Finding Time in Educational Theories

• In Event: Theorizing Time and Space in Empirical Research: Potentials and Possibilities

Abstract

Objectives
Assumptions about time are embedded in educational scholarship. It is impossible to theorize learning without implicit or explicit claims about time; essentially, theories of learning implicate change. While temporal claims operate across literacy scholarship, in general temporal assumptions are neither named nor examined. This theoretical paper reveals temporal claims operating in six theoretical framings of educational research.

Theoretical Framework
[Author] explores six theories familiar to AERA attendees (Table 1). She compares how temporality is theorized across research studies. While these temporal theorizations are not comprehensive, these illustrative examples reveal differences that have implications for children and their learning.

Methods of Inquiry
To explore epistemological assumptions related to temporality operating in and through theoretical perspectives, [Author] engaged in a temporal review of theoretical claims presented in empirical research studies by analyzing six articles to illustrate various theoretical framings operating in educational research. The selection or articles was admittedly subject to the limits of[Author’s] own scholarly history, and familiarity with educational scholarship. The following selection criteria were used
• Peer-reviewed papers published in major journals,
• Conducted by a scholar whose work will generally be familiar to the AERA audience, and
• Targeted scholars served as first authors.

Data and Analysis
[Author] identified six studies representing six perspectives. [Author]analyzed the temporal discourses used by each scholar across one published paper. She explored temporal language used and examined what that language suggested about time. Temporal language is defined as words, phrases and sentences that reference time or changes that take place across time. Examples of temporal language include references to:
• historical events, cultural traditions, and past experiences,
• future possibilities and predictions,
• relationships that connect past, present and/or future,
• change across time, and
• sustained and/or recurring events and experiences.

Findings
In this proposal, I present a temporal analysis of Jank’s (2000) theorization of critical literacy. In Jank’s (2000) is focused on social change and brings a political envisioning of the past to her conceptualization of time. Her rendering of time is located within the current historical moment in South Africa – “a country ruled by apartheid” (p. 184). Janks (2000) is concerned with the disruption of forces that sustain inequities and challenge dominant power structures; this entails reading the future and “achieving a just society” (p. 176). Like Moll (1992), she recognizes emancipatory potential of education, however, Janks (2000) does not forefront students’ historical/cultural knowledge. She focuses on questioning and confronting present inequities – “teaching learners to understand and manage the relationship between language and power” (p. 176). Unlike critical race theory (Ladson-Billings, 1995), Janks does not explicitly focus on the continuing impact of past inequities; students read the word and the world (Freire, 2006) as they envision equitable futures.

Scholarly Significance
Theorizations of time have implications for children and their learning. If learning is linear, the Common Core State Standards make sense. Likewise, cultural histories and funds of knowledge have implications for what should happen in schools. If time is recursive and the past and present are negotiated within rich assemblages, we recognize the complexity of childhood.

Author

• Catherine F. Compton-Lilly, University of South Carolina
  Presenting Author