[Xmca-l] Re-situating funds of identity

Fri Jun 29 08:24:34 PDT 2018

Hi all,

So many interesting discussions springing up around the article, and not enough time to respond to them all! Thank you for your ideas, suggestions and critiques - they are all gratefully received. For some reason, I am only getting the digest with all of the posts collated, rather than receiving them individually as they are posted.

Anyway, I’d like to begin by responding to some of the observations from Greg. Thank you for your thoughtful responses.

‘I think any discussion of Perezhivaniyaha throughout the development of an
avatar must acknowledge the power relationship inherent in being told to
draw on fountains of identity. What if the crisis involved is, "Ohh crap my
teacher is making me draw and tell about who I am. I don't want to share?"
or the cultural implications of asking youth to be "open" about who they
are.

I see the avatar study more as a study of visual metaphors. Choose a
picture that represents you. Though I did like the novel analysis of word
clouds. I love to see how we play with these in narrative multimodal
analysis’

I found in that students did not so much draw upon foundations of identity, but rather utilised avatars as a way to (re)construct themselves in the form of proleptic identities. The process is quite empowering because it gives students the opportunity to construct who they think they are, who they want to be, or who they want others to think they are. In this sense, funds of identity are not lying dormant, waiting to be draw on, but through their articulation via avatars, etc, they are simultaneously revealed and created. Moises in this digest put it well when he wrote that:

'To me 'identity' is in people as well as things.
This implies that identity is tangible and embedded. In that sense,
identity is both product and process. The funds of identity are
(re)constructed through the identity artefact used such as Avatar in a
particular cultural practice. In other words, Avatar, as a medium and
mediator, facilities acts of identification, but it also changes it:
distorts it, arguments it, transforms it depending the audience, the
purpose-intentionality, the practice, the context. It can be connected
with the discussion on catharsis and transformation.'

In some cases, students choose an avatar that represents them. However, in other cases, they actually construct their own representations of themselves. For example, Valerie wrote in her reflection that she was dissatisfied with the software out there, as she found it too constraining – essentially the bank metaphor. So, she used photo shop in order to create her own avatar.

The point about avatars being metaphorical in nature is really useful and something that I will focus on more in the future. Actually, a previous paper of mine entitled ‘I want to be a furious leopard’ (Poole 2017) dealt with this issue, as well as the issue of power. The problem that struck me with using visual work for social justice purposes was the fact that by its nature it is polysemic, and therefore open to (mis)interpretation. On the one hand this is not a bad thing, as it promotes multiple-readings. On the other, it could lead to the perpetuation of teachers’ deficit thinking, as the teacher might simply impose their own interpretation on the visual data, and therefore claim hermeneutic dominion over the students. Hence the use of a multimethodological approach in order to draw upon students’ funds of identity. The reflection, in particular, was essential in grounding the visual methods – avatar and to a lesser extent the word cloud – in the students’ lived experience. In developing this ethico-interpretative framework, I drew upon the work of Gadamer, particularly the hermeneutic circle. It would take too long to go into detail here, but I will post the link here if anyone is interested in reading up on it:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/2331186X.2017.1316915

2. ‘The Funds of Identity children draw upon are algorithmically determined by
corporate interest, mob mentality and millions of dollars into never
published brain, computer, and human interaction research.’

Who you talk to? Facebook feed. Chasing likes and clicks? Instagram envy.'

I understand what is being said here, and agree to a certain extent with the issue of corporate interest. However, children and adults do not necessarily draw upon algorithmically determined funds of identity, but rather, going back to the funds of knowledge approach, the teacher draws upon students’ funds of identity in order to build a bridge between the home and the school. Perhaps it would be more accurate to write that children’s funds of identity are mediated by algorithmically determined
corporate interests which teachers then draw upon.

While it is true that we are enslaved to an algorithm, I think it is a bit too fatalistic to paint this as the condition in which all children live. I think one of the great things about funds of identity is that, in conjunction with an expert, such as a teacher or a peer, it is possible to rewrite this kind of programming. I would also say that despite what we as teachers and researchers think, it is also important to engage with the significations that students attach to their social worlds. Therefore, even if we as educators can see through the façade of digital plurality, Facebook feeds and Instagram may in fact have positive resonances for our students. Therefore, it is important to valorise those experiences related to such media, even if we ourselves see them differently. Hence the development of existential funds of identity – a way to facilitate both positive and negative. It is imperative that we see the teacher-student relationship in the funds of identity approach as both social and dialogic in nature – there can be discordance, there can be differences – those differences can provide spaces for transformation in both students and teachers’ thinking.

One such approach suggested by Moises that might facilitate more critical engagement with Facebook culture is the notion of transmedia - translated into funds of identity, this would involve students constructing identities across a number of different forms, such as tweets, blogs, narratives, films, etc.

3. "What is the point of being able to draw on funds of identity if somebody else owns the bank?"

I like the bank metaphor as it resonates with the ‘funds’ aspect of funds of identity as well as Bourdieu’s notion of capital. For me at least, somebody will always own the bank – whether it be language, capital, cultural interpretations, master narratives, curriculum, assessment, etc. I am reminded of Foucault’s notion of discourse here – it simultaneously constrains and empowers. And drawing upon Gee’s distinction between Discourse and discourse, we could say that while somebody else will always own the bank (based on class and ethnicity), it is still possible to reconfigure those discursive aspects in order to construct new forms of Discourse. To what extent can any person own the mechanisms of representation? We can open a new bank account and choose how much to put in or take out or we can choose to close it. These are acts of agency. I will say that I am not a Marxist; I am more of a post-structuralist, so I tend to conceive of inequality in discursive, rather than empirical terms. Inequality does exist as an empirical thing of course, but based on my postionality and research context, I approach it in discursive terms.

To return to avatars, some of the software for creating avatars is pretty generic in nature to be sure. However, I found that those students who wanted to create a more mimetic avatar were content to use generic avatars whereas those, like Valerie, who wanted to represent themselves in more symbolic terms, created their own avatars using more sophisticated forms of software.

Julian and Greg, I think, are both coming at funds of knowledge/identity from a Marxist perspective - hence the focus on capital and social class. Significantly, in my own transnational teaching context(such as international schools),  this inequality is manifested in cultural terms- the imposition of western-centric curricula and modes of assessment and teaching on learners whose own language and culture is routinely marginalized. Therefore, inequality is not so much based on class but rather ontology and epistemology - although these two are inextricably linked to class.

Thank you also to Moises for your thoughtful response.

I will try and address some of the other posts over the next few days. Certainly, a lot of useful comments and observations that will be invaluable for future research.

Best,

Adam

________________________________
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of xmca-l-request@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-request@mailman.ucsd.edu>
Sent: 29 June 2018 19:02
To: xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu
Subject: xmca-l Digest, Vol 59, Issue 5

Send xmca-l mailing list submissions to
        xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
        https://mailman.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca-l
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
        xmca-l-request@mailman.ucsd.edu

You can reach the person managing the list at
        xmca-l-owner@mailman.ucsd.edu

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of xmca-l digest..."

Today's Topics:

   1. Re: Re-situating funds of identity within contemporary
      interpretations of perezhivanie (Greg Mcverry)
   2. Re: Re-situating funds of identity within contemporary
      interpretations of perezhivanie (Alfredo Jornet Gil)
   3. Re: Re-situating funds of identity within contemporary
      interpretations of perezhivanie (Greg Mcverry)
   4. Re: Re-situating funds of identity within contemporary
      interpretations of perezhivanie (Alfredo Jornet Gil)
   5. Re: Re-situating funds of identity within contemporary
      interpretations of perezhivanie (Greg Mcverry)
   6. Re: Re-situating funds of identity within contemporary
      interpretations of perezhivanie (Greg Mcverry)
   7.  Annotations and XMCA (Greg Mcverry)
   8. Re: Annotations and XMCA (Greg Mcverry)
   9. Re: FW: Fyi (Peter Smagorinsky)
  10. Re: Annotations and XMCA (Alfredo Jornet Gil)
  11. Re: 'funds' of knowledge and identity (Julian Williams)
  12. Re: FW: Fyi (mike cole)
  13. Re: 'funds' of knowledge and identity (Huw Lloyd)
  14. Re: FW: Fyi (Peter Smagorinsky)
  15. Re: 'funds' of knowledge and identity (MOISES ESTEBAN-GUITART)
  16. Re: 'funds' of knowledge and identity (Julian Williams)
  17. Re: Re-situating funds of identity within contemporary
      interpretations of perezhivanie (robsub@ariadne.org.uk)
  18. Re: 'funds' of knowledge and identity (robsub@ariadne.org.uk)
  19. Re: Re-situating funds of identity within contemporary
      interpretations of perezhivanie (Andy Blunden)
  20. Re: Re-situating funds of identity within contemporary
      interpretations of perezhivanie (robsub@ariadne.org.uk)
  21.  FW: Celebration of Vera John-Steiner's Life (Peter Smagorinsky)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2018 08:03:35 -0400
From: Greg Mcverry <jgregmcverry@gmail.com>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Re-situating funds of identity within
        contemporary interpretations of perezhivanie
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
Message-ID:
        <CAKCYZhykrpiNThKw0NnaK5QOYmvNuJXHogY+7CL=jP5m3KW1xA@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

So I am annotating the article here before I formulate my response:
https://jgregorymcverry.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Resituating-Funds-of-Identity-Within-Contemporary-Interpretations-of-Perezhivanie.pdf

Some quick thoughts:
-Allowing students to choose their software created a situation where
identity was also mediated by technical knowledge., which in itself
signifies membership and identities within groups.
-There is a wealth of literature exploring image metaphors and identity.
This is usually framed from a new literacies perspective and draws on James
Paul Gee (too much). Every digital story telling study ends with, "Students
did "identity work" this provided a fresh take on funds of identity.
-I thought the role of the environment was downplayed here. Being in a
school setting the motivation for doing identity work is influenced by
power relationships int he classroom.
-Interesting how cultural meaning and funds of knowledge (lazy cat) were
included in the avatar of "lazt cat"
-I am scared for our youth when the environment of perezhivanie is
controlled by algorithims. Students do not get to decide how their identity
is projected. Their social interactions, the friends they see and
communicate with are now controlled by corporations. We must encourage
students to own their digital spaces.
-I am playing with the idea of building critical evaluation by having
students interact with bias avatars doing bias read alouds of multiple
sources.

On Wed, Jun 20, 2018 at 6:27 PM Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
wrote:

> ?Thanks for the discussion so far, Moises and Adam. And while Moises (or
> anyone else) perhaps comes back with a more a more comprehensive reaction,
> I was just wondering about Mois?s question 2 and what the relation between
> the categories "identity" and "personality" are, if they can be related at
> all. In Vygotsky, perezhivanie is explicitly linked to personality. As far
> as I can recall and without having gone to the texts and check, Vygotsky
> does not use the term "identity" in the sense it is used in current
> literature. This also leads me to wonder on the distinction
> between *learning* (which according to Moises is part what the Funds of
> Knowledge/Identity were designed to address) and *development*. Is
> analytical categories, is perezhivanie more about development and funds of
> identity more about learning? Or we have to differentiate them on other
> grounds?
>
> Alfredo
> ------------------------------
> *From:* xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> on behalf of Adam Poole (16517826) <Adam.Poole@nottingham.edu.cn>
> *Sent:* 19 June 2018 04:14
> *To:* xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu
> *Subject:* [Xmca-l] Re-situating funds of identity within contemporary
> interpretations of perezhivanie
>
>
>
> Thanks to Moises for posting some questions about the article that I would
> like to respond to.
>
>
> I will first include his summary and interpretation of the paper and then
> respond to his questions.
>
>
>
> Interpretation of paper
>
> The Poole?s paper invited me to enrich the notion of funds of identity.
> Grounded in the funds of knowledge approach, the funds of identity concept
> try to intentionally reinforce the positive backgrounds and experiences of
> learners to overcome the deficit thinking in education (to sum up: by
> reducing marginalized school population to a sum of cultural, social,
> linguistic deficits).  However, our experience is not only light. And in
> the dark funds of knowledge suggested by Zipin, existential funds of
> identity invite us to capture a more holistic view on people?s experience.
> In my opinion, deep learning (meaningful, significant learning) is based
> on the recognition and transformation of learners? identities. This
> assertion, that would be one of my working hypothesis, assumes three
> theoretical principles: (1) that human identities are culturally-situated
> and distributed (geographical funds of identity, cultural funds of
> identity, institutional funds of identity and so on); (2) that there is a
> constitutive link between learning and identity (as so many scholars
> suggested and developed) and (3) that meaning (significant experience)
> plays an important role as a learning generator. Here in mind, I would
> like to share three questions or topics that can help us to understand the
> Adam Poole?s paper, in particular, and further advance our
> conceptualization on contemporary topics as perezhivanie, in general.
>
>
> Questions
>
>
> 1)        Do you think that existential funds of identity should be
> considered as a type of funds of identity? In other words, should be
> incorporated into the prior classification into geographical, practical,
> institutional, cultural and social funds of identity? Or may be should be
> considered as a ?re-theorization? of funds of identity?
>
>
> This is a question that I have been struggling with for some time. When I
> initially uncovered existential funds of identity I considered to be more
> than a type of funds of identity. I couldn't see how it related to the five
> categories that you proposed, as to me the type of identity being described
> was more internal or meditative. However, the more I researched into the
> funds of identity concept and its theoretical underpinnings, the more I
> came to question this conclusion. Firstly, funds of identity, as I
> understand it, is predicated upon a synthesis of macro and micro-level
> approaches to culture - that is, identity is embedded in artefacts and
> social practices and therefore is distributed in nature. However, to bring
> in the concept of perezhivanie, individuals construct new identities from
> the social identities that surround them. In contrast, I initially
> understood existential funds of identity as largely phenomenological in
> nature. However, on reflection, I realised that issues to do with identity
> confusion, relationship problems, etc, are social in nature.
>
>
> So, existential funds of identity should be seen as a complement to funds
> of identity, rather than a re-theorisation of it. Most significantly, it
> can be used to show how negative experiences can be drawn on in order to
> bring about positive pedagogical outcomes.
>
>
> However, I would be interested to know if anyone else thinks that
> existential funds of identity complements or contradicts the concept
> developed by Moises.
>
>
>
> 2)        How we could link the concepts of identity and perezhivanie?
>
>
> Good question! For me. identity is an open-ended process that is both
> personal and social in nature. For this reason, perezhivanie is a really
> useful concept to bring this relationship into focus. Firstly, it shows how
> development is the result of the dialectical relationship between the mind
> and the environment. This relates to identity in a big way, as it
> suggests that identity is quite fluid: we are different people in
> different times and across different contexts. Perezhivanie is relevant
> here as it helps to explain the way individuals relate differentially to
> their environments. In relation to my teaching, I have found that students
> do not embody fixed identities that they take with them from class to
> class, but construct new identities in response to their classes - the
> teacher, the students, the subject. To draw upon, and extend Thompson and
> Hall's (2008) metaphor of 'virtual school bags of knowledge' - students do
> not only bring one school bag with them, but have many different bags from
> which they draw in the construction, and performance, of their classroom
> identities.
>
>
> This realisation lead me to question the role of labelling that you often
> find in staff rooms - this is the 'difficult' student, this is the 'gifted'
> student, etc. By observing students' behaviour in other classes, I realised
> that there was something going on between the students and their
> environments - hence the link between identity and perezhivanie. Rather
> than engaging with the imposed label (that really says more about our
> deficit thinking than the students themselves) we should engage with the
> students' lived experiences of their social world - both positive and
> negative.
>
>
> 3)        One of the aims of funds of identity is to develop an approach
> to the construct ?identity? that had educational implications. What are
> the
> educational/pedagogical implications of the existential funds of identity?
>
>
> This is a bit more of a complicated one! I do agree with your assertion
> that drawing upon minoritised students' negative or problematic experiences
> could lead to the reproduction of deficit thinking. However, I do think
> that if handled ethically, teachers can draw upon both light and dark funds
> of identity in order to valorise the whole child and their social worlds.
> So pedagogically, existential funds of identity can help to develop 'thick'
> stranded relationships between teachers and students. Moreover, it can also
> bridge the gap between the classroom and home by acknowledging that life
> and individual experiencing is complex and multi-layered, often involving
> critical moments that are ambivalent in nature. I have to say that this
> approach may not be appropriate for younger learners. I had in mind
> adolescent learners when I developed the idea of existential funds of
> identity.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
>
> Adam
>
>
>
>
>
> This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and
> may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in
> error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it. Please do not
> use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in any
> attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do
> not necessarily reflect the views of The University of Nottingham Ningbo
> China. This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an
> attachment may still contain software viruses which could damage your
> computer system: you are advised to perform your own checks. Email
> communications with The University of Nottingham Ningbo China may be
> monitored as permitted by UK and Chinese legislation.
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.ucsd.edu/pipermail/xmca-l/attachments/20180621/34ff5e0b/attachment-0001.html

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2018 12:23:00 +0000
From: Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Re-situating funds of identity within
        contemporary interpretations of perezhivanie
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
Message-ID: <1529583780354.1810@iped.uio.no>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

?Thanks Julie and Greg.

Welcome Julie! You made us (or at least me) curious about those remarks on the question of "existential" as related to "illumination" rather than simply an acknowledgement of the importance of "negative" experiences. I am excited to see if the discussion allows for unfolding more of this for us to learn a bit more.

Greg, can the link that you shared be annotated? When I follow the link, it seems to only allow me to download the file, but not annotate it online. Or does it?

Also, for those who might not have yet got a copy, the article is now open access and for the following weeks here:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10749039.2018.1434799?

Alfredo

________________________________
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of Greg Mcverry <jgregmcverry@gmail.com>
Sent: 21 June 2018 14:03
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Re-situating funds of identity within contemporary interpretations of perezhivanie

So I am annotating the article here before I formulate my response: https://jgregorymcverry.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Resituating-Funds-of-Identity-Within-Contemporary-Interpretations-of-Perezhivanie.pdf

Some quick thoughts:
-Allowing students to choose their software created a situation where identity was also mediated by technical knowledge., which in itself signifies membership and identities within groups.
-There is a wealth of literature exploring image metaphors and identity. This is usually framed from a new literacies perspective and draws on James Paul Gee (too much). Every digital story telling study ends with, "Students did "identity work" this provided a fresh take on funds of identity.
-I thought the role of the environment was downplayed here. Being in a school setting the motivation for doing identity work is influenced by power relationships int he classroom.
-Interesting how cultural meaning and funds of knowledge (lazy cat) were included in the avatar of "lazt cat"
-I am scared for our youth when the environment of perezhivanie is controlled by algorithims. Students do not get to decide how their identity is projected. Their social interactions, the friends they see and communicate with are now controlled by corporations. We must encourage students to own their digital spaces.
-I am playing with the idea of building critical evaluation by having students interact with bias avatars doing bias read alouds of multiple sources.

On Wed, Jun 20, 2018 at 6:27 PM Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no<mailto:a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>> wrote:

?Thanks for the discussion so far, Moises and Adam. And while Moises (or anyone else) perhaps comes back with a more a more comprehensive reaction, I was just wondering about Mois?s question 2 and what the relation between the categories "identity" and "personality" are, if they can be related at all. In Vygotsky, perezhivanie is explicitly linked to personality. As far as I can recall and without having gone to the texts and check, Vygotsky does not use the term "identity" in the sense it is used in current literature. This also leads me to wonder on the distinction between *learning* (which according to Moises is part what the Funds of Knowledge/Identity were designed to address) and *development*. Is analytical categories, is perezhivanie more about development and funds of identity more about learning? Or we have to differentiate them on other grounds?

Alfredo

________________________________
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>> on behalf of Adam Poole (16517826) <Adam.Poole@nottingham.edu.cn<mailto:Adam.Poole@nottingham.edu.cn>>
Sent: 19 June 2018 04:14
To: xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re-situating funds of identity within contemporary interpretations of perezhivanie

Thanks to Moises for posting some questions about the article that I would like to respond to.

I will first include his summary and interpretation of the paper and then respond to his questions.

Interpretation of paper

The Poole?s paper invited me to enrich the notion of funds of identity.
Grounded in the funds of knowledge approach, the funds of identity concept
try to intentionally reinforce the positive backgrounds and experiences of
learners to overcome the deficit thinking in education (to sum up: by
reducing marginalized school population to a sum of cultural, social,
linguistic deficits).  However, our experience is not only light. And in
the dark funds of knowledge suggested by Zipin, existential funds of
identity invite us to capture a more holistic view on people?s experience.
In my opinion, deep learning (meaningful, significant learning) is based
on the recognition and transformation of learners? identities. This
assertion, that would be one of my working hypothesis, assumes three
theoretical principles: (1) that human identities are culturally-situated
and distributed (geographical funds of identity, cultural funds of
identity, institutional funds of identity and so on); (2) that there is a
constitutive link between learning and identity (as so many scholars
suggested and developed) and (3) that meaning (significant experience)
plays an important role as a learning generator. Here in mind, I would
like to share three questions or topics that can help us to understand the
Adam Poole?s paper, in particular, and further advance our
conceptualization on contemporary topics as perezhivanie, in general.

Questions

1)        Do you think that existential funds of identity should be
considered as a type of funds of identity? In other words, should be incorporated into the prior classification into geographical, practical, institutional, cultural and social funds of identity? Or may be should be considered as a ?re-theorization? of funds of identity?

This is a question that I have been struggling with for some time. When I initially uncovered existential funds of identity I considered to be more than a type of funds of identity. I couldn't see how it related to the five categories that you proposed, as to me the type of identity being described was more internal or meditative. However, the more I researched into the funds of identity concept and its theoretical underpinnings, the more I came to question this conclusion. Firstly, funds of identity, as I understand it, is predicated upon a synthesis of macro and micro-level approaches to culture - that is, identity is embedded in artefacts and social practices and therefore is distributed in nature. However, to bring in the concept of perezhivanie, individuals construct new identities from the social identities that surround them. In contrast, I initially understood existential funds of identity as largely phenomenological in nature. However, on reflection, I realised that issues to do with identity confusion, relationship problems, etc, are social in nature.

So, existential funds of identity should be seen as a complement to funds of identity, rather than a re-theorisation of it. Most significantly, it can be used to show how negative experiences can be drawn on in order to bring about positive pedagogical outcomes.

However, I would be interested to know if anyone else thinks that existential funds of identity complements or contradicts the concept developed by Moises.

2)        How we could link the concepts of identity and perezhivanie?

Good question! For me. identity is an open-ended process that is both personal and social in nature. For this reason, perezhivanie is a really useful concept to bring this relationship into focus. Firstly, it shows how development is the result of the dialectical relationship between the mind and the environment. This relates to identity in a big way, as it suggests that identity is quite fluid: we are different people in different times and across different contexts. Perezhivanie is relevant here as it helps to explain the way individuals relate differentially to their environments. In relation to my teaching, I have found that students do not embody fixed identities that they take with them from class to class, but construct new identities in response to their classes - the teacher, the students, the subject. To draw upon, and extend Thompson and Hall's (2008) metaphor of 'virtual school bags of knowledge' - students do not only bring one school bag with them, but have many different bags from which they draw in the construction, and performance, of their classroom identities.

This realisation lead me to question the role of labelling that you often find in staff rooms - this is the 'difficult' student, this is the 'gifted' student, etc. By observing students' behaviour in other classes, I realised that there was something going on between the students and their environments - hence the link between identity and perezhivanie. Rather than engaging with the imposed label (that really says more about our deficit thinking than the students themselves) we should engage with the students' lived experiences of their social world - both positive and negative.

3)        One of the aims of funds of identity is to develop an approach
to the construct ?identity? that had educational implications. What are the
educational/pedagogical implications of the existential funds of identity?

This is a bit more of a complicated one! I do agree with your assertion that drawing upon minoritised students' negative or problematic experiences could lead to the reproduction of deficit thinking. However, I do think that if handled ethically, teachers can draw upon both light and dark funds of identity in order to valorise the whole child and their social worlds. So pedagogically, existential funds of identity can help to develop 'thick' stranded relationships between teachers and students. Moreover, it can also bridge the gap between the classroom and home by acknowledging that life and individual experiencing is complex and multi-layered, often involving critical moments that are ambivalent in nature. I have to say that this approach may not be appropriate for younger learners. I had in mind adolescent learners when I developed the idea of existential funds of identity.

Cheers,

Adam

This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it. Please do not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in any attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of The University of Nottingham Ningbo China. This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment may still contain software viruses which could damage your computer system: you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with The University of Nottingham Ningbo China may be monitored as permitted by UK and Chinese legislation.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.ucsd.edu/pipermail/xmca-l/attachments/20180621/e9d3b42e/attachment-0001.html

------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2018 08:54:07 -0400
From: Greg Mcverry <jgregmcverry@gmail.com>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Re-situating funds of identity within
        contemporary interpretations of perezhivanie
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
Message-ID:
        <CAKCYZhwiR7MiBU_Q_VVRqs2K_j7HoigZFDpPnw+besy3waFLpg@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Alfredo there are two options: If you use Chrome you can have the
hypothes.is extension installed.

If you use Firefox:  click this link
https://via.hypothes.is/https://jgregorymcverry.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Resituating-Funds-of-Identity-Within-Contemporary-Interpretations-of-Perezhivanie.pdf

Really stick https://via.hypothes.is/
<https://via.hypothes.is/https://jgregorymcverry.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Resituating-Funds-of-Identity-Within-Contemporary-Interpretations-of-Perezhivanie.pdf>
in front of most urls and you can annotate/ I should start using an xmca
tag for the articles I read from listserv

On Thu, Jun 21, 2018 at 8:24 AM Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
wrote:

> ?Thanks Julie and Greg.
>
>
> Welcome Julie! You made us (or at least me) curious about those remarks on
> the question of "existential" as related to "illumination" rather than
> simply an acknowledgement of the importance of "negative" experiences. I am
> excited to see if the discussion allows for unfolding more of this for us
> to learn a bit more.
>
>
> Greg, can the link that you shared be annotated? When I follow the link,
> it seems to only allow me to download the file, but not annotate it online.
> Or does it?
>
>
> Also, for those who might not have yet got a copy, the article is now open
> access and for the following weeks here:
>
> https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10749039.2018.1434799?
>
>
> Alfredo
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> on behalf of Greg Mcverry <jgregmcverry@gmail.com>
> *Sent:* 21 June 2018 14:03
> *To:* eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> *Subject:* [Xmca-l] Re: Re-situating funds of identity within
> contemporary interpretations of perezhivanie
>
> So I am annotating the article here before I formulate my response:
> https://jgregorymcverry.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Resituating-Funds-of-Identity-Within-Contemporary-Interpretations-of-Perezhivanie.pdf
>
> Some quick thoughts:
> -Allowing students to choose their software created a situation where
> identity was also mediated by technical knowledge., which in itself
> signifies membership and identities within groups.
> -There is a wealth of literature exploring image metaphors and identity.
> This is usually framed from a new literacies perspective and draws on James
> Paul Gee (too much). Every digital story telling study ends with, "Students
> did "identity work" this provided a fresh take on funds of identity.
> -I thought the role of the environment was downplayed here. Being in a
> school setting the motivation for doing identity work is influenced by
> power relationships int he classroom.
> -Interesting how cultural meaning and funds of knowledge (lazy cat) were
> included in the avatar of "lazt cat"
> -I am scared for our youth when the environment of perezhivanie is
> controlled by algorithims. Students do not get to decide how their identity
> is projected. Their social interactions, the friends they see and
> communicate with are now controlled by corporations. We must encourage
> students to own their digital spaces.
> -I am playing with the idea of building critical evaluation by having
> students interact with bias avatars doing bias read alouds of multiple
> sources.
>
> On Wed, Jun 20, 2018 at 6:27 PM Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
> wrote:
>
>> ?Thanks for the discussion so far, Moises and Adam. And while Moises (or
>> anyone else) perhaps comes back with a more a more comprehensive reaction,
>> I was just wondering about Mois?s question 2 and what the relation between
>> the categories "identity" and "personality" are, if they can be related at
>> all. In Vygotsky, perezhivanie is explicitly linked to personality. As far
>> as I can recall and without having gone to the texts and check, Vygotsky
>> does not use the term "identity" in the sense it is used in current
>> literature. This also leads me to wonder on the distinction
>> between *learning* (which according to Moises is part what the Funds of
>> Knowledge/Identity were designed to address) and *development*. Is
>> analytical categories, is perezhivanie more about development and funds of
>> identity more about learning? Or we have to differentiate them on other
>> grounds?
>>
>> Alfredo
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>> on behalf of Adam Poole (16517826) <Adam.Poole@nottingham.edu.cn>
>> *Sent:* 19 June 2018 04:14
>> *To:* xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu
>> *Subject:* [Xmca-l] Re-situating funds of identity within contemporary
>> interpretations of perezhivanie
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks to Moises for posting some questions about the article that I
>> would like to respond to.
>>
>>
>> I will first include his summary and interpretation of the paper and then
>> respond to his questions.
>>
>>
>>
>> Interpretation of paper
>>
>> The Poole?s paper invited me to enrich the notion of funds of identity.
>> Grounded in the funds of knowledge approach, the funds of identity concept
>> try to intentionally reinforce the positive backgrounds and experiences of
>> learners to overcome the deficit thinking in education (to sum up: by
>> reducing marginalized school population to a sum of cultural, social,
>> linguistic deficits).  However, our experience is not only light. And in
>> the dark funds of knowledge suggested by Zipin, existential funds of
>> identity invite us to capture a more holistic view on people?s experience.
>> In my opinion, deep learning (meaningful, significant learning) is based
>> on the recognition and transformation of learners? identities. This
>> assertion, that would be one of my working hypothesis, assumes three
>> theoretical principles: (1) that human identities are culturally-situated
>> and distributed (geographical funds of identity, cultural funds of
>> identity, institutional funds of identity and so on); (2) that there is a
>> constitutive link between learning and identity (as so many scholars
>> suggested and developed) and (3) that meaning (significant experience)
>> plays an important role as a learning generator. Here in mind, I would
>> like to share three questions or topics that can help us to understand the
>> Adam Poole?s paper, in particular, and further advance our
>> conceptualization on contemporary topics as perezhivanie, in general.
>>
>>
>> Questions
>>
>>
>> 1)        Do you think that existential funds of identity should be
>> considered as a type of funds of identity? In other words, should be
>> incorporated into the prior classification into geographical, practical,
>> institutional, cultural and social funds of identity? Or may be should
>> be considered as a ?re-theorization? of funds of identity?
>>
>>
>> This is a question that I have been struggling with for some time. When I
>> initially uncovered existential funds of identity I considered to be more
>> than a type of funds of identity. I couldn't see how it related to the five
>> categories that you proposed, as to me the type of identity being described
>> was more internal or meditative. However, the more I researched into the
>> funds of identity concept and its theoretical underpinnings, the more I
>> came to question this conclusion. Firstly, funds of identity, as I
>> understand it, is predicated upon a synthesis of macro and micro-level
>> approaches to culture - that is, identity is embedded in artefacts and
>> social practices and therefore is distributed in nature. However, to bring
>> in the concept of perezhivanie, individuals construct new identities from
>> the social identities that surround them. In contrast, I initially
>> understood existential funds of identity as largely phenomenological in
>> nature. However, on reflection, I realised that issues to do with identity
>> confusion, relationship problems, etc, are social in nature.
>>
>>
>> So, existential funds of identity should be seen as a complement to funds
>> of identity, rather than a re-theorisation of it. Most significantly, it
>> can be used to show how negative experiences can be drawn on in order to
>> bring about positive pedagogical outcomes.
>>
>>
>> However, I would be interested to know if anyone else thinks that
>> existential funds of identity complements or contradicts the concept
>> developed by Moises.
>>
>>
>>
>> 2)        How we could link the concepts of identity and perezhivanie?
>>
>>
>> Good question! For me. identity is an open-ended process that is both
>> personal and social in nature. For this reason, perezhivanie is a really
>> useful concept to bring this relationship into focus. Firstly, it shows how
>> development is the result of the dialectical relationship between the mind
>> and the environment. This relates to identity in a big way, as it
>> suggests that identity is quite fluid: we are different people in
>> different times and across different contexts. Perezhivanie is relevant
>> here as it helps to explain the way individuals relate differentially to
>> their environments. In relation to my teaching, I have found that students
>> do not embody fixed identities that they take with them from class to
>> class, but construct new identities in response to their classes - the
>> teacher, the students, the subject. To draw upon, and extend Thompson and
>> Hall's (2008) metaphor of 'virtual school bags of knowledge' - students do
>> not only bring one school bag with them, but have many different bags from
>> which they draw in the construction, and performance, of their classroom
>> identities.
>>
>>
>> This realisation lead me to question the role of labelling that you
>> often find in staff rooms - this is the 'difficult' student, this is the
>> 'gifted' student, etc. By observing students' behaviour in other classes, I
>> realised that there was something going on between the students and their
>> environments - hence the link between identity and perezhivanie. Rather
>> than engaging with the imposed label (that really says more about our
>> deficit thinking than the students themselves) we should engage with the
>> students' lived experiences of their social world - both positive and
>> negative.
>>
>>
>> 3)        One of the aims of funds of identity is to develop an approach
>> to the construct ?identity? that had educational implications. What are
>> the
>> educational/pedagogical implications of the existential funds of identity?
>>
>>
>> This is a bit more of a complicated one! I do agree with your assertion
>> that drawing upon minoritised students' negative or problematic experiences
>> could lead to the reproduction of deficit thinking. However, I do think
>> that if handled ethically, teachers can draw upon both light and dark funds
>> of identity in order to valorise the whole child and their social worlds.
>> So pedagogically, existential funds of identity can help to develop 'thick'
>> stranded relationships between teachers and students. Moreover, it can also
>> bridge the gap between the classroom and home by acknowledging that life
>> and individual experiencing is complex and multi-layered, often involving
>> critical moments that are ambivalent in nature. I have to say that this
>> approach may not be appropriate for younger learners. I had in mind
>> adolescent learners when I developed the idea of existential funds of
>> identity.
>>
>>
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>>
>> Adam
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and
>> may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in
>> error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it. Please do not
>> use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in any
>> attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do
>> not necessarily reflect the views of The University of Nottingham Ningbo
>> China. This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an
>> attachment may still contain software viruses which could damage your
>> computer system: you are advised to perform your own checks. Email
>> communications with The University of Nottingham Ningbo China may be
>> monitored as permitted by UK and Chinese legislation.
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.ucsd.edu/pipermail/xmca-l/attachments/20180621/b005f3cb/attachment-0001.html

------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2018 12:58:53 +0000
From: Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Re-situating funds of identity within
        contemporary interpretations of perezhivanie
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
Message-ID: <1529585933283.27759@iped.uio.no>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

?Okey, now I got it! Thanks Greg. I see now that you need to create a user and log it to be able to annotate. That seems very promising to adopt as usual praxis here at xmca when we discuss papers. Many thanks!

Alfredo

________________________________
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of Greg Mcverry <jgregmcverry@gmail.com>
Sent: 21 June 2018 14:54
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Re-situating funds of identity within contemporary interpretations of perezhivanie

Alfredo there are two options: If you use Chrome you can have the hypothes.is<http://hypothes.is> extension installed.

If you use Firefox:  click this link https://via.hypothes.is/https://jgregorymcverry.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Resituating-Funds-of-Identity-Within-Contemporary-Interpretations-of-Perezhivanie.pdf

Really stick https://via.hypothes.is/<https://via.hypothes.is/https://jgregorymcverry.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Resituating-Funds-of-Identity-Within-Contemporary-Interpretations-of-Perezhivanie.pdf> in front of most urls and you can annotate/ I should start using an xmca tag for the articles I read from listserv

On Thu, Jun 21, 2018 at 8:24 AM Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no<mailto:a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>> wrote:

?Thanks Julie and Greg.

Welcome Julie! You made us (or at least me) curious about those remarks on the question of "existential" as related to "illumination" rather than simply an acknowledgement of the importance of "negative" experiences. I am excited to see if the discussion allows for unfolding more of this for us to learn a bit more.

Greg, can the link that you shared be annotated? When I follow the link, it seems to only allow me to download the file, but not annotate it online. Or does it?

Also, for those who might not have yet got a copy, the article is now open access and for the following weeks here:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10749039.2018.1434799?

Alfredo

________________________________
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>> on behalf of Greg Mcverry <jgregmcverry@gmail.com<mailto:jgregmcverry@gmail.com>>
Sent: 21 June 2018 14:03
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Re-situating funds of identity within contemporary interpretations of perezhivanie

So I am annotating the article here before I formulate my response: https://jgregorymcverry.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Resituating-Funds-of-Identity-Within-Contemporary-Interpretations-of-Perezhivanie.pdf

Some quick thoughts:
-Allowing students to choose their software created a situation where identity was also mediated by technical knowledge., which in itself signifies membership and identities within groups.
-There is a wealth of literature exploring image metaphors and identity. This is usually framed from a new literacies perspective and draws on James Paul Gee (too much). Every digital story telling study ends with, "Students did "identity work" this provided a fresh take on funds of identity.
-I thought the role of the environment was downplayed here. Being in a school setting the motivation for doing identity work is influenced by power relationships int he classroom.
-Interesting how cultural meaning and funds of knowledge (lazy cat) were included in the avatar of "lazt cat"
-I am scared for our youth when the environment of perezhivanie is controlled by algorithims. Students do not get to decide how their identity is projected. Their social interactions, the friends they see and communicate with are now controlled by corporations. We must encourage students to own their digital spaces.
-I am playing with the idea of building critical evaluation by having students interact with bias avatars doing bias read alouds of multiple sources.

On Wed, Jun 20, 2018 at 6:27 PM Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no<mailto:a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>> wrote:

?Thanks for the discussion so far, Moises and Adam. And while Moises (or anyone else) perhaps comes back with a more a more comprehensive reaction, I was just wondering about Mois?s question 2 and what the relation between the categories "identity" and "personality" are, if they can be related at all. In Vygotsky, perezhivanie is explicitly linked to personality. As far as I can recall and without having gone to the texts and check, Vygotsky does not use the term "identity" in the sense it is used in current literature. This also leads me to wonder on the distinction between *learning* (which according to Moises is part what the Funds of Knowledge/Identity were designed to address) and *development*. Is analytical categories, is perezhivanie more about development and funds of identity more about learning? Or we have to differentiate them on other grounds?

Alfredo

________________________________
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>> on behalf of Adam Poole (16517826) <Adam.Poole@nottingham.edu.cn<mailto:Adam.Poole@nottingham.edu.cn>>
Sent: 19 June 2018 04:14
To: xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re-situating funds of identity within contemporary interpretations of perezhivanie

Thanks to Moises for posting some questions about the article that I would like to respond to.

I will first include his summary and interpretation of the paper and then respond to his questions.

Interpretation of paper

The Poole?s paper invited me to enrich the notion of funds of identity.
Grounded in the funds of knowledge approach, the funds of identity concept
try to intentionally reinforce the positive backgrounds and experiences of
learners to overcome the deficit thinking in education (to sum up: by
reducing marginalized school population to a sum of cultural, social,
linguistic deficits).  However, our experience is not only light. And in
the dark funds of knowledge suggested by Zipin, existential funds of
identity invite us to capture a more holistic view on people?s experience.
In my opinion, deep learning (meaningful, significant learning) is based
on the recognition and transformation of learners? identities. This
assertion, that would be one of my working hypothesis, assumes three
theoretical principles: (1) that human identities are culturally-situated
and distributed (geographical funds of identity, cultural funds of
identity, institutional funds of identity and so on); (2) that there is a
constitutive link between learning and identity (as so many scholars
suggested and developed) and (3) that meaning (significant experience)
plays an important role as a learning generator. Here in mind, I would
like to share three questions or topics that can help us to understand the
Adam Poole?s paper, in particular, and further advance our
conceptualization on contemporary topics as perezhivanie, in general.

Questions