[xmca] on self and identity - a request

I've been reading the last few exchanges on Lave & Wenger and Wenger with great interest. Mike's comment on how Cain's statement about the way "a person understands and views himself" and how this fits with the epistemological position that L&W put forth made me think of the puzzle that I'm facing in a project on school leaders' experiences in a "Courage to Lead" retreat series. Briefly, the Courage to Lead retreats are inspired by the work of Parker Palmer (the author of the book "The courage to teach" and many others that are pretty popular) and are designed to help educators reconnect with their sense of true self.

In an attempt to avoid getting caught in the debate about whether there is such a thing as a true self or whether the self is completely a constructed notion, I'm looking at the discursive resources that are made available during the retreats (talk, activities, artifacts) for talking about (and possibly experiencing?) an inner self. (This is one way that I read Cain fitting with L&W's social epistemology.) This is a lot of background -- my question is this:

Does anyone know of ethnographic studies of the construction of/experience of self that might help me understand how talk (in particular) mediates a particular view of an inner self?

Thanks for your help with this.

Susan
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Susan Jurow
Assistant Professor
School of Education
University of Colorado at Boulder

(office) 303 492 6557
(fax) 303 492 7090
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Received on Sun Nov 25 13:19 PST 2007