Agential Learning in a Collective Society: Bridging Cultural Historical Activity Theory and Critical Theory

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 12:40 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Toward Democratic Schooling Praxis and Research (Table 3)

Abstract

This conceptual paper provides nuanced pathways for collaboration between CHAT (cultural-historical activity theory) and critical theory (CT) as two influential ways of understanding the phenomenon of education. As former classroom teachers, we appreciate how CHAT contextualizes learning in real-world settings, yet contend that CHAT does not account for certain tensions within learning as witnessed through our teaching experiences. Drawing from our collective 20 years as educators of color in k-12 public schools, we developed a fictionalized scenario to illustrate the tensions between CHAT and Critical Theory. This paper provides space for CHAT and CT to account for nuanced and compelling conceptions of the agency of the child as mediated by the social structures and systems of education and society.

Authors

• Aukeem A. Ballard, University of California - Berkeley

• Tadashi Dozono, California State University - Channel Islands