Re: non-material artifacts

LeAnn G. Putney (lputney who-is-at edstar.gse.ucsb.EDU)
Sat, 3 Feb 1996 17:28:19 -0800 (PST)

I was excited to read your message, JoBeth, as this is exactly what
Judith Green and I were discussing this afternoon. We see what we are
doing as a "dialogue with" Vygotsky, and those who have taken up similar
constructs in their own work. Thus we are utilizing his work as a
dialectic with our own, seeking convergence with while discovering
divergence from his constructs. It is in this juxtapostion of constructs
that we are able to inform our own work, and each other, in order to
continue to unfold, revision, and build on prior constructs, just as
Vygotsky did over the relatively short time that he had. This is how the
idea for the paper with Richard Duran came about. In combining our differing
perspectives we have come to learn more about each other's work and our
own. In our presentation you will experience such a dialogue stemming from
classroom data, and see how our backgrounds lead us to differing, yet
similar, interpretations of the data. I agree that Vygotsky would not have
wanted us to fossilize him or his work, so I, too, am greatly looking
forward to the new focus!

LeAnn Putney

On Sat, 3 Feb 1996, jobeth wrote:

> I am fascinated with Vera John-Steiner's proposed new focus. Sometimes
> it seems we "fossilize" Vygotsky's thinking, rather than interacting
> with it, using our collective minds to extend his contributions that
> were cut so short. Imagine where he, and we, might be had he lived even
> five more years. I realize it is difficult not to fossilize when the
> doer has actually died - he was referring of course to the danger of
> studying fossilized behavior in children rthr than studying as concepts
> were being formed. But I think we do Vygotsky and ourselves a disservice
> to assume that he had a final word on anything. So will "the
> construction of the new in Vygotsky's work" help us get at his ideas as
> dynamic and interactive for today's thinkers?
>
> JoBeth Allen
> Language Education
> University of Georgia
> 125 Aderhold
> Athens, GA 30602
> jobethal who-is-at uga.cc.uga.edu
>