Dear Anton, and All,
So good to hear from you. Thank you for the question. Yes, as Bella stated, the large groups of IPAF psychologists in Portugal and Brazil are building a sustainable, international bridge of communication between psychologists in Russia and internationally. They were not trained in Russia. In the late 1990’s Quintino met Janna Glozman at a conference in Canada, and she invited him to visit her in Moscow, which he did, with some of his team (to my understanding). And, since then, Quintino has used some of his profit margin from his various groups to bring his colleagues from both Brazil and Portugal to visit Moscow; as well, he uses part of this profit margin to put on conferences in Portugal. For example, Yuri Zinchenko (not related to V. Zinchenko, to my knowledge), has spent time in Portugal building a stronger international understanding of psychology. Being the President of the Society of Russian Psychology (actual title??), Yuri is in a
position of a broader understanding, and his openness and kindness is proving to be very successful in Moscow (in my opinion). What is so interesting to me is that Quintino, and his team, do not totally separate psychology from education. When he/and his team visit Moscow, they not only learn about practices in clinical psychology, but learn about the educational practices from people like Elena Kravtsova and her Golden Key School team, and others. Quintino’s teams often have study groups, where they take a book, perhaps by Davydov, and many others, and discuss that book collectively. They have also had courses on trying to learn some Russian. In other words, Quintino has formed a group approach of learning within his various clinics (also one in Spain). And, the Portuguese “Vygotsky” for Quintino is Rita Leal, who is still alive. The teams do not try to put Vygotsky and Leal into “one package,” but learn from both of them, to continue
developing their methods used in their practices. Apart from the sheer kindness and generosity of Quintino and his team, I am always struck by their commitment of sustaining the network established many years ago. And, of course, the teams work with many people all around the world, not just Russia. So, the focus is not on mastering the Russian understanding of Vygotskian psychology (as there is not “one” Russian understanding). The focus Quintino has, as far as I understand, is to share resources and knowledge, view psychology and education (+other areas) in a truly holistic fashion, and learn to recapture the “art” of “conferencing,” with serious dialogue and much fun in between the conference sessions. In 2003, we were introduced to an evening where the traditional folksongs ”fados” were song. There have been many conferences I have attended since 2003; however, I still remember Quintino’s conference, and what was learned.
What triggers my thoughts stem from listening to the fados of Amalia Rodrigues every few weeks. The Vygotsky conference in Moscow each November also becomes much more than a conference, with student performances, past visits for all conference members to the Kravtsov home, etc. So, in closing, I have learned as much about the “communal + personal” aspect of “conferencing” from Quintino, as I have learned from my very dear colleagues in Moscow. This type of new “conferencing” comes with a very personal commitment to share as much as possible, both of resources, time, and personal energy. These are the times when “Vygotsky” comes to real life for me.
Very best wishes to all,
Dot
--- On Sat, 3/20/10, Anton Yasnitsky <the_yasya@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Anton Yasnitsky <the_yasya@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [xmca] Vygotsky conference/Portugal
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Date: Saturday, March 20, 2010, 12:04 AM
Hi Dot,
You mentioned, --
Quintino, and his team, have spent much time in Russia, learning about
Vygotsky from our Russian colleagues --
and I am just wondering -- from the perspective of the historiography of Soviet/Russian and international psychology of the 20th century -- if you happen to know the names of the guys on the team, how much time they spent in Russia (Soviet Union, I guess?), and who were their teachers back in the USSR (I imagine, Davydov, Galperin, maybe AA Leontiev or VP Zinchenko, possibly but unlikely, Zeigarnik, Bozhovich, or Elkonin?)...
Your feedback will be greatly appreciated!
Best,
Anton
----- Original Message ----
From: Dot Robbins <drobbins72000@yahoo.com>
To: Culture ActivityeXtended Mind <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Cc: quintino.aires@gmail.com; glozman@mail.ru
Sent: Fri, March 19, 2010 10:34:01 PM
Subject: [xmca] Vygotsky conference/Portugal
Dear Michalis, Manuel, Peter S.,
Thank you for your efforts to promote the Vygotsky conference in Estoril, Portugal (not far from Lisbon), June 24-26, 2010. This conference is sponsored by IPAF - Instituto Psicologia Aplicada e Formaçãois in Portugal (and Brazil), by Joquium Quintino Aires. Quintino, and his team, have spent much time in Russia, learning about Vygotsky from our Russian colleagues, and implementing that knowledge into their work in psychology. I wanted to state that a number of Russian experts will be attending this conference: Janna Glozman, Yuri Zinchenko (Dean of the Faculty of Psychology at Moscow State University), Elena Kravtsova, Gennadi Kravtsov, and many others, including Bella Kotik-Friedgut, who studied and worked with A. Luria. A number of the people mentioned attended an IPAF conference in Portugal in 2003, and it was an experience we will never forget. The conference sessions were simply excellent....but, beyond that, the atmosphere created by our
colleagues in Portugal made the experience a holistic adventure in networking....it was not just a conference, but an in-depth exposure to the culture of Portugal. As a result of the human aspect of the conference, we were able to enter into deeper discussion to not only learn about Russian Vygotskian theory, but to get to know each other. If you decide to come to this particular conference, you can be sure that it will be a memory for many years to come. We hope you will make the effort to attend this one-of-a-kind opportunity.
With good wishes to each of you,
Dot
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