I am currently using this book in a class on language, literacy and culture.
My grad students are mostly bilingual teachers from low income schools.
We are discussing this particular chapter tomorrow and will be glad to
send some feedback. Thus far they have appreciated the chapters on
psychological tools, the zopd and literature as a cultural tool. They
find it hard going at times but we have great discussions trying to
figure out what the author means. I particularly enjoyed Seth Chaiklin's
zopd piece because of the in depth analysis of it use and his use of
original documents to work at digging up what Vygotsky mean. Lots of
food for thought.
Esteban Diaz
----- Original Message -----
From: Phil Chappell <phil_chappell@access.inet.co.th>
Date: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 7:44 am
Subject: Re: "Unpacking" social interaction and social class
> A reply to Mike...
>
> Seems the wrong time to be pursuing this here, as analysis and
> emotions on
> other issues run high (understandably). If I can convince my
> friendly CUP
> rep here in Bangkok to arrange a copy for review (to be sent to a
> co-reviewer, as I already have a copy), I'd be pleased to co-
> author a
> review, if the MCA editors saw fit. After all, there are 20 papers.
>
> In the meantime, if anyone has had the chance to read Carolyn
> Panofsky's
> chapter, I'd be interested in getting some dialogue going;
> especially
> regarding the impact on classroom learning identities and agencies
> created
> by and through co-learners.
>
> Just to share my local ideas...social class in Thailand is, on the
> one
> hand, neatly defined by Western discourse (I gloss generally-held
> views
> that I perceive): the burgeoning middle class who mirror western
> ideals;
> the transient rural working class (who keep the economy primed by
> their low
> wage labour in construction, service and sex industry); the
> wealthy
> Thai-Chinese class who manage businesses. etc. Whether these
> static labels
> are present in daily interactions amongst the general population
> is not a
> very interesting question. WHAT social class labels are
> developed/applied/imposed by fellow learners during classroom
> language
> learning activity is a very interesting question, in terms of the
> interest
> in each learner's patterns of motives for language learning
> activity in
> various contexts.
>
> Other language learning in Thailand (English, Japanese, Chinese,
> Russian,
> etc) is a popular pursuit. Other language teaching in Thailand is
> often
> characterised by colonialist approaches (both sociological and
> pedagogical), although the country has never directly been
> colonised by
> western powers. As Carolyn Panofsky exhorts: sociocultural
> approaches to
> learning need to pay much more attention to the social creation of
> individual learner's identities and the relationship of learner
> identity to
> learning if we are to expand our praxis.
>
> Now I'm not sure if my little area of interest justifies this
> post, but
> it's getting late...
>
> Phil
>
>
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