Fostering Inclusive Classrooms Through Cultural Historical Research: Two Contrasting Approaches

• In Event: Addressing Persistent Inequities in Education Through Cultural Historical Research

Abstract

Purpose
The paper examines ways in which Cultural Historical Research contributes to fostering inclusivity in schools. It analyses two traditions within Cultural Historical Research – Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and “Romantic Science,” a broader category that could include CHAT, but which is developed, here, in a different direction – and their affordances to support inclusive classrooms. The paper inquires into the analytical and methodological tools that each tradition offers and demonstrates their applicability in supporting inclusive classrooms.

Theoretical Framework
Classrooms are complex sites of human activity. The unique ways of being of its participants become collectively reshaped through practices that they engage in (Gutiérrez & Rogoff, 2003; Sannino & Engeström, 2018). Framing a classroom from a cultural historical perspective allows one to situate its activities within larger cultural, historical, and political contexts to determine the meaning and applications of practices aimed to increase inclusivity (Artiles & Kozleski, 2007).

Methods and Data Sources
By drawing on evidence from their own research, the authors critically reflect on CHAT and “Romantic Science” traditions and their affordances in supporting inclusive classrooms. To illustrate how CHAT tools can be used to address inequities in education, the paper provides excerpts from the ethnographic study conducted in an elementary classroom. The first author illustrates how she used CHAT to understand ways in which inclusion/exclusion might operate within a classroom. Based on the mapped-out classroom activity arena, the first author provides cases where she explored contradictions among activity elements to identify barriers (possibilities) to inclusivity (Cenci et al., 2020). The paper then contrasts this first study with excerpts from a ten-year-long study of a play pedagogy called playworld in kindergarten classrooms (Author, 2019; Author et al., 2021). This study is a Romantic Science (Luria, 2006) study in which the unique qualities of each playworld are explored through the inclusion of the teacher, child, and imaginary characters’ stories about each playworld. It is, thus, a participatory design research study (Bang & Vossoughi, 2016) in which the perspectives from within shape the classroom.

Results
These two discussed Cultural Historical Research approaches can be used as tools that each bring a different perspective to the process of creating new understandings of what constitutes an inclusive classroom. CHAT helps to map out the classroom activity arena and examine its elements within larger contexts in which they operate. The identified contradictions can be used to make sense of classroom inequities and advance learning toward inclusive systems (Waitoller & Kozleski, 2013). Romantic Science highlights the unique contributions of a specific, inclusive classroom activity. In dialogue, these two contributions constitute more than the sum of their parts.

Scholarly Significance
In efforts to pursue inclusive classrooms, authors offer suggestions grounded in the analytical and methodological means from both Cultural Historical Research traditions that researchers and practitioners alike can utilize at the conceptual level to study classrooms and at the level of practice to design solutions to the problems associated with pursuing classroom equity.

Authors

• Inna Stepaniuk, Simon Fraser University

• Beth Ferholt, Brooklyn College - CUNY