Re: in/formal or non/coercive?

Louise Yarnall (lyarnall who-is-at ucla.edu)
Mon, 01 Feb 1999 14:04:49 +0000

Jay, Joe, Sara and others,

what an interesting discussion. Joe has raised the point about how SETTING
plays a role in distinguishing formal from informal. Jay has pointed out
how INTENTIONALITY is hard to manage in complex social settings over time.
Sara has mentioned how her POSITIONALITY functions as a way of organizing
her interpretation of what is formal and informal, coercive and voluntary.

I think all I have to add to these reference points is that DISCOURSE (our
ways of using words to enact settings, intentions and positions) is another
key element in distinguishing formal/informal, coercive/voluntary. I
remember the fluid discourse of an after-school computer club, where
children's words flowed freely with ours, and where many of us older, more
experienced folk felt we had trouble communicating with the kids. They
wanted to win games, not focus on reading and logic and thinking. They
wanted to write letters to El Maga and hang with their friends. Then there
was the research group discourse that refocused our perspectives on the
children's discourse, prodding us to uphold their words as the keys to the
kingdom. We had to listen before we jumped to correct or change. Much
richness flowed from that point. The more we listened, the more, it seemed,
they listened.

Compare this discourse experience with one I had recently in a school
administrators' gathering at LAUSD. The discussion revolved around the
discourse of improving reading test scores and justifying and extending
budgets. The discourse was so abstract and removed from actual practice,
and it was also inaccurate in its representation of the ZOPED. I felt
myself wanting to correct them at first. Then I realized later, as I talked
with the teachers and administrators, that they were speaking a language
that I needed to hear better.

I think that things seem coercive to the extent that we resist listening to
others in their own discourse. I think that things seem voluntary to the
extent that other people talk in familiar, comfortable ways. Learning needs
to mix both kinds of discourses. We need to learn to tolerate difference by
learning to listen. We also need to be clear on what messages we bring to
the table, and figure out ways to translate our ideas into terms that a new
community can appreciate.

Louise