The Quest For Really Useful Knowledge: An Institutional Ethnography of Community Adult Education in the Digital Age

Open Access
- Author:
- Selvaraj, Shivaani Aruna
- Graduate Program:
- Adult Education
- Degree:
- Doctor of Education
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- October 14, 2016
- Committee Members:
- Elizabeth J. Tisdell, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Edward W. Taylor, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Kamini M. Grahame, Committee Member
Peter R. Grahame, Committee Member
Andrea Tapia, Outside Member
Sasha Costanza-Chock, Special Member - Keywords:
- institutional ethnography
radical education
social relations
digital literacy
broadband adoption
neoliberal funding regimes - Abstract:
- The purpose of this institutional ethnography was to explicate the social relations of broadband adoption through the public programs implemented by the Media Mobilizing Project (MMP) between 2009 and 2013, when they operated for the first time in alignment with federal regulations that orchestrated the practice of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) trans-locally. MMP is a Philadelphia-based organization that emerged in 2005 from a multi-pronged program of media production, political education, and movement building work. They expanded their budget and paid staff with BTOP funding streams that were made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (also known as the Stimulus Act), during the economic crisis. As an institutional ethnography, this project explored multiple forms of social organization and accompanying practices involved in providing public access to technology that MMP took up in their everyday work. It is informed by a long tradition of adult educators who have practiced education as a vehicle for change in politically contested environments, especially within struggles for equity and justice. Data for the study included texts that circulated in print and digital media forms, interviews with MMP paid staff and DC-based consultants who evaluated Philadelphia’s overall BTOP experience, and observations of educational programs in public computer centers. Findings highlight the discovery of two competing forms of accountability that produced a growing bifurcation between the professional service provision spheres associated with accomplishing the grant and movement based spheres that advanced radical organizing and media production. Amid rapid disorganization and reorganization of activity under BTOP’s timeline, MMP’s educators designed divergent curricula that were answerable to these spheres. This institutional ethnography shows how MMP leaders attempted to reclaim their earlier work as they were drawn into larger institutional complexes. The findings are discussed in relation to radical adult education discourses that emphasize the importance of “really useful knowledge” and the approach of institutional ethnography that attends to language and experience in the mapping of social relations. Implications for adult education theory, practice, and further research are considered.