from a desperate Robert!!

Mike Cole (mcole who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu)
Thu, 14 Oct 1999 14:15:17 -0700 (PDT)

Robert Serpell has encountered gremlins so I posting a note for him.
mike
----------
Peeter, Jim, Mike,

I have been unsuccessful (for technical reasons) over the past few days in
getting the following message to circulate on XMCA. However, I would be
very interested in any comments any one of you might have on the topic.

Robert

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 13:11:12 -0400
>From: serpell robert n. <serpell who-is-at umbc.edu>
To: xmca who-is-at ucsd.edu
Subject: sociocultural genesis of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory (fwd)

If anyone gets to see this on the listerve, I'd be grateful for a bleep of
acknowledgement: I've been trying to sort out a local gremlin that impedes
my posting!

Robert Serpell
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 18:20:46 -0400
>From: serpell robert n. <serpell who-is-at umbc.edu>
To: xmca who-is-at ucsd.edu
Subject: sociocultural genesis of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory

My graduate class on "cultural aspects of human development" has been
reading Wertsch & Tulviste's (1992) article in Developmental Psychology on
"LSV and contemporary dev psyc," along with Ch.7 of Mike Cole's
(1996) "Cultural Psychology," and some other items by Barbara Rogoff
(1993), Jean Lave (1990), Jackie Goodnow (1990), and my
(1997) chapter with Giyoo Hatano on "education, schooling and literacy".

Perhaps because they are an exceptionally multicultural group of thinkers,
with a range of primary socialization/enculturation contexts that
includes India, Mexico, Philippines, Spain, and Taiwan, as well as
African-American, Cherokee, and European-American sociocultural settings,
our discussion of Vygotsky's perspective focused more than it has in
previous years on its (and his) sociocultural origins. Some of us felt
that Vygotsky's intellectual roots were firmly within Western culture
(e.g. Marx and Engels), while others perceived him as drawing on a
non-Western, distinctively Russian tradition.

One dimension of contrast that drew particular attention was the
collectivist orientation of socialist ideology versus the rugged
individualism associated with capitalism and the Protestant ethic in
Western industrialized societies. This may partly have been fuelled by a
discussion early in the course of the concept of indigenization of
psychological theory as it has been discussed by Sinha (1997), Enriquez
(one of whose former students is in our class), and Nsamenang (who joined
us for a guest presentation).

Mike Cole's thoughtful remarks in Chapter 4 of his book include a
recognition that "American psychologists ... have selectively attended to
and borrowed from the ideas of Vygotsky and his followers," and that the
"translation and appropriation" of the theory "in new cultural-historical
circumstances" may have "transformed" the original beyond recognition
(pp. 114-5). Is it valid or illuminating, do you think, to inquire about
the cultural load of the theory in its various forms and phases of
development relative to pervasive and enduring themes in Western culture ?
And, if so, could one characterize it as a broadly Western cultural
construction ?

Robert

Robert Serpell tel: ( 410 ) 455 2417
Psychology Department 455 2567
University of Maryland Baltimore County
1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore MD 21250 fax: ( 410 ) 455 1055