[Xmca-l] Re: Sociocritical Literacies and more context

[Glassman, Michael]

I am wondering - just an idea, half baked (a phrase that used to show up on the list quite a bit - half baked ideas not all the way there) is it possible to see narratives of life experience as two conflicting forces.  A collective zoped as mentioned, pulling you towards a community of practice - but also a process of conscientization as Freire proposes, a chance to see and understand who you are and break free of practices that have been imposed upon you.  Centripetal and centrifugal forces working together.

Michael
________________________________________
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] on behalf of Helena Worthen [helenaworthen@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2014 3:25 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Sociocritical Literacies and more context

How about Jean Lave's idea of community of practice? Non-school, collective learning in an apprenticeship relationship, inn which the "teacher" is the whole community of practice.

Helena


Helena Worthen
helenaworthen@gmail.com
hworthen@illinois.edu


On Dec 30, 2014, at 10:54 AM, rjsp2 wrote:

> Can I piggyback a request on this one about collective zoped. i've been
> thinking lately about the possible relationship between zoped and
> "comfort zone" - is there any work on that?
>
> Rob
>
> On 30/12/2014 18:43, Luisa Aires wrote:
>> I absolutely agree, Michael. My approach is proximal to what you consider
>> "to think of it as re-search in a more literal sense, to go through the
>> process of finding again". But sometimes, we need to catch more
>> conventional words to create common understandings ;-)
>>
>> Mike, I am wondering to find more information about colletive zoped. Where
>> can we find it?
>>
>> Best,
>> Luísa
>>
>> 2014-12-30 17:03 GMT+00:00 Glassman, Michael <glassman.13@osu.edu>:
>>
>>> Are either research techniques at all in the traditional sense?  And do we
>>> kind of confuse things by using the traditional phrase to describe it.
>>> Research in traditional academics is done to know and change might some day
>>> come from knowledge.  Are approaches like "testimonios" and "narratives of
>>> life experience" done more to change, and change will lead to a new type of
>>> knowing.  Is it better to think of it as re-search in a more literal sense,
>>> to go through the process of finding again.
>>>
>>> Michael
>>> ________________________________________
>>> From: xmca-l-bounces+glassman.13=osu.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu
>>> [xmca-l-bounces+glassman.13=osu.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu] on behalf of Luisa
>>> Aires [laires11@gmail.com]
>>> Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2014 11:30 AM
>>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Sociocritical Literacies and more context
>>>
>>> Hi Manuel
>>>
>>> Thank for your enlightening post.
>>> Is it correct to state that "testimonios" and "narratives of life
>>> experience" are synonymous research techniques?
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Luísa A.
>>>
>>> 2014-12-30 0:53 GMT+00:00 Espinoza, Manuel <Manuel.Espinoza@ucdenver.edu>:
>>>
>>>> Hello everyone,
>>>>
>>>> Hope this note finds you all well.  Just adding to the conversation on
>>>> literacies, social dreaming, the Migrant Program at UCLA (I was one of
>>> many
>>>> that served the students during the early 2000s) and testimonio.
>>>>
>>>> The idea of testimonio as an aspect of the "concrete" is cool.  To my
>>>> mind, within that realm of really rich Soviet/Russian thinking,
>>> testimonio
>>>> can be thought of as one way that human beings  remake social life guided
>>>> by intellect and heart.  (Think of what testimonio accomplished in the
>>>> context of 1980s Central America or mid-1990s South Africa.)  But the
>>> idea
>>>> of testimonio as an aspect of the "abstract" seems right on as well.
>>>> Testimonio is also meaningful and comprehensive thought that explains
>>>> reality better than what we had before.  Testimonio in the Migrant
>>> Program
>>>> seemed to be both.  Thus, as the beloved Rusos teach us, you can ascend
>>> to
>>>> both abstract and concrete.
>>>>
>>>> I think about the time and effort that went into creating the
>>>> autobiographies (a form of testimonio) that Profe Gutiérrez references.
>>>> They were a culmination for us as a scholarly community.  And they left
>>>> people altered.  (Another cool insight inspired by Hegel and Marx - when
>>>> humans learn, they become altered matter.  Living, breathing matter,
>>>> capable of experiencing.  And in the words of Piaget, I believe,
>>>> experiencing our experiences.)  The versatility, the many facets of
>>>> testimonio are beautiful to ruminate on.  Given my life experience, I
>>>> rejoice in thinking about the ways that testimonio - bearing witness to
>>>> life via narrative - can give historical depth to a person's actions, to
>>> a
>>>> community's actions.
>>>> To illustrate, I remember putting together the reader for the program.
>>> We
>>>> would stay all night in Moore Hall with making copies and feeling
>>> energized
>>>> in thinking about migrant families sending their high school-aged
>>> children
>>>> to reside and study with us for a month.  The way I pictured those
>>> families
>>>> - and this is key for people like Marx Wartofsky who cared deeply about
>>> the
>>>> actual look of our imaginations - was through a long corridor of
>>>> experience.  It was just me at 2am extending the look down the hallway,
>>> but
>>>> instead of a wall at the far end, I pictured families I knew, and
>>> imagined
>>>> the ones I didn't know.  I could see them and they could see me.  Our
>>> work
>>>> was similar in that instant: preparing the way for the youth.  At times,
>>> it
>>>> was incredibly vivid, but that grew over time and through the many
>>>> testimonios we fostered and experienced.  Even the testimonio requires
>>>> witness for it to live on.  (See: Carolyn Forché  and her "poetry of
>>>> witness.")  And that, too, had to be learned to an extent.  Who showed
>>> me?
>>>> Hector Álvarez, Carlos Tejeda, Profe Gutiérrez, Miguel Zavala, Shirin
>>>> Vossoughi, the migrant parents, and others.  Now, that was a scholarly
>>>> community.
>>>>
>>>> Forgive the somewhat long message.  I been looking to post for years, but
>>>> in the words of the Ents from Middle Earth, I wanted to say something
>>> that
>>>> took time to say.  See you again in 2018 :)
>>>>
>>>> Respetuosamente,
>>>>
>>>> Manuel Luis Espinoza
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Manuel
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Department of Education and Distance Learning, Universidade Aberta
>>> Centre of Studies on Migrations and Intercultural Relations (CEMRI)
>>> R. Amial, nº 752, 4200-055 Porto, Portugal
>>> laires@uab.pt
>>> www.uab.pt
>>>
>>>
>>
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