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Condensation : A translation device for revealing complexity of knowledge practices in discourse, part 2 - clausing and sequencing
Maton, Karl Doran, Y. J.
Maton, Karl
Doran, Y. J.
Author
Abstract
Complexity of knowledge practices is undertheorized in education research because knowledge is often conceived cognitively. Legitimation Code Theory conceptualizes this complexity in terms of ‘semantic density’, which explores how meanings are interrelated within practices. This concept is becoming widely enacted in research, a flexibility that raises the question of identifying ‘semantic density’ in specific objects of study. This is the second of two papers that offer a ‘translation device’ for identifying ‘epistemic-semantic density’ (where condensed meanings are formal definitions or empirical descriptions) in English discourse. The first paper (this issue) provided tools for exploring how individual words reveals different strengths of epistemic-semantic density. Those concepts revealed different degrees of complexity of knowledge. This paper outlines tools for exploring how the ways actors combine words reveals ‘epistemological condensation’ or strengthening of epistemic-semantic density. It provides typologies for identifying different kinds of ‘clausing’ and ‘sequencing’ and describes how these types manifest varying degrees of increasing complexity. These concepts reveal different kinds of knowledge-building. Two contrasting examples, from a secondary school History classroom and a scientific research article, are analysed to illustrate the insights into complexity offered by the tools outlined in both papers.
Keywords
Legitimation Code Theory, semantic density, translation device, language of description, knowledge-building, complexity
Date
2017
Type
Journal article
Journal
Onomázein
Book
Volume
Número especial II
Issue
Page Range
77-110
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Education
Faculty of Education and Arts
Faculty of Education and Arts
Collections
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
Open access
License
CC BY-ND 4.0
File Access
Open