I know that this dialogue moved on to a lot of new places from here but I
actually wanted to talk to Keith about my work for a while--so I thought I
would take this opportunity to talk to the list about some of the
differences I see between his work and mine and see what you all think.
Keith was actually supposed to be the discussant at my session at AERA, but
he left early to be there for the birth of his child (a most excellent
excuse I'd say).
Anyway I have found his work on improv and play to be invaluable in terms of
a methodology for studying play and playfulness and in terms of
understanding and seeing play in a non-instrumental, but extremely valuable
way. However, the major difference I see between my work and his is the
relationship between improvisation and development throughout people's
lives. Keith argues, as far as I can tell, that through pretend play
children learn the improvisational skills necessary for adult conversation.
He hypothesizes in Pretend Play as Improvisation that pretend play dies out
at around 7-8 years of age because children have learned how to improvise
other forms of conversation. I would argue that improvisation remains a
revolutionary/developmental activity (revolutionary in the sense that it
allows the participants to actively reorganize what is into something new).
We stop improvising/pretend playing at around 7-8 because we are told to
stop--to stop playing and get to work. While adult conversations are
obviously improvised in a certain sense in other ways they are very much
scripted--adults and older children know what they think they are supposed
to say and do and this limits how they see themselves as creators of the
conversation. Why I advocate improvisation for teachers is because it
reconnects them with their ability to play in the sense of being the active
creators of their teaching and their lives.
What do people think?
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Cole [mailto:mcole@weber.ucsd.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2003 5:55 PM
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: improv
Very interesting, Carrie. Keith Sawyer is somewhere around the list and
has been writing on improvisation. Your applications sounds like fun as
well as useful.
mike
.,
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