ERIC Number: EJ1153641
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Aug-25
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1529-8094
EISSN: N/A
Resignifying the Negative Space: Troubling the Representation of Learning
Fendler, Rachel
International Journal of Education & the Arts, v18 n33 Aug 2017
Informed by the results of a collaborative project carried out with six secondary school students, this paper reflects on the methodological and epistemological issues related to the representation of informal learning practices. Borrowing a concept from the arts, I suggest that a representationalist logic in both schooling and educational research contexts can produce a negative space, a data site composed of practices, gestures and experiences that are rendered invisible within dominant narratives on learning. In an attempt to revisit and resignify the negative space of my fieldwork, I use Michel de Certeau's theory on tactics in an attempt to rethink youth participation. Finally, I explore how an arts-informed approach to educational ethnography can account for learning that falls outside the realm of assessment, tracing a connection between artistic modes of knowing, research practice, and the performance of learning as gesture.
Descriptors: Secondary School Students, Art, Art Education, Educational Research, Ethnography, Photography, Informal Education, Visual Aids, Epistemology
International Journal of Education & the Arts. 1310 South 6th Street, Champaign, IL 61820. Tel: 402-472-9958; Fax: 402-472-2837; Web site: http://www.ijea.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A