The co-construction of data in-time: collaborative pedagogical encounters of golf instructors and students with data

Abstract

Data capture technologies are increasingly incorporated into teaching and learning settings in an effort to offer personalized learning opportunities. Despite the general enthusiasm for these initiatives, concerns persist as to the effective and ethical collection and use of that data. In response, this article offers a complimentary account of teaching and learning with data through the use of ethnographic methods in a novel setting–a Golf Teaching and Research Program (GTRP)–at a large U.S. university. This research illustrates how golf coaches and students leverage their bodies to create embodied re-creations of data. The analysis shows how the GTRP instructors use their bodies in-the-moment during pedagogical encounters to help students understand and feel their golf swing data. This article concludes by suggesting that these collaborative in-the-moment embodied encounters with data offer opportunities for teachers and learners to collectively analyze and interrogate their data through the process of data stewardship.