Having reached a small gap in an otherwise overly packed set obligations,
I tried going back this morning to see where the discussion of LBD 4 stood.
But as luck would have it it, while the April archive is posted on lchc.ucsd.
edu/xmca, May is not, and somehow the discussion "complexed" into Vygotsky's
"crisis."
I missed the transition. And any event, I am aware that our local academic
year is coming to an end, Yrjo returns to the land of cell phones and the
midnight sun, and our allotted time for reading LBE comes to an end.
Reading through 4e (without recourse to earlier posts) I am impressed by the
way it provides a lot pointers to what it means to talk about CHAT as an
interdisciplinary undertaking, if not a new discipline (with lots of pointers to its methodology).
So, for example, I re-enjoyed the discussion of phenomenology and
the delineation of the activity system which, retrospectively, I
can see underpinning a lot of the work that has led to the "change
lab" methodology which Yrjo and his colleagues curently use. And
the connection of that method to Vygotsky's methodology of "dual
stimulation" is strongly brought to mind. I have not read Altshuller,
but found the discussion of his strategy for ferreting out contradictions
consistent with the forms of participant observation that a number of
us locally engage in. And Yrjo'
s comment that " A genuine expansive cycle inevitably produces not
only civilization (he is referring here to the 7 brother's story)
but an ingredient of wildness" also fits the phenomenology of my
recent experiences.
His conclusion also resonates strongly for me:
Reporting and assessing outcomes of expansive research is not easy.
The voyage through the zone of proximal development is best followed
and recorded by employing a set of multiple methods, ranging from
phenomenological and anthropological observation of historical
analysis of performances, conceptions and discourse practices. The
sheer amount and variety of data collected make new types of report
ing necessary.
Amen to that. Hopefully members of this list will provide each other
with positive examples of how these challenges can be met.
Chapter 5? Is there a leader lurking in the wings? It seems to offer
a lot of reprises on recent discussions both within and outside of
LBE itself.
mike
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