[Xmca-l] Re: The Learning Sciences in the era of U.S. Nationalism

[mike cole]

Larry -

Your noticings about the deletion of the past and a rhetoric of looking to
the future is echoed in this review of a Chinese historian writing about
the cultural revolution. David K will doubtless be able to provide a more
informed account, but "the struggle of memory over forgetting" seems
evident here.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/world/asia/china-historian-yang-jisheng-book-mao.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fbooks&action=click&contentCollection=books&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

mike


On Sun, Jan 22, 2017 at 1:57 PM, mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu> wrote:

> Helena - You asked about art for our times. This article in the NY Times
> has an interesting example.
>
> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/22/world/europe/undersea-
> museum-keeps-fish-feeding-and-its-social-commentary-biting.
> html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-
> heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
>
> mike
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jan 22, 2017 at 1:01 PM, mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu> wrote:
>
>> Helena et al --
>>
>> An important emphasis in the article for me was on the fact that although
>> the article focused on the American nationalist movement that has just
>> pulled of an alt-right coup, similar movements are poised to take hold in a
>> lot of places in Europe to join the many already entrenched unsavory
>> governments in other parts of the world.
>>
>> The CRADLE center in Helsinki is under very concerted attack and the
>> right wing government appears, from this distance, to be making great
>> progress on destroying its legacy. The same process has been in Denmark for
>> some time, also with apparent success.
>>
>> What do our international colleagues who have already felt the hot breath
>> of right wing nationalism have to offer in terms of strategies of
>> resistence?
>>
>> Back to "what is to be done," that sombre question from an earlier era.
>> The answer last time did not produce what it promised.
>>
>> mike
>>
>> mike
>>
>> On Sun, Jan 22, 2017 at 12:22 PM, Helena Worthen <helenaworthen@gmail.com
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> Thank you, Alfredo - I gave it a read.
>>>
>>> Sure, of course they’re right. But I am very disappointed.
>>>
>>> I was hoping that the following was only item #1 in a long list of "what
>>> the 2016 election made apparent":
>>>
>>> The 2016 election has made apparent the need for scholarship that
>>> explicitly defends and furthers the rights and well-being of people of
>>> color, immigrants, Muslims, women, people who are differently abled, LGBTQ
>>> communities, and the earth. These are stances that have been limited, at
>>> least explicitly, in the Learning Sciences.
>>>
>>> But the call for inclusion was not just #1, it seems to be the whole
>>> thing.  In other words, it’s all about identity —plus the earth, of course.
>>> While inclusion is necessary, it’s not even a start. Yes, research,
>>> teaching, publishing, promotion, conferences — everything associated with
>>> teaching and learning has to include everyone as equals (see Andy’s book)
>>> in one way or another — but then what? What are they (we) supposed to do?
>>> Where does the pretty language touch the ground?
>>>
>>> I was listening to a broadcast of the Women’s March in DC on Saturday
>>> morning, and Kamala Harris, who was the California State Attorney General
>>> and is now a junior Senator from CA, was addressing the rally. She said,
>>> “People always ask me to talk about women’s issues. I say, ‘Oh, I’m SO glad
>>> you’re interested in economics!! Let’s talk about economics.”  And she ran
>>> through a whole set of parallel back-and-forths, always pulling identity
>>> questions back to wages, jobs, earning, supporting your family, etc etc.
>>>
>>> Much as we need to wipe away any barriers to the Learning Sciences (and
>>> the professions and institutions dedicated to them) due to identity, until
>>> the Learning Sciences start taking a look at the place where most people
>>> spend most of their lives — not school, I mean — but work, they will be
>>> engaging in a soft conversation at the edge of the real issue. It’s a
>>> pleasant conversation but it doesn’t put a hand on the levers that
>>> translate skill and knowledge into rent and groceries.
>>>
>>> H
>>>
>>>
>>> Helena Worthen
>>> helenaworthen@gmail.com
>>> Berkeley, CA 94707
>>> Blog about US and Viet Nam: helenaworthen.wordpress.com
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> > On Jan 22, 2017, at 11:38 AM, Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
>>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > Here it is,
>>> >
>>> > http://cognitionandinstruction.com/engagements-the-learning-
>>> sciences-in-a-new-era-of-u-s-nationalism/
>>> >
>>> > Alfredo
>>> > ________________________________________
>>> > From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>>> on behalf of Helena Worthen <helenaworthen@gmail.com>
>>> > Sent: 22 January 2017 20:24
>>> > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>>> > Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: The Learning Sciences in the era of U.S.
>>> Nationalism
>>> >
>>> > Someone please re-send the link to this article?  I think I’m going to
>>> want to read it and respond to Mike’s question.
>>> >
>>> > Thanks — H
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Helena Worthen
>>> > helenaworthen@gmail.com
>>> > Berkeley, CA 94707
>>> > Blog about US and Viet Nam: helenaworthen.wordpress.com
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >> On Jan 22, 2017, at 12:25 AM, Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
>>> wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> Mike,
>>> >>
>>> >> thanks a lot for sharing this article. You and Michael, who have and
>>> know more history, have spoken in terms of reminiscences. I have lived and
>>> know less, and the article feels like fresh air. During my PhD, I begun to
>>> increasingly feel that I had to due something to act and respond to the
>>> increasing ecological and humanitarian globe crises. But how could I do
>>> anything if I had children and a PhD to finalise?? What could I do that
>>> would also be doing my job as researcher in a department of education? It
>>> was very difficult to find anything, partly because almost every academic
>>> quest would focus on learning, but so little on social development. How
>>> many scientific articles are dedicated to socio-political questions in the
>>> most cited educational journals? I felt very powerless.
>>> >>
>>> >> To be able to address these questions within my expertise, is a
>>> challenge partly because contrary to Dewey's hope, educational research has
>>> only marginally focused on these questions, and yet they may be exactly the
>>> question that matter to education. What are we educating for? Indeed, what
>>> is education for? I think we face a serious problem when someone (like
>>> myself), being an educational researchers/scholar, still has to scratch her
>>> head wondering <<how can I make my profession matter to social change and
>>> development?>> Vygotsky would be shocked!
>>> >>
>>> >> Alfredo
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.e
>>> du> on behalf of mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu>
>>> >> Sent: 19 January 2017 04:51
>>> >> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>>> >> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: The Learning Sciences in the era of U.S.
>>> Nationalism
>>> >>
>>> >> Yes Michael,
>>> >>
>>> >> It feels like the world of the later 1930's about the time I was born
>>> as
>>> >> that period came down to me through the prism of a family of
>>> "premature
>>> >> anti fascists."
>>> >>
>>> >> For a great re-creation of those times see the highly ambivalent film
>>> by
>>> >> Frank Capra, "meet John Doe." It has American big capital
>>> interconnected
>>> >> with fascism combined with populist collectivism in a manner that
>>> points at
>>> >> the media (as then experienced) as the bad guys in disguise. Happy
>>> Ending,
>>> >> Beethoven Ode to Joy and all.
>>> >>
>>> >> It's come round again, nastier this time.
>>> >>
>>> >> Mike
>>> >> On Wed, Jan 18, 2017 at 6:20 PM Glassman, Michael <
>>> glassman.13@osu.edu>
>>> >> wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >>> Mike
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> It was so interesting to read this note after reading the Cognition
>>> and
>>> >>> Instruction essay.  All the way through it I kept thinking we have
>>> been
>>> >>> here before.  It reminded me of the scholars, especially those who
>>> had
>>> >>> escaped from Germany, trying to make sense of what had happened to
>>> their
>>> >>> society during World War II.  The foremost in my mind was Lewin.
>>> Except I
>>> >>> wonder if he would say the process of transformative action starts
>>> not with
>>> >>> emergence of quasi-needs, but our willingness and abilities to step
>>> back
>>> >>> from our quasi-needs and the ways that they drive us, often to
>>> >>> dysfunctional behaviors that it ultimately destructive to both our
>>> society
>>> >>> and to us as individuals.  How hard this is to do, we have to keep
>>> going
>>> >>> back again and again.  The quasi-needs, tribalism, acceptance,
>>> standing are
>>> >>> always there.  It is how they shape us that is critical.
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Michael
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> -----Original Message-----
>>> >>>
>>> >>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:
>>> >>> xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of mike cole
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2017 8:31 PM
>>> >>>
>>> >>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Subject: [Xmca-l] The Learning Sciences in the era of U.S.
>>> Nationalism
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> In following  the perezhivanie thread I encountered the note I
>>> re-membered.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> And interestingly mis-remembered. A translation into my focus on
>>> >>> mediational means. He places the starting point of the process of
>>> >>> transformative action at the emergence of quasi-needs (from Kurt
>>> Lewin).
>>> >>>
>>> >>> That seems correct to me. The new mediational means emerge under
>>> >>> environmental presses. Ever functionalist ego need a goal(!). (The
>>> problem
>>> >>> with functionalism) In David's words,
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Perhaps the place we should look for "exaptations" that can save
>>> both our
>>> >>> personalities and our environment is not in our evolved needs, but
>>> in yet
>>> >>> to be designed quasi-needs. Artificial organs, after all, always
>>> suggest
>>> >>> new and ever more artificial functions, like chess and language.
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> This point seems worth keeping in mind as we look at where this
>>> group of
>>> >>> critical scholars who work within the Learning Sciences disciplinary
>>> >>> framework would like to lead us.
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> mike
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>
>