Re: pos-neg
Peter Smagorinsky (psmagorinsky who-is-at ou.edu)
Sat, 11 Oct 1997 11:36:00 -0500 (CDT)
Leigh, I think that a less obvious and infinetely more vexing example might
be the whole language/phonics battle, which people see as a stage (or
theater, to extend the military metaphor) for conflicting world views. The
two approaches (which I think are falsely dichotomized, given the
variations available on both) embody different believes about the role of
education in providing a context and thus trajectory for development--I'll
not differentiate among cognitive, emotional, political, etc. avenues of
development, because I think that this conflict illustrates well how
inseparable they are. Does whole language, however defined, provide a
positive zpd for literacy development? Yes or no, depending on what
evidence you consult and how you interpret it, and what your motive is for
reading it that way.
At 09:36 AM 10/11/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Peter, Thanks for raising the militia example, I'd been searching for a
similar one. It seems that this
>thread is weaving through some familiar territory (what scales up and how
with CHAT, cultural relativism,
>the relationship with non-humans). At the same time, there's something
fresh about framing it in terms of
>zoped and questioning the often-unconscious positive spin we put on the
term development. At least to
>surface these questions, particularly in terms of what termporal frame we
are using, seems very positive.
>To me, anyway!
>
>L*
>
>