Oct 28, 2002
Xmca'ers,
Hello. Let me please introduce myself. My name is Steve Gabosch. I am
51, and am an undergraduate student at Antioch University Seattle doing
independent studies, mostly reading in topics such as linguistics,
evolutionary biology, Marxism, philosophy, sociology, psychology, etc. etc.
- just like everyone on this list does whenever they can. I am master of
none of these trades but I certainly enjoy jacking around in the human
sciences. In recent years I have read some Vygotsky, Luria, Wertsch,
Volosinov. I re-read a fine book by David Lethbridge this summer, _Mind in
the World - The Marxist Psychology of Self-Actualization_ (1992, MEP
Publications) which has several chapters drawing on Russian psychology in
the '70's and '80's describing the basic Marxist thesis that "human
personality is the result of the internalization of social relations
(Ilyenkov 1982; Leontyev 1981; Lomov 1983a; Vygotsky 1978b)."
In recent weeks I have been reading some of the papers here on the xmca
list (which I happily discovered through Google). I have been fascinated
by Vygotsky for a long time. However, it is only in recent years I have
discovered his ideas have quite a following, and was rather jazzed to find
such a strong surge of creative Vygotskyist ideas, particularly in
education theory, coming out of the theoretical and educational leadership
of Mike Cole, James Wertsch and others. I am particularly impressed with
Keith Sawyer's papers on Emergence in Psychology and Unresolved Tensions in
Sociocultural theory, which I found excellent introductions into some of
the core methodology problems in this neck of the scientific woods. Of
everything, the writing (downloaded from the xmca website) that has gotten
me most inspired is Vygotsky's _The Historical Meaning of the Crisis in
Psychology - A Methodological Analysis_ (1927). It opened up a new way to
look at science for me that I find extremely helpful and chock full of
useful methodological ideas. His ideas may be able to convince me to go to
graduate school in psychology - something I never thought I would say.
My main purpose in participating in this discussion list is to get some
guidance in my study of Vygotskyist psychology, which of course is a broad
category of many writers, theories and research lines in many countries.
(A big question I have is - what are the Cubans today doing with
Vygotskyist ideas?). One important thing I need help in is being pointed
in the right directions for what to read and study. I already see there
are numerous books by Vygotsky, Leont'ev, Luria, Wertsch, Cole and many
others, including some anthologies, that are must-reading. But there are
also many worthy papers I need to know about and get to - all just to get
seriously started.
The embarrassing part of trying to participate in this kind of a discussion
list is my ignorance and naivete about what others already know, but that
is true anytime you are new to a group, isn't it? Instead of doing what I
usually do on discussion lists, mostly lurk, and perhaps be thought a fool,
this time I am going to open up, and remove all doubt. In any case,
lurking is always safer, is it not?
I've studied the Wells paper and like several things about it. I liked his
general comments, drawing on Engestrom, describing traditional education
practice: how it is backwards to the the way it should be. In traditional
teaching, the student's memorization of the text is the object to be acted
on, whereas the class discussions and quizzes are just tools to mediate
this process. (No wonder so many people say they learned very little in
high school!). I have found much to like in what Vygotskyist-minded
thinkers have to say about education.
I found Wells' discussion about the relation between discourse and activity
to be interesting and on the right track but in need of some help, which I
will boldly offer in another e-mail.
Thanks,
- Steve Gabosch
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