Ola Erstad on the sociocultural theory of learning

I like to listen and see if I can be inspired by some new theoretical positions and concepts and draw on that when trying to develop new understandings.

Using his theory on “learning lives” as an example, Prof Erstad shares his experience on how he approaches the task of creating a new theory and how he makes the connection with his empirical work. We learn about the central role of digital technologies in young people’s practices of learning and the cultural context where this knowledge creation happens. This underpins his interest in the characteristics of digital technologies that young people carry with them from one context to another and how these technologies fit within the flow of everyday life.

As a PhD student or a junior scholar, you should not expect to create new theory. This is too ambitious in a way. Your novelty is more linked to your empirical work and how you use theoretical concepts to understand social phenomena. Theory development tends to come later.

Finally, we discuss how to identify theoretical gaps and how to “speak theory” to stakeholders.

Watch the full vlog with Ola Erstad

Video: CO:RE theories vlog series - an interview with Ola Erstad.
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Or listen to the interview as a podcast

Podcast: series "theory calling" with Ola Erstad.

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Ola Erstad is a Professor at the Department of Education, University of Oslo, Norway. He is an internationally leading scholar whose work focuses on digital literacy, firmly rooted in the wider social and cultural context of learning beyond the technological aspects. His areas of teaching expertise are learning, technology and education, children and youth in modern society. For several years (2006-2014) Erstad was the leader of the research group ‘TransAction’ at the Faculty of Education at the University of Oslo. From 2015 until present he has been Head of the Department of Education. From 2015 to 2018 he was Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee for Science Europe. He has been leading a Nordic network of researchers on ways of studying connections between formal and informal ways of learning and new models of education and schooling in the 21st century. From 2015 to the present he is Vice-Chair of a COST Action on ‘Digital literacy and multimodality in early childhood’. Erstad has also been a member of several international networks, for example ‘Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills’ with large implications in many countries about developing frameworks on 21st century skills for changing labour markets and societal transformations.