Abstract
Background: Within cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), Change Laboratory (CL) interventions have been widely used to study expansive learning and transformative agency. However, research has mainly focused on processes within intervention sessions, leaving unclear how expansive learning unfolds beyond the intervention, particularly during implementation in everyday practice.
Methods: This study investigates the implementation of an open-work model in a kindergarten following a CL intervention. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with all staff (N = 17), the analysis combines Leont'ev's levels of activity (activity, actions, operations) with Engeström's activity system components, integrating qualitative analysis with quantitative distributions.
Findings: Implementation is primarily articulated through collective, tool-mediated actions, with a frequent overlap between actions and operations. Expansive learning emerges as a multi-level process involving both transformations of collective activity and the progressive stabilization of operations over time. The process is unevenly distributed, with experienced teachers playing a leading and coordinating role.
Contribution: The study provides a fine-grained analytical account of the implementation phase of expansive learning and systematically operationalizes Leont'ev's hierarchy of activity as an empirical framework. By integrating activity levels with activity system components, it provides a systematic analytical approach to examine how expansive learning is enacted in everyday practice.