Turning Crisis into Opportunities: New Insights for Academic Experiences During the Pandemic Inspired from a Cultural-Historical and Activity Theory Perspective in an Autoethnography

The crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed many academic practices and situations that used to be taken for granted, leaving academia in a state of shock and chaos. As an individual who tried to meet new demands brought by the changing academic environment, I also experienced a sense of crisis. However, as I tried to meet those new demands, I developed new capabilities and employable skills. In this chapter, I will present selected accounts of my personal experiences in academia, both as a Ph.D. candidate and a higher education teacher during the pandemic. Cultural-historical and activity theory concepts, such as the concept of activity and the concept of crisis, are used to provide analytical insights into my experiences. The new insights helped me shift my perception of crises as something negative to opportunities and potential for development. It is argued that the concepts of activity and crisis can be useful conceptual tools to transform our way of perceiving crises and thus find new developmental conditions for ourselves in challenging situations. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.

"O-M-G this has really affected us": The pandemic experiences of early childhood and primary grade interventionists

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in wide disruptions to in-person schooling which have exacerbated conditions in the public-school system. While creating chaos in general, these disruptions have also affected the assessment of children and the delivery of instructional interventions, processes which are crucial to the implementation of Response to Intervention, in which children receive increased academic support at progressive tiers of intervention.The current study used a qualitative design aligned to the classic cultural-historical methods used by Vygotsky. Specifically, this study examined the experiences of Birth to 3-years-old and Kindergarten to Grade Three interventionists, who provided intervention to children during the pandemic.Nine participants, four Birth to 3-years-old interventionists and five Kindergarten to Grade Three interventionists, participated in a series of focus groups in which research questions were presented as tools for analysis. All sessions were audio and video recorded. The data were transcribed and analyzed using in-vivo codes, subcategories, dominant categories and themes.Five themes emerged from the data analysis. The first two themes related to alterations of service but remained distinct on the basis of whether the alteration was in relationship to a social need or of material necessity. The next two themes were primarily characterized by verbal responses that indicated emotions or feelings. The final theme was a distinct set of verbal responses about future orientation and characterized by concerns about educational practice and children's experiences. The study's findings capture how interventionists altered services for children during the pandemic, the experience of providing intervention during the pandemic and expectations about intervention in subsequent school years.The methodology developed for this study suggests the potential to align modern methods to classical cultural-historical methods. The data also reveal specific alterations that interventionists implemented, perspectives on their experience and concerns. These verbal responses serve as rich vignettes of the COVID-19 pandemic and have implications for District-level, and other public policy decisions. These findings underscore the importance of conducting studies within a methodological framework that emerges on a clear theoretical basis and may inform future research of Response to Intervention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Interactive Multimedia for Promoting Cultural Heritage Tourism in Penang

Penang, also referred as the Pearl of the Orient, is one of the most well-known tourist destinations in Malaysia due to its unique cultural, architectural properties and diversity range of heritage arts and crafts. Research revealed that digital technologies in today's world are almost needed for presenting all types of cultural heritage and boosting the tourism sector especially after the imposition of Covid-19 anti-epidermic measures, resulting in the significant loss of tourists. The main aim of this research project is to promote cultural heritage tourism in Penang with the use of interactive multimedia tools. The methodological approach is formed through the examination and evaluation of a comprehensive reference and an online survey that distributed to the visitors in Penang to discuss the current issues, challenges, and the solutions in promoting the cultural heritage tourism in Penang. This is a concept paper that explores the benefits and methods to develop an interactive website that includes 360o virtual tours, detailed travel guides, animation for introducing the histories of the heritage building and video for promoting the cultural heritage tourism in Penang. © 2022 IEEE.

Teacher learning through collaborative curriculum design in the midst of a pandemic: A cultural historical activity theory investigation

Collaborative design, or co-design, is an effective form of professional development that promotes teacher learning. In this study, we used cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) to investigate how teachers attempt to resolve systematic contradictions as they co-designed and enacted a four-week science unit on COVID-19. Our findings indicated that the teachers faced significant challenges in implementing the COVID-19 unit. We also found that tensions among teachers and positioning teachers as the ultimate decision-makers were particularly useful for promoting teacher learning in the midst of a pandemic. [ FROM AUTHOR]

SELF-REGULATED LEARNING IN TIME OF PANDEMIC: PSYCH OLOGICAL BASES FROM HISTORICAL-CULTURAL THEORY

In the initial training process of university students, one of the current challenges is to promote self-regulated learning. This field of research allows responding to the needs generated by training students capable of adopting autonomy in their education and developing tools for continuous learning, beyond their academic life, which considers the cognitive, affective -motivational aspects and the elements of the context in which it is developed under the current conditions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic;hence the relevance of conducting research aimed at this purpose. The work presents the psycholo-gical foundations that from the Historical-Cultural Theory allow stimulating the self-regulation of learning from the indicators of autonomy, control, motivation and the levels of satisfaction with the teaching process, taking into consideration the role played by computer technologies.

LEARNING LAB METHODOLOGY FOR EXPANSIVE LEARNING AND INCLUSIVE EDUCATION DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN BRAZIL

The global policies of inclusive education often ignored local knowledge and cultural-historical ecologies. As a result, the top-down policies become either irrelevant or oppressive. This study presents a formative intervention study, Learning Lab, conducted in Brazil to design a new system at specialized school for blind and visually impaired students. Fourteen practitioners engaged in nine meetings with the final goal of producing a new system of inclusive education for students with multiple disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic. We will present the expansive learning actions, which educators took as a conduit for critical dialogue, collective agency and expansive learning for designing the future of their school. © ISLS.

Peculiarities of mentalization that hamper consultations of patients with BPD

Introduction: The uncertainty of COVID-pandemia, vital danger and disruptions in the habitual social contacts can be paralleled to the experiences of severe emotional stress and violence, usually found in the people with Borderline Personality Disorder. Both can be regarded as hampering the ability to categorize and express thoughts, feelings and experiences. The implementation of distant forms of psychological counseling may accentuate the mentalization deficiency. Objective(s): To develop a theoretical framework for an empirical typology of impairments of mentalization. Method(s): The model of consciousness proposed by L.S. Vygotsky was used for theoretical generalization of the levels of categorical structures of mentalization observed in previous empirical studies. Result(s): The following structures were identified: (1) the syncretic type of mentalization with low differentiation and complexity of object representations, their negative affective tone, autistic, chaotically mutable motivation and low emotional investment in relationships were described in patients with schizotypal disorders;(2) the complex type, with literal, non-generalized, fielddependent and rigid, or unstable, representation of the self, others and relationships as a result of the fusion of cognitive representations with the current emotional states. Similar types of mentalization were previously described in people with BPD and selfharming behavior (Sokolova, Laisheva, 2017). Conclusion(s): The 'syncretic' and 'complex' types of mentalization produce affective-cognitive distortions of the image of a psychotherapist, hamper the understanding of the conditional and metaphorical character of the therapeutic process, render difficult the de-traumatization of the unbearable experiences, and lessen the effectiveness of consultations of people with BPD.

Teacher learning through collaborative curriculum design in the midst of a pandemic: A cultural historical activity theory investigation

Collaborative design, or co-design, is an effective form of professional development that promotes teacher learning. In this study, we used cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) to investigate how teachers attempt to resolve systematic contradictions as they co-designed and enacted a four-week science unit on COVID-19. Our findings indicated that the teachers faced significant challenges in implementing the COVID-19 unit. We also found that tensions among teachers and positioning teachers as the ultimate decision-makers were particularly useful for promoting teacher learning in the midst of a pandemic.

"O-M-G this has really affected us": The pandemic experiences of early childhood and primary grade interventionists

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in wide disruptions to in-person schooling which have exacerbated conditions in the public-school system. While creating chaos in general, these disruptions have also affected the assessment of children and the delivery of instructional interventions, processes which are crucial to the implementation of Response to Intervention, in which children receive increased academic support at progressive tiers of intervention.The current study used a qualitative design aligned to the classic cultural-historical methods used by Vygotsky. Specifically, this study examined the experiences of Birth to 3-years-old and Kindergarten to Grade Three interventionists, who provided intervention to children during the pandemic.Nine participants, four Birth to 3-years-old interventionists and five Kindergarten to Grade Three interventionists, participated in a series of focus groups in which research questions were presented as tools for analysis. All sessions were audio and video recorded. The data were transcribed and analyzed using in-vivo codes, subcategories, dominant categories and themes.Five themes emerged from the data analysis. The first two themes related to alterations of service but remained distinct on the basis of whether the alteration was in relationship to a social need or of material necessity. The next two themes were primarily characterized by verbal responses that indicated emotions or feelings. The final theme was a distinct set of verbal responses about future orientation and characterized by concerns about educational practice and children's experiences. The study's findings capture how interventionists altered services for children during the pandemic, the experience of providing intervention during the pandemic and expectations about intervention in subsequent school years.The methodology developed for this study suggests the potential to align modern methods to classical cultural-historical methods. The data also reveal specific alterations that interventionists implemented, perspectives on their experience and concerns. These verbal responses serve as rich vignettes of the COVID-19 pandemic and have implications for District-level, and other public policy decisions. These findings underscore the importance of conducting studies within a methodological framework that emerges on a clear theoretical basis and may inform future research of Response to Intervention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

A Theory-Led Evaluation of a Scalable Intervention to Promote Evidence-Based, Research-Informed Practice in Schools to Address Attainment Gaps

Evidence-based practice is a salient solution that has been presented to address the persistent educational attainment gap linked to economic disadvantage. However, most schools do not engage with research, and we know little about facilitating school-led research use at scale. Linking different approaches to studying educational effectiveness, equity and change, and drawing on cultural-historical activity theory, this study develops intermediate theory about the mechanisms influencing institutions’ success in using research. In the context of the Opportunity Area Programme, supporting place-based interventions in the UK’s most socio-economically disadvantaged regions, we conducted a theory-led evaluation of the Evidence-Based Practice Fund (EBPF), aimed at supporting school-led research engagement to improve learning outcomes. We analysed the documentation of 83 EBPF projects, 8 focus groups, and a school survey. We demonstrate that enabling schools to address locally identified needs motivates research engagement but formulating these as stimulus for change requires scaffolding. Schools were keen but needed re-translation to use research to address those challenges. Low-key school-to-school support was found adequate. Leadership support and collaboration were significant but require relational expertise and professional learning to be effective. This study demonstrates that the use of research by schools at scale is possible and can transform a school’s agency in developing their own practice to improve equity.

Synchronous Online Learning in Higher Education: Vietnamese University Students’ Perspectives

This quantitative study investigated Vietnamese higher education students’ engagement with synchronous online learning (SOL) during a heightened stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Theoretically, we employed Engeström’s (1987) Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to guide our research theoretically and pedagogically, and to construct reliable methods of data collection instruments responsible for multiple quantifiable variables informed by previous literature and personal goals that best match students’ study and work objectives. Over our 6-month research, we examined 475 Vietnamese college students. Our research showed that when engaged in SOL, the higher education research participants had a positive learning experience, perceived growth, and received learning assistance, in response to our quantitative examination of exploratory factor analysis and our qualitative counterpart of theme-based analysis. In light of this study, it is our hope that, according to the quantitative data, our delivery of initial insights into Vietnamese higher education institutions can provoke institutional leadership and management boards to think more closely about how to advance teaching and learning quality. © 2022.

Early Childhood Educators as COVID Warriors: Adaptations and Responsiveness to the Pandemic Across Five Countries.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has seriously impacted countries across the globe. The pandemic has created a completely new teaching-learning environment of interaction for early childhood educators. In many countries, face-to-face teaching has been replaced by remote teaching, while in others, there have been intermittent lockdowns and limited interruptions to regular teaching norms. Given the play-based nature of preschool teaching-learning activities in most countries, educators are required to reimagine the sociocultural relationships to their pedagogical practices in their everyday teaching-learning contexts. This paper sheds light on educators' experiences and the dramatic shift in their indoor-outdoor teaching-learning environment due to the evolving health measures. The study draws on notions of teachers' identities and Vygotsky's cultural-historical concept of social situation of development (Vygotsky, 1994) to capture the new forms of relationships that early childhood educators experienced with their pedagogical environments across different countries during the pandemic. Data were collected from preschool teachers across five countries-Australia, Bangladesh, Norway, Singapore and India using online surveys which included open- and close-ended questions. Findings reveal the on-ground realities and teachers' adaptations to new pedagogies emerging across the five countries. The new digital environments provided an equally new dimension for change. These changes were seen in interactions, relationships within the everyday pedagogical contexts, as well as the shifting physical and social environment of early years educators.

La pandémie actuelle de COVID-19 a gravement touché les pays du monde entier. La pandémie a créé un tout nouvel environnement d'interaction enseignement-apprentissage pour les éducateurs de la petite enfance. Dans de nombreux pays, l'enseignement en face à face a été remplacé par l'enseignement à distance, tandis que dans d'autres, il y a eu des blocages intermittents et des interruptions limitées des normes d'enseignement régulières. Étant donné la nature ludique des activités d'enseignement-apprentissage préscolaires dans la plupart des pays, les éducateurs sont tenus de réimaginer les relations socioculturelles avec leurs pratiques pédagogiques dans leurs contextes d'enseignement-apprentissage quotidiens. Cet article met en lumière les expériences des éducateurs et le changement radical de leur environnement d'enseignement-apprentissage intérieur-extérieur en raison de l'évolution des mesures de santé. L'étude s'appuie sur les notions d'identité des enseignants et le concept culturel et historique de Vygotsky de situation sociale de développement (Vygotsky, 1994) pour saisir les nouvelles formes de relations que les éducateurs de la petite enfance ont vécues avec leurs environnements pédagogiques dans différents pays pendant la pandémie. Les données ont été recueillies auprès d'enseignants du préscolaire dans cinq pays­Australie, Bangladesh, Norvège, Singapour et Inde à l'aide d'enquêtes en ligne comprenant des questions ouvertes et fermées. Les résultats révèlent les réalités sur le terrain et les adaptations des enseignants aux nouvelles pédagogies émergentes dans les cinq pays. Les nouveaux environnements numériques ont fourni une dimension tout aussi nouvelle pour le changement. Ces changements ont été observés dans les interactions, les relations au sein des contextes pédagogiques quotidiens, ainsi que dans l'environnement physique et social changeant des éducateurs de la petite enfance.

La pandemia de COVID-19 en curso ha afectado gravemente a países de todo el mundo. La pandemia ha creado un entorno de interacción de enseñanza-aprendizaje completamente nuevo para los educadores de la primera infancia. En muchos países, la enseñanza presencial ha sido reemplazada por la enseñanza a distancia, mientras que en otros, ha habido bloqueos intermitentes e interrupciones limitadas de las normas de enseñanza regulares. Dada la naturaleza basada en el juego de las actividades de enseñanza-aprendizaje preescolar en la mayoría de los países, los educadores deben reinventar las relaciones socioculturales con sus prácticas pedagógicas en sus contextos cotidianos de enseñanza-aprendizaje. Este documento arroja luz sobre las experiencias de los educadores y el cambio dramático en su entorno de enseñanza-aprendizaje interior y exterior debido a la evolución de las medidas de salud. El estudio se basa en las nociones de las identidades de los maestros y el concepto histórico-cultural de Vygotsky sobre la situación social del desarrollo (Vygotsky, 1994) para capturar las nuevas formas de relaciones que los educadores de la primera infancia experimentaron con sus entornos pedagógicos en diferentes países durante la pandemia. Se recopilaron datos de maestros de preescolar en cinco países: Australia, Bangladesh, Noruega, Singapur e India mediante encuestas en línea que incluían preguntas abiertas y cerradas. Los hallazgos revelan las realidades sobre el terreno y las adaptaciones de los profesores a las nuevas pedagogías que surgen en los cinco países. Los nuevos entornos digitales proporcionaron una dimensión igualmente nueva para el cambio. Estos cambios se observaron en las interacciones, las relaciones dentro de los contextos pedagógicos cotidianos, así como en el entorno físico y social cambiante de los educadores de la primera infancia.

Dimensions of expansion for configuring learning spaces in global work

PurposeTechnological innovation and the flexibilisation of labour markets have expanded the pool of workers engaged in globally distributed work. This paper aims to propose an analytical framework to understand and support the productive professional learning of those engaged in global work. Drawing on the theory of expansive learning in the cultural-historical activity theory tradition the study aims to stimulate and enrich the conceptual notion of work as a learning space in the discussion of workplace learning particularly in global work.Design/methodology/approachIteration between theory and data is applied to identify the dimensions of expansion for the configuration of learning spaces in global work. Data are drawn from the experiences of 10 professionals selected by purposive sampling in Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and Singapore.FindingsSix dimensions of expansion are identified as challenging and potentially empowering for professionals’ configuration of learning spaces in global work: social-spatial, material-instrumental, moral-ethical, political-economic, personal-professional and temporal-developmental.Originality/valueThe conceptual framework for the dimensions of expansion of learning spaces provides the broad strokes for reflexive curricula that democratise the learning and development of professionals in global work, who are currently underserved given the national orientation of vocational education and training and professional development ecosystems.