Prisons and Primary Schools: using CHAT to analyse the relationship between developing identity, developing musicianship and transformative processes

Abstract

This paper draws on three different research projects to demonstrate the use of an expanded model of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), developed as part of a doctoral research study. The first project is an evaluation of the impacts of a Music Partnership Project within Primary and Secondary schools. The second project is an evaluation of the Good Vibrations Javanese Gamelan project in male and female prisons. The third project is an exploration of the learning processes within a Good Vibrations Javanese Gamelan Project in a young offenders' institution. CHAT provides a lens for analysing activity, placing the interactions between the individual, individual cognition and the socio-cultural environment at the heart of the analytical framework. Although a useful way of looking at activity in order to understand the individual and social processes occurring in a learning activity, criticisms of CHAT include the rigidity of the unit of analysis, its inability to view progression and transformation and the focus on one individual without taking into account the labour power that a group offers.

Balancing supportive relationships and developing independence: an activity theory approach to understanding feedback in context for master’s students

“…This allowed us to understand individuals' experience of assessment and feedback in the social and cultural context of their programmes of study rather than as a relatively separate linear process. The intellectual roots of CHAT are in Vygotsky's (1930Vygotsky's ( / 1994) idea that individual human activity is mediated through the use of tools and artefacts such as language and physical objects (Henley 2015). These tools carry meaning and are interpreted by individuals within specific contexts (in this case programmes)…”

Forskning og utvikling i kulturskolefeltet: IRIS - den doble regnbuen

“…Improvisasjon er også tema i en studie der aktivitetsteori brukes for å forstå hva som kjennetegner improvisasjon, og hvordan en gruppe musikere improviserer sammen (Burrows, 2004). I en studie som har sett på tre ulike caser, har aktivitetsteori både blitt brukt som et analytisk redskap og videreutviklet gjennom en tredimensjonal modell for å kunne favne den gjensidige påvirk-ningen og forholdet mellom mål for aktiviteten og subjektets identitet (Henley, 2015;Henley, Caulfield, Wilson og Wilkinson, 2012). Denne tredimensjonale modellen har gitt forståelse av forholdet mellom musikalsk laering og personlige og sosiale transformasjoner (Henley 2015;Henley, Caulfield, Wilson og Wilkinson, 2012).…”

“…I en studie som har sett på tre ulike caser, har aktivitetsteori både blitt brukt som et analytisk redskap og videreutviklet gjennom en tredimensjonal modell for å kunne favne den gjensidige påvirk-ningen og forholdet mellom mål for aktiviteten og subjektets identitet (Henley, 2015;Henley, Caulfield, Wilson og Wilkinson, 2012). Denne tredimensjonale modellen har gitt forståelse av forholdet mellom musikalsk laering og personlige og sosiale transformasjoner (Henley 2015;Henley, Caulfield, Wilson og Wilkinson, 2012). Ingen av disse studiene innen musikkfeltet har fokusert eksplisitt på samarbeid og interaksjon mellom to eller flere aktivitetssystemer, som ble sentralt i tredje generasjons aktivitetsteori (Engeström, 2001) og som også er tema i denne teksten.…”

An activity theory analysis of the relationship between student identity and the assessment of group composing at school

“…I am not the first music education researcher to encounter this problem. When investigating the impact of gamelan projects on groups of offenders in prison Henley needed to ‘untangle the complexities’ and used activity theory (AT) as an analytical tool (2015, p. 128).)…”

“…The complexities and multiplicities of human activity are mediated through physical, social, psychological and cognitive domains (Hakkarainen et al, 2013) and AT was a means by which these complexities could be interpreted (Engeström, 1993). Like Henley (2015) I grappled with the limitations of second generation activity theory where analysing single activities such as group-composing, learning, teaching or assessing, could not account for the complexities of identity transformation or cultural context (Engeström, 2015; Henley, 2015). By identity transformation I mean the way in which the subject of the activity, closely related to divisions of labour, tools, rules, and communities, shifted everything when the participant's identity changed, or was modified in some way.…”