Hello everybody--
First of all, I want to apologize for my e-mail software (MS Exchange =
4.0 for Win 95) that seem to attach some symbol "noise" at the end of my =
messages. Sorry for the inconvenience (I like MS Exchange because it =
has in-built spelling checker -- so important for a dyslectic =
foreigner). I'll go to buy Eudora Pro today.
Jay wrote very interesting response to my proposal of "globalization" of =
activity situation to avoid compartmentalization of local activities. =
It seems to me that Jay like my proposal at the conceptual level and =
sees difficulties in its realization at the methodological level.
Let me start me response (because I think the issues Jay raised are =
resolvable) with stating my "credo" about research methodology. I =
believe that research is guided by the phenomenon of interest and by =
researcher's inquiry. The final stage of the research is the "honest =
and comfortable match" between the phenomenon and the inquiry which =
means that both of them should undergo transformation in the process of =
research. I believe that almost all "good" research is done by this way =
but often researchers do not report on their process of doing the =
research but instead they report only the final stage, i.e., perfect =
match between the phenomenon and the inquiry and they pretend that this =
was the beginning of their endeavor (see for nice exception from this =
case research reports produced by Mike Cole and his colleagues -- you =
find there interesting histories of how initial phenomenon of =
researchers' interest and researchers' inquiries got transformed in the =
research process). "Good" research is full with surprises, =
inspirations, discoveries, frustration, broken deadlines, despair, =
excitement, planning, improvisation, transformations of obstacles and =
failures into opportunities and discoveries, etc. I believe it is art. =
I also believe that a "good" methodology can help to navigate this art =
(without transforming the art into machine-like algorithm).
Taking my "methodological credo" into consideration, it is difficult for =
me to answer to Jay's specific examples because I am neither excited =
about phone conversations as a phenomenon of my interest (which, of =
course, does not mean that phone conversations can not be a subject of =
excitement and interest for somebody else or even for myself in future) =
nor I know Jay's inquiries as starting points of his research project. =
So, I'd like to be excused from considering these examples. Instead, I =
suggest to bring my own example, if you don't mind.
Currently, Barbara Rogoff & I are in the mid of the project that focuses =
on children's collaboration in the classroom in the innovative public =
elementary school in Utah (that you, probably, heard from us). We =
thought that learning how to collaborate is a skill that both derives =
from participation in this school and is prerequisite for the =
participation. Our starting-point inquiry was to examine if kids learn =
how to collaborate in the classroom. We had a vast amount of videotapes =
where kids work together and with adults (parent volunteers and =
teachers). We decided to start with measuring amount of collaboration =
(by extracting periods of "collaboration" defined by us from the =
activity session and measuring time of the periods that reflect the =
collaboration extent). We wanted to compare the extent of collaboration =
in different grade levels (interpreted as experience in the innovative =
school).
So far, our initial project was "deviated" or better to say transformed =
dramatically by : 1) a "causal external" observer, 2) phenomenon itself, =
3) existing literature that we were reading. =20
1) Once we showed some of our tapes to our colleague Chikako Toma who is =
a native Japanese (and a very keen observer!). She immediately noticed =
one important "detail" that had been invisible for us: the many of =
activities designed by parent volunteers with children had individual =
final products (e.g., write your own story, do your own clay boat or =
game board). It brought an interesting question of how the character of =
final product relates to possibility for children's collaboration (we =
are getting predominate results that the relationship is complex).
2) Preliminary results show that, indeed, there was more collaboration =
in upper grades than in lower grades. But we have got feeling that the =
story was more complex than just "older kids do it better." There was =
something else. It seems that children in younger grades (from K to =
about 3rd grade) involve in different types of collaboration than kids =
in upper grades (from 3rd to 6th grade). So far we define the =
differences as different extent of systematicity of activity =
progression. What is more, many adults (parent volunteers and teachers) =
seems to be uncomfortable with collaboration with non-systematic =
progression that younger kids demonstrate which leads to either the =
adults being non-supportive for this collaboration (and not guiding the =
kids) or even the adults trying to stop this kind of collaboration. As =
you can see these observations made us to transform both observed =
phenomena (to make it more global) and our initial inquiries.
3) Reading Robert Kaplan on types of thought progression in academic =
discourse, Sarah Michaels and Courtney Gazden about black and white =
kids' narrative styles, Jerome Bruner about literature styles helped as =
to develop working descriptions of differences in collaboration types =
(we call them for now as "topic-centered collaboration' and "topic-fluid =
collaboration").
We are still in the mid of the project and we don't know what will be =
our final story (i.e., there are still things that are unresolved =
between our inquiries and phenomena of our interest). I just wanted to =
illustrate that there is no universal recipe for how to define the =
appropriate "activity situation." My guess it develops in the research =
project. It hardly can be pre-defined (but there is a starting point =
for future transformation -- it is not just "fishing in phenomena =
water." Probably, there some things that are (and will be) left =
invisible for us in the phenomena we are studying. Some other things we =
feel are irrelevant in the phenomena (for example, gender of the kids). =
Bill Penuel visited me just a few days ago. We talked about what will =
replace the notion of "looking for THE truth" in a sociocultural =
methodology. We came to a tentative solution that "providing a report =
on our research endeavor at the best of our knowledge" can be a good =
substitute. What do you think?
Eugene Matusov
UC Santa Cruz
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