Re: [xmca] Question

[Elina Lampert-Shepel <ellampert@gmail.com>]

Mike -
I can relate to a LOT of trouble. Both notions are used in many different
ways in the contexts of development and learning. A few weeks ago, during
Vygotsky Summer School, Gennadiy Kravtsov and I had a long conversation
about my cross-cultural research on reflection or as you say "reflexia". He
talked about reflection/reflexivity in the context of "self-consciousness"
and we discussed reflexivity as a condition for the development of
self-consciousness. He believes that the notion of "self-consciousness" (
that I distinguish from reflexivity) was never developed fully in
cultural-historical tradition. Knowing that there is still lack of bridge
between Russian and the rest of the world cultural-historical research, I
wanted to learn whether there are studies that connect reflection (
"reflexia") and self-consciousness. It is interesting that you mentioned
both "reflexia" and "self-consciousness' in the context of meta-cognition.
It seems to me that learning activity theory conceptualized reflection as a
metacognitive process, although Vygotsky never discussed it as a cognitive,
or metacognitive process. There is also an important language difference,
Russian language doesn't have an everyday use of the word reflection, it
only exists as a philosophical or psychological notion.

Part of this conversation was discussion of the nature of higher
psychological functions. I am still puzzled with what Vygotsky meant by
function ( Seth Chaiklin and I posed this question in 2002 and as we
discussed recently and are still looking for an answer...:-), but Gennadi
and I believe that reflection and will are not higher psychological
functions. We are in the process of developing a proposal for the ISCAR
symposium on these issues.

In any case, I was just wondering if there are studies on the development of
self-consciousness and/or reflexivity that are not necessarily rooted in
Russian philosophical thought.

As you can see, I am in the state of questioning, so directions for further
questioning will be highly appreciated.

Elina

On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 7:49 PM, mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:

> Elina--
>
> I spent a great many sessions with Russian grad students who were
> interested
> in this issue. We had a LOT of trouble with the fact that there seem to be
> a
> whole lot of words that appear to refer in overlapping ways with
> "self-consciousness."  Terms in the family of reflectivity, reflexivity
> came
> up a lot among the Russian students, but they were trying hard to figure
> out
> what the right English words were for whatever Russian term was being used.
> Not just "samo-soznanie" was used in their conversations as well, with
> meta-cognition slipping in along with "reflexia."
>
> I am unsure what to suggest. What is occasion for the question?
> mike
>
> On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 9:14 AM, Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Elina
> >
> > I wanted to express my appreciation of the quote you sign off with by
> > Tagore.  It  captures the central imperative of foregrounding  context
> and
> > traditions in the emergence of self-consciousness [the string] BUT that
> > without the string there is no violin.
> > I find myself often reflecting on the implications this perspective
> > elaborates.
> >
> > One suggestion I would like to suggest on the emergence of
> > self-consciousness is Andy's vimeo podcast on the Historical roots of
> > cultural-historical theory. [Hegel is central]
> >
> > Larry
> > On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 6:23 AM, Elina Lampert-Shepel
> > <ellampert@gmail.com>wrote:
> >
> > > Hi, everyone,
> > > I would appreciate if anyone can recommend publications on
> > > self-consciousness in cultural-historical tradition. I am interested in
> > any
> > > references on this issue.
> > >  Thanks in advance,
> > >  Elina
> > >
> > > --
> > > I have on my table a violin string. It is free. I twist one end of it
> and
> > > it
> > > responds. It is free. But it's not free to do what a violin string is
> > > supposed to do - to produce music. So I take it, fix it in my violin
> and
> > > tighten it until it is taut. Only then is it free to be a violin
> string.
> > > -Sir Rabindranath Tagore
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-- 
I have on my table a violin string. It is free. I twist one end of it and it
responds. It is free. But it's not free to do what a violin string is
supposed to do - to produce music. So I take it, fix it in my violin and
tighten it until it is taut. Only then is it free to be a violin string.
-Sir Rabindranath Tagore
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