Ambulatory Sequences: Ecologies of Learning by Attending and Observing on the Move

Abstract

There is a growing corpus of research in the educational sciences that explores the multiple ways in which mobility, or people’s movement from place to place and through places, both constitutes and influences learning. Ambulatory methods and walking interviews are increasingly being used by social scientists and performance researchers to understand human knowledge building from place-based perspectives. In this paper, I consider how educational researchers can create accounts of learning that foreground the relational, interdependent, and land-based aspects of learning and development. I introduce ambulatory turns and sequences as a unit of analysis and method for studying learning-on-the-move.

Acknowledgements

The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not represent IES or NSF. I am especially grateful to all of the community members and families who participated in this work and influenced my thinking. I would also like to thank the reviewers – Danielle Keifert, Marjorie Orellana, and Beth Warren. Each of you provided important feedback and helped me strengthen this manuscript. Thank you to those that have been in on-going conversations with me regarding the ideas expressed here, assisted with analysis, and/or read early drafts of the manuscript: my family, Megan Bang, Forrest Bruce, Rogers Hall, Katie Headrick Taylor, Carol Lee, Douglas Medin, Mike Rose, Ben Rydall Shapiro, Reed Stevens, Tarajean Yazzie-Mintz, and Edward Yi.

Notes

1 Dr. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, an Indigenous (Michi Saagig Nishnaabeg) scholar, writer and artist, spoke these words while delivering a Luce Anthropocene Lecture at Duke University’s Kenan Institute for Ethics on January 24, 2019. The talk can be accessed at https://youtu.be/vEgQLhoosTI.

2 This question is informed by Rogers Hall’s comments on a paper I presented at ICLS.

3 *Stevens et al. (2008) use the term learning arrangements to refer to the ways in which individuals share and distribute material artifacts and knowledge artifacts across spaces (e.g., living room, game room, etc.) and between persons in order to engage in game play and accomplish goals. I am using the term here in a similar fashion, but within the context of family learning in outdoor settings.

4 As Beth Warren pointed out to me one might think about this as a kind of mobile dialogicality.

5 Talk and actions were transcribed using modified conventions from conversation analysis (Goodwin, 2000; Jefferson, 2004). Colons indicate prolongation of sound. Talk, which was emphasized, is underlined. Brackets indicate overlapping talk. Double parentheses indicate non‐verbal actions. Numbers within parentheses represent the length of a pause in seconds. Degree signs represent a softer volume of talk. Upward arrows indicate a high pitch.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by an Institute for Education Sciences predoctoral training grant [#R305B080027] to Northwestern University and a Dissertation Year Fellowship from the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. This work was also supported by a Graduate Research Grant from The Graduate School at Northwestern University and research grants from the National Science Foundation (Award Numbers 1109210,1205758, and 1647242).