TY - BOOK

T1 - Conflict in virtual learning communities in the context of a democratic pedagogy

AU - Ozturk, Tugba

PY - 2011

Y1 - 2011

N2 - In this thesis, I discuss conflict in virtual learning communities in the context of ademocratic pedagogy. Democratic pedagogies are underpinned with emancipatoryeducational values through enabling students to participate in governance of theirlearning processes thus taking responsibility for their own learning. In thesecommunities, knowledge is socially constructed through interactions and negotiations.The method and content of the learning programme are loosely structured in order tofulfill the community members' wishes, interests, ideas, and so on throughout thelearning process. Within this framework, my point of departure is that emergence ofconflict among the community members is probable given the diverse and sometimesclashing individual differences in participation in the negotiation process; in the loosestructure of the programme which brings about uncertainty; and in the nature of thetechnological environments in which learning takes place.To address these issues, I conducted field work with third year undergraduate studentsenrolled in a Computer Education and Instructional Technology programme. The fieldwork consists of two staged studies: pilot study and main study. Respectively, a fourweek course for the pilot study and a fourteen week course for the main study weredesigned according to learning community principles underpinned with a democraticpedagogy, and students were introduced with their respective learning communities.Throughout the field work, I collected data via interviews, focus group meetings, prepostquestionnaires, essays, Moodle logs and field notes.Drawing on my findings, I discuss the dynamics and the roles of conflict in learningthrough a model of conflict which I developed. This model identifies 3 types ofconflict: intrapersonal, interpersonal and socio-cultural. I show how small groups ofstudents in the community experienced different conflict pathways during the courseof study. The findings show the importance of taking a holistic, processual view of theemergence of conflict in a learning community. The implications for theory andpractice are discussed.

AB - In this thesis, I discuss conflict in virtual learning communities in the context of ademocratic pedagogy. Democratic pedagogies are underpinned with emancipatoryeducational values through enabling students to participate in governance of theirlearning processes thus taking responsibility for their own learning. In thesecommunities, knowledge is socially constructed through interactions and negotiations.The method and content of the learning programme are loosely structured in order tofulfill the community members' wishes, interests, ideas, and so on throughout thelearning process. Within this framework, my point of departure is that emergence ofconflict among the community members is probable given the diverse and sometimesclashing individual differences in participation in the negotiation process; in the loosestructure of the programme which brings about uncertainty; and in the nature of thetechnological environments in which learning takes place.To address these issues, I conducted field work with third year undergraduate studentsenrolled in a Computer Education and Instructional Technology programme. The fieldwork consists of two staged studies: pilot study and main study. Respectively, a fourweek course for the pilot study and a fourteen week course for the main study weredesigned according to learning community principles underpinned with a democraticpedagogy, and students were introduced with their respective learning communities.Throughout the field work, I collected data via interviews, focus group meetings, prepostquestionnaires, essays, Moodle logs and field notes.Drawing on my findings, I discuss the dynamics and the roles of conflict in learningthrough a model of conflict which I developed. This model identifies 3 types ofconflict: intrapersonal, interpersonal and socio-cultural. I show how small groups ofstudents in the community experienced different conflict pathways during the courseof study. The findings show the importance of taking a holistic, processual view of theemergence of conflict in a learning community. The implications for theory andpractice are discussed.

M3 - Doctoral Thesis

PB - Lancaster University

CY - Lancaster

ER -