between the many committments, similar to the what kathryn alexander wrote
about (and i want to respond to then, but . . .)
it's difficult to organize a large text to reflect my thinking on one
concept or theme,
(beyond my dissertation, that is)
but i did want to respond to rosa and to encourage all those who have
posted recently for the first time, or the first time in a while.
what sustains me often is a belief that silence is a form of response,
highly ambigous,
but at least it gives me lots of room to create my own meanings.
so, when i post something and get little or no response,
i can put my head down and slog ahead, anyway,
but i would rather have some company, some kind of support,
some kind words.
so, rosa, here goes. . .
Rosa Montes writes:
>> First, as has already been pointed out by Judy and maybe also Mary, we
>> would need a whole lot more "history" about the list, its patterns and
>> practices, its membership and so on, to be able to place these exchanges
>> in context. In addition, we would need the whole conversation from which
>> they sprung,to be able to trace allusions or connections, or to be able
>> to interpret the significance of the references made and the actual
>> wording used.
this was my point earlier, too. decontextualizing may be useful in some
circumstances, but much of my discomfort with some xmca exchanges has much
more to do with the context than the content.
>
>> Secondly, this strategy limits the discussion to those phenomena that
>> one particular person is attentive or receptive to.
>
>> I would rather see discussion focus more directly on our own practices
>> and experiences.Things that can be addressed with reference to our
>> common ground.
>>
>> Mary brings up the topic of non-participation and of forms of
>> de-legitimation. Together with this there's also auto-exclusion which
>> may not be "warranted" or dependent on ongoing practices and which may
>> have many different causes.
>>
>> Another topic that has been mentioned at some point is the relative lack
>> of participation from people of differing language and cultural
>> backgrounds.
>>
this is a huge topic and one i would like to discuss in greater detail...
discussion, even if emotionally-charged, about
how
we write here,
how
we exclude, silence, discourage, dismiss some
how
we praise, encourage, honor, value others
we, as in who we (each of us and collectively) believe we are
in all our thorny, squishy, contradictory, changing ways...
it would be fascinating, i think!
>
>> A third topic that was brought up by Eva and I would be interested in
>> picking up again, refers to the different senses of the concept
>> "community" that seem to be held by different participants. Whereas for
>> some "community" gets immediately situated within a technical, academic
>> vocabulary: community of practice or COP, for others there seems to be a
>> sense of a more intimate, personal relationship implied by the term (as
>> in "commune" or "communion").
i guess i just said what i believe a community is,
what about you?
>
>> A fourth point that relates to the previous one has to do with "norms
>> of participation" and I can only approach it rather obscurely by saying
>> something like ... "cultures leak". As we try to define what this
>> community is, we employ those forms of interaction that seem to us
>> appropriate for our own particular definition of the situation and what
>> we are about. Here we run into two problems. First, not everyone shares
>> the same definition. For some, the "academic exchange" aspects of the
>> discussion predominate over the more "personal" or nurturing senses of
>> community. But, a second problem is that even if two people have a same
>> definition of the situation, say "academic exchange", we may have widely
>> different ideas (derived from our cultures of origin) as to what is
>> acceptable participation in an academic exchange.
these areas of relations between and among persons is where the most
exciting and interesting and painful and wonderful experiences occur
and are defined, re-defined, denied, reified, ignored, expressed in prose
and poetry, written about in academic texts, claimed to be taught, claimed
to be learned, died for,
and, of course, lived.
now on to spanish class, my doctoral lab, home to kids and partner, and
looking forward to cafeteria duty and a faculty meeting tomorrow!
kathie
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
.........Our words misunderstand us..............................
.....We are our words, and black and bruised and blue.
Under our skins, we're laughing....................................
.........................Adrienne Rich..................................
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Katherine_Goff@ceo.cudenver.edu
http://ceo.cudenver.edu/~katherine_goff/index.html
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