Scheda Articolo

Ambiguous Coordination: Collaboration in Informal Science Education Research

di Ivan Rosero, Robert Lecusay, Michael Cole

in Versus n. 112-113, The External Mind. Perspectives on Semiosis, Distribution and Situation in Cognition, pp.215-240

Abstract

We propose that inquiry into human cognition is best understood as a collaborative process of bringing diverse (and even incommensurable) phenomena into view as relational constituents of thought and action. It is taken for granted that cognitive phenomena may find expression through as many different kinds of mediums as human action and thought are able to recruit into communicative, artifact mediated activity. The theory we deploy to study cognition is cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), which encompasses multi-perspectival methods of analysis. This theoretical heteroglossia is often materialized in research as collaborative research, where research partners not only benefit from different theoretical and methodological lenses, but must also deal with the difficulties of reconciling multiple voices to create coherent forms of shared meaning. In this paper, we use two recent examples of collaborative research to motivate a theoretical discussion around the concepts of intersubjectivity and artifact-mediated activity, arguing that intersubjectivity is best understood in spectral terms, where joint engagement always entails a degree of ambiguity ranging from conjuncture to disjuncture. We connect this discussion with a dialogic process of dealing with heteroglossia in collaborative research, and deploy this understanding to analyze particular moments of conjuncture and disjuncture in that research. Finally, we conclude with some observations we hope will fruitfully contribute to ongoing debates about the understanding of "shared meaning."