[Xmca-l] Re: The Learning Sciences in the era of U.S. Nationalism

[mike cole]

Alfredo et al-

Larry spoke of the a-historical, "future oriented" nature of the Trump
rhetoric. Many of us have railed against the a-historicalness of our social
science discourses.A rare agreement among all varieties of socio-cultural-
historical theories, is that to understand behavior is to understand the
history of behavior including of course of nation states, homosapiens, etc.

Alfredo mentions that in conversations with him I have said that to me this
is a "second coming" because the circumstances now have returned me to the
conditions of my birth. (Of course, it is a third, fourth, nnnnnnth coming
but that takes us beyond surviving generations with personal experience* of
the war to end all wars that ended in 1918. Gosh, 100 years.)

One thing we can do is remember. In this context, Milan Kundera's statement
that the struggle of humans against power is the struggle of memory against
forgetting. So, one thing the oldsters on the list can do is to provide
information about that period, before World War II, and bring to everyone's
mind those events in the hope that current generations may profit from
their living past.

In that spirit, I thought it might be useful to consider how the phrase
America First was playing out in the late 1930's and beyond. Look at the
caste of characters. I think you will be surprised if you know any of the
names. If you do not, sing out and someone can identify them, left and
right.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_First_Committee

mike

On Sun, Jan 22, 2017 at 6:47 AM, <lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:

> Robert, Michael, Alfredo, Andy, and James Lawson (channeled through Andy)
>
> So ... As Robert says the 21st century ‘mind’ constantly in flight
> searching for something ‘new’.
> In contrast to perezhivanie as a doubling back : (living-through AND THEN
> working-through) experience which each of you exemplify through your
> ex/pression in the world.
> A consistent reply to the era of US nationalism embodied in who each of
> you are.
>
> Sent from my Windows 10 phone
>
> From: Robert Lake
> Sent: January 22, 2017 6:27 AM
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: The Learning Sciences in the era of U.S. Nationalism
>
> Thank you for this posting Michael. I've been thinking for the last few
> days
> about how the Internet, social media, 24-hour news, and now electronic
> versions of the major newspapers in the world, leave very little time
> for self reflection. This was a large part of Dewey's thinking and
> and Freire's notion of conscientização ( translated critical
> consciousness, but like many words that LSV used, there is something
> lost in translation). The  notion of Praxis as Freire used it (reflection
> and action)
> also gets at the heart of this immense missing piece in the formation of
> 21st century "mind" as we
> witness it jumping to see and hear something "new". Can there be
>  real "progress" without transformative change of thought and action?
>
> *Robert Lake*
>
>
> On Sun, Jan 22, 2017 at 8:41 AM, Glassman, Michael <glassman.13@osu.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > Hi Alfredo,
> >
> > Your short post is deeply resonant for me and I find your questions at
> the
> > end especially poignant.  For Dewey and those around him education was
> > supposed to be the backstop against the rise of somebody like Trump.
> > Lately I have been thinking that in some ways we treat Trump as if he had
> > come from some type of other planet to dominate and destroy us - a
> Twilight
> > Zone episode - To Serve Man with Small Hands Perhaps.  But that keeps us
> > from thinking about the causes proximal and distal that have caused this
> to
> > happen - not only here but around the world.  There seems to be limited
> > self-reflection.  How much has what we have let the education systems
> > become has played into this - the insane competition, the
> standardization,
> > the control through ritual.  And as education researchers we often say to
> > the larger society, we'll make your children do better, to be more
> > competitive, we'll be number one, or at least number six on PISA -
> instead
> > of saying we are losing the thread, we are losing too much of what is
> > possible through education.
> >
> > Michael
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@
> > mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Alfredo Jornet Gil
> > Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2017 3:25 AM
> > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> > Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: The Learning Sciences in the era of U.S.
> Nationalism
> >
> > Mike,
> >
> > thanks a lot for sharing this article. You and Michael, who have and know
> > more history, have spoken in terms of reminiscences. I have lived and
> know
> > less, and the article feels like fresh air. During my PhD, I begun to
> > increasingly feel that I had to due something to act and respond to the
> > increasing ecological and humanitarian globe crises. But how could I do
> > anything if I had children and a PhD to finalise?? What could I do that
> > would also be doing my job as researcher in a department of education? It
> > was very difficult to find anything, partly because almost every academic
> > quest would focus on learning, but so little on social development. How
> > many scientific articles are dedicated to socio-political questions in
> the
> > most cited educational journals? I felt very powerless.
> >
> > To be able to address these questions within my expertise, is a challenge
> > partly because contrary to Dewey's hope, educational research has only
> > marginally focused on these questions, and yet they may be exactly the
> > question that matter to education. What are we educating for? Indeed,
> what
> > is education for? I think we face a serious problem when someone (like
> > myself), being an educational researchers/scholar, still has to scratch
> her
> > head wondering <<how can I make my profession matter to social change and
> > development?>> Vygotsky would be shocked!
> >
> > Alfredo
> >
> >
> > From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> > on behalf of mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu>
> > Sent: 19 January 2017 04:51
> > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> > Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: The Learning Sciences in the era of U.S.
> Nationalism
> >
> > Yes Michael,
> >
> > It feels like the world of the later 1930's about the time I was born as
> > that period came down to me through the prism of a family of "premature
> > anti fascists."
> >
> > For a great re-creation of those times see the highly ambivalent film by
> > Frank Capra, "meet John Doe." It has American big capital interconnected
> > with fascism combined with populist collectivism in a manner that points
> at
> > the media (as then experienced) as the bad guys in disguise. Happy
> Ending,
> > Beethoven Ode to Joy and all.
> >
> > It's come round again, nastier this time.
> >
> > Mike
> > On Wed, Jan 18, 2017 at 6:20 PM Glassman, Michael <glassman.13@osu.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Mike
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > It was so interesting to read this note after reading the Cognition
> > > and Instruction essay.  All the way through it I kept thinking we have
> > > been here before.  It reminded me of the scholars, especially those
> > > who had escaped from Germany, trying to make sense of what had
> > > happened to their society during World War II.  The foremost in my
> > > mind was Lewin.  Except I wonder if he would say the process of
> > > transformative action starts not with emergence of quasi-needs, but
> > > our willingness and abilities to step back from our quasi-needs and
> > > the ways that they drive us, often to dysfunctional behaviors that it
> > > ultimately destructive to both our society and to us as individuals.
> > > How hard this is to do, we have to keep going back again and again.
> > > The quasi-needs, tribalism, acceptance, standing are always there.  It
> > is how they shape us that is critical.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Michael
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > >
> > > From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:
> > > xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of mike cole
> > >
> > > Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2017 8:31 PM
> > >
> > > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> > >
> > > Subject: [Xmca-l] The Learning Sciences in the era of U.S. Nationalism
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > In following  the perezhivanie thread I encountered the note I
> > re-membered.
> > >
> > > And interestingly mis-remembered. A translation into my focus on
> > > mediational means. He places the starting point of the process of
> > > transformative action at the emergence of quasi-needs (from Kurt
> Lewin).
> > >
> > > That seems correct to me. The new mediational means emerge under
> > > environmental presses. Ever functionalist ego need a goal(!). (The
> > > problem with functionalism) In David's words,
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Perhaps the place we should look for "exaptations" that can save both
> > > our personalities and our environment is not in our evolved needs, but
> > > in yet to be designed quasi-needs. Artificial organs, after all,
> > > always suggest new and ever more artificial functions, like chess and
> > language.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > This point seems worth keeping in mind as we look at where this group
> > > of critical scholars who work within the Learning Sciences
> > > disciplinary framework would like to lead us.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > mike
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Robert Lake  Ed.D.
> Associate Professor
> Social Foundations of Education
> Dept. of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading
> Georgia Southern University
> P. O. Box 8144, Statesboro, GA  30460
> Secretary/Treasurer-AERA- Paulo Freire Special Interest Group
> Webpage: https://georgiasouthern.academia.edu/RobertLake*Democracy must be
> born anew in every generation, and education is its midwife.* John
> Dewey-*Democracy
> and Education*,1916, p. 139
>
>