[Xmca-l] Re: The Learning Sciences in the era of U.S. Nationalism
Andy Blunden
ablunden@mira.net
Sun Jan 22 23:26:36 PST 2017
Well, you say "curt" and "rush" and ask for my "better set
of ideas," Mike, but I have been sweating for months trying
to figure out a way of raising this issue without
stimulating this kind of reaction. I obviously haven't found
it yet. I thought xmca was about the safest forum I knew to
raise difficult questions. I'll keep my mouth shut, because
I don't have a "better set of ideas." I see a problem, but I
don't see the solution, and I don't see clarity emerging
from here.
Andy
------------------------------------------------------------
Andy Blunden
http://home.mira.net/~andy
http://www.brill.com/products/book/origins-collective-decision-making
On 23/01/2017 5:36 PM, mike cole wrote:
> There are big problems reading one paragraph and
> neglecting to read the rest,
> Andy. You negelected this one, among others in your rush
> to irony.
>
> /From a liberal perspective, the anti-immigrant and
> anti-poor rhetoric in Trump’s campaign appears to be an
> about-face from eight progressive years under the last
> administration. But these political turns are not so
> straightforward. In recent years for example, the Obama
> administration’s deportation of over 2.5 million
> undocumented children and families (Iaconangelo, 2016),
> from Central America and Mexico in particular, displayed
> our nation’s refusal to understand immigration in light of
> a troubling legacy of U.S. military and political-economic
> intervention in these countries. Economic policies that
> favor the wealthy have led to drastic inequalities over
> the past few decades where a mere 20 Americans have more
> financial assets than the bottom half of the country—157
> million people—combined (Collins & Hoxie, 2015). The
> classism of incarceration was unmasked as the Department
> of Justice failed to prosecute the Wall Street architects
> of the Great Recession (Cohan, 2015), but federal prisons
> were expanded to accommodate disproportionately
> low-income, non-violent offenders (Rabuy & Kopf, 2015)./
>
> How about nurturing such discussion instead of dismissing
> it out of hand that way? You have a better set of ideas,
> put them out there on this thread. That is what this
> thread/xmca are for. It is not for reaching snap judgments
> and squelching discussion.
>
> mike
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jan 22, 2017 at 6:39 PM, Andy Blunden
> <ablunden@mira.net <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>> wrote:
>
> One paragraph from the article on Learning Sciences
> and US Nationalism:
>
> Our scholarship has the potential to be a form of
> transformative resistance against the most
> significant political threats to our democracy
> today
> by explicitly defending and furthering the rights
> and well-being of people of color, immigrants,
> Muslims, women, people who are differently abled,
> LGBTQ communities, and the earth.
>
> So I take this to mean that the authors think that the
> fact that inequality has reached a point where 2
> individuals own as much wealth as the poorest 50% of
> the world's population and 26 individuals own half of
> the world's wealth is a non-issue. That the
> de-industrialisation of US cities is a matter of no
> importance. To use one of the catchphrases of the
> election, they are "doubling down" on the claim that
> inequality is a matter of cultural prejudice and if
> only we were all much more careful in our use of
> language and showed respect for cultural differences,
> then we can safely leave the world in the hands of
> Walmart and Exxon.
>
> Andy
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Andy Blunden
> http://home.mira.net/~andy <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy>
> http://www.brill.com/products/book/origins-collective-decision-making
> <http://www.brill.com/products/book/origins-collective-decision-making>
>
> On 23/01/2017 8:01 AM, mike cole 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
> <mailto: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
> <mailto:helenaworthen@gmail.com>
> Berkeley, CA 94707
> Blog about US and Viet Nam:
> helenaworthen.wordpress.com
> <http://helenaworthen.wordpress.com>
>
>
>
> On Jan 22, 2017, at 11:38 AM, Alfredo
> Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no
> <mailto:a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>>
>
> wrote:
>
> Here it is,
>
> http://cognitionandinstruction.com/engagements-the-learning-
> <http://cognitionandinstruction.com/engagements-the-learning->
>
> sciences-in-a-new-era-of-u-s-nationalism/
>
> Alfredo
> ________________________________________
> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu
> <mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu
> <mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
>
> on behalf of Helena Worthen
> <helenaworthen@gmail.com
> <mailto: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
> <mailto:helenaworthen@gmail.com>
> Berkeley, CA 94707
> Blog about US and Viet Nam:
> helenaworthen.wordpress.com
> <http://helenaworthen.wordpress.com>
>
>
>
> On Jan 22, 2017, at 12:25 AM, Alfredo
> Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no
> <mailto: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
> <mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu
> <mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
>
> on behalf of mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu
> <mailto: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
> <mailto: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>
> [mailto:
> 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
> <mailto: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
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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