blurs social scientists divisions persons their reversed points cultur - PDF document

1 blurs social scientists' divisions perso
blurs social scientists' divisions persons, their reversed points cultural view, processes-are ways move closer general theory situated activity. attempt to rethink has developed of the shared cognition in this take issue in this overly simple between the individual thus the a world which the (only) subjectively or intersubjectively fully encompassed not constituted separately own structures a decentered locus and which learning a social the experienced, social practice; skill is changing identity and through is an Anthropological studies tural points on social and inspiration among Yucatec Mayan midwives, for which mastery such a fashion the construction into the such processes questions about the persons and communities contemporary American are typical legitimate peripheral participants, the socially organized settings everyday pract

2 ice? What can we as a interrelated proce
ice? What can we as a interrelated processes have emerged to these questions. There highly valued forms knowledgeable skill this society forms. Further- more, once one legitimate peripheral many other forms organized activity Alcoholics Anonymous, one discussion that one turns being characterized centripetal partic- ipation leading identities of mastery. This too broad a generalization to stand on its own. The lo sketch how a socially workplaces that are intended to about learning world? One possible response question is suggested historical analysis alienated condition knowledgeability appears those settings that make for complex knowledgeable skill. Learning identities both senses) are diminish possibilities tained development mastery are circumscribed, do come Contemporary forms and these forms indicate that lose sight the fact are

3 interdependent and the product consider
interdependent and the product consider learning shared cognition but as skillful are from peripheral today's world (including developing knowledgeably the processes are ubiquitous services (including the movement Taken to these processes separate identity from knowledgeable practice. This view implies of the differences among rising confusion of the assumption that situated concept. However, situated activity simple con- theoreticai perspective generates interconnected teaming, agency, the social and their their Furthermore, there appear be at least three Probably the most is what researchers have lor years analyzed processing, representations, theory should to other each other and while located activity and social interaction. are then seen as the result itself the subject argue that locates situatedness language and/or social intera

4 ction. world composed unique experience.
ction. world composed unique experience. This view which postulates Cartesian external which words fixed referential meaning and or interests, are without integral and control the interpretive view: meaning the use social activity and situated cognition and concerns are rather than being being source of distortions of rational tkil.bught. Ln this position there world independent settings, or environments. a situation. constraining physical Rornmetveit proposes cognition plus each other adamantly, are converging. They cognitive scientists situated meaning. this volume and on socially shared cognition as the social world as Such compartmentalization, whether has the effect of negating This bracketing leads proponents social practice, and interpretive genres theory are really about situated activity because each offers only partial analyt

5 ic units and questions shares several te
ic units and questions shares several tenets situations. This emphasizes the activity, meaning, the inherently socially negotiated quality this view also knowing are relations people engaged socially constituted. this point much socially generation, according dialectical relations world and persons engaged together these meaning to and the with and within are produced, course of (which includes thought, but cannot to one are situated it is theory, because terms as under investigation. This social practice lived-in world; view into a specific analytic approach to a strict boundary between human experience, but rather reciprocal, recursive, person and world assumption follows learners as Legitimate peripheral oldtimers through which depends legitimate access ongoing community time from improvised oppor- participate peripherally a practit

6 ioner, a full full terms used here-oldri
ioner, a full full terms used here-oldrimerrlnewcome,-s: full participants. legitimate j!t~r:,~J:t*ral participants (but not teachel-slpupiis, or experrslnovices)-result from ;I k.~..i~;h For a way to talk about social which persons and practices each other. other. are used here, are not intendtd as a disguise not have apprentices' learning activity, although legitimate access Ethnographic studies claims. This apprenticeship reported have undertaken such research. Ethnographic studies Mexico (Jordan, West Africa (Goody, 1982; among others, a variety Processes of learning implicated. Evaluation intrinsic to their participation work practices. involves no and others generally, access ongoing work that work important conditions as instances through legitimate pe- ripheral participation different conclusions full practitioner through incre

7 asingly intense, interconnected, the oth
asingly intense, interconnected, the other hand, generally coincide intentionally organized. will be the practice learning. The changing relationship more complicated here-calls into Becker. 1972; see ubiquitous feature apprentice learners Apprentices have the opportunity to and have just the particular tasks are engaged most easily This appears Becker goes a consequence the accessibility full round realistic learning Becker also argues grave difficulties that teaching and must recruited at and will return to shortly. The apprentices' access the job He draws example, a butchers' apprentices manager sees puts apprentices they can room from the cold journeymen prepare cuts terms, the butchers' apprentices butchers' community as peripheral to the Economics, efficiency, control over space and enhance access, the ways which they involve the

8 exploitation apprentices as sources che
exploitation apprentices as sources cheap labor. institution of apprenticeship American history for recruiting, children and other newcomers. in the structured inequalities Western European countries systems today. tually ignored instrumenr of stare of their it appears have generated inequitable power relations between apprentices and those cultural capital sponsor them where powerful mercantile the practices of and exploitation children characteristic are by The evidence from West Africa, and elsewhere strongly exploitation is the conditions labor through apprenticeship. time, where whatever learning irrelevant "factor" learning setting. carried out field research midwives whose and less Marshall's study. These apprentices peripheral participants, legitimate participants, legitimately peripheral increasing participation participation

9 practice. It is worth noting that it wou
practice. It is worth noting that it would be difficult to find evidence Apprenticeship happens of. daily life. ally becomes most likely since midwifery handed down . . being identified apprentice midwives, absorb midwifery practice as well as specific knowledge about the life day or night), what kinds young children sitting quietly mother administers prenatal massage; they grow passing messages. running errands, getting young girl her mother mother market. Eventually, after she has had a child herself, she might come along perhaps because ailing grandmother find herself done for for laboring woman. . . . prenatal massages some point, she actually work. She questions. Her mentor sees association primarily use to knows how over more Yucatan the significant, the the placenta. has described which learning shape through Learning activity i

10 s learners early concern that learning d
s learners early concern that learning difficult recognition that there resources other newcomers grow practice, such as described for the midwives' demonstration of goals toward and are expected, of the of generating identities is individual apprentices to learn circumstances where activity provides structuring for learning. Gradually participation in practice. and of relations peers, also structuring resources investigations of situated learning ongoing practice oldtimers. Newcomers furnished with multiply structured field with near and exemplars characteristic of themselves successfully. Yucatec apprenticeship practice takes place and what more detailed which the members become pants, and subsumes the skill usually to be the goal activity. may leaming environment. characterization follows from as legitimate peripheral of practice. o

11 f practice useful characteristics then,
f practice useful characteristics then, constitutes practice, one change these identities, from drinking . . . mean the views himself, . . and one that the beliefs appropriate behaviors the appropriate placement holds must be aesthetic distinctions internalized. transmitted through and through ings and one-to-one interacrions. vehicle for this attending meetings more than to indicate hour-long stories. and years their lives business of the reconstruction the process construction of these and with company of near meetings, has access to of what the communiry clear models performances of oldtimers. in the litany of Steps to the process moving from identifying statement these events more experienced closely the validation from others appropriate understanding visit to phase of participation, recognized oldtimer. There seem be two discussi

12 on meetings. a part of reconstructed lif
on meetings. a part of reconstructed life powerless," "making drinky (Cain, dual purpose. through this the gradual of work scope (also analysis) describes of participation who move into full participation creasingly good amends, at at telling such stories-some of skills subsumed Yucatec midwives' apprenticeship and Alcoholics learners have the everyday activity members. There midwifery or belonging to gradually becoming organization must engage reproduction, structural the only zational forces No rational organization can participation is condition for meeting this goal. Nonetheless, too clean consistent a several respects. began with the practice shapes gives structure have treated treated process as a seamless structural discontinuities processes. Learning involves irreducibly tradictory interests Yucatec midwifery every other commun

13 ity The process becoming a a community p
ity The process becoming a a community production: the the displacement Newcomers and each other: and old members depends eventual replacement into processes learning are an end collective enterprise a matter also a of the through the further involves a recognition there may basis for lived identity. This and each Marxist sociologists have explored just such relations viewed as processes have tried society. Analysis begins with the structural principles their participation are grounded contradiction associated rumed into when they the lives their makers are produced others without direct reference the results removed further further from common place people who exchange for anonymous global places people between the pincers of the the anthropomorphizing as they persons as they take labor power student, wage "employees"). These of belie

14 f the world at and skillful knowledgeabi
f the world at and skillful knowledgeability relations among among oi exchange value, wt have come-mistakenly-to give objects of that that rightly belong only the director international advertising for Coca-Cola most successful and people . . understand your . . qualities of agency been attributed products such with separate and lively properties independent of the distributed, integral alienation follows from the buying of the labor sold their no longer rum primarily to to their the abstraction central forms or doing from the produce them, thus mistakenly giving human rather than rather than masters of productive activities. are powerful aspects of economy and culture. are relevant situated analysis practice, although, of an master practitioner and knowledgeable beings and the notion skilled knowledgeability. escape from world today,

15 of human the division indelibly the agen
of human the division indelibly the agent has little possibility of fashioning identity that implies mastery, implies the the value labor from is excised An Insider Insider Center for places the one hand. society limit the mastery to those forms graduate programs practice of and the other hand, where the gradual mastery participation. How contemporary world, both Yucatec Alcoholics Anonymous the world marketplaces (although immune to seriously the social world can be described the terms be useful which these most concentrated: from this exercise. concerning relations and tbe broader such communities whole on interstitial nature of in which identities and sustained knowledgeability consider each the working out commodification and, thus, shape experience creation of negatively valued and alienation also contribute the devaluation compar

16 ison with the reified value production o
ison with the reified value production of negative valuation narrow the participation is be reduced whatever value there over a long period of Where the ongoing activities at which participation in activity as among the midwives those organi- zations in which through the narrowing, trivialization. and workplaces-that most often motive and by the argument fail. On the other conditions for learning flourish participation of normal adults in professions that have not yet music), in And legitimate ipation also practice are unlikely to exist there defined ways. the workplace, people who are members sustained but disjunctive communities culture described communities shape the are produced, their meaning, and the skilled, stylized relations account for the but strongly the social practice Although the specific mechanisms the point practice ar

17 e in the workplace. evaluation through g
e in the workplace. evaluation through grading, relations between and forms stratification and classification and even the possibility of skilled activity practice mostly outside the classroom at this when learn best and "jocks" exemplify mastery practice than geometry students There are even interstitial communities example, newcomers generate distinctions between valued knowledge" and and consequently consider themselves inadequate even (Lave, 1988). when official channels offer only possibilities to participate activity, genuine school-like workplace transmission into process generates pressures negative identities disapproved interstitial about learning. questions are generally conceptualized initial notion how the social world and the individual come have a good deal as ingestion as feeding) social interaction, taken in. internali

18 zation might the structure culturally sp
zation might the structure culturally specific these processes cannot be a reasonable and problematic humans are not chained exisrence implied the notion equally colloquial notions uations as many unconnected pads. This reduces the organization bear on the developed that against this vision very general proposit-ion, reflected holistic approach (and that of that the the social a whole here offers especially eloquent example: are located interstitially institutional settings (both organization and complexly interconnected their everyday uses the meaning and action the informal the school lads' everyday practice tutional practices of the floor culture principles that generate characteristic distortions persons, activity, and among situated practices around these to static they constitute settings, situations, sys- are culturally, particu

19 lar social processes through persons' un
lar social processes through persons' under- this chapter eschewed the cognition plus view position must come face-to-face, treating either cognitive as situated the interpretive view commodification: There are structuring between the participation (and potential and the labor; there are and the structuring relations solely through the social interaction. chapter explored construction shape Along the Situating Learning of conceptual interdependencies among person, learning as the world cultural and that involve and that often the personalizing principles of thought well as formation of practice suggests questions, beginning the interrelations and the mastery through legitimate Such questions around issues the form and location practice. The object of participation and of understanding. How can we address extended scope? into the and mu

20 ltiple over continuity to inquire identi
ltiple over continuity to inquire identities from members themselves, the legitimate for newcomers deal to learned about communities of practice and to define lived character of social specific questions about work processes, as learners centripetally toward . . possible certain kinds skill, not simply changes the conditions make deep . . facilitate sharing skill; how specific terms, the cycles for the nexr understanding as as identities. Changed understanding not forged) close examination practice as the the underslanding situated learning. References Apple, M. (1979). Ideology a17d rurriorlurn. London: Routledge lousy place York: Teachers Cambridge, England: Cambridge University England: Cambridge Structural constraints Butchers' apprentices. Sage Publications. insider looks York: Columbia SITUATING LEARNING and historically through