I have now read Kevin Leander's article, "Polycontextual
construction zones: mapping the expansion of schooled space
and identity" several times, and do not feel I have by any
means got it all straight in my head.
As I understand it, there are several main messages:
1. The existence of a school within a school and a project-based
activity for that alternative school provides opportunities
for expansive learning and transformation of identities in
productive ways.
2. It is important to keep simultaneous, spatially distinct
"contexts" in mind in CHAT research in addition to temporal
sequence.
3. The productivity of interactions among simultaneously existing
activities (polycontexts) arises in good measure from conflicts
among them.
4. There is a growing literature from historical/economic geography
which articulates in important ways with current chat discourse
and their integration should prove productive.
(I am sure there are other main points, but these came out of
my fingertips at the moment).
In so far as I have correctly articulated these points, I fully
agree with them and appreciated the detailed analyses of interactions
and discussion of prior literature, not all of which I was/am
familiar with. But I also have questions which relate to the
way in which the theoretical/conceptual toolkit, which is very
extensive, is deployed and the extent to which key terms are
used consistently. And in some cases, I came away puzzled.
I'll list a couple of puzzlements in hopes that Kevin and others
will move in to help me out.
1. Context and polycontextuality.
I found Steve's analysis of object in Kristin's article where
he was able to group uses of "object" partricularly help and would
love to be able to do the same analysis here, starting with the
term, context. We all know it is at least as polysemous as object
and my guess it is used upwards of 100 times in this article. But
its use seemed to me to wobble some, or else my interpretive
system, which always wobbles (!) made it seem so (talk about
problems relating subject and object!). Sometimes it appeared
to be a spatial term in a non-relational sense, sometimes virtually
synonymous with social space.
So, social space is another term whose meaning, in distinction
from other terms like activity and context, puzzled me.
Consequently, I got tangled up from time to time in the use of thge
term, polycontextualisty. In a regular high school isn't there
polycontextuality associated with space all over? In the hallway,
the bathroom, the badk of the classroom, the principal's office,
etc.
Laminate. What meaning is carried by laminate that is different
from the word, "connect" when used for social systems?
There are some questions for openers. I am still in the middle
of Steve's interleaved victor/jay exchange, but now face 2 hours
of meetings.
So, off I go another part of campus.... or is that another
activity system? Or, ugh, another context?
Polysemously yours.
mike
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