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

[Greg Thompson]

Helena,
Your post about a "pedagogy of the oppressor" being what we have today
seems apt as you state it but is precisely the opposite of what I had meant
by the idea in the first place.

Rather, my point was that perhaps more important than a pedagogy of the
oppressed is the need for a pedagogy of the oppressors - a pedagogy that
can teach (and yes liberate) those persons who occupy the position of
"oppressors".

I find it strange to think that it is only the oppressed who need to be
educated.

As to Francine's question of "who are the oppressors?", I have a tendency
to view human beings rather optimistically. I'm not a big fan of
Machiavellian imaginings of "elites" who hold power and pull strings to
their great benefit while others suffer and the elites laugh maniacally. I
think that the situation, as Francine notes, is a bit more complicated, and
perhaps a bit less pleasant.

My sense is that the best way to understand "who are the oppressors" is as
"those who benefit disproportionately from the current system of power, and
as a result as those who unthinkingly support the current system of power."

Thus, the "oppressors" certainly include elites who hugely benefit from the
way things are but I don't think that they necessarily do it for malicious
reasons. I think these elites often want others to succeed as much as they
have - working on the assumption that everyone can have a disproportionate
share of the pie (cf. Keilor's Minnesota town where all the kids are above
average), but these elites have not been properly educated to be able to
recognize that not everyone can have a disproportionate share of the pie.
(and here is where the Lave quote you mentioned is really important and it
seems like an understanding of the social and collective nature of human
capacities would be an important part of any pedagogy of the oppressors in
my sense of the term (i.e., what oppressors SHOULD know) since a highly
individualistic view of the world serves to justify the place of the elites
and hence is a part of the pedagogy of the oppressors in your sense of the
term (i.e., what people learn today).

But I think that the "oppressors" should also include many non-elites who
have benefitted disproportionately from the way things are and who thus
don't have much of an incentive to see things change. I wouldn't want to go
so far as to say that we are all oppressors but I also wouldn't want to
draw any hard and fast lines regarding who counts as oppressor and who as
oppressed. We all are, to some degree, both. But we are certainly more of
one than the other as we move through the world and as the world changes
around (and through!) us.

And apologies to the keepers of this thread for I fear we have hijacked
third space!
Oh the irony.
(is it too late to move the thread over? Perhaps if anyone has a response,
they could start anew?)
-greg


On Sun, Jan 4, 2015 at 12:58 PM, Helena Worthen <helenaworthen@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Larry (and I know I'm violating my principle of not addressing people by
> name):
>
> The comment is part of a quote from Lave. Yes, she was addressing the
> elite -- mostly professors of one sort or another, and selected from among
> those professors who could get funding to go to AERA. But good-hearted
> people, nonetheless!
>
> You're right about how hard it is to untangle the knots into which
> different pedagogies are tied. One way is to think of the whole regime as
> an activity system, which is defined by its purpose. Simpler, and probably
> better, is to ask what I've heard called "the Freireian questions": "For
> whom, by whom, and for what purpose?" I think I heard Peter McClaren use
> these questions. I actually saw them posted on the wall of the union hall
> of the teachers' union in Mexico City -- one of the Coordinadora
> (dissenting) unions; dissenting from the neoliberal project of
> privatization. (Note that the murder of the 43 student teachers is all part
> of this movement and it's suppression).
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinadora_Nacional_de_Trabajadores_de_la_Educación
>
> I work in a field that distinguishes itself explicitly from the Pedagogy
> of the Oppressor regime. (I have to laugh when I write this -- it sounds
> pretty stiff!). The people I teach are likely to have long since given up
> on the "social dream" that you speak of, since they've seen their real
> wages go down and their labor rights attacked. Labor education is "For
> whom" -- working people who want better, safer jobs; "By whom" -- often,
> people like me with both teaching and union experience, but better yet,
> educated union activists teaching each other, " and "For what purpose?" --
> to build enough collective power and capacity to make changes in their own
> workplaces first, in society second.
>
> It's not something anyone can do alone, so the whole project is collective.
>
> I'm happy to change the subject line if anyone else wants to untangle the
> Pedagogy of the Oppressor notion. Looking back, I think the idea was first
> uttered as a joke -- that I decided to take seriously.
>
> H
>
>
> Helena Worthen
> helenaworthen@gmail.com
>
> On Jan 4, 2015, at 10:30 AM, Larry Purss wrote:
>
> > Helena,
> > Your comment...
> >
> > "the logic that makes success exceptional": [at elite centers of
> learning]
> >
> > How do we move beyond this social *fact* that the desire and wish to be
> > "exceptional" is the current "social dream" of many who participate in
> > "social dreaming"?  When reading about the "social dreaming" of "third
> > spaces" the "designers" of this social dream often work from  these elite
> > centers of learning.
> > I assumethat where Lave gave her address she was also speaking to a group
> > of "exceptional" learners who arrived to listen to her from elite centers
> > of learning.
> >
> > Being "exceptional" [rather than ordinary] is one of the main values
> > perpetuated at "elite" centers. How do we come to value "ordinary"
> learning
> > if the centers from which social dreaming is often developed are places
> of
> > exceptionality.
> >
> > THIS TYPE OF LOGIC seems to be a particularly difficult notion to
> untangle
> > when the knots themselves are developed at elite centers of learning.
> Elite
> > centers  also become the forum for distributing the *truth* of many
> social
> > dreams [and often give the social dreams legitimacy]
> >
> > Larry
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Jan 4, 2015 at 9:47 AM, Helena Worthen <helenaworthen@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Greg -
> >>
> >> Quickly, since the thread is moving on. I'm arguing that a "Pedagogy of
> >> the Oppressor" is what we've got going on throughout our educational
> >> system. At the elite heights, students learn how to rule the world; in
> the
> >> depths, the same pedagogy functions as social control.
> >>
> >> Here is a quote from Lave's article "teaching, as Learning, in
> Practice,"
> >> which was published in MCA vol 3 no 3. The article is drawn from her
> >> acceptance speech at AERA when she got the Sylvia Scribner award. She
> says:
> >>
> >> "...theories that conceive of learning as a special universal mental
> >> process impoverish and mis-recognize it...Theories that reduce learning
> to
> >> individual mental capacity/activity in the last instance blame
> marginalized
> >> people for being marginal. Common theories of learning begin and end
> with
> >> individual (though these days they often nod at "the social" or "the
> >> environment" in between). Such theories are deeply concerned with
> >> individual differences, with notions of better and worse, more and less
> >> learning, and with comparison of these things across
> >> group-of-individuals... the logic that makes success exceptional but
> >> nonetheless characterizes lack of success as not normal won't do. A
> >> reconsideration of learning as a social, collective, rather than
> >> individual, psychological phenomenon offers the only way beyond the
> current
> >> state of affiars that i can envision at the present time."
> >>
> >> It sounds to me as if she is thinking of (although this was 1996) both
> No
> >> Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. Right? But she was writing just
> when
> >> the trend in that direction was getting going. the Clinton years, when
> >> people were intoxicated with the first vast applications of computer
> >> technology which would make testing so much easier.
> >>
> >> Helena
> >>
> >>
> >> Helena Worthen
> >> helenaworthen@gmail.com
> >>
> >> On Jan 3, 2015, at 12:50 PM, greg.a.thompson@gmail.com wrote:
> >>
> >>> Helena,
> >>> I was hoping that others might be able to tell me that this has already
> >> been done. Seems like lots of people are in this kind of game but nobody
> >> has really talked about it explicitly (as far as I can tell - maybe some
> >> whiteness theorists but in a very circumscribed way). and I'm quite
> certain
> >> that no one has deal with it in a sufficiently sophisticated manner to
> be
> >> able to hedge off the kinds of concerns that Francine raises.
> >>> Anyone have any thoughts? Perhaps this should be a different thread?
> >>> And yes, Freire has this on his radar but not nearly explicitly enough
> >> to where it could be employed I. Some meaningful way in practice.
> >>> Greg
> >>> Ps, and yes my comment entirely sidesteps definitional issues of who
> >> counts as subaltern or not. That is a huge  and mucky issue. But not
> sure
> >> it is worth getting bogged down in it...
> >>>
> >>> Sent from my iPhone
> >>>
> >>>> On Jan 3, 2015, at 12:24 PM, Helena Worthen <helenaworthen@gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> Greg -- that's a great idea.  I think is has been done, but without a
> >> label. Want to nominate an example?
> >>>>
> >>>> Helena
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Helena Worthen
> >>>> helenaworthen@gmail.com
> >>>>
> >>>>> On Jan 3, 2015, at 8:21 AM, Greg Thompson wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Seems to me that Spivak's "Can the subaltern speak?" is just as much
> a
> >>>>> question of "Can the Western intellectual hear/listen?"
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Makes me wonder about articulating a Pedagogy of the Oppressors.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> -greg
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> On Thu, Jan 1, 2015 at 7:58 AM, Aria Razfar <arazfar@uic.edu>
> wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Miguel/Mike,
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> I think we have a testimonio here. We have questions borne out of a
> >>>>>> traumatic historical and social episode (WWII), followed by a
> movement
> >>>>>> outward "going East," only to discover one's self "Dewey." The self
> >> becomes
> >>>>>> an allegory for the whole. It may seem that Spivak is saying
> >> translation is
> >>>>>> impossible, but I think a testimonio shows the possibility of
> >> translation.
> >>>>>> Thanks for this gift and happy new year!
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Aria
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>>>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:
> >>>>>> xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of mike cole
> >>>>>> Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2014 2:23 PM
> >>>>>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> >>>>>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Sociocritical Literacies and more context
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> I inherited such questions as part of my family history and my
> coming
> >> to
> >>>>>> age during the period of post world war II decolonization, Aria,
> well
> >>>>>> before I travelled East, as you suggest. Interestingly, it was in
> >> going in
> >>>>>> East that I discovered Dewey.... such was the form of education that
> >> led to
> >>>>>> my phd.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Concerning misleading translations.
> >>>>>> I have PLENTY of problems with issues of translating Vygotsky, in
> >> words
> >>>>>> and in practice! Ask any Russian or scholar whose knowledge of
> >> Russian was
> >>>>>> acquired after the age of 20! (Plenty right here on xmca, one I can
> >> see
> >>>>>> logged into gmail right now). There is a piece in MCA a while back
> on
> >> the
> >>>>>> perils of translating a key term involving
> >> eaching/learning/instruction
> >>>>>> that is part of an ongoing set of questions about the meaning of the
> >> term,
> >>>>>> zone of proximal development.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Peter's note with the distinction between decolonial/postcolonial
> >> seems to
> >>>>>> pick up on some of the themes that various folks who participated in
> >> the
> >>>>>> Migrant program are making.  Gotta check out wikipedia on third
> >> spaces. The
> >>>>>> metaphor sure has a lot of homes in a lot of discourse communities
> >> and I
> >>>>>> suspect that some translation will be needed!
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> mike
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>> On Wed, Dec 31, 2014 at 11:49 AM, Aria Razfar <arazfar@uic.edu>
> >> wrote:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Mike, would you say that you have been seeking answers to these
> >>>>>>> questions by "going East"? I think Spivak would agree with the
> second
> >>>>>>> question. In "Translating into English" she talks about how
> >>>>>>> "generations of empiricist English translators have missed the
> point
> >>>>>>> with Marx's philosophical presuppositions, translated 'inhaltslos'
> as
> >>>>>>> 'slight in content' and thus made nonsense out of the entire
> >>>>>>> discussion of value. You may have had a smiliar experience
> >> translating
> >>>>>> Vygotsky.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Here it is:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> http://przeklad.nazwa.pl/schowek/spivak2.pdf
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Aria
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>>>>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:
> >>>>>>> xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of mike cole
> >>>>>>> Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2014 1:07 PM
> >>>>>>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> >>>>>>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Sociocritical Literacies and more context
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Aria--- I had not read the Spivak article, although the question
> she
> >>>>>>> asks is one I have been asking myself for half a century. And, I
> >> would
> >>>>>>> add, under what conditions?
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> I found the article here in case others share my ignorance.
> >>>>>>> mike
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >> http://www.mcgill.ca/files/crclaw-discourse/Can_the_subaltern_speak.pd
> >>>>>>> f
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> On Wed, Dec 31, 2014 at 10:31 AM, Aria Razfar <arazfar@uic.edu>
> >> wrote:
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> 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
> >>>>>>>> xmca-l-bounces+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!
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> --
> >>>>>>> It is the dilemma of psychology to deal with a natural science as
> an
> >>>>>>> object that creates history. Ernst Boesch.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> --
> >>>>>> It is the dilemma of psychology to deal with a natural science as an
> >>>>>> object that creates history. Ernst Boesch.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> --
> >>>>> Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> >>>>> Assistant Professor
> >>>>> Department of Anthropology
> >>>>> 880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> >>>>> Brigham Young University
> >>>>> Provo, UT 84602
> >>>>> http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
>
>
>


-- 
Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson