Conceptualizing students’ learning experiences in English as second language in higher education from structure and agency

Abstract

This paper narrates my research journey to conceptualize students’ learning experiences in English as Second Language program in higher education from structure and agency. It reviews literature of psychological and sociological research traditions that conceptualize students’ learning experiences. Using a critical perspective, each research tradition is reviewed in-depth for its strengths and limitations. However, the strengths and limitations are also seen from the perspective of my constructivist ontological and interpretivist epistemological stance. The paper critique the psychological research tradition of Phenomenography as well as the quantitative learning inventories descended from Phenomenography. It, then, focuses on Activity Theory, which is seen as a sophisticated analytical tool. However, the limitations of Activity Theory pave the way to move to sociological concepts of identity, community and institutional influences as theoretical lenses to conceptualize students’ learning experiences from structure and agency. These concepts are formed using Symbolic Interactionism, Community of Practices and Bourdieusian notions of Habitus, Field, and Capital, respectively.

Keywords

• phenomenography
• activity theory
• symbolic interactionism
• community of practice
• institutional influences