Transformations of knowledge within a peer group. Knowing and learning in interaction

The aim of this study is to explore knowing and learning as constitutive aspects of the evolving organization of action in situated activity. Using as data a video recording of a peer group where one child is teaching the others Japanese the analyses focus on (1) how local epistemic identities as knowing and unknowing are established, sustained, and contested through talk and embodied action and (2) how the dynamics between knowing and unknowing participants change over time. A learning trajectory is constructed through tracing the transformations of knowledge and the changing distribution of knowledge within the peer group and the material environment. To have learned in the activity means knowing some Japanese and having written down signs on a paper but it also includes being ratified as a knowing participant within the group. Overall, the findings shed light on micro-processes of learning in interaction.

► Local epistemic identities are negotiated in interaction and change over time.
► Trajectories of learning analytically anchored in children's embodied interaction.
► Knowing and learning through talk and embodied action in a material environment