Re: IRE & peer collaboration
Ellice A Forman (ellice+ who-is-at pitt.edu)
Tue, 2 Jan 1996 19:59:58 -0500 (EST)
Judy,
In response to your "trivial point" about my use of the phrase
"transcending differences"--I must admit that I didn't think very hard
before using the word transcending. I think you are correct that
transcendence is an awfully strong (religious?) metaphor for the
phenomena that you want to call something closer to "encompassing
differences" in such things as classroom discourse. I agree that your
usage is better at communicating the desire to "contribute to an
environment where differences aren't seen as dangerous" than my usage.
Maybe I was unconsciously referring to the conversational analysts in my
metaphor and not to the people actually interacting. That is, as
conversational analysts, maybe we should sometimes transcend our concerns
with differences between people and also look for the communalities (and
vice versa).
Ellice Forman