[Xmca-l] Re: Social Science Is Busted. But the NIH Has a Plan thatCould Fix It | WIRED

[mike cole]

Its the resumption part of your statement that is among what I am pointing
to, Larry.
Its as if we had to get back to some idealized form of enculturation that
infused the public sphere but that did not involve problems of
conformity-to-the-past and adult power over the institutional lives of
those-not-yet-adult slotting them into a society whose opportunity
structures seem often to stay pretty stable except under conditions of
severe shock/change.

But when I go back to the beginning of formal education in the IPBS mode
(institutionalized public basic schooling) I see far too much continuity.
Viz, the 4000 year old school that i attach to articles about the social
origins of schooling.

Schooling might just be piling up stuff faster for the Angelus Novus to
contemplate as it zooms at increasing speed from Eden. Felt like progress
at the time, but it is hurtling us willy nilly into the unknown!

But as David points out, it sure seems fair to give kids a shot at
acquiring the knowledge/experience that will keep them safe and dry and
leading happier futures.

And it sure does give one something to think about when not using one's
thumbs to txt the world or one's fingers to peck on the keyboard, but the
kids have gone to sleep and its quiet for an hour or your three o'clock
appointment cancels and you have an hour to kill.


Killing time is an odd idea. Who has time to kill time even if we agreed on
what time "really is" so we could codify qualitative changes in feelings
"over" time and make money?

:-)

mike


On Sun, Nov 27, 2016 at 5:03 PM, <lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:

> Mike,
>
> The term that comes to mind is education as  (handmaiden) and the relation
> of what is  referred to as education in relation to other notions such as
> (educational psychology) or (educational anthropology).
>
>
>
> If we exist within worlds of significance that give our lives deep
> meaning, then we must recognize how education has withdrawn from the public
> sphere as being the core or central form of relation nurturing and
> developing and keeping alive worlds of significance.
>
>
>
> Education must be resumed and retake its central*ity to our human being
> and not the handmaiden of all these other concerns and disciplines.
>
>
>
>
>
> Sent from my Windows 10 phone
>
>
>
> *From: *mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu>
> *Sent: *November 27, 2016 4:39 PM
> *To: *eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> *Subject: *[Xmca-l] Re: Social Science Is Busted. But the NIH Has a Plan
> thatCould Fix It | WIRED
>
>
>
> I just got to this message, Larry.
>
> I agree, everyone on xmca should read the article, not only because it is
>
> relevant to Margaret and Carrie's paper vis a vis the trajectory of
>
> neoliberal exaggerations of trends visible from Bush onward and if Mill can
>
> be used as an authority, back to the origins of modern mass schooling. It
>
> is also directly relevant to the kinds of pressures that current and future
>
> generations of social science researchers will face in terms of grants and
>
> publications. For example:
>
>
>
> * For one, the plan calls for scientists to nail down and agree on
>
> terminology for different concepts so researchers aren’t just talking past
>
> each other. “Often, in behavioral science, people talk about different
>
> phenomena but really mean the same thing,” says Riley. Or the opposite
>
> happens: Chemists don’t squabble about what oxygen is, but if psychologists
>
> convene a conference on a fuzzier concept like “trust,” says Colin Camerer
>
> <http://people.hss.caltech.edu/~camerer/index.htm>, an economist at
>
> Caltech, they’ll spend the first two days disagreeing about what the word
>
> actually means.*
>
>
>
> *That ambiguity gets tricky when researchers are trying to share and
>
> compare datasets, especially the massive ones scientists work with
>
> nowadays. (If you’re trying to compare variables in two datasets both named
>
> “resilience,” how do you know they’re really the same thing?) To fix these
>
> problems, the plan suggests, scientists should settle on rigorously defined
>
> terms. “We need to figure out what we mean when we say ‘depression,’ and
>
> how to define it—either by using the same measures, or by calibrating with
>
> the same framework,” Riley says.*
>
>
>
> ​The first paragraph rings true to me and ought to at least resonate with
>
> even the most legitimate peripheral participant on xmca. The theory
> ladeness
>
> of core terms is so very clearly laid out in this imaginary idea-cocktail
>
> party. And as the second paragraph makes clear, its all about coding, which
>
> David has introduced into the conversation.
>
>
>
> Overall, I think its relevant to both the theory and practice that serves
>
> as the content of xmca.
>
> To quote a Soviet favorite. What is to be done?.
>
>
>
> With respect to the current article under discussion, that is the question
>
> I have been trying to push vis a vis those of us whose work is
>
> professionally tied up with education. Suppose the critique is correct and
>
> that the nature of the alternative is specified to the level present in the
>
> article.Here is a quote from the conclusion about which there has been some
>
> discussion.
>
>
>
> * In other words, we as teachers, students, parents, and researchers must
>
> articulate new ways of​ making selves intelligible in the contexts of our
>
> lives, including producing “identities-with-standing”​ that encompass the
>
> qualities we want to promote, identities that index a way-of-being that
>
> brings​ special pride and a sense of self-worth with respect to qualities
>
> that matter. In the case of schools and*
>
>
>
> *classrooms, these qualities might include intellectual curiosity, serious
>
> deliberation, citizen participation,*
>
> *​ *
>
> *social critique, and deep knowledge and understanding​.*
>
>
>
>
>
> ​Do we come up with "indexes of 'identities with standing'"? Or "social
>
> critique" (no problem with knowledge and understanding, we have test
>
> scores.  :-)  ).
>
>
>
> How does this collection of legitimately peripheral participants in so many
>
> lifeworlds address this situation as relevant academic "experts"?
>
> (my son often reminds me that an expert is just a drip under pressure).
>
>
>
> Odd historical circumstances when Lenin's "what is to be done" question is
>
> posed in such an upside down confluence of historically antonymous
>
> ideologies and world systems.  ​
>
>
>
> mike​
>
>
>
> *​*
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Nov 24, 2016 at 2:16 PM, <lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > This may be of interest on the topic of standardization and replication
>
> > and measurement phenomena as what seems to be driving the desire for
>
> > (exact) science and how it is colonizing social studies
>
> > Social Science Is Busted. But the NIH Has a Plan that Could Fix It
>
> > The NIH's Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research is responding
>
> > to a fundamental shift in social science research.
>
> >
>
> >
>
> > https://www.wired.com/2016/11/social-science-busted-nih-plan-fix/
>
> > Sent from my Windows 10 phone
>
> >
>
> >
>
>
>
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