No longer an imaginary case: Community, plans, and actions in canoeing rapids

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: We investigate the nature of planning the canoeing of rapids and its reasoning processes, while at the same time advancing a syncretic approach to cognitive and situative theories of learning. Building upon the work of Lucy Suchman, we examine how canoers plan to run rapids and how plans serve as resources for action. Methods: In ethnographically-informed manner, we followed a team of canoers across various contexts of rapid scouting and running. By mounting video cameras on canoeing dyads’ helmets, we captured the team’s discursive construction of plans, how canoe partners took up the collective production of plans to elaborate their own plans, and how plans seemed to function as resources for canoeing action. Findings: Through the analysis of three episodes of rapid running, we articulate detailed descriptions of reasoning processes at the collective, canoeing dyad and individual levels, and draw relationships between them to explain observed canoeing performance in its full complexity. Contribution: We show that drawing on intersections, affinities, and complementarities between principles and theoretical constructs from both cognitive and situative theories of learning may achieve a more holistic, multi-level, and fine-grained description of knowing and learning as ongoing, at once collective and individual achievements.