Search This Blog

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Learning "In Situ": From Archaeology to Pedagogy to Youth Work

I have been fascinated with the concept of "In Situ" in recent days (see Wikipedia description). This concept has been used in architecture, biology, chemistry, computer science, linguistics, law, etc.

Here's one expansion of this idea: "In archaeology, in situ refers to an artifact that has not been moved from its original place of deposition. An artifact being in situ is critical to the interpretation of that artifact and, consequently, to the culture which formed it. Once an artifact's provenance has been recorded, the artifact can then be moved for conservation, further interpretation and display. An artifact that is not discovered in situ is considered out of context and will not provide an accurate picture of the associated culture. However, the out of context artifact can provide scientists with an example of types and locations of in situ artifacts yet to be discovered."

"Situated learning" is something that has become a keyword in pedagogical studies - fueled by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger. I have recently begun to think about how this term relates to integrated mission - and how this would differ from ideas such as contextualization.

Just a seed thought, but I am interested in exploring the expansion of this idea particularly how this would work when it comes to missiological theories of youth work:
  • When we engage in youth work, how do we ensure that we remain conscious of communicating and learning?
  • How do we understand the concept of transformation in situ?
  • How does a youth worker who is from a different culture commit themselves to the process of development without taking that development out of context?

I don't think that there are easy answers to these questions. It requires a great deal of intentionality and commitment...

There's a lot to think about on this subject...

No comments: