Field Exercise: Culture Is More-Than-Representational
Exercise:
• Part 1
o Make note of what we are doing in this classroom that is representational. What are the representational traces in the room? What are we doing today that is representational?
o Representational means: done with thought and intention; done to communicate ideas, meaning, and information to others.
• Part 2
o Make note of you are doing in this classroom that is non-representational. What are others doing that may also be non-representational?
o Non-representational means: what you do that is unthought, habitual, or, not intended to communicate with others.
• Part 3
o Review your notes for parts 1 & 2.
o Try finishing the sentence: "The culture of this classroom is more-than-representational because ..."
• If you are absent on R 1/18, you can do the exercise in a different location. In your Write-up, make clear where you did the exercise.
• The keywords for this exercise are: representation, non-representation, and more-than-representation.
• References: lecture and discussion on R 1/18 (with additional context from T 1/16) and Anderson, chapter 3, with background from chapter 2.
Write-up:
• MAIN PROMPT: Write an interpretation of the culture of the classroom that begins: "The culture of this classroom is more-than-representational because ..." (You can substitute a different place as appropriate).
• Your Write-up should include the following sections:
o THESIS. This should be a concise, one to two sentence, statement of your response to the main prompt.
o OBSERVATIONS. Choose your most important or salient observations to discuss. Include examples for representation, non-representation and more-than-representation. This section should also include examples that demonstrate the ambiguities or nuances in interpreting what people do in context.
o CONCLUSIONS. Explain how what you observed supports your thesis.
o REFLECTION. Discuss the limitations of your observations. Questions to think about: what are the limits to understanding what people do simply from observation? What could you do to address these limits? What do you think you missed? What observations would benefit from more time for development?
• Your Write-up should include one quote from chapter 3 in Anderson that helps to explain your interpretation.