Foreword: Technologies, learning and culture across disciplines: International perspectives

Abstract

The nexus of technologies, learning and cultures is a complex area of study that is currently underresearched. It could be argued that this collection of papers itself represents an experiment in interdisciplinary research. In bringing these papers together, as guest editors, we have found the richness and diversity they contain to be a reminder of the complexity of this nexus. It is also a challenge: to synthesise some of the fundamental undercurrents and discontinuities that the papers clearly reveal, and to remain open to the incoherencies and conflicts that are also uncovered. The special issue has a very broad scope, including policy and educational systems analysis, quasiexperimental work, theoretical studies, as well as comparative work, and informal and mobile learning. These studies embrace disciplinary perspectives as diverse as Art and Design Education, Engineering, Mathematics, and Education. The featured research frameworks include participatory work, collaborative action research, and arts-based methods, as well as more formal mixed method studies. Major themes of sustainability, inequality, and employment cut across political contexts from Europe to Asia, Africa and Australasia. The settings feature practices from the design studio to the mathematics classroom and include both formal and informal learning designs. Furthermore, the technologies of learning embraced in the research collected here inevitably transform and challenge our notions of place, as teachers, learners and researchers. Mobile learning, and three-dimensional simulations of the real-world act as a serious stimulus to methodological diversity and innovation. It has been a privilege to edit and present this work; we hope that it will serve as a platform for future study. Brown and Lally (2018), in their case study of perceptions of online assessment in mathematics, report on a collaborative international project between two higher education institutions in Finland and Ireland. They focus on engineering students' perceptions of online assessment in mathematics. Evidence from the data suggests that many of the students demonstrate low levels of confidence and display little knowledge about continuous assessment processes. The study offers insight into

Technologies, learning and culture: Some emerging themes

“…In this short paper, we have reflected on some of the themes that appear promising as future directions for research and pedagogical work at the nexus of technologies, learning and culture. The Foreword to this special issue (Sclater and Lally, 2018a) argued that this is a complex area of study that is currently under-researched. It remains challenging to synthesise some of the fundamental undercurrents and discontinuities that the papers in the special issue clearly reveal.…”

“…In this paper, we share some personal and preliminary reflections on some of the themes emerging from the special issue of Research in Comparative and International Education (Sclater and Lally, 2018a), which we were privileged to edit. In this issue (Technologies, Learning and Culture Across Disciplines: International Perspectives) we have brought together a collection of papers that we argue form an interdisciplinary nexus, in urgent need of further research and pedagogical development.…”