Re: RE: RE: [xmca] Fleer/Hedegaard for discussion

[Larry Purss <lpurss@shaw.ca>]

Hi Phillip
 
You mention a slight difference in emphasis between 1] socially situated practices REGULATE and 2] socially situated practices as OPERATIONALIZED by the classroom teacher REGULATE
 
Phillip do you see the difference as one of who or what is doing the regulating. Another way to phrase this is "Can institutional structures REGULATE forms of engagement?" or  only "Others in a dialogical relationship to self  within institutional structures REGULATE FORMS of engagement?"
 
I would agree that institutions do not have agency but I also would emphasize that individuals cannot have agency outside particular situated contexts.  It seems to me that institutional structures and agency are intimately intertwined concepts.
 
I am open to reflecting on both possibilities of  where  agency is located.  Another question that postmodernism asks is if "situated agency" actually exists or is only a fictional construct. My bias is to recognize "psychological agency" within dialogical engagement which is constrained [and afforded] within institutional structures. The MORAL IMPERATIVE then becomes what particular institutional arrangements facilitate psychological agency which I posit as a "good" WITHIN dialogical engagement.

Larry

----- Original Message -----
From: "White, Phillip" <Phillip.White@ucdenver.edu>
Date: Wednesday, May 5, 2010 11:35 am
Subject: RE: RE: [xmca] Fleer/Hedegaard for discussion
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>

> Larry - your analysis fits with my understanding of agency, 
> engagement and identity.  as Lave points out, these 
> attributes do emerge out of participation within activities - 
> 
> also, while i have my own goals for the classroom, these goals 
> are not necessarily shared by the other participants within the 
> classroom - 
> 
> one point: you wrote -
>  "What the Fleer/Hedegaard article points out is how the 
> REGULATORY FUNCTION of socially situated institutional practices 
> constrains [and affords] particular developmental pathways. What 
> I want to add is the construct of ENGAGEMENT [as a movement or 
> tension of RESPONSE and WITHDRAWAL] and how institutional 
> structures REGULATE this function of engagement [or 
> disengagement] "
> 
> i'm not so sure that Andrew is being confronted by "socially 
> situated institutional practices" as what i understand to be 
> socially situated practices operationalized by the classroom 
> teacher(s).
> the classroom teacher(s), i would think, had other ways of 
> responding to Andrew.
> 
> phillip
> 
> 
> Phillip White, PhD
> University of Colorado Denver
> School of Education
> phillip.white@ucdenver.edu
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