Bruno Lemieux, Sylvie Barma & Thérèse Laferrière. Université Laval.
Context
Transforming the environment
Sequence of formative “Change Laboratory” intervention developed in
light of proposals by Virkkunen and Newnham (2013)
•
•
•
•
Partnership between the education world and the work world
Positive effects of entrepreneurship projects on students’ school success
CRIRES launched the “FAST” project (Development and evaluation of “alternance” training in
science and technology for students with learning difficulties from underprivileged homes,
2011-14)
Students are the first actors to be concerned by, and engaged in, their development, school
and career projects and decisions regarding their future.
Research questions
•How to identify the “need state” among students who have low scholastic motivation and for
whom school no longer has meaning?
•Is there a way of documenting and fostering bridge-building between young people, schools
and the working world so as to improve graduation rates and develop young people’s workrelated competencies more fully and effectively?
Double stimulation in the “FAST” context (2011-2012)
Theoretical background
•Consider the historicity of the entire activity as it unfolds in a process of transformation (Engeström &
Sannino, 2011)
•Sannino (2012) emphasizes that two epistemological principles form the basis of intervention in
activity theory – i.e., double stimulation and the logic of ascending from the abstract to the concrete
•Engeström (1987) refers to [expansive] learning activity as an “activity-producing activity.”
•Interventionist research approach rooted in cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT)
•Perpetuation of dominant activities can become a barrier to change (Engeström & Sannino, 2012 )))
•Divergences and conflicts are necessary in order for a new form of activity to emerge (Engeström,
2008)
•Transitional actions that, as a rule, shift sideways – i.e., across the boundaries between dominant and
non-dominant activities –have a potential for broad, major impacts (,Sannino , 2008)
Expansive learning as cycles of learning actions
Methodological and historical dimension
Role of a Graduate student| interventionist and Researcher| interventionist
Participants
Secondary – Cycle 2 students with low
scholastic motivation
20 targeted students. 14 participants enrolled
School team
1.
2.
3.
4.
Project team
1. Youth worker from Carrefour Jeunesse Emploi
2. Technical expert from Youth Fusion
3. Youth entrepreneurship worker from Carrefour
jeunesse- emploi (CJE)
4. CRIRES graduate student/interventionist
specializing in science and technology
Research team
1. CRIRES graduate student/interventionist for FAST
project
2. Two CRIRES researchers/interventionist responsible
for FAST project
Vice-principal
Guidance counsellor
Secretary
Three special education teachers
Data gathering
•Ethnographic notes
•Written short reports
•Observations | Intervention
•Semi-structured interviews
•Change Laboratory - inspired session audio-video recorded
Analytical approach
•Double stimulation (Laitinen et Saninno, 2011)
•Discursive manifestations of contradictions (Engeström and Sannino, 2011)
•Inner contradictions (Miettinen, 2009)
•Transitional actions in the context of an expansive learning cycle (Sannino, 2008)
REFERENCES
Davydov, V.V. (2008). Problems of development instruction: A theoretical and experimental psychological study. New York : Nova Science Publishers.
Edwards, A., & Kinti, I. (2009). Working relationally at organisational: Negotiating expertise and identity. In H. Daniels, A. Edwards, Y. Engeström and S. Ludvigsen (Eds.) Activity theory in practice:
Promoting learning across boundaries and agencies. 126-139. London : Routledge.
Engeström, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Helsinki : Orienta-Konsultit.
Engeström, Y. (2007). Putting activity theory to work: The change laboratory as an application of double stimulation. In Daniels, H., M. Cole and J.V. Wertsch (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky.
363-382. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
Engeström, Y. (2008). Weaving the texture of change, Journal of Educational Change, 9(4), 379-383.
Engeström, Y., & Sannino, A. (2011). Discursive manifestations of contradictions in organizational change efforts: A methodological framework. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 24(3), 368387.
Engeström, Y., & Sannino, A. (2012). Concept formation in the wild. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 19(3), 201-206.
Engeström, Y., & Sannino, A. (2013) La volition et l'agentivité transformatrice : perspective théorique de l'activité. Revue internationale du CRIRES : innover dans la tradition de Vygotski, 1(1), 4-19.
Gouvernement du Québec, Ministère de l’Éducation du Loisir et du Sport. (2002). Projet personnel d’orientation: enseignement secondaire deuxième cycle. Retrieved from
http://www.mels.gouv.qc.ca/sections/programmeformation/secondaire2/medias/10b-pfeq_pro.pdf
Groupe provincial de soutien pour une approche orientante à l’école. (2002). Implantation d’une approche orientante. Des conditions idéales. Retrieved from
http://gpsao.educ.usherbrooke.ca/documents/implantation_approche_orientante.pdf
Hardy, M., & Ménard, L. (2008). Alternance travail-études : les effets des stages dans la formation professionnelle des élèves. Revue des sciences de l’éducation, 34(3), 689-709.
Il’enkov, E.V. (1982), The dialectics of the abstract and the concrete in Marx’s Capital, Moscow : Progress Publishers.
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Juuti, K., Lavonen, J., Uitto, A., Byman, R., & Meisalo, V. (2009). Science teaching preferred by grade 9 students in Finland. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 8(4), 611-632.
Transitional actions implemented during year 1
Likened to “germ cells,” transitional actions are the source of the collective modelling
of a solution to the given problem
•Transitional actions related to issues of partnerships and organizational
transformations
•Transitional actions related to students’ learning environment and adjustments related
to the development of students’ competencies as project goes forward
REFERENCES (suite)
Lapointe, C., Labrie, D., & Laberge, J. (2010). Les effets des projets entrepreneuriaux à l’école sur la réussite scolaire et personnelle des jeunes : l’expérience québécoise. Retrieved from
http://crires.ulaval.ca/sites/default/files/effets_projets_entrepreneuriaux.pdf
Larose, S., Guay, F., Sénécal, C., Harvey, M., Drouin, É., & Delisle, M. (2005). Persévérance scolaire des étudiants de sciences et génie (S & G) à l’Université Laval : le rôle de la culture, motivation et socialisation
scientifiques. Retrieved from http://www.frqsc.gouv.qc.ca/upload/editeur/RF-SimonLarose(2).pdf
Piette, A. (1996). Ethnographie de l’action, L’observation des détails. Paris, France : Éditions Métailié.
Pineault, M., Noreau, P., Gaudreault E., & Brown, T. (2011). Relève, formation et entreprises : place à une meilleure collaboration. Association francophone pour le savoir – Acfas. Retrieved from
http://www.acfas.ca/sites/default/files/avis_releve_vf.pdf
Programme for International Student Assessment. (2009). Performance of youth in reading, mathematics and science: Results for Québec Students Aged 15. Retrieved from
http://www.mels.gouv.qc.ca/sanction/pirs/PISA%202006-ENG.pdf
Sannino, A. (2008). Sustaining a non-dominant activity in school: Only a utopia?. Journal of Educational Change, 9(4), 329-338.
Sannino, A. (2008). From talk to action: Experiencing interlocution in developmental interventions. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 15(3), 234-257.
Sannino, A., Daniels, H., & Gutierrez, K. (Eds.) (2009). Learning and expanding with activity theory. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
Sannino, A. (2011). Activity theory as an activist and interventionist theory. Theory & Psychology, 21(5), p. 571-597.
Sannino, A. (2012). Dialectique et intervention en théorie de l'activité. CRIRES - Série Innover dans la tradition de Vygotsky. Lecture conducted from Laval University, Québec.
Van der Veer, R., & Valsiner, J. (1991). Understanding Vygotsky: A quest for synstudy. Oxford : Blackwell.
Virkkunen, J., & Newnham, D. (2013). The Change Laboratory: A tool for collaborative development of work activities. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Vygotsky, L. (1985). Pensée et langage (F. Sève, Trans.). Paris : Messidor/Éditions sociales.
Weick, K.E., & Quinn, R.E. (1999). Organizational change and develoment. Annual Review of Psychology. 50, 361-386