Keynote address
Julian Sefton-Green
From Othering to Incorporation: Theoretical, Ethical and Practical Dilemmas in Crossing Informal and Formal Learning Boundaries
This paper is situated in debates about the relationships between formal and informal learning and ways that both domains have been constructed in relationship to each other. It will begin by sketching out ways in which the literature characterising the ‘digital multimedia vernacular’ of the ‘Net Generation’ functions as a way of ‘othering’, of imagining forms of informal learning as in some ways different, and more authentic than normative constructions of school based learning. It will then describe some of the different national-cultural approaches to this construction and discuss some of the initiatives which have attempted to incorporate informal learning in mainstream curriculum and pedagogy thinking.
othering incorporation – Julian Sefton-Green (ppt)
Julian Sefton-Green othering incorporation (paper)
To continue the conversation…
Provocative thoughts/questions:
• The tension between exceptional cases that are presented as a direction to follow rather than inspiration for change. These exceptional examples can be used as a stick, rather than having the effect of promoting change.
• When we valorise digital culture, is school set up as a problematic other?
• Is the rhetoric of digital literacies a cause of destabilizing discourses around school or result?
• How has digital culture influenced education and learning? Deep change?
Kim, Genevieve & Diane