What I hope . . .

I am aware that the school versus non-school distinction is an example of a binary that warrants deconstruction. It is a useful distinction that exists already in discourses around schooling, for example, curriculum versus extra-curricular activities, schoolwork versus other work, homework versus home play. By engaging with and challenging binaries about examples such as these, this study has the potential to challenge and transform dominant understandings and practices of school learning.

The Questions

The key research question was:
• How is expertise obtained, constructed, and perceived in specialist non-school communities of technological expertise in which teenagers participate?

Minor research questions included:
• How is expertise understood and performed within some particular specialist communities?

• How does gender feature in the construction, understanding and performance of technological expertise in these specialist communities?

• Of those regarded as experts, what agency and capital do they perceive they possess in their site of expertise compared to sites of traditional schooling?

This study also draws on the many writings of Pierre Bourdieu whose social theory is incorporated into the text to reflect the complexities of social practice and that which it comprises. The concepts of habitus, capital, field, and agency as coined and elaborated on by Bourdieu (1984; 1992; 1998; 1999; Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992) will provide the theoretical framework for analysis. I sought to identify and explore the capital that teenagers have, comparing it to the agency they perceive they have, and then comparing their sense of capital and agency with their construction of what capital is offered by schools as a social institution. The findings will be discussed in relation to the field of schooling and the fields of expertise in which they operate outside of school.

The Study

This qualitative study investigated and documented the social construction of technological expertise, gender, and identity within some teenagers' specialist non-school communities. The primary purpose was to explore the construction of technological expertise. This study focused on teenagers’ perceptions of their expertise in their site of learning (non-school setting) as a source for agency compared to traditional school settings, and their descriptions of how their expertise was obtained, developed, shared, and communicated. This study asked how gender featured in the construction of technological expertise in these specialist communities, as also explored the capital and agency possessed by these non-school ‘experts’.

In plain language, I observed and interviewed eight teenagers that considered themselves to be, or were considered by others to be 'technological experts'.

The primary purpose was to explore the construction of technological expertise by these teenagers themselves whilst focusing, also on their perceptions of how the expertise they possess in particular non-school settings) as compared to traditional school settings, and their descriptions of how their expertise was obtained, developed, shared, and communicated.

Title

The title of my study is:
Specialist Communities of Technological Expertise: Youth Culture, Gender, and Learning

However, it may be more appropriate to call it something like:
Teenage Technological Experts: Examining Youth Culture, Gender and Learning

I was interested in examining communities of expertise, but it seems that while there are connections and communities that the participants were part of, their expertise and interest was not solely formed from their connection with a community. The community was a minor part of the journey towards expertise.