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

[mike cole]

Helena - You asked about art for our times. This article in the NY Times
has an interesting example.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/22/world/europe/undersea-museum-keeps-fish-feeding-and-its-social-commentary-biting.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

mike



On Sun, Jan 22, 2017 at 1:01 PM, mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu> wrote:

> Helena et al --
>
> An important emphasis in the article for me was on the fact that although
> the article focused on the American nationalist movement that has just
> pulled of an alt-right coup, similar movements are poised to take hold in a
> lot of places in Europe to join the many already entrenched unsavory
> governments in other parts of the world.
>
> The CRADLE center in Helsinki is under very concerted attack and the right
> wing government appears, from this distance, to be making great progress on
> destroying its legacy. The same process has been in Denmark for some time,
> also with apparent success.
>
> What do our international colleagues who have already felt the hot breath
> of right wing nationalism have to offer in terms of strategies of
> resistence?
>
> Back to "what is to be done," that sombre question from an earlier era.
> The answer last time did not produce what it promised.
>
> mike
>
> mike
>
> On Sun, Jan 22, 2017 at 12:22 PM, Helena Worthen <helenaworthen@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Thank you, Alfredo - I gave it a read.
>>
>> Sure, of course they’re right. But I am very disappointed.
>>
>> I was hoping that the following was only item #1 in a long list of "what
>> the 2016 election made apparent":
>>
>> The 2016 election has made apparent the need for scholarship that
>> explicitly defends and furthers the rights and well-being of people of
>> color, immigrants, Muslims, women, people who are differently abled, LGBTQ
>> communities, and the earth. These are stances that have been limited, at
>> least explicitly, in the Learning Sciences.
>>
>> But the call for inclusion was not just #1, it seems to be the whole
>> thing.  In other words, it’s all about identity —plus the earth, of course.
>> While inclusion is necessary, it’s not even a start. Yes, research,
>> teaching, publishing, promotion, conferences — everything associated with
>> teaching and learning has to include everyone as equals (see Andy’s book)
>> in one way or another — but then what? What are they (we) supposed to do?
>> Where does the pretty language touch the ground?
>>
>> I was listening to a broadcast of the Women’s March in DC on Saturday
>> morning, and Kamala Harris, who was the California State Attorney General
>> and is now a junior Senator from CA, was addressing the rally. She said,
>> “People always ask me to talk about women’s issues. I say, ‘Oh, I’m SO glad
>> you’re interested in economics!! Let’s talk about economics.”  And she ran
>> through a whole set of parallel back-and-forths, always pulling identity
>> questions back to wages, jobs, earning, supporting your family, etc etc.
>>
>> Much as we need to wipe away any barriers to the Learning Sciences (and
>> the professions and institutions dedicated to them) due to identity, until
>> the Learning Sciences start taking a look at the place where most people
>> spend most of their lives — not school, I mean — but work, they will be
>> engaging in a soft conversation at the edge of the real issue. It’s a
>> pleasant conversation but it doesn’t put a hand on the levers that
>> translate skill and knowledge into rent and groceries.
>>
>> H
>>
>>
>> Helena Worthen
>> helenaworthen@gmail.com
>> Berkeley, CA 94707
>> Blog about US and Viet Nam: helenaworthen.wordpress.com
>>
>>
>>
>> > On Jan 22, 2017, at 11:38 AM, Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > Here it is,
>> >
>> > http://cognitionandinstruction.com/engagements-the-learning-
>> sciences-in-a-new-era-of-u-s-nationalism/
>> >
>> > Alfredo
>> > ________________________________________
>> > From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>> on behalf of Helena Worthen <helenaworthen@gmail.com>
>> > Sent: 22 January 2017 20:24
>> > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>> > Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: The Learning Sciences in the era of U.S.
>> Nationalism
>> >
>> > Someone please re-send the link to this article?  I think I’m going to
>> want to read it and respond to Mike’s question.
>> >
>> > Thanks — H
>> >
>> >
>> > Helena Worthen
>> > helenaworthen@gmail.com
>> > Berkeley, CA 94707
>> > Blog about US and Viet Nam: helenaworthen.wordpress.com
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >> On Jan 22, 2017, at 12:25 AM, Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
>> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> 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
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>