I am going to repost my research question:
“How might the transition to online learning impact post-secondary ESL students?”
and Sub Questions so that my framework ideas make more sense.
1)What barriers and challenges do ESL students face in the transition to online learning?
I want to focus on anxiety around studying in a foreign language and participating in online discussions ( I am more interested in the synchronous video, but should probably look at text-based communication as well?). There are two frameworks that could be useful here.
– Constructivism and social learning. I found an interesting book by Pritchard & Woollard (2013) that looks at online learning through this framework. There are also plenty of research papers on it.
– Psychoanalytic theory. I want to understand anxiety better. Mathew (2018) specifically explores anxiety in online learning through the lens of psychoanalytic theory in his book “Fragile learning: The influence of anxiety”. It looks promising and very interesting. Psychoanalysis is somewhat removed from the study of online education but I still wonder if I can find more papers about it. I am still in the brainstorming phase.
2)What is the role of cultural differences in online learning?
I wonder if I can start looking at cultural dimensions (Hofstede, 2011) first and then explore which ones might play a role in online learning. The model contains six dimensions of national cultures: Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism/Collectivism, Masculinity/Femininity, Long/Short Term Orientation, and Indulgence/Restraint. (p.8).
3)What strategies might be used to address the barriers and challenges that ESL students face in the transition to online learning?
I am not sure what framework to look at here. I might even drop this sub-question if I don’t find anything concrete.
————–
I am now realizing that none of my suggested frameworks address the main research question directly. They are mostly useful for subquestions. That probably means that I either need to connect all my frameworks (and subquestions) together in order to answer the main question OR I need to narrow down my main research question. To be honest, I am not that interested in any other barriers and challenges of ESL students besides language anxiety (in an online learning environment). But if I narrow down my research question to that, I might run into the problem of not having enough literature on this topic…
References
Hofstede, G. (2011). Dimensionalizing cultures: The Hofstede model in context. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1014
Mathew, D. (2018). Fragile learning: The influence of anxiety. Routledge.
Pritchard, A., & Woollard, J. (2013). Psychology for the classroom: Constructivism and social learning. Routledge.
Some really good thoughtful comments Denys as you work your way through theoretical frameworks. If you haven’t had a chance to review the collaborate session on A2 I’d encourage you to listen/watch it; and I’d encourage you to have a look at the slide deck which is posted in moodle. Remember that your theoretical framework isn’t about your research questions. It’s a background piece and that lens; the piece that, given that X is true, your research steps forward from and explores Y. You aren’t looking to try to prove or disprove an aspect of your theoretical framework, nor are you looking to explore it further. Here’s an example, Resource dependence theory says that if you/organization controls the resource, you get to say how that resource is distributed and used. If we use the example of studying research funding, and if my research explores how changes in government focus of priorities and funding have impacted the research that is conducted, the resources dependence theory is a good TF. IF however, I was trying to explore IF changes in priorities and funding have impacted the research conducted then I would not use resource dependence theory as a theoretical framework. In the first example I’m saying that given that the gov controls the resources and can say who get them, what then have been the impacts on research. In the second example I don’t have that stepping off point. I’m trying to understand or prove whether or not there has been an impact. Your theoretical framework is a background piece, it is more about your topic of research and it is not about your questions. Your questions are focused on that stepping forward. The theoretical framework is not used to answer the questions and so I would encourage you to take a step back and look at this from that perspective. And please reach out if a conversation might help