Self-Access Environments as Self-Enriching Complex Dynamic Ecosocial Systems

Garold Murray

doi:10.37237/090204

Garold Murray

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Journal: Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal	Publication Date: Jun 1, 2018
Citations: 7	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: Okayama University

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The central argument of this paper is that self-access centres transformed into social learning spaces have the potential to become self-enriching complex dynamic ecosocial systems. As such, they can support the emergence of a wide variety of affordances for language learning. While complex dynamic systems cannot be created and the process of emergence cannot be engineered, research suggests that both can be facilitated. To illustrate these points, I draw on the findings of three studies carried out in a social learning space at Okayama University in Japan: a five-year ethnography, a multiple-case study, and a narrative inquiry. I begin by describing the social learning space, outlining the studies and providing an overview of the theoretical orientations which guided the interpretation of the data. Informed by these bodies of theory and results from the studies, I then discuss why it is important to have a social learning space with the potential to become a complex dynamic ecosocial system. The paper concludes with an exploration of how educators might go about facilitating the emergence of self-enriching complex dynamic ecosocial systems.

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To cite this article Murray, G. (2018)
Why would the learning space have to be a complex dynamic system? Or, for that matter, why would it have to be a social learning space? The studies we have been conducting point to a clear and concise answer to these questions: a social learning space as a complex dynamic ecosocial system has the potential to support the emergence of all kinds of possibilities for learning and personal growth – including ones that we, as educators, might not anticipate
What we discovered in our research was that, when learners engaged with the environment, the L-café offered them a wide variety of affordances for learning

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To cite this article Murray, G. (2018). Self-access environments as self-enriching complex dynamic ecosocial systems. The central argument in this paper is that self-access centres transformed into social learning spaces have the potential to become self-enriching complex dynamic ecosocial systems.

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