Invisible Participation: A Sociomaterial Analysis of a Synchronous Distance Lesson during Emergency Remote Teaching

Abstract

This research examines the day-to-day sociomaterial practices adopted during a Zoom distance lesson, enquiring into how student participation is enacted in a video lesson assemblage. The research is based on video data recorded by three students and one teacher during the Covid-19 pandemic on an upper secondary school mathematics lesson and interviews with said participants. We approach the distance lesson as a sociomaterial assemblage, applying Actor–Network Theory as a sensitising device. The results highlight the role of four non-human agencies that emerge in the assemblage—the application interface, webcam, microphone and internet connection—which all significantly reconfigure what is understood as participation. Even though the students visibly seek to participate in the lesson, their attempts often go unnoticed because they are not registered by the webcams and microphones or displayed by the interface.