actor network theory and special needs education

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faculteit gedrags- enmaatschappijwetenschappen

pedagogische wetenschappen en onderwijskunde

Datum 07.06.20101

Actor-network theory (ant)in educationpresentation to a research meeting of RUG Orthopedagogiek

monday 7 june 2010

Ernst D. Thoutenhoofd

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Datum 7.06.2010

contentsselect historiography

biographic origins in science and technology studies (STS)

key assumptions of actor-network theory

actor-network theory in education

opening pandora’s box: the cause(s) of orthopedagogiek

towards a postsocial and posthumanist theory of orthopedagogiek

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Datum 7.06.2010

origins of ant› Ludwik Fleck 1935

the genesis and development of a scientific fact

› Thomas S. Kuhn 1962the structure of scientific revolutions

› Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar 1979laboratory life: the construction of scientific facts

› John Law, Michel Callon and Arie Rip 1986mapping the dynamics of science and technology

› Wiebe Bijker 1997 of bicycles, bakelites and bulbs: toward a theory of sociotechnical change

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Datum 7.06.2010

sts | ant Science is a durable process of heterogeneous engineering in which

“bits and pieces from the social, the technical, the conceptual, and the textual are fitted together, and so converted (or translated) into a set of equally heterogeneous scientific products”,

including facts, knowledge, expertise, and progress.

John Law Notes on the theory of the actor-network 1992:381

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origins of ant5

Ludwik Fleck (1896–1961)

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origins of ant

Thomas S. KuhnSteve Fuller Thomas Kuhn: A philosophical history for our times (2001)

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science as true beliefEverything we know […] casts substantial doubt that anything like an intention, idea, proposition, or message could have ever been transmitted intact over any great expanse of time and space. The only thing that prevents this point from having more impact […] is that virtually all theories of progress and rationality presuppose the contrary to be the case.

Steve Fuller 2000:28-9

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origins of ant

Bruno LatourCentre de Sociologie de l’innovation, École des Mines

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origins of ant

John LawPaul Feyerabend, Wider den Methodenzwang (1975)

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origins of ant

Wiebe BijkerProfessor of technology and society, University of Maastricht

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Datum 7.06.2010

ant key assumptions › actants are both human and non-human— our world is a

postsocial or sociotechnical construct/assemblage

› analyses should be symmetrical

explain human and non-human aspects of phenomena

account for success and failure

› networks are inherently heterogeneous

› all action involves translation

› matters that are presupposed become black-boxed

› facts and concerns are inherently political achievements

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Datum 7.06.2010

examples of antSteve Fox 2005 points to the ‘thoroughly political’ technological change in higher education.

Claims that learning is always already mediated by its own practices, and that practice communities are distinguished by the style in which they are imagined.

Education involves processes of translation, in which techniques and technologies are shaped in accordance with education styles, rather than deterministically diffused.

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Datum 7.06.2010

examples of antSteven Ward 1996 examines the historical construction of the concept of self-esteem and its rise to the status of truth.

Enough allies (including also pedagogy) are mobilised to forge a network of truth so strong that the concept is accepted as fact.

Russel Viner 1999 makes a similar case for stress.

Nick Manning 2002 for dangerous and severe personality disorder (DSPD).

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Datum 7.06.2010

examples of antTrudy Dehue performs similar analyses in relation to depression 2008 and in relation to ADHD 2010.

According to Dehue, ADHD is a pervasive sociotechnical movement in which researchers, companies, providers, teachers, patients and diagnostic instruments all actively participate.

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Datum 7.06.2010

examples of antEstrid Sørensen 2007 applies ant to primary education.

She proposes that education is ‘wholeheartedly humanist’ and thereby unable to account for learning materials, classroom layout, technology, or itself.

Children are not isolated social beings but already entangled in a socio-material web.

In an effort to develop a theory of virtual (online) learning, Sørensen reconstructs educational spaces as spatial imaginaries that involve representational knowledge and presence.

In similar vein Martin Lawn and Ian Grosvenor investigated the materialities of school 2005 and education 2009 in the construction of educational knowledge.

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ant in educationopening pandora’s box

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Orthopedagogiek is under-theorised (Baartman et al. 2000).

‘It concerns situations in which upbringing becomes difficult and problematic.’

While under-theorised, lacking proper instruments and orienting increasingly to the special needs orientation in the anglophone world et cetera, ‘the relevance of an orthopedagogisch perspective on problems in upbringing and development has never been questioned.’

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Datum 7.06.2010

But if situations are constituted (and do not naturally arise) as difficult or problematic; then how is a status quo achieved in which orthopedagogiek—in particular given its lack of educational methods and approaches—remains beyond challenge?

ant in educationopening pandora’s box

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Datum 7.06.2010

ant in educationtowards a (ant) theory of orthopedagogiek

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ant-driven research questions might be formulated:

research methods and research approaches: verificatory orthopedagogiek Ian Hacking, making up people

psychometric/educational tests and statistical treatments: inferential and instrumental orthopedagogiek Ted Porter, trust in numbers

evidence-based education or EBE: good practice orthopedagogiekStefan Timmermans & Marc Berg, the gold standard

interdisciplinary orthopegagogiek; comparative orthopedagogiek…

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Datum 07.06.201019

endReferences on next slide

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Datum 7.06.2010

References

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Baartman, Herman, Aryan van der Leij and Joop Stolk (eds. 2000) Het perspectief van de orthopedagoog (tweede druk 2001). Houten, Netherlands: Bohn Stafleu Van Loghum.

Bijker, Wiebe (1997) Of bicycles, bakelites and bulbs: Toward a theory of sociotechnical change. Cambridge Mass., US: MIT Press.

Callon, Michel, John Law and Arie Rip (eds. 1986) Mapping the dynamics of science and technology: Sociology of science in the real world. New York, US: Sheridan House.

Dehue, Trudy (2008) De depressie-epidemie. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Augustus.

Dehue, Trudy (2010) De ADHD-beweging, leven in het tijdperk van het brein. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Augustus.

Feyerabend, Paul (1975) Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge. London, England: New Left Books. Translated into Dutch (2008) Tegen de methode. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Lemniscaat.

Fleck, Ludwik (1979) The Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact. Chicago, US: University of Chicago Press. English translation of (1935) Entstehung und Entwicklung einer wissenschaftlichen Tatsache. Einführung in die Lehre vom Denkstil und Denkkollektiv. Schwabe und Co., Verlagsbuchhandlung, Basel.

Fox, Steve(2005) An actor-network critique of community in higher education: implications for networked learning. Studies in Higher Education, 30(1):95–110.

Fuller, Steve (2000) Thomas Kuhn: A philosophical history for our times. Chicago, US: Chicago University Press.

Kuhn, Thomas S. (1970) The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago, US: Chicago University Press.

Latour, Bruno (1988). The Pasteurization of France. Cambridge Mass., US: Harvard University Press. English translation of (1984) Pasteur, une science, un style, un siècle. Éditions Perrin, Paris.

Latour, Bruno (2005) Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network-theory. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Latour, Bruno and Steve Woolgar (1979) Laboratory Life: the Social Construction of Scientific Facts. London, England: Sage.

Law, John (1992) Notes on the Theory of the Actor Network: Ordering, Strategy and Heterogeneity. Lancaster, UK: Centre for Science Studies, Lancaster University. www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/sociology/papers/Law-Notes-on-ANT.pdf

Law, John (2004) After method: Mess in social science research. London, England: Routledge.

Lawn, Martin (ed. 2009) Modelling the future exhibitions and the materiality of education. Oxford, England: Symposium Books.

Lawn, Martin and Ian Grosvenor (eds. 2005) Materialities of schooling: Design, technology, objects, routines. Oxford, England: Symposium Books.

Manning, Nick (2002) Actor networks, policy networks and personality disorder. Sociology of Health & Illness 24(5):644–666.

Sørensen, Estrid (2009) The materiality of learning: Technology and knowledge in educational practice. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Viner, Russel (1999) Putting the stress in life: Hans Selye and the making of Stress theory. Social Studies of Science 29(3):391–410.

Ward, Stephen (1996) Filling the world with self-esteem: A social history of truth-making. Canadian Journal of Sociology 21:1–23.

actor network theory and special needs education

Education

origins of ant thomas

actornetwork theory

sts ant science

origins of ant ludwik

examples of ant steve

examples of ant trudy

ant key assumptions

examples of ant steven