I just received a copy of "Vygotsky's Educational Theory in Cultural
Context" (Ed's Kozulin, Gindis, Ageyev and Miller) Cambridge 2003, and
while flicking through the volume, I was drawn to the final chapter by
Vladimir Ageyev, entitled, "Vygotsky in the Mirror of Cultural
Interpretations". Ageyev has taught courses on LSV's work both in
Russia and the US, and his aim in the chapter is to outline some of the
cultural biases that he has noticed in the US context of students'
understandings of Vygotsky's ideas. Ageyev begins by claiming that
LSV's ideas underwent a strong Americanisation through filtering out
most "poetic, philosophical and historical images", especially from the
first edition of "Thought and Language" (1962)....I do recall this was
a point of discussion during the xmca on-line course earlier this year.
Several students I have worked with recently, in the context of
learning theory for developing abilities in using another language,
have posed questions such as "How do we know when a learner is in the
zpd?", How can we measure progress through the zpd?" and "When learners
are interacting, whose zpd is it?". Similar questions from US students
are outlined by Ageyev. I have always had difficulties myself in
answering these questions, and have replied with vacuous statements
such as, "Think of the zpd metaphorically", etc. Ageyev provides some
good fodder to think over, notably for me...
1. Doing some critical self-reflection on how I myself interpret LSV's
work, as he claims that 100 years of positivism and behavioursim can't
be shrugged off too readily, especially considering my own
socio-historical background as a privileged middle class, white male
from Australia (although Ageyev is referring to US contexts)
2. Revisiting the relationship between LSV's work and Marxism. LSV's
work is usually held by new students in a positive light, and Marx is
usually associated with "negatives", such as communism. Some of the
more powerful metaphors that Marx created and which were appropriated
by LSV (e.g. tools) could do with a critical historical overview.
3. Gain a better understanding of the context within which LSV was
working, and which was shaping his ideas and "experiments". As Ageyev
notes, we need to move beyond good linguistic translations of LSV's
works (he seems to assume that we have these available - I can't make a
comment there) to better cultural interpretations of his ideas. This
final point rings loudly to me, as the zpd becomes a popularised
metaphor for successful transmission or acquisition of knowledge and
skills. I can't help thinking of homogenised fat-free milk!!!
Just some thoughts on a chapter that I skimmed.
Phil
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