Paying Attention to Educational Practices: Observing Educational Activities Through Schatzki’s Practice Theory

Abstract

Practice theory has recently gained renewed attention in educational research. However, analyzing educational activities through a theory of practice generally results in the need to explain the relationships among determination, practice activity and practice organization. This article instead seeks to present new ways to see and narrate educational practices based on (a) Schatzki’s practice theory, particularly his idea of human activity as an indeterminate temporal spatial event, and (b) a particular approach to observe and relate to educational practices based on Tim Ingold’s and Jan Masschelein’s work on education and attention. We focus on an exploratory approach that promotes ‘attention’ as a pivotal attitude to observe what happens during educational practices. The main argument is that in addition to understanding, explaining, and attempting to change the forces that shape educational practices, there is an interesting narrative of what happens in present educational activities.