LOM#35: Critical Perspectives on Research Methods in Studies of Learning and Technology

What methodological considerations does research on technology and learning call for? Research in learning and technology constitutes a broad and complex field that encompasses, among other things, studies of digital technologies, learning materials, platforms, datafication, artificial intelligence, instructional design, forms of participation, and educational transformation. The field is methodologically diverse and draws on a range of theoretical orientations, research designs, analytical strategies, and epistemological positions. This diversity raises a number of fundamental questions about how research methods shape the way we look at the phenomena being studied and the knowledge that is produced.

This issue aims to foreground the particular methodological and method-critical discussions that can strengthen research in learning and technology. The ambition is to create a forum for contributions that examine how methodological choices open particular possibilities opportunities for creating knowledge within the field. The issue thus directs attention towards the analytical, epistemological, ethical, and political implications of research methods as they arise specifically in research on technology and learning.

We invite contributions that in various ways illuminate, discuss, or develop research methods in relation to learning and technology. This may take the form of empirical analyses of research methods, methodological reflections, theoretical discussions, reviews, or methodological experiments.

Contributions may, for example, address the following questions:

• How do research methods shape our understandings of technology, learning, teaching, and education?
• How do methodological approaches enable and constrain investigations of the social, material, institutional, and political dimensions of technology?
• How can research on technology and learning engage methodologically and critically with, for example, artificial intelligence, digital platforms, learning data, automation, and datafication?
• What possibilities and limitations are associated with widely used methodological approaches in the field, including, for example, design-based research, intervention research, ethnographic studies, mixed methods, discourse analysis, multimodal analyses, and practice research?
• How can methodological choices be reflected in relation to questions of ethics, power, positionality, participation, and representation?
• How can research methods be developed so that they more adequately capture the infrastructures, values, and conditions in which technologies are embedded?
• What methodological challenges and opportunities arise when children, pupils, students, teachers, and professionals are positioned as participating or co-researching actors?

We welcome contributions that connect to, but are not limited to, the following thematic tracks:

• Methodology and philosophy of science in research on technology and learning
• Critical, post-critical, and post-digital methodological approaches
• Sociomaterial, practice-theoretical, and post-digital, posthumanist perspectives on method
• Ethical and political dimensions of methodological choices
• Participatory, collaborative, and interventionist forms of research
• Digital methods and data-critical approaches
• Artificial intelligence as object of, co-actor in, or tool for research on learning and technology
• Methods development in studies of schooling, higher education, and professional education

This special issue is addressed to researchers, doctoral students, and development-oriented practitioners working with technology and learning in educational contexts. Submissions may be made in Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish in accordance with LOM’s guidelines.

Important Dates:

• Abstract of 100–200 words to be submitted no later than 7^th August 2026 to the editors of the special issue by e-mail: rhac@ucsyd.dk
• The editorial board will confirm preliminary acceptance/rejection no later than 21^st August 2026
• Manuscript (or media production) to be submitted no later than 30^th October 2026
• Review sent to the author approximately 4^th December 2026
• Final manuscript to be submitted no later than 7^th January 2027
• The special issue will be published in late 2027