عاملیت یادگیرنده در اکوسیستم‌های یادگیری دیجیتال: چارچوبی فلسفی برای خودراهبری، معنا و مسئولیت‌پذیری

سکینه رستگار مقدم ابراهیمیان

Authors

Sakineh Rastegar Moghadam Ebrahimian Assistant Professor, Department of Theology, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran Corresponding author https://orcid.org/0009-0007-2032-4060

Keywords:

Learner agency, Digital learning ecosystems, Self-direction, Meaning-making, Responsibility, Digital learning

Abstract

This study aimed to explain the constitutive dimensions and relationships of learner agency in digital learning ecosystems and to develop a philosophical framework based on conscious self-direction, meaning-making and directionality, reflective responsibility, and relational-structural conditions. This qualitative study was conducted within an interpretive-constructivist paradigm. The participants were 24 individuals from Tehran selected through criterion-based purposive sampling with maximum variation, including 12 graduate students, 6 faculty members, and 6 specialists in educational technology, instructional design, or electronic learning systems. Data were collected through conceptual analysis of relevant theoretical sources and in-depth semi-structured interviews lasting approximately 55–90 minutes. Sampling continued until conceptual saturation was achieved. Data analysis was conducted concurrently with data collection using reflective thematic analysis with an interpretive-philosophical orientation. Interview transcripts were repeatedly reviewed, coded, and organized through constant comparison into initial codes, intermediate concepts, subthemes, and overarching dimensions. MAXQDA 2024 was used for data management and coding. Trustworthiness was enhanced through member reflection, peer review, negative-case analysis, and maintenance of a transparent analytical audit trail. Analysis generated 436 initial codes, which were reduced after removing repetitions and conceptual overlaps to 128 distinct codes, 28 intermediate concepts, and 10 subthemes. Four overarching dimensions were identified: conscious self-direction, meaning-making and directionality, reflective responsibility, and relational-structural agency. The relationships among these dimensions indicated that self-direction without meaning could lead to fragmented choices, meaning without genuine choice to passive acceptance of externally imposed goals, responsibility without choice to imposed accountability, and freedom without responsibility to uncommitted action. Choice architecture, algorithms, power relations, institutional roles, and social interaction were also identified as contextual mechanisms capable of either strengthening or constraining learner agency. Learner agency in digital ecosystems is not an isolated individual attribute but a relational, reflective, and ethical capacity emerging from the interaction of self-direction, meaning, responsibility, and socio-technological structures; therefore, digital learning environments should support not only flexibility and personalization but also transparency, genuine choice, reflection, and accountability.

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