Working Relationally in and across Practices: A Cultural-Historical Approach to Collaboration

Description

Three core ideas are at the heart of this book: relational expertise, the capacity to interpret problems with others; common knowledge, which consists of knowing what matters for professionals in other practices; and relational agency, which involves using that common knowledge to take action with others. These ideas are based in cultural-historical approaches to learning and change, and give coherence to the arguments presented. This is not a recipe book; the ideas are offered as resources for reflecting on and developing professional and research practices, and the conditions in which they occur.

Anne Edwards writes extensively on cultural-historical theory and professional learning. After chairs at the University of Leeds and the University of Birmingham, she joined the University of Oxford Department of Education, where she co-founded the Centre for Sociocultural and Activity Theory Research. A Visiting Professor at Universitetet i Oslo, she holds honorary doctorates from the University of Helsinki and Universitetet i Oslo for her work on relational expertise. She has been President of the British Educational Research Association and editor of the British Educational Research Journal. She has also co-edited the journal Mind Culture and Activity and is a founding editor of the journal Learning, Culture and Social Interaction. She is currently researching social inclusion in Chile and South Africa.