the FERA CHAT SIG is organizing an online seminar on cultural-historical activity theory for doctoral students, post-docs and also the more seasoned reseach collegaues who are interested. For doctoral students to note, this seminar is part of the SEDUCE doctoral courses (SED-916) and you’ll gain study credits by attending. Please find a brief descrition of the seminar below.
We hope this piques your interest and you can attend! Please also consider submiting a proposal for our FERA thematic group for this years FERA conferece. More information behind this link.
Yours truly,
Jake :)
Jaakko Hilppö
jaakko.hilppo@helsinki.fi
University Lecturer
ORCID: 0000-0003-0236-9517
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Cultural-historical Activity Theory in the Educational Sciences
Wednesday 24.11.2021
FERA Annual Meeting 2021, Pre-seminar
Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) has been often regarded as one of the best kept secrets of the educational sciences. Its epistemological and ontological roots in dialectics, rich conceptual vocabulary and models, and its interventionist research tradition have upheld an image of CHAT as a hard-to-grasp and overly complex approach.
This pre-seminar aims to dispel such images and offer to participants an overview of the central theoretical tools of CHAT and their relevance. The seminar will start with a keynote by associate professor Marianne Teräs (Stockholm University) on migration, integration and inclusion from an activity theory perspective (see abstract below). After this, the seminar will continue with short expert presentations focusing on key concepts from CHAT. After each presentation, participants will have the opportunity for joint reflective discussion. The seminar will end with two presentations of ongoing research projects which build on CHAT as a theoretical framework. Through these presentations, and the seminar as a whole, the participants will have the opportunity to understand how CHAT and its central concepts can be used in empirical work.
The pre-seminar is targeted for dissertation researchers, post-doctoral researchers as well as the more experienced scientists who are interested to learn more about cultural-historical activity theory, its concepts and application. The pre-seminar will be given in english and will be organised remotely.
For doctoral students to note, this seminar is part of the SEDUCE doctoral courses (SED-916) and you’ll gain study credits by attending.
Registration for the pre-seminar via thia link link below by 15.11 the latest.
Keynote:
An activity theoretical perspective into migration, integration and inclusion
Associate Professor Marianne Teräs (Stockholm University)
The position of migrants at different levels in the labour market has become a subject of heated academic and political debate in Sweden as well as in other EU countries. The debate generally revolves around factors that affect the macro level structure such as employment of migrants and their descendants, economic costs and the benefits of migration and integration. The position of underrepresented groups in the labour market is explained as a consequence of either discrimination or lack of relevant social capital, language skills, job search strategies and job skills, to name a few. Generally, studies in this area tend to focus on obstacles that migrants face in the labour market. This study, however, focuses on ‘successful migrants’, who have entered their vocations in Sweden. In other words, what they have done differently in accessing their vocation, where many with similar backgrounds have failed. The research project focuses on mechanisms that can contribute to a sustainable integration of skilled migrants in their vocations in Sweden. By skilled migrants, we mean persons with vocational skills from their country of origins. This presentation is based on a research project focusing on integration and inclusion of migrants through their vocation and work and financed by FORTE (The Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare). In this presentation, the aim is to elaborate alternative conceptualizations for the concepts of integration and inclusion by reflecting potentials within cultural-historical activity theory and by dwelling into the empirical results of the project.
Preseminar timetable
Cultural-historical Activity Theory in the Educational Sciences
09:45-10:00: Welcome to the seminar
Annalisa Sannino & Jaakko Hilppö
10:00-11:15: Keynote
An activity theoretical perspective into migration, integration and inclusion
Associate Professor Marianne Teräs (Stockholm University)
11:15-12:00: Lunch
12:00-14:00: Espresso talks
Activity system and mediation
(Jaakko Hilppö, University Lecturer, University of Helsinki)
Expansive learning and transformative agency
(Annalisa Sannino, Professor, Tampere University)
Object of activity
(Sami Paavola, Associate Professor, University of Helsinki)
Disruptions, tensions and contradictions
(Yrjö Engeström, Professor emeritus, University of Helsinki)
14:00-16:00: Project presentations
Collective professional agency in Finnish housing first work
Esa Jokinen (Tampere University)
Development of innovation activities at the university of applied sciences
Liubov Vetoshkina (University of Helsinki):
Compassionate projects: new forms of children’s civic engagement
Jaakko Hilppö (University of Helsinki):
In search for significance: fostering movement across the five worlds of adolescents
(University of Helsinki), Pauliina Rantavuori (Tampere University), Piia Ruutu (University of Helsinki) and Maria Tapola-Haapala (University of Helsinki)