Ethnography of corporeality: A carnal move in educational technology research

Abstract

Despite the increasing focus on non-dualistic and materialist approaches in education technology studies, the materiality of the body has not been adequately examined. Because of the heavy orientation towards affordance, interaction, participation, inclusion and access at the interface or between various spatial and liminal settings, the subject's body has been addressed and analysed as a non-corporeal construct, primarily at an abstract, theoretical or textual level. This paper intends to complement existing research by proposing a carnal move that would enact an ethnography of corporeality. It will do so by doing two things: first, by drawing from Don Ihde's human-technology relations to foreground the body in technology use; and secondly, by adapting Marcel Mauss's conceptualisation of body techniques for a carnal methodological move in investigating technologyenhanced learning and digital literacies. Practitioner NotesWhat is already known about this topic • Sociocultural and materialist approaches in education technology studies have paid little attention to the "real" body.• Within the climate of increased commodification of education and heavy reliance on the use of various technologies and devices for learning and teaching, our bodies have been neglected. In fact, we have or are expected to be more machine-like as our electronic devices are claimed to extend our cognitive capacities.• Within the social science as a whole, the body has manifested itself in various ways-social body, collective body, technologised body-however, mostly focused on its representations through discursive thought or analysis. What this paper adds • The paper offers a re-examination of the role of the body in educational technology and points to interesting possibilities.• It proposes the conceptualisation of body techniques as a way to engage with the visible body in human-technology relations based on Don Ihde's work. Implications for practice and/or policy • The paper proposes Ihde's body typology as a theoretical and methodological approach that will allow educational technology researchers to engage with bodily practices when investigating human-technology relations.• It suggests "observant participation" (perhaps alongside participant observation) as a way of doing carnal ethnography. IntroductionThe academic discourse on technology-enhanced learning has paid little attention to the body as a site of experience or practice, except when the perceived natural body has a disability or is involved in sports or art performances. Forging an alliance with poststructuralist, feminist and phenomenologist scholars, albeit loosely, opens up the possibility of undeleting and finding the body in educational technology research. It provides insights into how our discourses and practices may include our bodies in ethnographic studies. Generally, technology-related research in education has taken an instrumental view or rationality, which argues that technologies are as good or as bad according to the ends to which they are used by...

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