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

[Peter Smagorinsky]

There's probably way too much going on here already for me to find a comfortable niche. One complication I'd like to add concerns a distinction I recently learned of from an indigenous scholar, that between postcolonialism and decolonialism. There's a good rudimentary distinction at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decoloniality . The goals are relatively similar, but the perspective is not. Decolonialists consider postcolonialism to be the province of Western academicians, rather than arising from indigenous people themselves. I find both perspectives compelling, although suspect that postcolonialism is the only one to which I have access as a Western male academician. Nothing wrong with that, since I've learned a lot from reading this literature and using it for a study (currently in review with a journal, so not something I should be public about at this point). But it's a distinction worth making on a listserv in which cultural practices and associated worldviews have primacy.

I've also had problems attempting to use "third space" in some studies, because there's disagreement on what it means. There's an article at http://dpj.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/dpj1/article/view/73/55 that I coauthored recently that involves a hybrid classroom space for interpreting Hamlet via spoken work poetry using rap conventions. In our initial drafts sent to review, reviewers excoriated our description of these hybrid spaces as third spaces, using Kris Gutierrez's work to assert that third spaces necessarily involve resistance against hegemonic classroom practices and structures. We read a lot of Kris's work, and ultimately agreed with that criticism, the main problem being that others (e.g., Elizabeth Moje) doing literacy research don't necessarily require resistance in the construction of hybrid spaces. So, I think that the term really needs to be parsed out in terms of its ideological roots and the research that produced the conception. In our work, we elected to go with hybrid, which is less politically charged, than third space, which at least in Kris's conception is heavily political and oriented to whose power gets asserted.  

I know Kris is out there and perhaps can clarify. It took me quite a while to read enough to arrive at the perspective I've briefly outlined here, so the issues are not trivial and they are challenging. But they are worth sorting out, I think. p

-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Aria Razfar
Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2014 1:32 PM
To: 'eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity'
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Sociocritical Literacies and more context

Larry,

The specific stance that is amplified by the intersections of "third space" post-colonial theory, sociocultural theory, and "testimonio" is somewhat apparent in the language choice. There is no English equivalent because there cannot be an English equivalent. At least, there cannot be an "English-Only" equivalent. It represents a movement toward an indigenous stance on voice, agency, knowledge, certainty, validity, language choice, and learning. I say a "movement toward" because Spanish itself carries similar baggage especially within the Latin American context. This is the rationale for why some use the Aztec idea of Nepantla instead of "Third Space" (e.g., Rochelle Guiterrez, Gloria Anzaldua). "Testimonio" further complicates what it means for "subalterns" to "reclaim voice" through the dominant voice. This is the heart-wrenching question raised by Spivak, "Can the subaltern speak?" Both the altern and the subaltern need to "step outside" the inscribed institutional roles, together in order to move "to the roots of our being human together." Spivak was specfically critiqueing "the Western intellectual" voice wondering if it truly could be a tool of liberation. It seems like a "core" identity question as we move through various historical entanglements seeking answers to ontological questions of self in relation to other. Also looking forward to this type of re-search.       

Aria





Aria Razfar, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Literacy, Language, and Culture Director of Graduate Studies, Curriculum and Instruction University of Illinois at Chicago
1040 W. Harrison St. M/C 147
Chicago, IL, 60607

Director of English Learning through Mathematics, Science and Action Research (ELMSA) www.elmsa.org

Webpage: http://education.uic.edu/personnel/faculty/aria-razfar-phd
Tel: 312-413-8373
Fax: 312-996-8134

This is the heart-wrenching question raised by Spivak, "Can the subaltern speak?" Both the altern and the subaltern need to "step outside" the inscribed roles, together in order to move "to the roots of our being human together." It seems like a "core" identity question as we move through various historical entanglements seeking answers to ontological questions of self in relation to other. Also looking forward to this type of re-search.       

Aria 


-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-l-bounces+arazfar=uic.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces+arazfar=uic.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Larry Purss
Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2014 10:08 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Sociocritical Literacies and more context

Aria,
I want to repeat and amplify your suggestion :

It is important to clarify what is meant by "third space" and its analogous concepts in various schools of thought (e.g., liminality, double consciousness, third place, etc.). The post-colonial uptake of third space (e.g., Said, Bhaba, Spivak) within the sociocultural theory is a very specific stance and this might be the moment for that conversation as well.

To focus on the *third space* as a VERY SPECIFIC stance.
I would like to become clear on the centrality of *witnessing* as central or the re-search fades away.
Also terms such as *mutuality* contrasted with *reciprocity* or *transactions*.

Testimonios as neither subjective [alone] or objective [alone] but a hybrid MODE that is a form of witnessing.
I would also suggest the theme of *gift* as more than transaction or echange [in continental philosophy traditions] is relevant.

There is a *spirit* and a moral virtue within this form of witnessing as *third space* that plays around with notions of *trans* as moving across forms [horizons] as trans-versals [or trans-verse-als] .
I have an intuition that this type of witnessing is radical, going to the roots of our being human together.

Aria, I look forward to further re-search Larry

On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 12:00 PM, Aria Razfar <arazfar@uic.edu> wrote:

> For those of us working with Kris' sociocritical perspective, third 
> space has been a valuable construct for thinking about collective 
> learning zopeds and consciousness for that matter. It is important to 
> clarify what is meant by "third space" and its analogous concepts in 
> various schools of thought (e.g., liminality, double consciousness, 
> third place, etc.). The post-colonial uptake of third space (e.g., 
> Said, Bhaba, Spivak) within the sociocultural theory is a very 
> specific stance and this might be the moment for that conversation as well.
>
> Aria
>
> Aria Razfar, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Literacy, Language, and Culture Director of 
> Graduate Studies, Curriculum and Instruction University of Illinois at 
> Chicago
> 1040 W. Harrison St. M/C 147
> Chicago, IL, 60607
>
> Director of English Learning through Mathematics, Science and Action 
> Research (ELMSA) www.elmsa.org
>
> Webpage: http://education.uic.edu/personnel/faculty/aria-razfar-phd
> Tel: 312-413-8373
> Fax: 312-996-8134
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu
> [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Kris Gutierrez
> Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2014 2:56 PM
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Sociocritical Literacies and more context
>
> Annalisa, Manuel initiated the last uptake. (I think others have 
> clarified that now :)
>
> Mike C., Miguel Zavala, Larry Purss and I posted some thoughts before 
> the holidays.  For me it is useful to connect Manuel’s recent post to 
> those earlier thoughts/conversations.
>
> Some very quick very unedited thoughts following up on Manuel’s post:
>
> Michael G., Mike C. correctly points out that the 
> testimonios/autobiographies were not research techniques but 
> generative tools that were indeed a part of the interconnected set of 
> practices that created a collective zoped—a third space if you will.
> I try to elaborate this idea in the Scribner Lecture piece 
> (sociocritical literacies).  My own work on Third Space, the 
> collective work of the instructional team of MSI, ongoing 
> conversations with Mike C. and Yrjo over the years at the lab, and 
> their work certainly informed this idea of a collective zoped, 
> collective third space  (See Engeström, 1987, 1994 in particular; 
> Nicolopoulou & Cole, 1993; Tuomi-Gröhn & Engeström, 2003; Tuomi- 
> Gröhn, Engeström, & Young, 2003; Chaiklin, 2003, Moll, 1990; Moll & 
> Greenberg, 1990 as key examples that certainly inform this work as well. And LSV and Bakhtin are ever present).
> These, I think, are useful references, all cited in the article. 
> Shirin Vossoughi’s recent MCA piece also is very relevant to this discussion.
>
> Some relevant excerpts from the sociocritical article,
>
> "To illustrate these points and their relation to a collective Third 
> Space, let us examine the MSLI more closely.
> The activity system, the MSLI, has a specific internal logic organized 
> around expanding the students’ sociohistorical and educational ecology 
> through the collective imagining of a new educational and 
> sociopolitical future.
> To avoid the “interactional reductionism implicit in much 
> Vygotskian-inspired research” (Nicolopoulou & Cole, 1993, p. 284), the 
> specific interactions and practices of the MSLI are understood as what 
> Nicolopoulou and Cole call a “genuinely collective reality” (p. 284).
>
> Here we see the [Migrant] institute as an example of the Third Space, 
> a collective zo-ped, at the larger level of activity the object of 
> which is the sociohistorical reconstruction of what it means to be a 
> migrant student.
> This movement involves a process of becoming conscious “historical actors”
> (Espinoza, 2003) who invoke the past in order to re-mediate it so that 
> it becomes a resource for current and future action (p. 154)."
>
> Testimonios and their embodiment in Teatro del Oprimido (Boal’s 
> Theatre of the Oppressed that Manuel introduced to us and the program 
> and that he and Vossoughi elaborated) were key means of 
> developing/inciting a new social and pedagogical imagination and for 
> imagining new futures with/for the migrant students, their 
> communities, and indeed for all of us, as Manuel so thoughtfully 
> writes. Teatro served as a collective problem-solving space—a space 
> where the playful imagination helped to make inequities and the roots 
> of social problems visible, while providing an opportunity to re-frame 
> events, re-mediate and enact an imagined future collectively (such as 
> flying collectively/social dreaming).  I hope Manuel and Shirin jump 
> in and elaborate these thoughts.
>
> Re: Research design:  For me, Migrant was in Yrjo and Mike's approach, 
> a formative experiment; what I term social design experiments—a 
> designed based research approach that foregrounds equity, diversity, 
> historicity, and re-mediation, for example. As Susan Jurow and I wrote 
> and presented at the ICLS conference this summer (a piece that we 
> expect will be part of a larger set of papers with Mike C., Yrjo and 
> Annalisa, and Bill Penuel), social design experiments: aim to make 
> possible a sustainable and dignified life for all humans; address the 
> challenges of leveraging cultural diversity and reducing social 
> inequality; and call for the co-design of new tools and futures with 
> members of non-dominant communities, as but a few key design 
> principles.
>
>      Absolutely, research as re-searching—searching for the answer to 
> a question you have searched for repeatedly without success! Well 
> said, Miguel Cole! Thanks, for your thoughts, Michael Glassman!
>
>      more on sociocritical literacies, later.   kris
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Kris Gutierrez
> gutierkd@gmail.com
>
> Kris D. Gutiérrez
> Professor
> Graduate School of Education
> 5629 Tolman Hall #1670
> University of California, Berkeley
> Berkeley CA 94720-1670
>
> Distinguished Professor
> Learning Sciences and Literacy
> School of Education
> University of Colorado, Boulder
>
>
> > On Dec 30, 2014, at 9:50 AM, Annalisa Aguilar <annalisa@unm.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Hello!
> >
> > Sorry for being silly here, but I couldn't help but see that so far 
> > on
> this thread, there have been appearances by:
> >
> > mike, Annalisa, Michael, Luisa, and Miguel!
> >
> >
>
>
>
>