3rd+Space+in+Online+Discussion

=3rd Space in Online Discussion Project= Dr Mark Pegrum Faculty of Education

Overview - a study of the development of an ‘educational third space’ in international trials of online discussion forums for language teachers (http://e-language.wikispaces.com/mr1).

Details: In view of the ongoing processes of globalisation or indeed “glocalisation” – a term which captures the tension between homogenisation and diversity – teachers have a crucial role to play in helping students negotiate interpersonal and intercultural divides, retaining a sense of individual and cultural difference even as they open themselves to new worldviews and the potential for shifts in their own identities. Before this can happen, however, teachers themselves need extensive experience of negotiating such divides in their own lives, including their learning and teaching practices. Thanks to the advent of e-learning technologies such as online discussion forums, which minimise geographical and practical barriers to intercultural encounters, today’s education programmes can give teachers some of the necessary exposure.

Our study is a based on a series of international trials of online discussion forums for language teachers. Third Space Trial 1 took place in February 2007, and Third Space Trial 2 took place in February 2008.

Our starting point for analysing the interactions in these forums is the notion of the third space. In the past this and related terms have been used to refer to a space between recognised cultures where participants must negotiate cultural differences. A third space may foster intercultural learning in tandem with a growth in “epistemological humility” (Ess, 2007) – essentially, the recognition that one’s own perspective on the world is not the only one. We have extended the notion to focus on an educational third space existing not only between students’ cultures but, specifically, between their past educational experiences. We also draw on social constructivist pedagogy, conceiving of an educational third space as a learning space in which de-construction and re-construction of knowledge and understanding can occur. We draw, too, on the notion of communities of practice, viewing an educational third space as one which students themselves shape as they invest in the learning community. We believe that asynchronous discussion boards (DBs) can be a valuable forum for the emergence of this kind of space, given their interactive, reflective and democratic nature.

Nevertheless, the emergence of an educational third space is by no means guaranteed, and accounts abound of failed intercultural communication in both educational and non-educational contexts. It is therefore essential to evaluate the success of any such space by seeking evidence of key social indicators, such as willingness to interact across cultural divides, and key cognitive indicators, such as openness to shifts in views or perspectives. The presence of such indicators, which can be determined through computer-mediated discourse analysis, would be suggestive of the occurrence of intercultural learning and a growth in epistemological humility.

In our project, we have drawn on but substantially modified discourse analysis schemes used in past studies of intercultural competence and the third space online to construct our own comprehensive coding scheme tailored to the data at hand. The results of our discourse analysis to date, complemented by system statistics and post-forum feedback, suggest that while a number of factors limited fuller development, there was some evidence of movement towards an educational third space in our 2007 forums.

Work is currently continuing on coding the full set of data from the 2008 forums.