Abstract
The paper discusses the materials involved in the learning environment 5th Dimension, which over the past few decades has been broadly applied as an Activity Theory-based after-school programme. The 5th Dimension is established around a number of artefacts: a maze, a wizard, a constitution etc. These artefacts are often described in the 5th Dimension literature, but enquiries are rarely made as to how these artefacts actually contribute to the 5th Dimension activity. Instead the literature usually takes as a point of departure the aims of 5th Dimension, and looks at how the artefacts work as means to these aims. This paper takes a different stance. On the basis of Actor-Network Theory it abstains from taking as a point of departure human aims and objects. Instead it focuses on the way in which the artefacts are designed and how they are supposed to work as part of the structure of the 5th Dimension activity. It analyses the “inscriptions” (Akrish, 1992) built into the classic 5th Dimension artefacts, and argues that a certain logic is built into these artefacts independent of the Activity Theory-founded aims of the learning environment. It is argued that the inscriptions contain a Fordist logic, and on the basis of Lee’s (2001) discussions of current childhood, it is questioned whether these types of inscriptions are timely. The paper ends with a short discussion of Wartofsky’s (1979) concepts of artefacts.
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- 1.
The project was titled “5th Dimension: Local Learning in a Global World”, and it was funded by the EU 5th Frame Programme
- 2.
There are indeed variations in the ways in which the 5th Dimension design has been shaped through the years and across geographical places, not the least due to the 5th Dimension principle that each “site” must adapt to local settings while implementing general principles of the 5th Dimension design. In spite of the local differences, a continuity of the 5th dimension design is evident.
- 3.
The ambiguity of the Wizard’s gender identity is intentional (Cole, 1996). The roles performed by the Wizard in most 5th Dimensions correspond, however, quite unambiguously to a Western male gender stereotype.
- 4.
The ethical concerns involved in concealing from the children that the adults read their confidential letters to the Wizard, and that adults secretly act through the Wizard, are rarely discussed in 5th Dimension.
- 5.
Like the adults in the 5th Dimension behind the back of the children acted as the wizard through letters and emails, it was the researchers in Femtedit that - behind their back - wrote to the children in the name of the Femteditians.
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Sørensen, E. (2011). Configuration of Ontologies: An Inquiry into Learning Designs. In: Kontopodis, M., Wulf, C., Fichtner, B. (eds) Children, Development and Education. International perspectives on early childhood education and development, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0243-1_11
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