Re: three interestings papers

U25510 who-is-at UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU
Sat, 30 Mar 1996 10:57:01 CST

I agree. They look very interesting. I would try to contribute to the
discussions on intersubjectivity but my copy of MCA has not arrived yet.
For any intersubjectivity to occur, agreement on some aspect of the referent
must be established. That is, I must read Eugene's paper before I can or want
to go on. In anticipation, Artin Goncu

>
> Dear Colleagues--
>
> Here are three abstracts of papers that have just appeared in Mind,
> Culture, and ACtivity. All are worth discussion, in my view. But
> I am not sure how to start such discussion. Has anyone out there
> read any of these articles?
>
> After reading Boesch's article, for example, what can/should/might
> be said about the very possibility of cross-cultural research in
> the positivist mode? And what might replace it?
>
>
> Similar kinds of questions are raisable about each of the articles.
> But is xmca a place where we might usefully enrich our understanding
> of them?
>
> Mike
> ------
> Abstracts from articles appearing in Volume 3, No. 1 of "Mind, Culture,
> and Activity":
>
> The Seven Flaws of Cross-Cultural Psychology. The Story of a
> Conversion
>
> ERNEST E. BOESCH
> University of Saarbruecken
>
> For Alfred Lang on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
>
> The following expands on an example that W. J. Lonner, in the not
> yet published draft of a chapter, used for illustrating the method of
> cross-cultural psychology, and which I take the freedom to
> elaborate here. It is therefore an entirely fictional story, but all it
> says is based on personal experience. One could call it, then, a true
> fiction.
>
>
>
>
> How Instruction Influences ChildrenUs Concepts of Evolution
>
> MARIANE HEDEGAARD
> University of Aarhus
>
> This article focuses on variations in childrenUs understanding of
> the evolution of species and the origin of humans, and on how
> these variations are related to classroom instruction. In order to
> evaluate the childrenUs concept development as influenced by
> teaching method, children from two classes who participated in a
> teaching experiment throughout the third grade were interviewed.
> The teaching experiment aimed at teaching the children the
> theoretical concepts of evolution by teaching them to integrate
> their knowledge into coherent models. Two experimental groups
> from two different schools were interviewed during the middle of
> the fourth grade. A control group of children from a class that had
> not been taught the concepts of evolution were also interviewed.
> Analyses of the interviews showed that the manner of instruction
> influenced the childrenUs conceptions, both in the area they were
> taught, the evolution of species, and a related area, the origin of
> humans.
>
>
>
> Intersubjectivity Without Agreement
>
> EUGENE MATUSOV
> University of California, Santa Cruz
>
> In this paper, there is an attempt to construct the notion of
> intersubjectivity as a process of a coordination of participantsU
> contributions in joint activity. This notion incorporates the
> dynamics of both agreement and disagreement. I argue that a
> traditional definition of intersubjectivity as a state of overlap of
> individual understandings overemphasizes agreement and de-
> emphasizes disagreement among the participants in joint activity.
> It disregards disagreement at two levels: 1) by focusing only on
> integrative, consensus seeking, activities, in which disagreement
> among participants of joint activity often is viewed as only the
> initial point of the joint activity that has to be resolved by the
> final agreement (macro-level), and 2) by considering
> disagreements as only nuisances or obstacles while focusing on
> integrative activities (micro-level). To illustrate how disagreement
> can constitute intersubjectivity at macro- and micro-levels,
> examples of childrenUs development of a classroom play are
> examined. Diversity and fluidity of intersubjectivity will be
> discussed.
>