Re: ZPD, resistance and conflict (re: Giga)

Judy Diamondstone (diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu)
Thu, 9 Oct 1997 11:32:02 -0400

Ana suggests that the conflictual frames at stake in
Giga's learning about who picks noses and her own learning
about Giga's knowings are not reducible to one notion of
conflict. I agree.

Judith

>
>
>Conflicts:
>Giga's cognitive conflicts about his assumptions
>Conflict between play frame and discussion frame
>Power conflict between Giga and his mother
>Conflict within the play frame between assumed rules (boys pick their
>noses) and proposed rules (a girl may pick her nose).
>
>What do we (adult psychologists) call "conflicts"? It seems that this
>category is too broad. The example above is in an overall pleasant and
>loving situation and yet it contains "tensions". Can this be compared to
>the examples Yrjo Engestrom quoted from P. Hoeg's autobiographical novel?
>Conflicts which are described there are existential conflicts, not "merely"
>cognitive or emotional.
>
>>Yesterday, Giga and I played in the following way. I suggested that I be
>>his daughter and he my father. He agreed. I cuddled with him a little bit,
>>and he was kissing me. At one moment I put a finger in my nose to pick it
>>and I stared daringly at Giga (the "father"). He said:
>>
>>G: "Oh, you are my son, then!"
>>M: "No, I am your daughter, your little girl!"
>>G: (seriously) "But girls don't pick their noses!"
>>M: (seriously) "How do you know they don't?"
>>G: "I never saw it."
>>M: "What do you think, if you didn't see something, it doesn't exist?"
>>G: (after some thought) "Then, I am getting out of that city."
>>M: "Which city?"
>>G: "The Nosepick City." (He is laughing on that)
>>M: "You are getting out of the Nosepick City?"
>>G: (laughing) "Yes!"
>>M: "Is that a city where everybody picks their noses?, so it's name is
>> Nosepick City?"
>>G: (laughing) "Yes."
>>A: "Even the adults?"
>>G: (this time really astonished and shaking his head): "NO! Only children
>> pick their noses!"
>>
>>There was no more playing "Father and Daughter" at that point.
>>
>>

Judith Diamondstone
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