In a message dated 7/2/2002 6:42:43 AM Central Daylight Time,
vygotsky@charter.net writes:
> My sense is that it is a relation (subjective / objective), but I think
> your use of person external or person independent may be a little too
> strong. Now, if we were going to understand the soul of a factory worker
> we would have to take the objective forms of social life seriously
> (factory etc). But then this does not mean objective social life is
> external or independent of the factory worker.
>
Once again we have found ourselves discussing the paradox inherent in
psychological study. Having corresponded with XMCA individuals for over a
year now I still have yet to discover any evidence that the individual can be
ignored when discussing sociocultural pscyology and yet much of what is
written about concerning cultural historical activity theory places social
events as some all encompassing enigma that influences everything we do. I
can only speak for myself but I do feel obligated to attend to my work and to
be polite as I go about my day but there is no external force drawing me into
these endeavors it is my choice that I perform in the arenas that I do.
My greatest frustration has to do with the presentation of sociocultural
theory to the field of special education because most of what has been done
has emphasized this "multicultural" leviathon that is more hyperbole then
structure. Feurstein and Kozulin are writing much regarding mediation in the
special education setting but for some reason their work in Israel hasn't
caught on yet in the mainstream regarding special education services.
Michael Cole writes very eloquently about the limitations of psychological
inquiry using experimental designs but when I read articles about the study
of zoped in educational settings authors ususally don't heed his advice
concerning the subjective nature of concluding evidence. Jaan Valsiner has
written extensively on the measuring of goal directed activity in an
individual's daily life and I have found very spotted reference to this
concerning the field of education and absolutely NO references in the field
of special education, where the actual tool used by American educators is an
Individual Education Plan for the purpsoe of writing goals and activities the
student is expected to achieve and particpate in[is that insane or what?].
What is my point? The field of sociocultural psychology can continue to
bicker about the individual/social paradox until the cows come home meanwhile
the human race will still be experiencing the paradox; IN some societies the
opression of the social overcomes the will of the individual and in others
the will of the individual is allowed flexibility (?).
There is good stuff concerning sociocultural psychological theory that can be
used to provide real solutions to the field of education but it really does
appear that this bickering and infighting that occurs concerning this paradox
will allow the splintered, sputtering state of affairs to continue. If this
is the case then sociocultural psycology will take a back seat to empirical
positivistic attitudes that continue the trend of standardized tests and
cookie cutter curriculum.
Welcome back,
eric
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