vera p john-steiner <vygotsky@unm.edu>
vera p john-steiner (vygotsky@unm.edu)
Wed, 13 Sep 1995 10:08:20 -0600 (MDT)
My name is Vera John-Steiner, and I am a psycholinguist at the University
of New Mexico. My interests in issues related to language, cognition,
creativity and collaboration span several decades. As a person educated
in several languages, I have been intrigued both personally and
professionally in the multiple connections between thought and language.
Vygotsky's (1962) book _Thought and Language_ provided a focus to my own
"pre-Vygotskian explorations." Because of my sustained involvement with
"Thought and Language," a course that I have taught in a variety of ways
over the decades, I was particularly pleased to have a chance to work on
_Mind in Society_. I have applied sociocultural ideas to research on
language acquisition, bilingualism, concept formation, and more recently,
in the areas of creativity and collaboration. (By the way, my book
_Notebooks of the Mind_ is again available from HarperCollins after a 6
month hiatus.) Our current collaboration research includes both small
group and large collaborative efforts. We have found Engestrom's work
particularly helpful in this regard. Lastly, I have been giving a lot of
thought to ways of applying sociocultural concepts to the psychology of
women. In this context, the work of French feminists as well as _Women's
Ways of Knowing_ and related works have been of great value. Indeed, I am
hoping we can establish a small "thought community" on xmca on this topic.