Sini Davies

Abstract:

This chapter introduces a novel analytical framework, the Making-Process-Rug method, developed for tracing intertwined socio-discursive and materially mediated learning-by-making processes. The analytic method is based on theories of knowledge-creating learning and the sociomateriality of technology-mediated learning. In maker projects, teams of students are challenged to invent complex artefacts by creatively externalising their ideas and producing conceptual, visual, and material artefacts entangled with their embodied making actions. The analytic method is anchored in video recordings of student teams’ social-discursive (verbal) and materially embodied making activities, in which they use digital and traditional tools and material resources. The chapter describes how the Making-Process-Rug method is applied for tracing making processes across the macro-level (overall making process), meso-level (zooming into specific aspects of making), and micro-level (detailed examination of selected meso-level processes). It provides an illustration of the application of an analytical framework across levels. Finally, the chapter discusses the methodological and theoretical underpinnings of applying the Making-Process-Rug method for studying sociomateriality in the context of long-term knowledge-creation projects.