>
>In Vol 1 No. 4 of MCA you will find an article by Jim Wertsch where he
>declares "Sociocultural Studies" as an independent stream away from
>the idea that cultural differences can be coupled to "differences in
>evolutionary status" (p 203), rejecting part of Vygotsky's heritage.
>
>At that time I did not quite understand the motives behind this move,
>and discussion via xfamily proved to be very meager. Still, I would
>bet that Jim wouldn't use the CHAT label for his work. Also Yrjo
>Engestrom was quite reluctant to use it, as far as I can remember.
>
I think Jim prefers to use the term 'sociocultural,' though I think he
believes that the central issues are those you identified. For example, a
distancing from Vygotsky's notion that differences in mental functioning,
or more narrowly defined, 'higher' mental functioning, are functions of
different cultures being at different levels of 'historical' development.
Jim's more recent work, as I think Judy pointed out recently, spells out
some of Vygotsky's own ambivalence about the ideal endpoints of
development, namely a tension between the development toward scientific
conceptual thinking and that of a more poetic sense making, evidenced in
Vygotsky's interests in drama and film. To me, the labels are less
important--unless they help us to identify ourselves as a community and we
don't find them too constraining--but the issues raised by the debate are
interesting, and bear on some of the more pressing issues for researchers
today, particularly around diversity.
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Bill Penuel
Research and Evaluation Division
Metropolitan Public Schools
2601 Bransford Avenue
Nashville TN 37204
tel: (615) 297-5923
email: bpenuel who-is-at mindspring.com
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