I am hoping to use actor-network theory (ANT) to inform the approach to my research participant interviews and data analysis, and want to share a reference to a wonderful, current text that brings this theory out of the science and technology studies (STS) / sociology by solidly linking this to education. I find this new text, Actor-Network Theory in Education by Tara Fenwick and Richard Edwards, to be an excellent overview of ANT, grounding this complicated grouping of theories into aspects of networks related to how people learn.
Actor-network theory, with its layers of networks of people and non-humans exerting influence on one another in a manner that expands and contracts constantly, is not for the faint of heart, and I plan to spend the next few weeks trying to explain this in an even simpler way, due in part to my need to clearly explain why and how I hope to use this to inform my study of doctoral learning for my thesis proposal.
