Kevin O'Connor - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Kevin O'Connor

More than 20 years ago, the New London Group (1996) framed a powerful vision for literacy pedagog... more More than 20 years ago, the New London Group (1996) framed a powerful vision for literacy pedagogies informed by the emerging networked world defined by local diversity and global connectedness, new digital media and fast capitalism. We now fully inhabit the world they described, but the contours of that world's racial dynamics and growing inequality call for a refinement of pedagogies that embrace a more activist metaphor than that of "Design." Our pedagogies of multiliteracies must now embrace what O'Connor and Allen (2010) describe as the "organizing of social futures" in ways that apprentice young people to repertoires of collective action, in which literacy becomes more fully a means of supporting community efforts to promote and bring about more just futures.

In this paper, we examined undergraduate engineering students' learning over time, using a "three... more In this paper, we examined undergraduate engineering students' learning over time, using a "three-dimensional" theoretical and analytical framework. The first dimension, disciplinary knowledge, is the one most traditionally associated with the concept of learning. But instead of seeing learning as the acquisition of a unified and stable body of knowledge, we viewed disciplinary knowledge as at least potentially both less unified and more variable in terms of what practitioners know and do, and sought to identify what counts as disciplinary knowledge in different situations. Our second dimension, identification, concerned how a person both identifies with engineering and is identified by others as an engineer. Our third dimension, navigation, focused on how engineers-inthe-making moved through and constructed various pathways, both personal and institutional, both official and unofficial, as they progressed through their undergraduate careers.

The calculus sequence is widely recognized by engineering students and faculty and by engineering... more The calculus sequence is widely recognized by engineering students and faculty and by engineering education researchers as one of the course sequences that “weed out” students who are unlikely to survive the rigors of the engineering curriculum [1, 2, 3]. While this “weeding out” process is often critiqued, it nevertheless has remained prominent in engineering education despite persistent efforts to mitigate its effects. How does “weeding out” remain so central? This research paper reports on a discourse analytic study that aims to address an important aspect of this question through a detailed examination of a meeting of instructors from multiple sections of a pre-calculus course for first year engineering and pre-engineering students. We argue that “weeding out” is best viewed, not as a simply mechanical or technical process through which students are linked with grades that do or do not allow them to proceed in the curriculum. Instead, we show that it is a highly active process through which instructors are engaged in producing identities for themselves, for other instructors, and for students in response to practical dilemmas that they encounter in the meeting. These dilemmas, and the identities that are produced in response, are aligned with central ideological commitments of their department and discipline. Thus, grading, and “weeding out,” is itself an ideological process of identity formation.

Scientific facts are like trains, they do not work off their rails. You can extend the rails and ... more Scientific facts are like trains, they do not work off their rails. You can extend the rails and connect them but you cannot drive a locomotive through a field." Bruno Latour, Give me a laboratory and I will raise the world ABSTRACT Psychological approaches have traditionally taken knowledge and identity to be located in individuals as part of a mental core that underlies and even causes action in the world. In contrast, social practice theories as developed in sociology, anthropology, and psychology take action, or practice, to be primary, with individual or social structuring understood as a contingent outcome of embodied engagement. However, much of this latter work, by relying on images of social worlds as relatively bounded and stable, reintroduces some limitations of individualist psychological approaches. This paper attempts to move beyond such accounts by developing a view of knowledge and identity as contingent outcomes of the assembly of a network that extends broadly across space and time. It first develops an account of knowledge production as involving simultaneous work both to make 'facts' fit with phenomena and to assemble infrastructures to receive these facts. Second, it draws on data from a longitudinal ethnographic study of engineers-in-the-making to show that while there are multiple knowledge and identity practices that might potentially be relevant to the discipline, only some of these have the infrastructure in place to make them recognizably valued forms. The paper argues that by recognizing knowledge and interests as formed and framed within extensive networks, questions about access to powerful social practices can be shifted from individual capacities to the work of building networks, thus redirecting discussions of values in educational practices.

Recent educational theory emphasizes the importance of considering identity processes in studying... more Recent educational theory emphasizes the importance of considering identity processes in studying learning and development. In engineering education, identity has been cited as central in student development, for example, as a key factor in retention of students in the discipline. This paper examines how identity relates to students' decisions about whether to remain in or switch out of engineering majors. We develop case studies of two students, both women and both members of underrepresented minority groups. One successfully gained admittance into her desired major, and one is considering leaving engineering. We argue that while each woman takes a different position on what engineering education should offer, both display a common, and we argue troubling, view of this educational experience. Our analysis seeks to explicate our ethnographic methods and to explore the broader possible significance for engineering education of the views that these women hold.

Trajectories of learning in/across contexts of learning

meertens.knaw.nl

... Georges & Barbara Duc (University of Geneva) • Andrew Jocuns & Reed S... more ... Georges & Barbara Duc (University of Geneva) • Andrew Jocuns & Reed Stevens (University of Washington) • Kevin O'Connor (University of Rochester) • Ben Rampton (King's College London, Centre for Language Discourse & Communication) • Stanton Wortham (University of ...

The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction, First Edition. Karen Tracy (Ge... more The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction, First Edition. Karen Tracy (General Editor), Cornelia Ilie and Todd Sandel (Associate Editors). © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Activity theory focuses on how culture, history, and social interaction shape individual consciousness and the organization of collective activity. It is concerned with conceiving of human mental functioning and action in ways that go beyond the traditional psychological focus on the individual as the analytic unit. This entry discusses the foundations and core concepts of contemporary activity theory in the work of Vygotsky, Leont’ev, and their colleagues, and discusses four contemporary theoretical approaches that have built upon this foundational work: third generation activity theory; development through participation; situated learning; and mediated action.

Journal of Engineering Education, 2008

In this paper, the authors develop an analytical framework referred to as "Becoming an Engineer" ... more In this paper, the authors develop an analytical framework referred to as "Becoming an Engineer" that focuses upon changes occurring over time as students traverse their undergraduate educations in engineering. This paper discusses three conceptual dimensions used to follow the engineering students' educational pathways: the development of accountable disciplinary knowledge (ADK); forming an identity as an engineer; and navigating through engineering education.

Situated learning theory proposed the notion of legitimate peripheral participation as central to... more Situated learning theory proposed the notion of legitimate peripheral participation as central to a newcomer’s trajectory toward membership in a community of practice. Left underdeveloped were questions of legitimacy was conferred or denied. The work of Leigh Star points to ways of addressing these questions by considering the relation between trajectories of membership—the adoption of and conferral of identities upon newcomers—and trajectories of naturalization—particularly in the contingent process of taken-for-grantedness of classification systems. This article examines how category work around the issue of calculus-readiness, tied to a longstanding identification of engineering with mathematic, shapes the activity of students, staff, and faculty involved in a diversity program in a prestigious U.S. college of engineering. The specific focus is on how an orientation to calculus-readiness organized trajactories for students in the program. The interplay of trajectories of membership and trajectories of naturalization is illustrated through the case of one student’s struggles for legitimacy within the program and the college.

This article considers “concept formation in the wild” among community organizers aiming to init... more This article considers “concept formation in the wild” among community organizers aiming to initiate change through processes involving resident participation and dialogue with community members. While this approach is thought to be more effective than “top down” processes, there is little clear understanding of how conceptualizations of resident participation translate into authentic dialogue or substantive change. Our dialogical approach examines how a planning committee worked through differing interpretations of resident participation, as a concept and a way of being, and suggests that genuine dialogicality can point toward experimental forms of relating and increase possibilities for conceptualizing and organizing social futures.

This article examines discourse in a community change project committed to undoing “business as u... more This article examines discourse in a community change project committed to undoing “business as usual”—attempts to “fix” problems within the community without involvement of residents in the process. We show how, despite commitments to recognizing community “voice,” participants’ orientation to powerful “centering institutions” (Jan Blommaert 2005) transformed and overrode community residents’ critical contributions, thus realizing microinteractionally some recurring broader patterns of the process, and resulting in the unintended reproduction of business as usual.

There is increased concern with developng a better understanding of how people learn engineering,... more There is increased concern with developng a better understanding of how people learn engineering, as prior efforts to improve engineering education have often followed an ad hoc trajectory. The field lacks a systematic understanding of how engineering learning occurs, and there is a paucity of knowledge on which to draw. To help redress this situation, in this chapter we review scholarship on learning with the aim of building a framework that can guide future research on engineering learning. Specifically, we hope to make the case for a framework that focuses on situativity and learning in engineering settings.

In this paper we develop an analytical framework we refer to as “Becoming an Engineer” that focus... more In this paper we develop an analytical framework we refer to as “Becoming an Engineer” that focuses upon changes occurring over time as students traverse their undergraduate educations in engi- neering. This analytical framework involves three related dimen- sions that we track over time: disciplinary knowledge, identifica- tion, and navigation. Our analysis illustrates how these three dimensions enable us to understand how students become, or do not become, engineers by examining how these three interrelated dimensions unfold over time. This study is based on longitudinal ethnographic data from which we have developed “person-centered ethnographies” focused on individual students’ pathways through engineering. We present comparative analysis, spanning four schools and four years. We also present person-centered ethno- graphic case studies that illustrate how our conceptual dimensions interrelate. Our discussion draws some educational implications from our analysis and proposes further lines of research.

Recent educational theory emphasizes the importance of considering identity processes in studying... more Recent educational theory emphasizes the importance of considering identity processes in studying learning and development. In engineering education, identity has been cited as central in student development, for example, as a key factor in retention of students in the discipline, in particular with regard to underrepresented groups. This paper adopts a social theory of identity to examine how dynamics of “sponsorship” relates to students’ decisions of whether to remain in or switch out of engineering. This paper draws on longitudinal case studies of two students. To examine the relationship between students’ interests and their decisions to persist in or leave their major. We argue that students’ interests become differentially identified as “intrinsic” or “extrinsic” to engineering through the work of powerful sponsors within the discipline. We argue further that a view of identity as socially produced is necessary in order to avoid taking for granted crucial aspects of disciplinary practices of identifying engineers, and in particular ways in which certain kinds of interests might be sponsored over and above others.

More than 20 years ago, the New London Group (1996) framed a powerful vision for literacy pedagog... more More than 20 years ago, the New London Group (1996) framed a powerful vision for literacy pedagogies informed by the emerging networked world defined by local diversity and global connectedness, new digital media and fast capitalism. We now fully inhabit the world they described, but the contours of that world's racial dynamics and growing inequality call for a refinement of pedagogies that embrace a more activist metaphor than that of "Design." Our pedagogies of multiliteracies must now embrace what O'Connor and Allen (2010) describe as the "organizing of social futures" in ways that apprentice young people to repertoires of collective action, in which literacy becomes more fully a means of supporting community efforts to promote and bring about more just futures.

In this paper, we examined undergraduate engineering students' learning over time, using a "three... more In this paper, we examined undergraduate engineering students' learning over time, using a "three-dimensional" theoretical and analytical framework. The first dimension, disciplinary knowledge, is the one most traditionally associated with the concept of learning. But instead of seeing learning as the acquisition of a unified and stable body of knowledge, we viewed disciplinary knowledge as at least potentially both less unified and more variable in terms of what practitioners know and do, and sought to identify what counts as disciplinary knowledge in different situations. Our second dimension, identification, concerned how a person both identifies with engineering and is identified by others as an engineer. Our third dimension, navigation, focused on how engineers-inthe-making moved through and constructed various pathways, both personal and institutional, both official and unofficial, as they progressed through their undergraduate careers.

The calculus sequence is widely recognized by engineering students and faculty and by engineering... more The calculus sequence is widely recognized by engineering students and faculty and by engineering education researchers as one of the course sequences that “weed out” students who are unlikely to survive the rigors of the engineering curriculum [1, 2, 3]. While this “weeding out” process is often critiqued, it nevertheless has remained prominent in engineering education despite persistent efforts to mitigate its effects. How does “weeding out” remain so central? This research paper reports on a discourse analytic study that aims to address an important aspect of this question through a detailed examination of a meeting of instructors from multiple sections of a pre-calculus course for first year engineering and pre-engineering students. We argue that “weeding out” is best viewed, not as a simply mechanical or technical process through which students are linked with grades that do or do not allow them to proceed in the curriculum. Instead, we show that it is a highly active process through which instructors are engaged in producing identities for themselves, for other instructors, and for students in response to practical dilemmas that they encounter in the meeting. These dilemmas, and the identities that are produced in response, are aligned with central ideological commitments of their department and discipline. Thus, grading, and “weeding out,” is itself an ideological process of identity formation.

Scientific facts are like trains, they do not work off their rails. You can extend the rails and ... more Scientific facts are like trains, they do not work off their rails. You can extend the rails and connect them but you cannot drive a locomotive through a field." Bruno Latour, Give me a laboratory and I will raise the world ABSTRACT Psychological approaches have traditionally taken knowledge and identity to be located in individuals as part of a mental core that underlies and even causes action in the world. In contrast, social practice theories as developed in sociology, anthropology, and psychology take action, or practice, to be primary, with individual or social structuring understood as a contingent outcome of embodied engagement. However, much of this latter work, by relying on images of social worlds as relatively bounded and stable, reintroduces some limitations of individualist psychological approaches. This paper attempts to move beyond such accounts by developing a view of knowledge and identity as contingent outcomes of the assembly of a network that extends broadly across space and time. It first develops an account of knowledge production as involving simultaneous work both to make 'facts' fit with phenomena and to assemble infrastructures to receive these facts. Second, it draws on data from a longitudinal ethnographic study of engineers-in-the-making to show that while there are multiple knowledge and identity practices that might potentially be relevant to the discipline, only some of these have the infrastructure in place to make them recognizably valued forms. The paper argues that by recognizing knowledge and interests as formed and framed within extensive networks, questions about access to powerful social practices can be shifted from individual capacities to the work of building networks, thus redirecting discussions of values in educational practices.

Recent educational theory emphasizes the importance of considering identity processes in studying... more Recent educational theory emphasizes the importance of considering identity processes in studying learning and development. In engineering education, identity has been cited as central in student development, for example, as a key factor in retention of students in the discipline. This paper examines how identity relates to students' decisions about whether to remain in or switch out of engineering majors. We develop case studies of two students, both women and both members of underrepresented minority groups. One successfully gained admittance into her desired major, and one is considering leaving engineering. We argue that while each woman takes a different position on what engineering education should offer, both display a common, and we argue troubling, view of this educational experience. Our analysis seeks to explicate our ethnographic methods and to explore the broader possible significance for engineering education of the views that these women hold.

Trajectories of learning in/across contexts of learning

meertens.knaw.nl

... Georges & Barbara Duc (University of Geneva) • Andrew Jocuns & Reed S... more ... Georges & Barbara Duc (University of Geneva) • Andrew Jocuns & Reed Stevens (University of Washington) • Kevin O'Connor (University of Rochester) • Ben Rampton (King's College London, Centre for Language Discourse & Communication) • Stanton Wortham (University of ...

The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction, First Edition. Karen Tracy (Ge... more The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction, First Edition. Karen Tracy (General Editor), Cornelia Ilie and Todd Sandel (Associate Editors). © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Activity theory focuses on how culture, history, and social interaction shape individual consciousness and the organization of collective activity. It is concerned with conceiving of human mental functioning and action in ways that go beyond the traditional psychological focus on the individual as the analytic unit. This entry discusses the foundations and core concepts of contemporary activity theory in the work of Vygotsky, Leont’ev, and their colleagues, and discusses four contemporary theoretical approaches that have built upon this foundational work: third generation activity theory; development through participation; situated learning; and mediated action.

Journal of Engineering Education, 2008

In this paper, the authors develop an analytical framework referred to as "Becoming an Engineer" ... more In this paper, the authors develop an analytical framework referred to as "Becoming an Engineer" that focuses upon changes occurring over time as students traverse their undergraduate educations in engineering. This paper discusses three conceptual dimensions used to follow the engineering students' educational pathways: the development of accountable disciplinary knowledge (ADK); forming an identity as an engineer; and navigating through engineering education.

Situated learning theory proposed the notion of legitimate peripheral participation as central to... more Situated learning theory proposed the notion of legitimate peripheral participation as central to a newcomer’s trajectory toward membership in a community of practice. Left underdeveloped were questions of legitimacy was conferred or denied. The work of Leigh Star points to ways of addressing these questions by considering the relation between trajectories of membership—the adoption of and conferral of identities upon newcomers—and trajectories of naturalization—particularly in the contingent process of taken-for-grantedness of classification systems. This article examines how category work around the issue of calculus-readiness, tied to a longstanding identification of engineering with mathematic, shapes the activity of students, staff, and faculty involved in a diversity program in a prestigious U.S. college of engineering. The specific focus is on how an orientation to calculus-readiness organized trajactories for students in the program. The interplay of trajectories of membership and trajectories of naturalization is illustrated through the case of one student’s struggles for legitimacy within the program and the college.

This article considers “concept formation in the wild” among community organizers aiming to init... more This article considers “concept formation in the wild” among community organizers aiming to initiate change through processes involving resident participation and dialogue with community members. While this approach is thought to be more effective than “top down” processes, there is little clear understanding of how conceptualizations of resident participation translate into authentic dialogue or substantive change. Our dialogical approach examines how a planning committee worked through differing interpretations of resident participation, as a concept and a way of being, and suggests that genuine dialogicality can point toward experimental forms of relating and increase possibilities for conceptualizing and organizing social futures.

This article examines discourse in a community change project committed to undoing “business as u... more This article examines discourse in a community change project committed to undoing “business as usual”—attempts to “fix” problems within the community without involvement of residents in the process. We show how, despite commitments to recognizing community “voice,” participants’ orientation to powerful “centering institutions” (Jan Blommaert 2005) transformed and overrode community residents’ critical contributions, thus realizing microinteractionally some recurring broader patterns of the process, and resulting in the unintended reproduction of business as usual.

There is increased concern with developng a better understanding of how people learn engineering,... more There is increased concern with developng a better understanding of how people learn engineering, as prior efforts to improve engineering education have often followed an ad hoc trajectory. The field lacks a systematic understanding of how engineering learning occurs, and there is a paucity of knowledge on which to draw. To help redress this situation, in this chapter we review scholarship on learning with the aim of building a framework that can guide future research on engineering learning. Specifically, we hope to make the case for a framework that focuses on situativity and learning in engineering settings.

In this paper we develop an analytical framework we refer to as “Becoming an Engineer” that focus... more In this paper we develop an analytical framework we refer to as “Becoming an Engineer” that focuses upon changes occurring over time as students traverse their undergraduate educations in engi- neering. This analytical framework involves three related dimen- sions that we track over time: disciplinary knowledge, identifica- tion, and navigation. Our analysis illustrates how these three dimensions enable us to understand how students become, or do not become, engineers by examining how these three interrelated dimensions unfold over time. This study is based on longitudinal ethnographic data from which we have developed “person-centered ethnographies” focused on individual students’ pathways through engineering. We present comparative analysis, spanning four schools and four years. We also present person-centered ethno- graphic case studies that illustrate how our conceptual dimensions interrelate. Our discussion draws some educational implications from our analysis and proposes further lines of research.

Recent educational theory emphasizes the importance of considering identity processes in studying... more Recent educational theory emphasizes the importance of considering identity processes in studying learning and development. In engineering education, identity has been cited as central in student development, for example, as a key factor in retention of students in the discipline, in particular with regard to underrepresented groups. This paper adopts a social theory of identity to examine how dynamics of “sponsorship” relates to students’ decisions of whether to remain in or switch out of engineering. This paper draws on longitudinal case studies of two students. To examine the relationship between students’ interests and their decisions to persist in or leave their major. We argue that students’ interests become differentially identified as “intrinsic” or “extrinsic” to engineering through the work of powerful sponsors within the discipline. We argue further that a view of identity as socially produced is necessary in order to avoid taking for granted crucial aspects of disciplinary practices of identifying engineers, and in particular ways in which certain kinds of interests might be sponsored over and above others.

Learning Research as a Human Science, NSSE Yearbook, Volume 109 Issue 1 Editors: William R. Penuel | Kevin O'Connor

Background – Engineering educators and practitioners have long been concerned with understanding ... more Background – Engineering educators and practitioners have long been concerned with understanding and challenging inequities in engineering education. An enduring challenge in this work has been the prevalence of " weed out " practices and culture.