VIAL Community

L. Clara Mabour is a fourth-year doctoral student in STEM education at Tufts University and a former high school science and humanities educator. Her research focuses on everyday material culture and STEM learning through making, with particular attention to meshworks of material knowledge in multigenerational Black diasporic contexts, hip-hop as a culturally sustaining pedagogical framework for STEM learning, and multigenerational engineering in multicultural and Afro-Caribbean diasporic communities.

Why VIAL? "I am intrigued by the many, many ways we can see the same interactions, and I have grown as an analyst by participating in the process of making sense of learning interactions together." 

Current Methodological Interests:  "Right now, I am interested in mapping learning entanglements in informal learning settings and using IA and critical theory to design critical relational methods."

📷Photo by: Alonso Nichols

Jen Turey is currently an adjunct professor and choreographer at Manhattanville University and Western Connecticut State University, where she also serves on the marketing committee for the HPX department and as the faculty advisor of the dance clubs, Eversion and Shuffle. She is on faculty at Broadway Dance Center and Burklyn Ballet Theatre. Turey's professional experience includes the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular as a Rockette, as well as the Broadway national and international tours of 42nd Street, Crazy for You, and The Will Rogers Follies, along with other regional theatre credits. Her choreography career has taken her to Weston Playhouse, Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, The Reagle Players, Richter Park, ATA, and WCSU. Jen is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. Jen is also pursuing her doctorate in Dance Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research interests include higher education curriculum, tap dance as a means of tranposition, and the exploration of dance as an interdisciplinary art form. www.jenniferturey.com

Why VIAL? "It's exciting to be a part of scholarly conversations from different circles. " 

Current Methodological Interests:  "I'm still very curious about what rhythm can tell us, and using my tap dance practice as a transposition tool."

I study and lead informal learning environments on the really informal end. I've previously worked in museums and afterschool spaces, and currently am looking for a new role after being furloughed from a postdoc at Northwestern University.

Why VIAL? "Interaction analysis is my home :) Would love to continue to engage with folks using video analysis even if I'm not currently in a research role." 

Current Methodological Interests:  "My dissertation leaned on interaction analysis to look at how museum and afterschool educators learned in their everyday work conversations. I'd like to keep building skills in IA and other microethnographic traditions."

Dr. Paré’s research examines how emerging technologies and their surrounding sociotechnical systems shape learners’ perceptions, feelings, and reasoning about complex sociotechnical and sociopolitical issues. This research is carried out through a design practice focused on developing technologies—such as virtual reality and simulations—that support learning about these issues. Since 2017, Dr. Paré has directed Queer Code (queercode.org), where they lead the design of educational technology projects centering queer and trans perspectives, including traditional and 360° video documentaries, virtual reality (VR) experiences, and interactive computer simulations.

Why VIAL? "I participate in VIAL because practicing methods and talking about methodologies in community is an opportunity for me to learn and contribute to others learning." 

Current Methodological Interests:  "I am interested in ethnographic methodologies alongside video interaction analysis for developing understanding of moments of learning in action within communities."

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Tennessee State University and I run the Meaningful Interactive Media and Intelligent Computing (MIMIC) Lab (http://mimiclab.io). Our work focuses primarily on human-computer interaction as it relates to digital media and learning. I have a particular interest for how learning takes place beyond traditional school classroom settings, including both adult workforce development and informal social environments. When I'm not doing academics, you can usually find me playing and making games (video and tabletop) or watching anime.

Why VIAL? "The community created by this group offers a diverse, generative, and generous perspective so often missing from research communities." 

Current Methodological Interests:  "Interested in how learning can take place beyond the classroom, especially in less formal social environments."

Erica is passionate about understanding the inner workings of elementary classroom communities, especially those that celebrate culturally and linguistically diverse students and foster a love for reading and writing. 

Why VIAL? "I am completely bought into the value of learning in community. I love the beauty of an intergenerational, interdisciplinary group that supports one another's research endeavors." 

Current Methodological Interests:  "I am interested in elementary classroom ethnography and the micro-analysis of interactions within whole group lessons and smaller informal exchanges."

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Current Methodological Interests:  I'm interested in multilingual learners and related teaching implications since I'm a multilingual learner myself. 

Anastasia Y. Goodwin is a doctoral student at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College.  An immigrant from the former Soviet Union, Anastasia earned her MFA in Theatrical Costume Design from the University of Washington and worked professionally in leadership roles at regional theatres, fringe companies, and in independent film. She served as lecturer and resident designer and maker at a liberal arts college, where she also participated in a number of initiatives to improve the experience of learners from underrepresented backgrounds. Her research interests center intersections of art, language, making, and discourses of power in education. 

Why VIAL? "To be in community with thinkers and scholars who study learning in the moment." 

Current Methodological Interests:  "Interaction analysis, extended case study, as well as post-qualitative and art-as-inquiry methods."

Jung Eun Ha (She/Her) is a doctoral student in the Learning, Design, and Technology PhD program at the Pennsylvania State University. She received her bachelor's degree in Education and master's degree in Educational Psychology from Korea University in the Republic of Korea (South Korea). Her goal as a researcher is to be a theoretically concrete researcher who also conducts practically helpful research using mixed methods. Her research interests are in applying technology to educational environments to enhance learners' interest and engagement in learning, and also to support teacher education. She is also interested in reducing inequity in socioeconomic status, gender, and race through educational research. Her personal interest in technology includes game-based learning and gamification.

Why VIAL? "VIAL is a welcoming and supportive community of enthusiastic researchers who love sharing ideas and insights on virtual interaction analysis. The idea of creating a multi-generational research community is also meaningful. I love every session I participate in and learn a lot from each one." 

Current Methodological Interests:  "I am mainly interested in mixed-methods research in general. I’m a novice learner of virtual interaction analysis. I am interested in learning more and thinking about how to apply the methodology to my research practice."

My work explores the potential of creativity, 21st century literacies, design-based pedagogies for inspiring change in world language education. I am especially interested in understanding factors that support learning in immersive environments such as Dual Language Immersion (DLI), Project-Based Language Learning (PBLL), and Playable Case Study simulations (PCS). Interaction analysis has offered me a rigorous and satisfying process for unearthing embodied and relational elements that are essential to understanding teaching and learning within these immersive contexts. When I am not buried in multiple layers of data, I can be found birdwatching, cooking, or West Coast Swing dancing.

Rogers Hall is the Wachtmeister Family Professor of Education and Learning Sciences, Emeritus at Vanderbilt University. He studies learning and conceptual practices in STEM disciplines, using interaction and comparative analysis of persons engaged in community practices. Some studies are of doing and learning in intact activity systems. In related studies, Rogers designs experimental learning environments for new modes of engagement in conceptual practices. While co-directing the Space, Learning and Mobility (SLaM) Lab, Rogers has contributed to design studies of learning

• in ensemble and embodied activity (e.g., “walking scale geometry” and dance choreography for mathematics learning),

• when mobility is both the means and content of what is learned (e.g., youth mobility and counter mapping, shaping engagement during family museum visits),

• by making and following “story lines” that share public history as walking experiences (e.g., digital spatial storytelling in classrooms and a community museum),

• by reflecting on relations between personal geography and thematic maps that model society and history (e.g., telling stories with open, large-scale data and mapping self in society), and through hearing and listening in popular culture (e.g., close listening and soundscaping).

Rogers holds a Ph.D. in computer science from UC Irvine (1990) and taught at UC Berkeley before joining the Vanderbilt faculty. He is a fellow of the American Educational Research Association and of the International Society of the Learning Sciences. He was a residential fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences (Stanford University, 2007-2008), the UC Humanities Research Institute (2001), and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (1999). He was also a NAE/Spencer Foundation and McDonnell Foundation postdoctoral fellow (1996-1997). Rogers is a dedicated swimmer and makes things in his garage (What’s he building in there?).

I am a learning nerd. I love studying learning and my own learning that accompanies that work. I study learning both in and out of school, with a focus on young children’s brilliance, inquiry, and connections to science. IA is my central method, but you’ll find me pulling on Goodwinian Co-Operative Action to extend my scales (e.g., analytical unit grain size, time) to examine power, social structures, and cultural practice in interaction. You can find more official (and lengthy) bios on my UNT faculty page and personal webpage. I am the human to Aurelia Grace (Gracie, rescue pup), appropriately named after Caesar’s mother given her intelligence and fierce loyalty (I said I was a nerd). I am a new ambulatory wheelchair user and trying to find my way in the disabled community after having lived an (unacknowledged) disabled lifetime already. All of this brings me joy and I am so grateful for the opportunities of shared sensemaking in VIAL for myself and my UNT graduate students.

Lana (she/her) is a PhD candidate in Vanderbilt’s Learning, Teaching, and Diversity program with a background in cognitive science, theatre, and design. She draws on sociological, anthropological, and posthumanist traditions to explore meshworks of embodiment and relationality in informal learning. Her particular research flavor considers how learners co-constitute knowledge through shared practice. In her dissertation, she explores how actors in devised theatre come to know a sense of “withness”– an embodied feeling for each other in space and time– in their ensemble learning. In her free time, she directs productions for the Vanderbilt Theatre Department and serves as the artistic director of the Elkins Museum (elkinsmuseum.org). She also knits (a lot), and enjoys doing that while curled up on the couch with her dog.

Tessaly explores how youth make sense of human-nature relationships as they engage in science learning. She’s interested in designing and studying learning environments that support heterogeneous ways of knowing, doing, and being in science towards more just and care-filled socioecological systems. Tessaly loves the opportunity to learn with and from the VIAL community. She is continually amazed by the insights that can be gleaned from micro-moments of video data when a bunch of nerds get together to watch, rewatch, discuss, and ponder. In the elusive free-time of a graduate student, Tessaly can be found running and biking along Nashville’s greenways, hiking, taking dance classes, and slowly cooking and baking her way through her multiple shelves of cookbooks.

Candice’s interest is in the mathematics that can be found in the games that Black people play. They use IA to explore how the body is used in mathematical sensemaking, especially in contexts where the mathematics is a joint accomplishment between multiple members. They hope to build theory around Black playfulness and its role in mathematical activity to further expand what we believe “counts” as math to better include centers of Black culture and joy.

Bethany’s work focuses on how teachers and teacher candidates engage in ideological sensemaking about equity-related issues in their contexts. She uses IA to explore how teachers learn in community with each other. When not scrubbing through video data, Bethany loves taking nature walks and browsing used bookstores.

Kate’s passion is getting down in the dirt with kids and seeing how they make sense of the world. Her research is focused on epistemic frameworks and how we can honor agency in moments of conflicting epistemic commitments. Her work crosses epistemic communities, but her favorite places are STEAM focused out-of-school summer camps and kids clubs.

I am a dancer, learning scientist, and IA nerd. In specific I love IA methods for how they allow us to ask questions about the many kinds of interactional co-accomplishments that constitute learning. I also have been asking questions about we can expand IA methods to include theoretical and axiological commitments about the role of the body in IA. In addition to geeking out about methods of viewing, responding to, and learning from data, I also love geeking out about creating data representations. My IA video editing skills have also come in handy for making birthday music videos for loved ones. Smile squinter and proud mamma.

Natalie Rae is an assistant professor of Learning, Design, and Technology at Penn State University (PSU). Her research examines the sociopolitical dimensions of science and engineering learning, weaving critical social theory, and science and technology studies to historically situate the conduct of science within movements for justice and collective liberation. Rae’s work explores how drawing on intellectual genealogies of resistance can transform science and engineering learning into a space for critical inquiry, identity affirmation, and collective empowerment.

Why VIAL? "To continue to learn with and alongside a genourous and generative intellectual communities of learning scientists."