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Re: [xmca] Understanding is no method but rather a form of communication
Martin, Peter
The question of "folk" understanding and how it links up with the
understanding of researchers has profound consequences.
For example the multiple theories &models and systems of "psychology" that
have been proposed and configured over the past century dramatically
impacts the place where I currently work [public schools]
Therefore the models we develop change our history.
Also, on a personal level, engaging with Gadamer, and
other scholars, changes what I *see* and how I interact when I go to to
work. The "folk" notions of psychology, education and development, when
translated and actualized within academic institutions do change our
conduct.
Therefore the question,
How do the MULTIPLE competing notions of psychology and education develop
and change institutional practices?
This question must engage both "folk" psychology AND philosophical
psychology.
Scholars such as Gadamer and Habermas are engaging in a serious
conversation about the place of theory and practice and techne as
contrasting notions influencing "folk" psychology as a form of
understanding that is taken for granted.
Eugene Taylor [who has written a history of dynamic psychology] has
suggested 3 contrasting notions of psychology that are currently in use.
1] Academic psychology which is biased towards experiment, measurement, and
empirical statistical notions
2] Clinical practices of psychotherapy, which have little overlap to
academic psychology.
3] Psychology which informs self-exploration as a person tries to develop
self-understanding. This 3rd way of understanding psychology is a question
of developing dis-positions, attitudes, or ways of orienting within the
world.
William James, over a hundred years ago, discussed these multiple
contrasting notions of psychology and 100 years later we continue to
generate NEW and novel systems of psychology.
It is THIS hermeneutical process of interpretation and translation [the
multiple theories ans systems of psychology as understanding] which I
believe scholars such as Gadamer can illuminate through reflection on how
our folk psychology, is constantly under RE-vision. RE-search is one method
contributing to the MULTIPLE versions of psychology generated and it is
THIS hermeneutical understanding of how systems of psychology develop which
may shed some light on the practice of psychology [and psyche] as a
historically implicated development. Gadamer would say hermeneutical
understanding underlies all the multiple ways of understanding psychology
as theoretical systems of psychology.
Peter, I'm not sure if "folk" psychology or "folk" education [as taken for
granted understanding] can answer questions of
WHY is there a multiplicity of competing systems of psychology?
Gadamer gives a particular answer to this question. I also believe he
offers a model of reflective practice which can deepen the understanding of
critical theory and deepen an understanding of "folk" psychology.
Larry
On Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 1:40 PM, Peter Smagorinsky <smago@uga.edu> wrote:
> Bueno, and my apologies if I misunderstood the intent of your comments.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
> Behalf Of Martin Packer
> Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2012 4:37 PM
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: Re: [xmca] Understanding is no method but rather a form of
> communication
>
> Peter,
>
> I was responding to a post about Gadamer, and I replied not by giving my
> own opinion but by describing what someone a lot smarter than me has said
> to Gadamer. I'm not trying to say that highly placed theorists are more
> important than everyday folk; I have simply pointed out that some pretty
> smart people have thought about these issues, that I find what they have to
> say helpful, and I've tried to summarize what they have said.
>
> Martin
>
>
>
>
> On Jul 18, 2012, at 3:22 PM, Peter Smagorinsky wrote:
>
> > Action research, at least from a teacher-research perspective, is
> something I've always understood to emerge from participants' inquiries
> into their own practice. When teachers write about their classroom
> inquiries, they tend to begin with the story of the question, not what
> Hegel or Habermas thinks. Yet in this discussion of action research, the
> only people given credit for thinking are what you've called "researchers"
> who can stand back and take in the whole, rather than those with an emic
> perspective on their own experiences.
> >
> > Or, at least, that's how it's come across to me. I know a lot of
> teacher-researchers, and have worked from that perspective myself, so I've
> been pretty well submerged in their discourse of emic understanding and
> distance from other people's detached study of them.
> >
> > Peter Smagorinsky
> > Distinguished Research Professor of English Education Department of
> > Language and Literacy Education The University of Georgia
> > 309 Aderhold Hall
> > Athens, GA 30602
> >
> > Advisor, Journal of Language and Literacy Education
> > Follow JoLLE on twitter @Jolle_uga
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu]
> > On Behalf Of Martin Packer
> > Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2012 3:53 PM
> > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> > Subject: Re: [xmca] Understanding is no method but rather a form of
> > communication
> >
> > Could you spell this out a bit Peter? I'm not grasping your point.
> >
> > Martin
> >
> > On Jul 18, 2012, at 2:37 PM, Peter Smagorinsky wrote:
> >
> >> What I find surprising about this whole discussion is that each and
> every source invoked is a highly placed theorist. It seems a bit
> patronizing to me.
> >
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