Understanding Learning Culturally: Overcoming the Dualism Between Social and Individual Views of Learning

TLDR

The paper identifies limitations in current literature on learning. The authors aim to replace dualist individual/social views of learning with integrated learning‑culture theories that combine participatory/situated perspectives and Deweyan embodied construction. They employ Bourdieu’s habitus and field concepts, the metaphor of becoming, and a synthesis of participatory/situated and Deweyan embodied construction to operationalize this integrated theory. The resulting heuristic framework improves data explanation, prompts better questions about learning, and offers high practical significance.

Abstract

This paper identifies limitations within the current literature on understanding learning. Overcoming these limitations entails replacing dualist views of learning as either individual or social, by using a theory of learning cultures and a cultural theory of learning, which articulate with each other. To do this, we argue that it is possible and indeed necessary to combine major elements of participatory or situated views of learning with elements of Deweyan embodied construction. Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and field are used to achieve this purpose, together with the use of 'becoming' as a metaphor to help understand learning more holistically. This theorizing has a predominantly heuristic purpose, and we argue that it enables researchers to better explain data. We also suggest that a cultural approach of the sort proposed here leads toward the asking of better questions about learning and its improvement and has high practical significance.