RE: Vygotsky and context

From: Judith Vera Diamondstone (JDiamondstone@Clarku.edu)
Date: Tue Jun 10 2003 - 16:34:47 PDT


without having looked at Artin's articles yet,

what is a contextualist that Vygotsky is not one?

individuals create their own contexts? -- I understood Vygotsky to argue
that development proceeds from social to individual, meaning that
individuals are made, not born. I suppose everyone makes their own context
under certain conditions (as in, when one takes a break, reads Wallace
Stevens in the bathtub, does some yoga)... but what is 'context' here?

is there a deficit theory lurking around this discussion?
I assume that no one here assumes a unilinear trajectory, or reduces
development to one kind of individual (e.g., the true individual is.... a
high-boundary individual....

If we make our own, then context = something like 'life narrative' -- where
context = voicedness/ perspective....?

but vygotsky is not one, so....

--judy

-----Original Message-----
From: Artin Goncu [mailto:goncu@uic.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 11:39 AM
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: Re: Vygotsky and context

With regard to play, Suzanne Gaskins and I argued that Vygotsky is not a
contextualist. The papers making this point were published in the LCHC
Newsletter in 1988 and 1992 !! Best, Artin

At 07:48 PM 6/9/03 -0700, you wrote:
>
>I would greatly appreciate people's ideas about whether or not you consider
>Vygotsky to have been a contextualist. I have been surveying books on
>theories of cognitive development where he is so considered. But isn't
>LSV that person who said that the special characteristic of humans is to
>supercede local context? On the surface at least, this seems like a
>contradiction or a misunderstanding.
>
>This question is not motivated by the question on assessment that appeared
>earlier today. But the two issues are not independent of each other. K Vann
>in an ealier issue of MCA reviewed the *Contexts of Learning" book and
>noted that issues of assessment seemed conspicuosly absent.
>
>The race for common discussion of the post Foot discussion is running neck
>and neck. Vote early, and vote often, if you come from Chicago and can
>hack the system! :-)
>mike
>
>
Artin Goncu, Ph.D
Professor
College of Education M/C 147
University of Illinois at Chicago
1040 W. Harrison St.,
Chicago, IL 60607

(312) 996-5259
Fax (312) 996-6400



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