Poststructuralism, the Learner, and the Learning Process

• In Event: Power and Privilege in the Learning Sciences: Critical and Sociocultural Theories

Abstract

Objectives. In this presentation, we explore the affordances and constraints of a poststructural perspective for theorizing and studying the learning process. While the paper is primarily theoretical in nature, we draw from empirical data to showcase the power of synthesizing poststructural perspectives into the learning sciences.

Theoretical perspective. Poststructuralism refers to a variety of related but distinct theoretical perspectives initially proposed by mid-20th century French scholars, such as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and others. A common thread across variants of poststructural thought is a concern for language, and how language is deployed to constitute meanings about people and social phenomena (Leonardo, 2003; Weedon, 1997). Although few studies in the learning sciences have leveraged poststructural theories (Lewis & Moje, 2003, and Wortham, 2006, are exceptions), we argue that poststructural perspectives hold significant potential for opening new questions about learning environments, the learning process, and how students come to be identified as certain types of learners.

Modes of inquiry and evidence. Our presentation is organized into three parts. First, we trace the historical development of poststructuralism, specifically in terms of its basic assumptions, philosophical commitments, and core methodologies. Second, we consider the relationship between poststructural perspectives and cultural-historical frameworks more commonly used in the learning sciences, such as sociocultural theory and activity theory. Third, we demonstrate the potential (and limits) of a poststructural perspective by analyzing ethnographic data involving racial exchanges in a secondary mathematics classroom. Specifically, we draw on Foucault’s (1972, 1980) notions of discourse and the power/knowledge nexus in order to illuminate the process by which learners can be positioned with dominant and marginal identities while engaging in everyday classroom practices.

Results. To illustrate our conceptual argument, we analyze a racial exchange that took place in a mathematics classroom. Interestingly, although the interaction itself was entirely nonverbal, students interviewed about the interaction interpreted it as having racial meaning. Using a poststructural lens, we explore why this latently race-neutral classroom interaction became racially significant. We explain this phenomenon in terms of the confluence of multiple discourses related to race, mathematics, and mathematical ability, and how these intersecting discourses interacted with classroom norms and practices in the learning environment.

Scholarly significance. Poststructural perspectives, with their emphasis on language as constitutive of meaning, can complement cultural-historical perspectives on learning. Specifically, poststructural theory can problematize the relationship between societal discourses and local classroom practices and interactions, thereby illuminating how power circulates in learning environments. This can provide new insights into the learning-identity relation, as we understand more about the processes through which some learners gain access to positions of competence while others are marginalized.

Authors

• Niral Shah, Michigan State University

• Zeus Leonardo, University of California - Berkeley