The Research Forum for Interaction and Learning (ReFIL) provides a methodological forum for researchers working with interactional data; primarily audio- and video recordings of interactions and activities in educational, workplace and everyday settings.

The ReFIL Seminar focuses on issues concerning analyses of interaction, primarily relevant to the field of Education.

At the seminars, we discuss participants’ work in progress or published studies, and engage in collaborative analysis of data from ongoing projects. We also read and discuss selected relevant publications in the field.

Programme

09.30 - 10.40 Kim Ridell, Malmö University

Kim will present his article "Prompting Story Elements in First Grade: An Intermodal Approach for Exploring Two Teachers’ Orchestrations."

10.50 - 12.00 Eleanor Armstrong, Stockholm University

Eleanor will talk about 'Yay Space!': Astronaut Barbies, Femininities, and the possibility of informal science learning.

Please see below the abstracts of their presentations for more information.

Zoom-link to seminar

https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/j/68253697961

Kim Ridell: Prompting story elements in first grade: An intermodal approach for exploring two teachers’ orchestrations.

Although the teaching of narrative texts in primary school is well researched, there is a lack of insight into how visual models and multimodal prompts are used by teachers to convey genre-specific knowledge.

In this multimodal analysis, two teachers’ orchestrations of the graphical model The Story Face on a whiteboard canvas as they negotiate the re-retelling of Little Red Riding Hood with grade 1 students were studied. Data was produced in the form of audio and video recordings. Underpinned by a social semiotic framework combined with Bernstein’s concept framing, the analyses revealed that the teachers focused on the story’s events and structure but vary in:

1. their intermodal orchestration of these elements and
2. emphases on story-specific or my general features of narrative genre.

Further, the students showed an interest in iconic and suspense-building story dialogue, but this aspect was generally de-emphasized by the teachers’ use of verbal language and visual resources.

Based on these findings, the significance of studying teachers’ differing orchestrations through overlapping modes is discussed. During the presentation, the exploratory multimodal analysis process of identifying modes in the teachers’ orchestrations will be highlighted.

Eleanor Armstrong: 'Yay Space!': Astronaut Barbies, Femininities, and the possibility of informal science learning

In this talk I chart Barbie’s longer history with space: starting with Barbie Miss Astronaut (1965) who modelled going to space before NASA astronauts made it to the Moon, through to the most recent dolls produced in 2023.

I chart the various dolls produced through two themes; one is the commitment to career-oriented dolls (1965, 1985, 1994, 2008, 2013, 2017, 2022); and through a line on famous women, now known as ‘Barbie Inspiring Women’ set; featuring – amongst others – likenesses of Katherine Johnson, Samantha Cristoforetti, Sally Ride, Anna Kikina, Valentina Tereshkova.

Through this talk I place the dolls in a larger history of cultural hegemony of dolls, girlhood, and educative potentials of toys, thinking through how they are marketed and received. I pick up Barbie scholar Erica Rand’s theorising on how Mattel moves over time with Barbie and her accessories to position themselves as encompass cultural acceptable femininities that might otherwise dislodge the cultural hegemony that Barbie occupies; which itself draws on Stuart Hall's work on cultural hegemony. 

If you want to participate

The seminars are open to the public. No prior sign-up for the attendance is necessary. To send the notice of interest to sign up for a seminar, please contact one of us:

Eva Insulander 
Ali Reza Majlesi 
Gustav Lymer
Eva Svärdemo Åberg 
Ulrika Bennerstedt