Re: too silent/AERA report 1

Dr. PedroR. Portes (prport01 who-is-at athena.louisville.edu)
Tue, 04 May 1999 12:03:53 -0400

Margaret et al;
I'll report briefly on AERA/Montreal, to break the silence..i think many
of us are still recuperating...

Our sampler session of CHAT research went well, Gordon Wells provided an
incisive critique on papers ranging from Goncu's parent-child interaction &
Uses of Pretense, another on Gibson's Affordances (which i missed but would
to see all of these posted. Sybil Kline et al extended a ZOPED based
assessment device that seemed like a promising alternative for teachers in
the field. Eugene M. shared work on moving children from the Zone of
Disability..

Jim Werstch and L. Moll played separately to packed houses, could not get in..

Our CHAT/Psychotherapy session was received quite well and broke some new
ground.
Perhaps others can report on the remaining sessions for the SIG and beyond.
At the business meeting (The topic then was bilingualism), we thanked Vera
for two solid years, welcomed new SIG officers; Elvira S. Lima as vice
President and Carmen mercado as Secretary, A. Goncu will work with Eugene
on getting a newsletter out. Luis moll is the new president and we tried to
get some themes for next year. Gordon will be away so i will stay on as
program officer this year. The Hominis Conference in Cuba was announced
and calls for proposals distributed.

(Start thinking about sub. proposals for New Orleans in the next 2 months.)

One last highlite was session 19.01 which can be viewed on AERA WEB TV on a
distinguished panel's discussion of the pressing issues facing the
educational community. Ron Gallimore heated the paradigm wars, concerned
about the preponderance of low quality qualitative research following the
tracks of years of low qual. quantit. research; Scott Miller's work on
demographic / historical shifts presenting enormous challenges to
education was followed up by other heated exchanges involving some
concerned about achievement standards being met by underrepresented groups
and some who challenged the notion that those groups' agency was of
paramount importance, citing work from the South (Purcell-Gates) and after
school (McLaughin/Heath)
Gardner & Tharp added fuel to the fire...
The latter went on Fri. to host Todd Risley in a panel where the critical
period issue was revisited in light of the most comprehensive study of
children's linguistic socialization which was hailed as a national
treasure. The policy implications of that work were discussed as the
crowds thinned out. Montreal was tres belle.

pedro

At 08:41 PM 5/3/99 EDT, you wrote:
>This list sure has been silent the past few days. Did anyone come back from
>AERA with something to share? ~~Margaret
>
>
Pedro R. Portes,
Professor of Educational %
Counseling Psychology
310 School of Education
University of Louisville
Fax 502-852-0629
Office 502-852-0630
Web at louisville/~prport01 (under construction)