Chuck, this stuff is too important to keep between us--I think it's time you
started forwarding to the network, where it will inform the larger
discussion better.
I thoroughly agree that the enactment of policies is uniquely situated,
which is why I've been bothered by the idea of whole language as a
one-size-fits-all approach to teaching as discussed on xmca.
Peter
At 11:10 AM 5/28/96 -0700, you wrote:
>Singapore is a very good example of how confucian order ideologies and
>modern corporatism fit together neatly. I have found that one way to
>understand Singapore is to regularly use the analogy if IBM were a state.
>
>In thinking about values and relativism and how to communicate
>effectively, I find it most useful to come to understand the specific
>local configurations within which and out fo which specific people are
>operating, including their means for negotiating and articvulating values
>and how that stands with respect to particular practices which may or may
>not be tied to those articulated values.
>
>I find big terms like East and West not all that useful--remember East or
>West of where? Who made these dichotomies for what purposes? Not one
>single person or group, but many over time. So those categories are
>interesting to examine as historical constructs and then perhaps as
>having a reflexive impact on social conceptions and interactions. But in
>talking about individuals' priorities and modes of actions, and how to
>operate within institutions in which many different people with different
>histories and affiliations are aggregated, we need to understand a lot
>more of the particulatrity of what is going on. So that is why tracing
>out the Mahathir story is not irrelevant. I, for example, recently
>learned something about the history of the use of printing in the Chinese
>state that reveals something about the history of confucianist ideology.
>During the tenth and eleventh century, as printing was being invented
>(for the first time) apparently the potential social implications of the
>technology for the distribution of alternative information and viewpoints
>was recognized--and so there were histories of successful attempts to
>limit and regulate the use of the technology, bringing it under
>centralized control--thus having major impact on the literacy system of
>bureacracy we associate with Confucian centralism developed by the Shang
>dynasty at this time and after.
>
>Chuck
>
>
Peter Smagorinsky
University of Oklahoma
College of Education
Department of Instructional Leadership and Academic Curriculum
820 Van Vleet Oval
Norman, OK 73019-0260
office phone: (405)325-3533
fax: (405)325-4061
psmagorinsky who-is-at uoknor.edu