Re: Appropriation, Part 2

vera p john-steiner (vygotsky who-is-at unm.edu)
Fri, 17 Jul 1998 09:22:41 -0600 (MDT)

David,
I have come to use appropriation in my work on intellectual collaboration.
I see it particularly as "mutual appropriation" that is, a process, skill,
even an emotional attitude that is embedded in the activity system of one
of the participants which is slowly made part, appropriated by partner or
partners. It is somewhat diffeerent from scaffolding because it takes
place between individuals who have many complementarities, and are engaged
in shared endeavors. One of my examples is Einstein and Grossmann, when
the latter helped Einstein Riemannian geometry. Subsequently, Einstein
became more "indeoendent" in approaching mathematical issues relevant to
his work in physics.
This description does not fully escape the internalization debate,
but it certainly places the issue in a co-participatory framework. (This
example will be in the book Peter is editing from the 1996 Chicago
centennial conference that Cambridge is publishing.)
Back at work after a nice, hard working, but exciting trip to Europe,
including ISCRAT.
Vera

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Vera P. John-Steiner
Department of Linguistics
Humanities Bldg. 526
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
(505) 277-6353 or 277-4324
Internet: vygotsky who-is-at unm.edu
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