[Xmca-l] Re: (no subject)

[Rod Parker-Rees]

Hi Caitlin,

You might also find Vera John-Steiner's work on 'Creative Collaboration' (2000, Oxford University Press) relevant to your study - and the book of letters to Vera edited by Robert Lake and Cathrene Connery ('Constructing a Community of Thought' Peter Lang Publishers 2013).

All the best,

Rod



-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of CAITLIN WUBBENA
Sent: 10 October 2013 17:35
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Cc: xmca-l@ucsd.edu
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: (no subject)

Thanks for your responses. A little more about the project: it's definitely
rooted in a strong experiential piece (I've noticed that kids who grew up
in hyper-structured environments seem to lack empathy, appropriate debate
skills, etc once they get to college. Also, more kids seem to grow up in
these hyper-structured environments...at least in the middle class
[Lareau]. Further, this is often discussed in informal settings like TED
talks [Ken Robinson, free range children]) coupled with a theoretical,
academic piece.

My background is in philosophy--so I'm most immediately drawn to the
theorists I mentioned in my initial post. My idea with this project is to
trace the history of conceptualizations of play in academia to illustrate
the context of this more colloquial conversation that happens on TED talks
and the like. I will also include "examples" to ground the theoretical
aspect...illustrations of play in Novalis' Novices of Sais and an essay on
play/identity formation by CD Wright, for example. Ultimately, the goal
will be to bring the informal conversation (back) into academia.

Long story short, I'm not quite sure where this will go yet. But I suspect
that the nature of the project might allow some room to incorporate a few
conceptualizations of play, as long as they lead to this central idea of
play as necessarily leading to productivity.

As a disclaimer, I haven't had a chance to read Vygotsky yet...in fact, I
just received the email that it has arrived in the library.


On Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 5:42 PM, Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>wrote:

> Caitlin,
> Maybe you could say a little more about what you mean by "play"?
> I suspect that you may be talking about an ontogenetically different thing
> from what is at the heart of Vygotsky's work (that's not to say that the
> two are unrelated, simply that some elaboration is needed...).
> -greg
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 11:05 AM, CAITLIN WUBBENA <cwubbena@gse.upenn.edu
> >wrote:
>
> > Hi! I am a graduate student at Penn working on my Master's paper in
> > foundations/philosophy of education. I am taking a course with Andrew
> > Babson and he recommended I post here for some feedback/advice.
> >
> > Loosely, my topic is centered on Plato's notion of play/seriousness. I
> want
> > to explore why intellectual play is vital for success in higher ed and
> > envision this particular project (it's a relatively short lit review) as
> an
> > analysis of the historical context that has allowed this conversation to
> > happen in academia. At this point, I plan to cite Plato, Kierkegaard
> > (Socratic irony), and Dewey. I've also been introduced to Vygotsky and
> > Kendall Walton. The main challenge is bridging the conversation to higher
> > ed.
> >
> > Any advice on where to go, books/articles to look into, etc would be
> > greatly appreciated!
> >
> > -Caitlin
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> Visiting Assistant Professor
> Department of Anthropology
> 883 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> Brigham Young University
> Provo, UT 84602
> http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
>
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