory and the New Literacy Studies: Modelling the Literacy Learning Activity System. Paper presented at the Australian Association for Education in Research, Sydney.

Lee, Y.-J. (2010). More than just Story-telling: Cultural-historical Activity Theory as an Underutilized Methodology or Educational Change Research. Journal of Curriculum Studies. doi: 10.1080/00220272.2010.513069

Leontiev, A. N. (1977). Activity and Consciousness Retrieved from http://www.marxists.org/archive/leontev/works/1977/leon1977.htm

Leontiev, A. N. (1978). Activity, Consciousness, and Personality. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Leontiev, A. N. (1981). Problems of the Development of the Mind. Moscow: Progress Publishers. Leontiev, A. N. (1987). Activity, Consciousness, and Personality. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-

Hall. Levine, T. H. (2010). Tools for the Study and Design of Collaborative Teacher Learning: The

Affordances of Different Conceptions of Teacher Community and Activity Theory. Teacher Education Quarterly, Winter, 109-130.

Moran, S., & John-Steiner, V. (2003). Creativity in the Making: Vygotsky's Contemporary Contribution to the Dialectic of Creativity and Development. In R. K. Sawyer, V. John-Steiner, S. Moran, R. J. Sternberg, D. H. Feldman, J. Nakamura & M. Csikszentmihalyi (Eds.), Creativity and Development. New York: Oxford University Press.

Murray, J. H. (1997). Hamlet on the holodeck: The future of narrative in cyberspace. New York: The Free Press.

Roth, W.-M., & Lee, Y.-J. (2007). "Vygotsky's Neglected Legacy": Cultural-Historical Activity Theory. Review of Educational Research, 77(2), 186-232. doi: 10.3102/0034654306298273

Stetsenko, A., & Arievitch, I. M. (2004). The Self in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory: Reclaiming the Unit of Social and Individual Dimensions of Human Development. Theory & Psychology, 14(4), 475-503.

Tolman, C. W. (1988). The Basic Vocabulary of Activity Theory. Activity Theory, 1, 14-20. Van Oers, B. (2008). Inscripting Predicates: Dealing with Meaning in Play. In B. Van Oers, W.

Wardekker & E. Elbers (Eds.), The Transformation of Learning: Advances in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (pp. 370-379). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1930/2004). Imagination and Creativity in Childhood. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 42(1), 7-97.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1931/1998). Imagination and Creativity of the Adolescent (M. J. Hall, Trans.). In R. Reiber (Ed.), The Collected Works of LS Vygotsky: Volume 5, Child Psychology. New York: Plenum Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1998). The Collected Works of L.S. Vygotsky - Volume 5 Child Psychology (M. J. Hall, Trans.). New York & London: Plenum Press.

Wertsch, J. V. (1991). Voices of the Mind: Sociocultural Approach to Mediated Action. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Wertsch, J. V., & Stone, C. A. (1985). The Concept of Internalization in Vygotsky's Account of the Genesis of Higher Mental Functions. In J. V. Wertsch (Ed.), Culture, Communication, and Cognition: Vygotskian Perspectives (pp. 162-179). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Yamagata-Lynch, L. C. (2010). Activity Systems Analysis Methods: Understanding Complex Learning Environments. New York Springer.

Paper Code: 00518


Yamagata-Lynch, L. C., & Smaldino, S. (2007). Using Activity Theory to Evaluate and Improve K-12 School and University Partnerships. Evaluation and Program Planning, 30(4), 364-380. doi: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2007.08.003

abstract - aarejohn-steiner (2003) point out, creativity involves the creation of two symbol-based...

Documents