What do we teach when we teach the Learning Sciences? A document analysis of 75 graduate programs

The learning sciences, as an academic community investigating human learning, emerged more than 30 years ago. Since then, graduate learning sciences programs have been established worldwide. Little is currently known, however, about their disciplinary backgrounds and the topics and research methods they address. In this document analysis of the websites of 75 international graduate learning sciences programs, we examine central concepts and research methods across institutions, compare the programs, and assess the homogeneity of different subgroups. Results reveal that the concepts addressed most frequently were real-world learning in formal and informal contexts, designing learning environments, cognition and metacognition, and using technology to support learning. Among research methods, design-based research (DBR), discourse and dialog analyses, and basic statistics stand out. Results show substantial differences between programs, yet programs focusing on DBR show the greatest similarity regarding the other concepts and methods they teach. Interpreting the similarity of the graduate programs using a community of practice perspective, there is a set of relatively coherent programs at the core of the learning sciences, pointing to the emergence of a discipline, and a variety of multidisciplinary and more heterogeneous programs “orbiting” the core in the periphery, shaping and innovating the field

Discordant Harmony : A Poetic Paradigm for Political Subjectivities

« Discordant harmony » is a translation of Heraclitus’s palintropos harmoniè. For the pre-Socratics, it refered to the dynamic and paradoxical unity emerging from contradictory forces, such as when one is playing the lyre or bending a bow. This notion is taken as a paradigm to think the self-creation of both an autonomous subject and a democratic community in a global and multicultural world. This implies a research-creation process that articulates the following conjuncture: A critical discussion of contemporary philosophical concepts coming from very different backgrounds (Castoriadis’s ‘imaginary significations’, Meschonnic’s ‘rhythm’, Glissant’s and Chamoiseau’s ‘creolisation’, Rancière’s ‘mésentente’, etc.) ; Poetical experimentation, searching for a poetical language at the crossroads of different languages : les Belgicaines (French, Dutch, German, Walloon, Flemish), questioning « Belgian identity » from my perspective of an immigrant background (Greek, Russian and Georgian origins), in collaboration with Belgian artists ; Thinking from participant observation in ‘Events’ of ‘Discordant Harmony’, such as the sit-in of a group of illegal migrants (“sans papiers”) at the Université Saint-Louis-Bruxelles in 2009, which brought about efforts toward the creation of “dialogue spots” where specialized scholars and migrants meet and exchange ideas; and the creation of a new course on “Philosophy and Citizenship” for secondary education students following the Brussels attacks