Empirical Workshop: a room for development of practice

Research topic
The paper is based on experiences from an empirical workshop where researchers and teachers together test and develop different understandings of children’s possibilities for participating in the communities of school life. The article explores and discuss whether and how the empirical workshop can contribute to a qualification of teachers’ work – with the hope that researchers and teachers will have new and nuanced understandings of children’s perspectives.

Theoretical framework
The project is anchored in the theory of social practice (Mørck 2006) where the central concepts are participation and community. Equally, the project also includes such concepts as affectivity (Massumi 2002) and repertoires of interpretation (Staunæs 2004).

Methodology
In the empirical workshop, researchers and teachers discuss the video material from school life while the empirical workshop itself is also being recorded on video. Watching video with the teachers offers them the opportunity to observe in situ (Banks & Zeitlyn 2015). This has a special potential as to making affectivity a subject of examination (Staunæs & Kofoed 2014).

Expected results
The analyses indicate that conversations in the empirical workshop can contribute to a qualification of teachers’ work with creating opportunities of participation for children in school. Especially the use of video material which captures the actual lives of the school children in situ can be a productive platform for shared examinations of different repertoires of interpretation but also contribute to the development of new perspectives on the opportunities for children’s participation.

Relevance to Nordic educational research
The teacher is the central actor in creating and developing opportunities for participation for all children in the communities of school life, and this article explores and discusses whether a cooperation between researchers and teachers may have the potential to develop practices.

References
Banks, M., & Zeitlyn, D. (2015). Visual methods in social research. SAGE

Massumi, B. (2002). Parables for the virtual: Movement, affect, sensation. Duke University Press.

Mørck, L. L. (2006). Grænsefællesskaber. Læring og overskridelse af marginalisering. Roskilde Universitetsforlag.
Staunæs, D. (2004): Køn, etnicitet og skoleliv. Samfundslitteratur
Staunæs & Kofoed (2014). Visuel metode som affektivt “wunderkammer”. I Thuesen, Tanggaard & Vitus (Red.), Konflikt i kvalitative studier. HRF