I like the term supplemental. In our work on out of school types of activities and vocational education and training programmes we draw a distinction between compensatory and complimentary. Compensatory programmes are typically offered to students considered at risk and are intended to (though we doubt they do) compensate for previous 'educational failure'. The disocurses that circulate around such programmes are rich with the language of motivation and relevance. Complimentary programmes (which I guess are supplementary) are those intended to broaden the educational experience of young people and, again in our experience, would be accessed more often by more advantaged students, indeed such programmes may be targeted at these groups by their providers because such studnets are perceived as being a low risk to the programme's image (there is a fierce market operating in the UK for the provision of these programmes with many competing agencies). Discourses circulating around t
hese types of programmes are rich with the language of generic skills and transfer.
Currently we are writing a proposal for the AERA conference exploring the learning benefits that accrue (or do not) from participation in an example of the latter type of programme relative to the opportunity and transcation costs incurred.
In message <181.b7ac11a.2a6f3f33@aol.com> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu writes:
> I like the topic Mike put forth for an SRCD symposium very much.
>
> An excerpt:
> One major fraction line has been formulated as a difference between those who
> focus on "mediated action in context" versus those who focus on "activity" as
> a basic unit of analysis. Another common fraction line is between those who
> emphasize mediational tools and those who focus on forms of participation.
> Yet another set of issues centers on questions of the ability of one or
> another such position to deal with issues of power, gender, and difference
> more generally.
> Finally, the different perspective often appear to differ with respect to the
> extent to which the concepts of development and culture are, or are not,
> central to their concerns.
>
> Certainly those tensions were there at ISCRAT. Although my work leans to the
> "activity" and "forms of participation" side, I think my colleagues and I
> work to create programs from the perspective of a unity, rather than an
> opposition, of the sides each "fraction" takes. In addition to presenting
> some of this at ISCRAT, I (happily) attended a few sessions that I took as
> trying to do the same. Some of you might be familiar with the term Fred
> Newman and I coined (originally in 1979 but more widely known from our 1993
> book Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary Scientist) -- "tool-and-result" by which we
> mean to distinguish a) tools in which the process of creating them
> simultaneously creates their "result" from b) instrumental tools (tool for
> result, already made tools). We mean to highlight that human beings are not
> only tool users but tool makers. Our inspiration was originally Vygotsky's
> statement about his search for method being simultaneously the tool and the
> result of study, and we took this to indicate that he was formulating a
> tool-and-result methodology. Anyway, if we accept that people are capable
> of, and sometimes participate in, tool-and-result activity, then culture is a
> unity, i.e., mediational tool-and-developmental result.
> Unfortunately, I was off at a conference and couldn't suggest this for the
> SRCD symposium but perhaps Mike or someone else has ideas for another future
> venue.
>
> A question: In my ongoing work in outside-of-school youth development
> projects, I and the people who run them are situating them within the
> discourse of "supplemental education." The term was coined by Edmund Gordon
> in the 90s to refer to outside-of-school activities that white/middle class
> kids take part in to a far greater degree than black/latino/poor kids do
> (museum trips, drama, art, dancing lessons, conversations about politics,
> world events, etc.). Gordon and other educators believe supplemental
> education experiences help to explain the school achievement gap between
> these groups. They are pushing for social policy dialogue on this topic as a
> means to support, as well as (on Gordon's part) bringing the message to
> parents. Are others familiar with this term and do you find it useful?
>
> Thanks for any comments,
> Lois
>
> Lois Holzman
> Director
> East Side Institute for Short Term Psychotherapy
> 500 Greenwich Street
> New York NY 10013
> 212-941-8844
> www.eastsideinstitute.org
>
>
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