Re: CMU and situated cognition
James Robert Martin (jmartin who-is-at extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU)
Wed, 22 May 1996 09:27:26 +1000 (EST)
Mark - I was following up Jay's note on the mathematics research he was
reporting. I meant that getting say literacy students to recognise a
genre is not the same as getting them to the point where they can produce
it. In secondary English for example, middle range students recognise
the theme of the narratives they are critiquing, but have trouble
managing an effective Leavisite response in the way the top studetns do.
I was then relating this to colleagues who come from nonmainstream
positions, and seem able to manage the realisation of academic genres in
writing, but are less effective speaking, or in meetings etc. I was then
suggesting that this tension between mainstream and non-mainstream
discourses can be seen as more than a problem, but also as a source of
change, since if the non-mainstream voice can get hold of a mainstream
discourse, the mainstream discourse is likely to undergo change, because
of its new positioning - and this increases the meaning potential of a
culture. Finally I was noting however that I thought it was important
that powerful forms of uncommon sense discourse get recontextulaised in
this way, not just watered down versions that might result from taking
too much time adjusting our teaching to nonmainstream groups. What a
pack of dilemmas.
On Mon, 20 May 1996, Mark Warschauer wrote:
> Jim, I'm afraid I don't understand this paragraph very well, especially
> the first sentence. Could you clarify?
> Mark
>
> > Getting students to recognise the dominant discourse is of course not the
> > same as getting them to realise it. I know many colleagues who wrestle
> > with this, and get over the problem in writing but not in speaking.
> > Of course, it's not just a problem that the dominant discourse gets
> > recontextualised in a non-mainstream voice. As long as the
> > non-mainsteam voice can speak, that's a great possible source of
> > renovation. But it's the powerful math or science or humanities
> > discourse that needs renovating, not some already recontextualised form
> > of it.
> > Jim Martin
>
>