I like the topic Mike put forth for an SRCD symposium very much.
An excerpt:
One major fraction line has been formulated as a difference between those who
focus on "mediated action in context" versus those who focus on "activity" as
a basic unit of analysis. Another common fraction line is between those who
emphasize mediational tools and those who focus on forms of participation.
Yet another set of issues centers on questions of the ability of one or
another such position to deal with issues of power, gender, and difference
more generally.
Finally, the different perspective often appear to differ with respect to the
extent to which the concepts of development and culture are, or are not,
central to their concerns.
Certainly those tensions were there at ISCRAT. Although my work leans to the
"activity" and "forms of participation" side, I think my colleagues and I
work to create programs from the perspective of a unity, rather than an
opposition, of the sides each "fraction" takes. In addition to presenting
some of this at ISCRAT, I (happily) attended a few sessions that I took as
trying to do the same. Some of you might be familiar with the term Fred
Newman and I coined (originally in 1979 but more widely known from our 1993
book Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary Scientist) -- "tool-and-result" by which we
mean to distinguish a) tools in which the process of creating them
simultaneously creates their "result" from b) instrumental tools (tool for
result, already made tools). We mean to highlight that human beings are not
only tool users but tool makers. Our inspiration was originally Vygotsky's
statement about his search for method being simultaneously the tool and the
result of study, and we took this to indicate that he was formulating a
tool-and-result methodology. Anyway, if we accept that people are capable
of, and sometimes participate in, tool-and-result activity, then culture is a
unity, i.e., mediational tool-and-developmental result.
Unfortunately, I was off at a conference and couldn't suggest this for the
SRCD symposium but perhaps Mike or someone else has ideas for another future
venue.
A question: In my ongoing work in outside-of-school youth development
projects, I and the people who run them are situating them within the
discourse of "supplemental education." The term was coined by Edmund Gordon
in the 90s to refer to outside-of-school activities that white/middle class
kids take part in to a far greater degree than black/latino/poor kids do
(museum trips, drama, art, dancing lessons, conversations about politics,
world events, etc.). Gordon and other educators believe supplemental
education experiences help to explain the school achievement gap between
these groups. They are pushing for social policy dialogue on this topic as a
means to support, as well as (on Gordon's part) bringing the message to
parents. Are others familiar with this term and do you find it useful?
Thanks for any comments,
Lois
Lois Holzman
Director
East Side Institute for Short Term Psychotherapy
500 Greenwich Street
New York NY 10013
212-941-8844
www.eastsideinstitute.org
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