Re: RE: [xmca] Maternal affect attunement MEDIATING dyadic and triadic communication

[mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>]

Thanks Larry and Rod. Behind as usual. All very relevant.
mike

On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 1:03 AM, Rod Parker-Rees <
R.Parker-Rees@plymouth.ac.uk> wrote:

> Hi Larry,
>
> It does seem that communication may be a rather different kind of process
> when it is grounded in trust, familiarity and/or love. Much of our education
> system seems to be based on models of communication as competitive
> performance (the battle of ideas) rather than convivial conversation and
> this leads many students to withdraw (long silences in seminars). Coming to
> a place of safety and rest seems to be supported by the opportunity to
> develop social relationships with peers (and tutors) around the frame of
> 'tuition' or 'instruction' - people who feel comfortable with each other are
> more willing to challenge each other (siblings being a good example!).
>
> I do also feel that the 'coming to a place of safety' is relevant to the
> tutor/adult too - the vigilant assessment mode can take a 'teacher' out of
> the more familiar modes of communication just as it takes the 'learner' out.
> This is, I think, one of the reasons why the Steiner kindergarten teachers'
> more intuitive approach to assessment - getting to know children by being
> alongside them - offers a promising model.
>
> All the best,
>
> Rod
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
> Behalf Of Larry Purss
> Sent: 28 January 2010 05:20
> To: of eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: Re: RE: [xmca] Maternal affect attunement MEDIATING dyadic and
> triadic communication
>
> Hi Rod
> I'm glad you are as interested in this topic as I am.  Your highlighting
> the relation of "a sense of attunement"  in the mother-infant dyad as
> creating  a sense of safety (defined as resting from the need to monitor
> oneself and avoid JUDGEMENT) seems to be a central dynamic in this early
> relationship.
>
> This monitoring our social relationships as an activity of maintaining
> normative connections with the social group may continue to be pervasive in
> our interactions beyond infancy. This is the dramaturgical notion of
> activity  theorized by Erving Goffman and extended by Scheff in his notion
> of shame as a foundational emotion.
> The notion of  MARKED maternal attunement as a dynamic activity may
> continue beyond infancy and have the adaptive purpose of bringing the self
> to a place of safety and rest. When safe the person can then orient to
> communicative activity and to experiences of novelty and emergence.
> It may be that in the teaching/learning relationship the learner must first
> come to a place of safety and rest (and not be preoccupied by the
> dramaturgical activity of presentation of self) before the activity of
> teaching/learning is optimized.  If this notion has some merit, then the
> discussions about the activity of testing  (as a way of measuring and
> judging) would keep students constantly vigilant to indications of normative
> judgement.  This dynamic process of attunement (and coming to rest) may be a
> possible explanation of Anna Sfard's recognition that students often are not
> ready to negotiate communicative activity or benefit from teaching/learning
> activity.
> These constructs of attunement, safety, judgement, and various types of
> activity may be connected in a map which guides teachers as a way of
> supporting students in schools.  Attachment theory is also looking at these
> relationships.
> This perspective helps me position myself in my work to put attunement at
> the heart of helping students.
>
> Larry
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Rod Parker-Rees <R.Parker-Rees@plymouth.ac.uk>
> Date: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 8:52 am
> Subject: RE: [xmca] Maternal affect attunement MEDIATING dyadic and triadic
> communication
> To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
>
> > Many thanks for this, Larry.
> >
> > I have just been reading  a review article by Peter Fonagy,
> > George Gergely and Mary Target, 'The parent-infant dyad and the
> > construction of the subjective self' (from way back in 2007!)
> > which argues for a close interaction between the processes by
> > which attachment and joint attention are established. What I
> > particularly liked in it was the suggestion that maternal love
> > is associated with inhibition of activity in brain regions
> > associated with social appraisal and judgment, creating a
> > particularly 'safe' environment for the development of
> > intersubjectivity (though the authors are not too keen on the
> > focus on intersubjectivity). It seems to me that questions about
> > triadic communication must recognise the not-quite-separate-yet
> > nature of child and infant identities in the first (post partum)
> > year or so of the mother-infant dyad.
> >
> > I look forward to reading the Legerstee, Markova and Fisher article.
> >
> > All the best,
> >
> > Rod
> >
> >
> > From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-
> > bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Larry Purss
> > Sent: 27 January 2010 15:46
> > To: Activity eXtended Mind, Culture,
> > Subject: [xmca] Maternal affect attunement MEDIATING dyadic and
> > triadic communication
> >
> > Hi Mike
> > and everyone else interested in the ontological development of
> > communicative action.
> > I have sent an attachment discussing developmental constructs
> > that are being put into relation in ways that posit "maternal
> > attunment" as the mediational variable as infants move from
> > dyadic to triadic communication.
> > Mike describing gaze monitoring as dyadic could be challenged by
> > Gergeley's notion of the theory of pedagogy as MARKED gaze or
> > MARKED attunement and therefore triadic.  However with this
> > qualification this article is speaking to experience that I
> > believe is fundamental to understanding intersubjectivity.
> > The question of PRIMARY or secondary intersubjectivity is discussed.
> > Also the methodology could be challenged but I want to draw
> > attention to the theoretical discussion.
> >
> > The reason I believe this is a central question for development
> > is my intuition that as we move to "higher levels" of
> > development and complexity I don't believe we TRANSCEND the
> > earlier patterns of organization and REPLACE these earlier
> > formations but rather transform our RELATIONSHIP to these
> > earlier patterns.  Therefore in schools, where I work, when
> > children become "dysregulated or overwhelmed" I have a "sense"
> > "attunement" (as mediation) is required to re=establish the
> > teacher/learner/object communicative activity.
> > I could say more but have to go to work.
> > I hope others may have insights that this article puts in play.
> > Larry
> >
> >
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