SELF-MANAGED LEARNING IN OUT-OF-SCHOOL CONTEXTS

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Data Sample 1 - Layout Sketch: Preliminary analysis grounded in the data 

Here you can see the result of an initial brainstorm by the researcher as to the kinds of resources/elements available within the learner's learning context (i.e. the learning centre which is the subject of the present study). Whereas the sketch itself provided a general overview of the learning centre as a place, here, analysis of the representation begins to seek out a deeper understanding of the context by categorising types of space, artefact, relation, etc.

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These themes and descriptors represent a preliminary level of analysis. They identify kinds of things that might be of interest when studying the learner's context. At a deeper level of analysis/reflection - other aspects start to emerge, e.g. the impact/implications of ambient phenomena, e.g. sound levels, heat, chill, light, dark; of social interactions - the impact/implications of people and their roles, identities, relations; and of learning itself. These are the kind of things which may emerge in the early stages but which, without further, more focused exploration of the setting may not be easily categorised. These further explorations may, for example, take the form of ad hoc discussions or semi-structured interviews with participants, or video recording of participants in action. Data Sample 2 - an extract from researcher field notes produced after semi-structured interviews with participants had taken place provides some further insights into how discussions with participant-beneficiaries can expand on initial data sets through more targeted interventions.

Researcher commentary on the preliminary analytical process:

In this example, meanwhile, some interesting things are beginning to emerge from the data sketch around notions of context and environment - physicality, materiality, sociality. The question arises as to what makes a context a context. This layout sketch was a reflection/recollection of an in situ visit to the study setting. Why were these particular elements foregrounded? Were they just particularly salient? Were they just "what the researcher saw"? Was there an additional motivator? For example, the researcher did arrive at the centre with the understanding that it was a learning centre for learners operating in a self-managed, out-of-school, learning context and that one of the questions that stimulated the visit was to consider ways in which the EoR Framework and Model might be used to help learners to make effective use of their technologies to support their learning needs.

This suggests that even as you collect data, you are simultaneously making selections and therefore analysing the data. For this reason, it might be more apt to think of the process as a form of data generation rather than mere data collection. The conversion of real world phenomena to a model of that phenomena (as in the layout sketch) is itself a form of analysis.

When reviewing the layout sketch as an analytical process, different levels of analysis of context (here, the setting) emerged:

• What's going on here, what exists here (immediate environs)
• What else is there (neighbouring spaces, ambiance, proximity, distance)
• What goes on here (rules, negotiation of space, showcasing of work)

What was also interesting in this first level of analysis was the notion that the initial focus was on physicality and materiality with only minor attention paid to sociality (referenced by cues to norms, practices, etc.). Looking at the data in layers (see bulleted levels above) and without (at this stage) full reference to the EoR model is useful in that it allows a theoretically "uncluttered" and localised perspective to emerge which is not immediately/intentionally shaped or framed by the EoR Framework and Model.