Philosophies of practice vs. patterns of discourse

Eugene Matusov (ematusov who-is-at cats.ucsc.edu)
Sun, 31 Dec 1995 15:06:54 -0800

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Hello everybody--

Jay wrote recently,
>Practice is so often, and so necessarily, emergent from
>unique circumstances (i.e. truly _situated_) in which multiple
>and contradictory-in-application (where not wholly ambiguous-in-
>application) principles are only a small part of all the factors
>that eventuate in action. I don't believe we live or act most of
>the time by philosophies or principles (and couldn't do so).
>Rather we take them into account sometimes, and we are better or
>worse at articulating them and at accounting, retrospectively,
>with them for our actions. Teachers usually just don't have
>_time_ to analytically formulate actions. (This is where
>"habitus" is a very useful alternative way to characterize what
>_is_ consistent from action to action.)

I meant by "philosophy of practice" is deliberate, emergent, dynamic, =
and habitu=E9s at the same time. People does not need to have =
articulated principles to demonstrate a specific philosophy of practice. =
Moreover, whatever principles the might express in advance, any =
specific activity they participate may turn out having one or another =
philosophy of practice. Also, people have a history of doing things one =
way or another -- which become almost invisible and unreflective "the =
way" of doing things. However, philosophy of practice can be often =
supported by people's attitudes toward other people, themselves, =
institutions, and practices. These attitudes can support or contradict =
the demonstrated philosophy of practice. It also can be mobilized by a =
specific ideology spread in an institution.

In sum, the notion of philosophy of practice focus a researcher on what =
people do rather what they declare they do (or want to do). What people =
declare is an important part of the picture, of course. I think Bill is =
right reminding us Chris Argrys and Donald Schon's notions of "espoused =
theories" (i.e., what is declared by participants they are doing) and =
"theories-in-use" (i.e., a pattern of what they actually do). As Andy =
Hargreaves (1994, "Changing teachers, changing times: Teachers' work and =
culture in the postmodern age") demonstrated, collaborative and =
democratic espoused theories in school used by the administration can =
serve for promoting unilateral hierarchical theories-in-use in this =
institution. =20

My insistence on the notion of philosophy of practice instead of, let's =
say, a pattern of discourse comes from idea of congruence of described =
evidence and inference done by a researcher. For example, when Jay =
says,
>Student responses in the IRE pattern are often single words or phrases
>and generally sub-clausal. In effect they are 'over-scaffolded'
>and the scaffolding is never supportively withdrawn; the ZPD
>expands enormously with the IRE, but it is not clear that
>individual capacity ever recapitulates joint capacity under these
>conditions."
it seems to me that Jay's inference goes far beyond the IRE discourse =
pattern toward a bigger unit that I call as "philosophy of practice." =
My point is that described evidence should be also at this level. For =
me, patterns of activity can not be picked up from physical moves of the =
participants or from their discursive moves (e.g., IRE/IRF sequences). =
In fact, squeezing joint activity or interaction into the Procrustean =
bed of the turn-taking verbal discourse analysis can seriously distort =
the global picture of the activity. I would argue that Jay's =
generalization in the quote above is based not on the frequency =
expressed in the word "often" in his first sentence but on a holistic =
picture of distribution of power in the traditional classroom =
interaction. I think that, it is this distribution of power (but not =
the IRE sequence) that is responsible for "over-scaffolding" portrayed =
by Jay. However, even distribution of power for me is a derivative of a =
philosophy of practice.=20

Bill wrote, "In my own analysis, I use Bakhtin's notion of a social
language, though, rather than "philosophy of guidance" to concretize the
differences I observe." For me, the notion of "social language" sounds =
too verbal and too communicative at expense of non-verbal and material =
aspects of activity. Bill, can you elaborate how you deal with this =
issue?

Happy New Year,

Eugene Matusov
UC Santa Cruz

PS. Angel, my last greeting "Happy Western New Year" was mere a joke =
referring to the arbitrariness of the beginning and the end of any new =
year (e.g., Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Western, Eastern, Northern, =
solar, lunar, Martian) rather a reminder that today New Year is Western =
one by its origin.
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