Introduction to the special issue
‘Learning through Networks’
Anoush Margaryana
a
Caledonian Academy, Glasgow Caledonian University
Article received 26
June 2014 / revised 9 July 2014 / accepted 11
July 2014 / available online 15 July 2014
This special
issue examines the role of
networks in professionals’ learning. By
networks, we specifically mean personal professional networks,
which may or may
not be mediated by digital technology such as social media. The special issue is
based on a symposium ‘Learning
through Networks’ held at the 2013 Conference of the European
Association for
Research in Learning and Instruction (EARLI) in Munich, Germany.
A special issue
capturing current
empirical and conceptual research in this area is timely. The
importance of the
social dimension of learning, in particular of learning from
the experience of
others, is firmly established in the literature. There are many
different types of social
formations that have been studied within the learning
sciences– groups, teams,
communities, collectives and increasingly also networks (Dron
and Anderson,
2007; McCormick, Fox, Carmichael and Procter, 2011). Recently, the
concept of ‘networked
expertise’ (Hakkarainen, Palonen, Paavola, &
Lehtinen, 2008) has been put forward
to characterise learning and
development in professional contexts. Yet, despite the growing
recognition of
the importance of networks in learning, it is not well
understood what
precisely is learned through networks, how it is learned, and
what
environmental factors - organisational, social, structural or
technological -
enable or constrain learning through networks (Littlejohn and
Margaryan, 2013). Identifying
and analysing the mechanisms and
factors of learning through networks are vital to our
understanding of the
contemporary professional learning.
Comprising contributions from researchers in four
European countries (Germany, Netherlands, Finland and the UK),
this special
issue brings together examples of emergent empirical and
conceptual research in
learning through networks and proposes recommendations to
stimulate future
research and development in this area. Contextualized
in different settings and using complementary approaches, the
contributions
collectively address the following overarching questions:
1.
What
is learned through networks and how it is learned?
2.
What
is the potential of applying a social network perspective to
understanding the
nature of learning through networks?
3.
What
key factors – individual, structural, organisational,
technological – impact
professional's learning through networks and how they impact it?
There are five contributions in this special
issue. Three
of these contributions are
reports of new empirical data. These papers draw on social
network analysis
(SNA) and/or semi-structured interviews to examine the structure
of networks of
professionals and to identify what professionals learn through
these networks.
Pataraia, Falconer, Margaryan, Littlejohn and Fincher examine
personal networks
of academics teaching in universities, analyzing the types of
interactions that
academics engage in and the implications of these interactions
for their
professional learning and improvement of their teaching
practice. Hytonen,
Palonen and Hakkarainen on one hand,
and Rehm, Gijselaers and Segers on the other hand examine the
impact of
individuals’ hierarchical positions within networks upon their
opportunities
for learning and knowledge sharing.
These three empirical contributions are supplemented
by a conceptual review paper by Vaessen, van den Beemt and de
Laat which draws
on a synthesis of workplace
learning, HRD, organisational and management science and
learning science
literatures to analyse key organisational factors impacting upon
learning
through networks and to propose how informal networked learning
practices of
professionals can be integrated within the formal organisational
structures.
The special issue concludes with a commentary, in
which de Laat and Strijbos abstract and synthesize the key
themes arising from
the special issue contributions and outline a range of
recommendations and
directions for future research and development in the field.
In his opening editorial in the first issue of
Frontline Learning Research Lehtinen (2013) outlined the
rationale: “…to
develop a journal which would explicitly support innovative
theoretical and
methodological thinking and increase dynamics in the field.”
(p.1). This special issue offers a
number of innovative methodological and theoretical insights
and ideas
discussed in detail in de Laat and Strijbos (this issue). First, it
contributes much needed empirical
evidence about individual’s networked learning practices at a
range of levels
from ego-networks and sub-networks to whole networks, elucidating the configurations
and contents of these
networks and their value for learning, development and
improvement of
professional practice. Second,
the
special issue provides examples of application of Social
Network Analysis to
study learning ties within a network rather than only the
structure and
dynamics of the network, generating new directions for future
research. We hope
you benefit from the contributions assembled here.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Frontline Learning Research and
in particular Erno Lehtinen for the opportunity to publish this
special issue
and also to Inneke Berghmans and Eva Vanhee for their excellent
editorial
support. I am very
grateful to the
anonymous reviewers who closely engaged with the papers,
providing feedback to
the authors at a short notice.
Last but
not least, thank you to the authors who contributed to this
special issue.
References
Dron,
J., & Anderson, T. (2007). Collectives,
networks and
groups in social software for e-learning. In Proceedings
of World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government,
Healthcare, and
Higher Education,
Quebec. [Online] www.editlib.org/index.cfm/files/paper_26726.pdf.
Hakkarainen,
K., Palonen, T., Paavola, S., &
Lehtinen, E. (2008). Communities of networked expertise. Bingley,
UK:
Emerald.
Lehtinen,
E. (2013). Frontline research in an
accessible and flexible way. Frontline
Learning Research 1(1), 1-2.
Littlejohn,
A., & Margaryan, A. (2013). Technology-enhanced
professional learning:
Processes, practices and tools. London/New York:
Routledge.
McCormick, R., Fox, A.,
Carmichael, P.,
& Procter, R. (2011). Researching and
understanding educational networks. London/New York:
Routledge.