The intellectual/cultural aspect of the Cold War is, given our interest in
the socio-cultural/historical, very important. A little of "our" area by
Maria Eugenia Mudrovcic wrote a very interesting book on the role of the
Congress For Cultural Freedom and its links with the CIA as an agent of
influence in the Literary movements of Latin America. Her book was
published in Argentina and is in Spanish but it makes interesting reading.
=46rom such an angle it would seem only natural to examine the
political/philosophical differences in the translations of Vygotsky's
work, especially given that 1961 was at the height of the Cold War and just
post-McCarthyism...
>> Agree, I don't think a "coaching environment" is always appropriate,
>> indeed that is one of the reasons why I'd dismiss much of the Home
>> schooling rhetoric because they ignore the importance of the social
>> environment in schools.
>>
> Are you equating dyads with "coaching environments"? I don't
>understand. Also - home schoolers do build in socialization with other
>home schoolers and in some home schooling, I understand that the
>"teachers" will often divide the curriculum to correspond with what they
>are better able to teach and a group of home schoolers then go together to
>each other's homes for specialized instruction. It isn't a topic I know
>alot about, but there has to be some empirical work out there and not just
>rhetoric.
Sorry about my blunt condemnation of home schooling, and I'm not equating
the two directly, but I'm thinking along the lines that socializing (in
academics & play....) is critical to education in that it allows more than
narrow "standards" education. Home schooling, and I'm generalizing here, is
carried out to either shield the child from society and its ills, or to
obsessivly push the academic (standardized testing) possibilities of the
child by limiting his/her personal growth through peer interaction. Now I
know that may produce a howl from the home schoolers, but my interests are
in formal schools settings as the unique social influence for the majority
of students, especially in the lower socio-economic area. 'nuf said because
I don't want to loose the original thread...
I was really meaning that the capable peer/teacher aspect of the ZPD can
and should be expanded to include the dynamics of group learning, a dyadic
environment is rather poor on the "social" if that is how all learning is
done....
now the home schooling you mentioned does seem to allow for this aspect,
but again I'd have to question the motives and ask the economic question of
"who can afford" such schooling, not the poor....
=8B=8B=8B=8B=8B=8B=8B=8B=8B=8B=8B=8B=8B=8B=8B=8B=8B=8B=8B=8B
George McKinlay
Research & Educational Planning Center
University of Nevada, Reno
mckinlay who-is-at unr.edu
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