In this session we present some preliminary results on a Modern Languages Change Laboratory intervention (Virkkunen & Newnham, 2013) conducted at a Higher Education institution in the UK. The aim was to understand and transform modern language teaching and learning, and the institutional structures that support them.
The study is part of the Language Acts and Worldmaking project (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council's Open World Research Initiative). We follow a cultural-historical activity-theoretical approach (Vygotsky, 1978; Engeström, 1987) and the formative intervention method known as the Change Laboratory. To this date, only one Change Laboratory intervention (Montoro, 2016) involving modern language education in Higher Education has been conducted worldwide.
Our rich data consists of intertwined personal stories, institutional histories and geopolitical trends that make it possible to account for the interplay between different systems (personal, institutional and political). In this presentation, we trace the cultural and historical roots of systemic contradictions and we provide insights into possible resolutions that can inform institutional and political decisions in this increasingly multilingual and multicultural yet pro-Brexit and modern-language-deficient environment.
References
Engeström, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Orienta-Konsultit: Helsinki.
Montoro, C. (2016). Learn or earn? Making sense of language teaching and learning at a Mexican University through a Change Laboratory intervention. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 11, 48-57. doi:10.1016/j.lcsi.2016.05.001
Virkkunen, J., & Newnham, D. S. (2013). The change laboratory: A tool for collaborative development of work and education. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society. The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press.
