what silence?

Louise Yarnall (lyarnall who-is-at ucla.edu)
Fri, 19 Mar 1999 10:18:39 +0000

For what it's worth, I must confess that in my four and a half years of
graduate school, I haven't encountered the term "contextualist." I didn't
think that there was an "ism" referring to context, as if to suggest there
are people who are "for" context and those who are "against." But it does
sound like a turn of phrase that plays upon the old "nature vs. nurture"
debate of psychology. It would appear to be an attempt to place Vygotsky on
the "nurture" side of the equation. Perhaps it is a refinement (or
mutation?) of that old argument, with a view that all psychologists see
nature and nurture as intertwined but that they have different emphases. I
think it's true that Vygotsky focused on the cultural-historical context and
its impact on ontogeny, but I think that neo-Vygotskians have looked at
immediate context microgenetically with some interesting results.

Anyway, this is what "contextualist" brings up for me, but as Bakhtin says
through Wertsch's mouth -- this might just be the "voice" or "voices" that
I'm giving the term.

Louise
----------
>From: Ethel Tobach <tobach who-is-at amnh.org>
>To: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu, xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>Subject: Re: what silence?
>Date: Fri, Mar 19, 1999, 02:33 PM
>

>Quickly: there is a tendency in general for "buzz" words to be used by
>people who are writing in haste and frequently their language is "shaped"
>by editors, publishers, etc. I wish I had time to look up the history of
>"contextualism" but my memory only dredges up the name of Richard M.
>Lerner...and contextualism has been featured in biology, genetics, and
>other places as well as in reference to Vygotsky.
>
>
>Ethel
>
>At 11:49 AM 3/18/99 -0800, Mike Cole wrote:
>>
>>Folks need something to think and chat about? Here is a question which
>>I think could use some discussion.
>>
>>Why is it that in a variety of textbooks, Vygotsky is referred to as a
>>contextualist? I have asked this question before, and it tends to get
>>the kind of silence that indicates everyone is busy grading exams or
>>is on vacation in Hawaii. :-)
>>
>>I am particularly interested in citations from LSV for this characterization.
>>That is, the question is not, "what is the relation between CHAT" and
>>contextualism?" ( a fine question in its own right!) but what evidence do
>>we have that LSV was a contextualist.
>>
>>Non-silent in so cal.
>>mike
>>
>