Actor-network Theory in Education

In the last decade actor-network theory (ANT) has become increasingly influential in sociologies of technology and the social sciences more generally. It has grown, in part, out of and as a response to poststructuralism. Since its first introduction, actor-network theory has undergone significant shifts and evolutions and as a result, it is not considered to be a single or coherent theoretical domain, but as developing diversely in response to various challenges. ANT explores how the social ' people, objects, practices and ideas - comes to be organized in particular ways.Actor-network theories particularly provide important conceptual resources for understanding and researching lifelong learning and education. Its particular focus on materiality and inter-objectivity is useful for expanding conceptions of intersubjectivity, narrative, meaning-making and discursive practice that still tend to dominate current educational research. In essence actor-network theories can illuminate different approaches to studying processes of curriculum implementation, educational policy, knowledge generation, knowledge mobilization, and educational issues of accountability and standards ' as well as the puzzles that arise from educational interventions that both work and don't work at the same time.This book presents an overview of actor-network theory, with detailed discussion focusing on those particular elements that can assist research in lifelong learning and wider aspects of education. While successive chapters illustrate the deployment of actor-network theories in a range of contexts ' both geographical and organizational. With examples from the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia individual cases include technology-mediated instruction (in university and primary school), literacy, innovation in workplaces, professional standards of teaching, and educational policyscapes. Across these diverse contexts the authors trace how learning and practice ' as assemblages of activity, actors and spaces ' emerge, show what scales are at play, and demonstrate what this means for educational possibilities.

Tara Fenwick is Professor of Professional Education at the University of Stirling, UK. Her research focuses on knowledge and education in workplace and professional practices, for which she won the Houle Award for Outstanding Contribution to Adult Education Literature, awarded by the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education. Richard Edwards is Professor of Education at the University of Stirling, UK. He has researched and written extensively on post-compulsory education and lifelong learning and has an international reputation in the field.