If I remember correctly, Michael, both the library and the school
declined to further the 5th dimension, and you thought that it was because
it didn't fit their sense of mission - while the setting in the Boys' Club
was successful because it fit their sense of mission.
I've been considering this from the point of view of activity
theory, and been thinking that this sense of mission would fall under the
'rules' angle (according Engestrom's model as a triangle). It led me to
begin work with some teacher candidates in understanding how within the
setting of the school, teachers' 'voice' both norms and enculturates the
new arrivals. We were looking at 'voice' where on the face of the
activity the teacher could perhaps be described as making
conversation. Yet, the conversation is delineating acceptable beliefs and
behaviors within the school at large.
How evident was this for you, Mike, when working with the library
and school, that the rules of these two settings were continually
negotiated through 'conversation'? I never was exactly clear as to why
these two institutions opted out of an activity which clearly supported
their public mission.
phillip