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The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School The Department of Behavioral Sciences and Education THE QUEST FOR REALLY USEFUL KNOWLEDGE: AN INSTITUTIONAL ETHNOGRAPHY OF COMMUNITY ADULT EDUCATION IN THE DIGITAL AGE A Dissertation in Adult Education by Shivaani Aruna Selvaraj © 2016 Shivaani Aruna Selvaraj Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education December 2016 ii The dissertation of Shivaani Aruna Selvaraj was reviewed by the following: Elizabeth J. Tisdell Professor of Adult Education Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Doctoral Program Coordinator Edward W. Taylor Professor of Adult Education Kamini M. Grahame Associate Professor of Sociology Peter R. Grahame Assistant Professor of Sociology Andrea Tapia Associate Professor of Information Sciences and Technology Sasha Costanza-Chock Special Member Associate Professor of Civic Media, Comparative Media Studies/Writing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. iii ABSTRACT The purpose of this institutional ethnography was to explicate the social relations of broadband adoption through the public programs implemented by the Media Mobilizing Project (MMP) between 2009 and 2013, when they operated for the first time in alignment with federal regulations that orchestrated the practice of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) trans-locally. MMP is a Philadelphia-based organization that emerged in 2005 from a multi-pronged program of media production, political education, and movement building work. They expanded their budget and paid staff with BTOP funding streams that were made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (also known as the Stimulus Act), during the economic crisis. As an institutional ethnography, this project explored multiple forms of social organization and accompanying practices involved in providing public access to technology that MMP took up in their everyday work. It is informed by a long tradition of adult educators who have practiced education as a vehicle for change in politically contested environments, especially within struggles for equity and justice. Data for the study included texts that circulated in print and digital media forms, interviews with MMP paid staff and DC-based consultants who evaluated Philadelphia’s overall BTOP experience, and observations of educational programs in public computer centers. Findings highlight the discovery of two competing forms of accountability that produced a growing bifurcation between the professional service provision spheres associated with accomplishing the grant and movement based spheres that advanced radical organizing and media production. Amid rapid disorganization and reorganization of activity under BTOP’s iv timeline, MMP’s educators designed divergent curricula that were answerable to these spheres. This institutional ethnography shows how MMP leaders attempted to reclaim their earlier work as they were drawn into larger institutional complexes. The findings are discussed in relation to radical adult education discourses that emphasize the importance of “really useful knowledge” and the approach of institutional ethnography that attends to language and experience in the mapping of social relations. Implications for adult education theory, practice, and further research are considered. v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures……………………………………………………………………….….…........ ix Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………….…………. x CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH………………………….……………. 1 Research Context………………………………………………………………….….... 2 Telling the Untold Stories: MMP’s Combined Practices To Strengthen Organizing……………………………………………………………….…….. 5 The Digital Road to Recovery as a Solution to Crisis…………………..……... 7 Ideological Backdrop of Neoliberalism and Technological Optimism………..………. 9 Institutional Ethnography………………………………………………………..…….. 12 Purpose and Research Questions………………………………………………..……... 14 Overview of Thesis……………………………………………………………..……… 16 Glossary of Institutional Ethnography Terms…………………………………..……… 17 Acronyms and Terms That Arose in Research…………………………………..…….. 25 CHAPTER TWO. A REVIEW OF ACADEMIC LITERATURE……………………..……... 27 Human Capital Theory…………………………………………………………..…….. 29 Historical Overview of Human Capital Theory………………………..…….... 29 Critical Perspectives of Human Capital Theory………………………..…….... 31 Individualizing effects…………………………………………..……... 31 Belief in opportunity and access………………………………..……… 32 Education as technical training………………………………..……….. 33 Human Capital and Lifelong Learning in Government Policy………..……….. 35 Information and Communications Technologies……………………..………... 38 New Digital Technologies and Engagement in the Public Sphere…………..……….... 40 Rhetoric Surrounding Digital Access and Civic Engagement and Participation……………………………………………………………………. 42 Conceptions of Digital Divide……………………………………………...….. 43 Rhetoric Surrounding New Technologies Within Municipalities……………… 44 Discourse Surrounding New Technologies and Civil Society…………..…..…. 45 Digital Access and Civic Engagement within Public Initiatives………………. 46 Digital Access and Engagement Within Civil Society Organizations…………. 48 Discussion: What Kind of Engagement?............................................................ 49 Institutional Ethnography as a Contribution to Research in Adult Education…………. 50 Evolution of Cervero and Wilson’s Socio-Political Model of Program Planning………………………………………………………………………… 51 Contribution of Institutional Ethnography to Examining Power in Adult Education……………………………………………………………………….. 53 CHAPTER THREE. INSTITUTIONAL ETHNOGRAPHY: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND METHOD……………………………………………. 58 Institutional Ethnography: Theoretical Underpinnings………………………………… 59 Ontology and Epistemology of Institutional Ethnography…………………….. 60 vi Textually Mediated Social Relations, or Ruling Relations…………………….. 62 Discourse in Institutional Ethnography: Examining Language Through a Materialist Approach…………………………………………………………… 64 My Position as Researcher……………………………………………………..……... 68 The Research Process…………………………………………………………………... 71 Data Collection in Institutional Ethnography………………………...………... 71 Texts……………………………………………………………………. 73 Interviews………………………………………………………………. 75 Observations……………………………………………………………. 76 The Research Participants……………………………………………………… 77 Key staff participants…………………………………………………... 77 Observational participants……………………………………………… 78 Data Analysis…………………………………………………………………………... 78 Dependability and Validity…………………………………………………………….. 82 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………… 84 Descriptors for Research Participants in the Following Data Chapters 85 PART II: FINDINGS……………………………………………………………………..…... 87 CHAPTER FOUR: SECURING FUNDING: TEXTUAL BASIS OF INSTITUTIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY CIRCUITS…………..…... 91 Textual Production in Hierarchical Alignment…………………………………..…..… 92 Interventions in National Process……………………………………….…..…. 93 Assessing the favorability of terms in the grant design………….…...... 94 Public commenting as an official venue for intervening in new regulations……………………………………………………….…..… 95 An intermediary organization facilitates regional and national pathways………………………………………………………….…..... 96 Organizing the Municipal Program for Broadband Access………………...…. 97 Trans-local movement of language………………………………...….. 98 Broadening the definition of digital inclusion……………………...….. 99 The Awarded ‘Freedom Rings’ Proposals…………………………………....... 100 Text-Based Interindividual Territories……………………………………....…. 102 Hierarchical Accountability Circuits Reorganized MMP’s Work…………………....... 105 Reporting Mechanisms Within Hierarchical Accountability Circuits…………. 107 Defining and Measuring Sustainable Broadband Adoption………………...…. 110 Resisting a narrow definition of adoption………………………………………………………………… 112 Work made visible/invisible within accountability circuits ……...…..... 114 Curriculum as Components of Accountable Social Organization…………....... 115 Pressures surrounding curriculum within SBA Partner and Working Group meetings……………………………………………………........ 116 Imposing international standards for curriculum…………………...…. 118 Difficulty incorporating radical ideas into Basic Computer Skills curriculum……………………………………………………………… 119 Conclusion: An Appearance of Openness…………………………………………….. 125 vii CHAPTER FIVE. FIGHTING FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR: RELATIONAL BASIS OF LATERAL ACCOUNTABILITY…………………………………………………………….. 127 Media Production that Builds Collective Subjectivity Within Experience-Based Interindividual Territories……………………………………………………….…..… 129 Applying Textual Production of Montage to Organizing Contexts………..…. 131 Broadening Frames and Breaking Isolation………………………………..…. 134 Developing Organizing Platforms to Challenge Urban Austerity………..…... 138 Lateral Accountability: Re-Directing BTOP Curriculum………………………..…… 141 MMP’s Leadership Council Disorganized……………………………..……... 142 Re-Directing the Curriculum as an Intervention……………………………… 146 Coordination of Movement Media Institutes………………………...... 148 Direct expression of stories of survival……………………………..… 150 Media-texts that connect consciousness beyond the local…………..... 151 Drawing attention to the public sector #UnderAttack……………….... 152 Strength of Work Driven by Lateral Accountability………………………..… 153 Conclusion: Radical Work Continually Interrupted…………………………..……..... 154 CHAPTER SIX. SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF WORK: DISORGANIZATION AND REORGANIZATION……………………………………………………………………….... 156 Orienting to Competing, Predetermined Conceptual Frameworks…………………...