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Objectives And OrganizationThis chapter has briefly outlined a perspective, offering connections between different levels and different aspects of activity. The specific objectives of this dissertation are multiple and complexly related, though they are united in the effort to connect developmental and social processes in situated video activity. Their relationship is aptly described by the metaphor Awiakta (1993) used to describe the composition of her book: “a round, doublewoven basket.” Theory and data, in my case, “[weave] around four themes, gradually assuming a double-sided pattern—one outer, one inner—distinct yet interconnected in a whole” (p. 34). She describes the four ribs of a basket woven together and then turned in so that the outside seamlessly becomes the inside. This metaphor serves to describe the composition of this document because of the way that theory is folded into the situated activities of high school students and because the purposes or “themes” are connected, not in the abstract, but in the context of video production, weaving them together into a whole. The purposes pertain to exploring (1) the contexts of three high school video production programs, (2) the role of the material in creating contexts, (3) the complexity of development in student video communication, and (4) novel methods for investigating social relations and development. These purposes build and depend on one another. The dynamic and non-determinate relationship between these themes is sought, as the tools of inquiry—video cameras—become a particularly salient part of the material world in these contexts, serving to reflect ideologies, development, and sharp details of diverse schools. With this in mind, Chapter 2 focuses on the general contexts that connect the diverse classroom activities of each program and the characteristics that distinguish them. It is an examination of what is relatively permanent in the programs and therefore focuses on the longest timescale (Lemke, 2001). The context and methods of research is described in this chapter. Then the broader context of video production, the schools, and the programs are discussed. Because this chapter focuses on the schools and programs and the entities that embody power, the constraints and promotions of the programs are the focus. Chapter 3 examines smaller units of activity by examining what observation revealed about classroom activities, the specific constraints and promotions that influenced them, and the indications of development within student activity, including their videos. This includes a description of the videos that were observed and obtained for analysis, a description of the constraints and promotions on student production activity, and general student trajectories. One case from each school is explored in detail. Chapter 4 studies the smallest units of activity: It pursues different layers of a microanalysis with the goal of advancing an approach for examining microgenetic processes, though its application is thus far incomplete. Student-made videos are the primary data, and question of how students “use” the institutions (de Certeau, 1986) is central. First, the decision to not fully transcribe video is discussed. Then changes in locations and the meaning of selected locations are explored. A way to more deeply analyze student actions based on an extension of de Certeau’s “strategies” and “tactics” is proposed, and one case from each school is explored in detail and a connection to “development” within these is tentatively made. In Chapter 5, an effort is made to reintegrate the different portions of this dissertation and specify future directions for research. The conclusion discusses an evaluation of the programs in terms of what students do, an evaluation of the new methods employed and their further advancement, the participation of the context in video production (and all educational activities), a consideration of space in education, and the potential for video production to improve upon social relations. |
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