Presentation on innovative research methods at the Scottish Education Research Association Conference, Edinburgh, November 2019.

1. Researching Digital Education
socio-material and interdisciplinary ‘grids of analysis’

2. Researching Digital Education
• The research site
• Theoretical perspectives
• Methods mix & rhizoanalysis
• Where next?
Peter Evans, SERA Conference 2019

3. Researching Digital Education
Peter Evans, SERA Conference 2019

4. Researching Digital Education
Peter Evans, SERA Conference 2019

5. Researching Digital Education
Peter Evans, SERA Conference 2019
If this is an awful mess … then would
something less messy make a mess of
describing it?
Law (2004, p1)

6. Theoretical perspectives
Practice perspective: social & material components in performative and relational contexts
(Wagner et al., 2010).
Complexity: intra-actions between components such that the same components may
generate different effects or outcomes as the “co-adaptation of interdependent
phenomena” (Beighton, 2013, p1297).
Translation: network-assemblages evolve as actors’ interests are translated to align and
stabilise the network (Fenwick & Edwards, 2010, p9). Processes of translation are
processes of simplification where a complex underlying network-assemblage is
represented by a single actant – that is, ‘punctualised’. Twitter itself, or ‘my organisation’ or
‘the management’ or ‘the learner’
Assemblage: how specific assemblages promote particular realities while demoting others.
Peter Evans, SERA Conference 2019

7. Research questions
What are the dynamics of professional community formation,
learning and knowledge sharing demonstrated through the events?
In what ways are power and influence generated and inscribed in the
discursive practices and conversational structures of the two Twitter
discussion event series?
How is professional identity negotiated and performed?
Peter Evans, SERA Conference 2019

8. Methods mix
Peter Evans, SERA Conference 2019
…seeks to compel, relate, or explore, understanding the inherent open-endedness of this act in contextual space and time.
The key would be to add transparency, acknowledging that on is engaging in sense-making rather than discovering or finding
or attempting to classify in a reductionist sense (Markham 2013)

9. Methods mix
Peter Evans, SERA Conference 2019

10. Methods mix
1. Q4) Tech can speed the adoption of knowledge. If tech doesn't make it
easier for ppl to learn, it's just a noisemaker
2. Advances in technology require constant vigilance of our own learning,
to
say nothing of that for our audiences.
3. keep on top of new tech - remember human element - adapt, adapt,
adapt :)
4. We've become better connected because of technology. How can we
kick that up a notch?
5. Q4 High expectations that the technology will deliver for us is a def con!
it's what we do with it that matters
6. I have to promote tech for learning AND reign in ridiculous tech plans at
the same time.
7. People are looking for the clicky-clicky-bling-bling to impress others
instead of solving problems.
Peter Evans, SERA Conference 2019

11. Methods mix
Peter Evans, SERA Conference 2019
grids of analysis’ facilitate changes of focus between the whole network and specific intra-actional components of the
network-assemblages of these chat events.

12. Rhizoanalysis
“Rhizoanalysis entails mapping multiple connections between different
parts of the data, without resorting to hierarchical structures which
keep data within silos. Any point can connect to any other. ” (Drumm,
2019).
Crystallisation: generating credibility in research through building
chains of evidence based on comparisons across a methods grid. The
credibility of research is produced through the transparent and ‘thick’,
reflexive description of the generation of the research assemblage
attuned to research as “a complex journey of enriched discovery”
(Stewart, Gapp and Harwood, 2017, p.1).
Peter Evans, SERA Conference 2019

13. Where next
Never-ending Twitterverse
Alternative virtual environments
Physical spaces for rhizoanalysis
Peter Evans, SERA Conference 2019

14. References & images
Beighton, C. (2013) ‘Assessing the mess: challenges to assemblage theory and
teacher education’, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education,
26(10), pp. 1293–1308.
Drumm, L. (2019), Folk pedagogies and pseudo-theories: how lecturers
rationalise their digital teaching. Research in Learning Technology, 27.
Fenwick, T. and Edwards, R. (2010) Actor-Network Theory in Education.
London: Routledge.
Heracleous, L. (2006) ‘A Tale of Three Discourses: The Dominant, the Strategic
and the Marginalized*’, Journal of Management Studies, 43(5), pp. 1059–
1087.
Law, J. (2004), After Method: Mess in Social Science Research. Abingdon:
Routledge.
Markham, A. (2013) ‘Undermining “data”: A critical examination of a core
term in scientific inquiry’, First Monday, 18(10).
Markham, A. and Lindgren, S. (2012) ‘From object to flow: Network
sensibilities, symbolic interactionism, and social media’, Studies in Symbolic
Interaction, 43(December), pp. 7–41.
Stewart, H., Gapp, R. and Harwood, I. (2017) ‘Exploring the Alchemy of
Qualitative Management Research: Seeking Trustworthiness, Credibility and
Rigor Through Crystallization’, The Qualitative Report, 22(1), pp. 1–19.
Wagner, E. Newell, S. and Piccoli, G. (2010) ‘Understanding Project Survival in
an ES Environment: A Sociomaterial Practice Perspective’, Journal of the
Association for Information Systems, 11(5), pp. 276–297.
Peter Evans, SERA Conference 2019
Title image from natassa64 on Pixabay
Slide 3 image by Brad Ovenell-Carter at https://flic.kr/p/ccGhuh
Slides 4/5 images from screen grabs of chat events. Black and white
Image: G.Rom. K1. 7598 “Romsey School, c 1910” used with
permission from The Cambridge Collection, Cambridge Central
Library.
All other images are author’s own