Keynote speakers

Professor Silvia Gherardi

Shadow organising and shadow learning as dwelling in the space of the ‘not-yet’

In my presentation I shall accept the organisers’ invitation ‘to shine a light on the unspoken, unseen, unasked and intangible during this conference’ and therefore I address the metaphor of ‘the shadow’ for exploring the entanglement of light and dark as a space of indeterminacy, a place for becoming and a sphere of transformation. Having in mind professional education and professionals in their everyday organising, I wish to pose the question of how shadow organizing is done in practice, how professionals engage in shadow learning while working, and how they construct what count as ‘data’ and what is discarded as ‘no-data’. What happens in the space of the ‘not-yet data’? Can professional education contemplate the habit to indeterminacy (instead of dati-fication) and to what is in its becoming? Taking a post-qualitative approach to ‘data’, I wonder what we – as professionals doing research like other professionals - do to ‘data’ and what ‘data’ do to us. My aim is to invite to ‘slow down’ the quick framing of ‘data’ and the jump to evaluation and critique ‘to find ways of approaching the complex and uncertain objects that fascinate because they literally hit us or exert a pull on us’ (Stewart, 2007:4).

Biography

Silvia Gherardi is Senior Professor of sociology of work and organisation at the Faculty of Sociology of the University of Trento, Italy, where she has been Director of the Research Unit on Communication, Organizational Learning, and Aesthetics since 1993. Her last book (How to conduct a practice-based study: problems and methods, Edward Elgar, 2019, 2nd edition) is devoted to the discussion of methodologies for the empirical study of learning and knowing in working practices. A companion to this book (Learning and Knowing in Practice-based studies, Edward Elgar, 2012) co-authored with Antonio Strati, includes a selection of empirical papers from RUCOLA.

Professor Stephen Kemmis

A Practice Theory Perspective on Learning: Beyond a ‘conventional’ view

In this talk, I will explore issues related to the ProPEL 2019 Conference Theme 9: ‘Learning in practice’. In particular, I explore a disagreement my co-authors and I have with our friend Ted Schatzki about learning. Schatzki thinks practice theory can accept the “conventional” view of learning as the acquisition of knowledge. In this talk, I will try to secure an alternative view, namely, that practice theory offers a different conception of learning as happening in the production, reproduction and transformation of practices - but the argument leads me to conclude that learning itself is not a practice.

Biography

Stephen Kemmis is Professor Emeritus, School of Education, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga campus. He co-founded the ‘Pedagogy, Education and Praxis’ international network of researchers from Australia, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, Colombia and the Caribbean. His principal interest is educational practice, and he is co-developer of the theory of practice architectures. He has published widely on educational research, especially critical participatory action research.

Professor Margaret Somerville

Making the invisible visible: learning for planetary wellbeing

This keynote will begin by making visible the invisible of the Indigenous presences in this land by presenting aspects of a collaborative performance of song and artworks with Darug Artists and Songwriters performed at the Overseas Passenger terminal in 2017, the site of first contact. This leads into a current research project that continues a lifelong interest in planetary wellbeing. Naming the World addresses human entanglement in the fate of the planet in collaboration with practitioners and young children in early learning Centres in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Finland. The presentation will highlight the ways professional practitioners learnt from young children in Djaralinghi, a long daycare in Kingswood. After 12 months of deep hanging out with young children we presented 7 discrete categories of the simultaneous emergence of literacy and sustainability, inviting practitioners to develop pedagogies to further enhance this learning. After a scary and difficult transition, the most powerful and amazing projects evolved, two of which will be presented in detail, ‘Becoming bird’ with 0-3 year olds and ‘The Finland Project’ with 4-5 year old children.

Biography

Professor of Education at Western Sydney University with a background in adult and professional education and learning. Her ways of being and knowing have been fundamentally shaped by the onto-epistemological challenges of deep engagement with Aboriginal Country, Communities and Concepts over a lifetime. She is interested in alternative and creative approaches to research and writing, and has led a large number of externally funded research projects with a focus on relationship to place and planetary wellbeing.