Getting the situation right (Re: analyzing situated activities)

Pedro R. Portes (PRPORT01 who-is-at ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU)
Sat, 26 Jul 97 21:20:38 EDT

______Professor
_____ Univ.of Louisville
Upon returning from Padua's ICIP cross-cultural psych conf.. I find myself
getting wrapped up by all these so interesting threads. i need to ask a
question though re. this particularly informative note;

With respect to monkey wrenches, how is the imparting of social capital
that different from the transfer ( or let's be kinder and say the construction
or co-construction) of knowledge? Is Bourdieu's view/term just more privileged?
Either way,
whether its imparting capital or delivering it, still leaves the issue
of how it is done, to whom and by whom and what the student/community does with
it quite open to various explanations of disparities.

While i would observe that schools are in the busisness of doing all of those
things mentioned in that note,
(building and remediating identities, messing them up at times,
transferring knwowledge etc) the problem seems to be one of partialling out
exactly/roughly what schooling does to the individual subjectively,
& for the individual objectively...
(I hesitate to get into a Process/Product revisited mode)

In any case, would someone kindly illuminate / comment regarding the
question of -
impart capital vs transfer knowledge? Aren't these two intimately related?

Thanks in advance, pedro

p.s. A Padua conf. brief will soon follow.

REGARDS, Pedro. R. Portes, Ph.D.
Educational Psychology & Counseling
EDUC-310 Univ. of Louisville, Lou. KY 40292
Tel 502-8520630 / Fax 502-8520726___"Life is a Gift, Remember"