Listening Together: Insights from Studies in Learning How To Listen

Abstract

Listening has long been part of the neglected situation of the reality of human interaction. Blending social constructivist veins in the learning sciences with critical media studies, I trace the history of listening studies in education. Then, I unpack a design-based research study called Song Club in which small groups of strangers met bi-weekly for four months to nominate and analyze popular music according to a social theme, similar to a book club model. I use methods of interaction analysis (Jordan & Henderson, 1995) of 360º video data, musical transcription and data sonification, and interviewing to develop the grounded theory of four modes of listening (to, for, with, and from) and to make the case that these small groups each became “a community of strangers” or a tiny public (Fine, 2012). I develop a genealogy of trust and listening practices as they develop within groups at the micro-, onto-, and sociogenetic levels. Implications for educative practices that take listening as a method of learning seriously include deepening listening skills, development of cognitive empathy, and evolution for design related to sound.