1,065 Matching Annotations
  1. Sep 2015
  2. newclasses.nyu.edu newclasses.nyu.edu
    1. These individuals have decided to stop drinking because they have come to understand that "alcohol is controlling their lives."

      I have to admit, like every single reading that precedes this, our analysis begins when the individual is already in the community. When we say "they have come to understand that 'alcohol is controlling their lives'", there seems to be a lot of learning that has already happened. Similarly, all the other cases we have addressed study how the individual interacts in the community of practice, but say nothing about how they got there. To me, that is a fundamental question which we have so far not really devoted any attention to.

    2. The findings suggest that, over time, the individual develops his drinking history according to the AA structure, and as the AA identity is formed, the life story narrated comes to resemble the prototypical AA story more and more closely.

      So did the AA steps get developed from the comparison of other people?

    3. It is a transformation of their identities, from drinkil1KJ1on-alcoholics to rion-drmldng alcofiO!ics·, a_�n:::d:_,:lt:.:a::l�le::;c:.:-ts::__. ���-�"--·--�·-'-" ·-----��.�-=---�----���·�� . --how they view and act in the world.

      Why does it need to be that way? Why label something that is unnecessary, especially when it will not produce positive result for the individual's identity?

    4. this transformation of identity, from a drinking non-alcoholic ("normal drinker") to an alcoholic, requires a radical reinterpretation of who he is, of "self." lt requires a new way of figuring the activity of drinking, those who drink, and the place of drink­ing in a broader social and personal context. This process of reinterpreta­tion of self, the formation of a new identity, is a major component of Alcoholics Anonymous.

      Throughout this chapter I couldn't help but feel a bit uncomfortable by all of the talk of transformation. AA clearly does good and important things in the world, but in order to benefit from it, the participant needs to "radically reinterpret" him/herself. Alcoholism is definitely deviant and harmful behavior, but I also wonder how our discussion would change if we replaced AA with a cult (or with any kind of radical group) that requires reinterpretation and transformation as the basis of membership.

    5. Even should he accept this interpretation of his drinking behavior, so long as the interpretation remains unassimilated to a figured world such as that created by AA, he need not see it as an aspect of himself that carries over into other areas of his life.

      How can one prevent an interpretation of a behavior or an identity from being assimilated into a figured world. Is the association with a figured world only through one's recognition and acceptance? That gives membership to a figured would a level of agency that I didn't expect.

    6. AA has constructed a particular interpreta­tion of what it means to be an alcoholic, what typical alcoholics are like, and what kinds of incidents mark a typical alcoholic's life. This cultural knowledge about alcoholism and!!!� alc<l,!J,olic shared byE::"...mbers of AA differs both from the cultural kn(tWkggl'::<Lhl�sm shared�e outside of AA and fron:_ilie self-und�rstawling of most po!:!;_ntial_'E:�m­bers before they enter AA

      Can AA as an institution be viewed as implementing a a teaching curriculum to newcomers in AA? But then what is the role of a learning curriculum in AA's community of practice?

      Or am I totally looking at this weirdly?

    7. This is why, as members often say, "AA is for those who want it, not for those who need it." AA members must agree to become tellers, as well as listeners, of AA stories.

      Entering into the AA figured world as a "non drinking alcoholic" must be an intentional choice.

      I'm curious though what the authors would say about close family and friends of "non drinking alcoholics" - do you need to form an identity as such to enter (struggling with word choice here) a specific figured world?

    8. Alcoholics are a labeled group of people who behave inappropriately after drinking alcohol.

      I don't understand this - labeled by others after acting "inappropriately" AFTER drinking? I feel like the label is more contingent on the act or habit of drinking, rather than only after... Guess this speaks to the disagreements and lack of a clear definition of alcoholism

    9. In this sense AA has created a cultural world, albeit a limited one, which is its institutional reason for being.

      I'm curious about the role of institutions in figured worlds and identity formation - I wish they could explore this further

    10. S�the defi!lition of an alcoholic is not agreed upon in the wider society, arriving at this i�t�;:pretatlon -�revent�-is-a process negotiated between the drinker and fhose arouncrller-:1\A stories provide a set of_c:riteria by which the al�o­lioliccailbeTclentified.

      Who defines these criteria?

    11. A successful writer who finds she writes better with a few drinks, a college student who only gets drunk on the weekends, a businessman who drinks to loosen up in social situations-these people may not consider themselves alcoholics, but those around them may consider them so.

      This goes back to my comment from the previous chapter. Who decides what the boundaries for these groups are?

    12. Our identities are not just shaped by our knowledge and interpretations, but how our knowledge plays off of cultural knowledge. The reading claims that for some "self-understanding" is transformed. Is this creating prototypical members of this group?

    13. What happens when an AA member fails to compose this new under­standing of himself and of his life?

      What happens when a person is forced into a figured world they do not want to be in...a Holocaust victim, a prisoner? Does their identity reflect their reality, thier former lives, or their aspirations?

    14. He does not figure his life in AP!s terms. He views AA as a measure to take when things get really bad. He does not share the set of values and distinctions that unites other AA members. The identity of "alcoholic" does not affect his actions, or his perceptions of self, beyond his drinking behavior.

      Andrew seems conflicted by his figured worlds. Though he acknowledges his alcoholism it is not how he identifies. For Hank, AA became a surrogate family (by way of his descri[tions of "Who am I?"). Andrew, though lonely, does not allow AA to serve that purpose for him. Is it a self fulfilling prophecy of lonliness that he is holding on to? An identity he wants to cling to?

  3. newclasses.nyu.edu newclasses.nyu.edu
    1. But 30 years old, that's old. I mean I'm 18 years old. I don't want to go out with someone who's 30. It's not that bad but-shucks, I don't want to go out with anybody but Howard. He's worth the wait. "7

      I think she uses and reacts the situation differently depending on the context she is in. When she wants to still have her freedom she will act in ways that show she is not too interested, but when she wants to stop someone from talking to her, she will act the opposite. She has learned how to use her relationship to her advantage...maybe?

    2. women came to col-lege proud of having done well in high school and then got upset when their university grades were not as good. They gradually became less involved with their schoolwork and switched their attention and time to romantic pursuits. Romance became an even more important world for them.

      Do they do this because they are better at romance than school? Do they make this switch to feel fulfilled?

    3. Notice that the emotional involvement or identification comes only after a certain degree of competence is reached and that this degree of emotional involvement is necessary for further mastery

      I don't understand where confidence or self-assessment plays a role in this? What one may consider an expert, someone may consider a novice.

    1. These socially generated, culturally figured worlds, many linguists believe, are necessary for understanding the meaning of words.

      I read this and I think, "what came first the chicken or the egg?"

      Can you have worlds if you don't have words to define them? Can anyone have an identity if we have no words to use to describe our identities?

    2. institutionalized "stl'_ll_<:_t:':'Ees" _ofp_<'-\lle.': .. .. i' .. landscapes .. the .. lu:unedia.te D.I<i<;r_oLinll:J-action.

      This section on power and privilege is a bit confusing. And how it relates to Bourdieu's concept of fields.

    3. lt. Discourse (or discursive) theory emphasizes many of the aspects of cultural resources that we discu

      Cultural artifacts don't need to be material - pronouns as artifacts (example of ta/you). I'm thinking more about pronouns as artifacts, I'm curious what the authors would have to say about communities creating their own gender neutral pronouns in response to the gender binary (examples: ne, ve, ze, xe). Imagining and creating artifacts into being, learned within social interaction

    4. The conceptual importance of figured worlds has been emphasized in anthropology for some time. Hallowell (1955a) argued that individuals live in worlds that are culturally defined and understand themselves in relation to these worlds. In a classic article, :'The Self and Its Behavioral Environment," he n

      Can you live any other way?

    1. Within these figured worlds,identity is constructed as individuals both act with agency in authoring themselvesand are acted upon by social others as they are positioned (as members, nonmembers,or certain kinds of members).

      This answered some of my questions from the previous two chapters on how and by who is identity constructed. However I still question if there are any conflicts between being within a figured world and how others socially construct and position ones's identity.

    2. We consider learning to be shifts in use of artifacts (both cultural and cogni-tive) for problem solving, sense making, or performance. We consider identity to beone viewing participation in the practice as an integral part of who one is; what we call"practice-linked identities" (Nasir and Hand 2005,2008)

      Is therefore learning somehow a subset of identity?

    1. ʨ ʨ" ʨƦʨ +ʨ"ʨ ʨ ʨ ʨ   1ʨ ʨ™ ǀ)ʨ ʨ# išʨ"!ʨ"#ºʨʨ Tʨ ʨ# ʨʨʨ ʨ ʨ"! ʨ ʨ  +ʨ"ʨ .+ʨ WʨXʨ0ʨʨI ʨ ʨ{ƍ !ʨ )Sʨ0ʨ"# Tʨʨ ʨ ʨʨ ʨ

      Can someone give me an example of an artifact being a tool of liberation?

    1. Unlike Starbucks or other popular coffee chains, it appeared that patrons needed a high level of beverage knowledge before they walked in. The menu (in the blurry photo shown here) was not descriptive at all, and the rapid-fire exchange between customers and staff was different than a more “casual” beverage establishment

      Learning about how to 'use' the shop is required then, not so much novice-friendly. Out-of-school situation-specific?

    2. Unlike Starbucks or other popular coffee chains, it appeared that patrons needed a high level of beverage knowledge before they walked in. The menu (in the blurry photo shown here) was not descriptive at all, and the rapid-fire exchange between customers and staff was different than a more “casual” beverage establishment

      Learning about how to 'use' the shop is required then, not so much novice-friendly. Out-of-school situation-specific?

    1. apprenticeship has been treated as a historically significant object more often than most educational phenom-ena

      Similar to the comment below, what is apprenticeship as an educational phenomena? Why is it different than what most of us understand apprenticeship as? I agree that it this term has taken on too many meanings in educational literature.

    2. Usually, unless the intetpretation runs counter to A. A. beliefs, the speaker is not corrected. Rather, other speakers will take the appropriate parts of the newcomer's comments, and build on this in their own comments, giving parallel accounts with different interpretations, for example, or expanding on parts of their own stories which are similar to parts of the new-comer's story, while ignoring the inappropriate parts of the newcomer's story.

      I found this to be a fascinating account of how very specific customs or practices can emerge that facilitate Legitimate Peripheral Participation, even being crucial to their success. How did such a "policy" or "rule" or "custom" come into being?

    3. This development in-volved a transition from domestic production in which chil-dren learned subsistence skills from their same-sex parent, to learning part-time specialisms in the same way, to learning a specialized occupation from a specialist master.

      How does the apprentice find his way to his specialist master? Resnick challenges the usefulness of the kind of "generalized learning" that people claim goes on in school. But would it make sense as part of a model of career/life choice?

    4. Any given attempt to analyze a form of learning through legitimate peripheral participation must involve analy-sis of the political and social organization of that form, its historical development, and the effects of both of these on sus-tained possibilities for learning

      So what will the generalizable lessons be from LPP? Won't every community of practice have its own historical development, social organization,and political structure?

    5. [Where there is high volume] a division of labor among a relatively large number of workers increases efficiency. . . . In this situation, not only apprentices but journeymen, too, seldom learn the full range of tasks once proper to their trade

      Lave and Wenger seem to suggest this is problematic, but I'm not sure that it is. If the "full range of tasks" is no longer economically relevant to their trade, than why is it important that they are learned?

    1. They share our interest in extending the study of learning beyond the context of pedagogical structuring, including the structure of the social world in the analysis, and taking into account in a central way the conftictual nature of social practice

      "Beyond the context of pedagogical structuring" Are the authors claiming that pedagogy is exclusive to schools? I'm curious if pedagogy can be conceptualized and applied in out-of-school contexts as well. I feel like pedagogy is a really broad, and potentially radical concept to be only assigned to schools. Perhaps they aren't saying this though?

    1. Notions like those of ''intrinsic rewards'' in empirical stud-ies of apprenticeship focus quite narrowly on task knowledge and skill as the activities to be learned. Such knowledge is of course important; but a deeper sense of the value of participa-tion to the community and the learner lies in becoming part of the community.

      And when participation in the community is not valued by the learner? Schooling would look a lot different (and I'd argue it does look a lot different) if it were restricted to those legitimately invested in the endeavor.

    2. Observing the span of de-velopmental cycles is only a beginning to such an analysis (and a rough approximation that sets aside consideration of the transformation and change inherent in ongoing practice -see below), for each such cycle has its own trajectory, bench-marks, blueprints, and careers (Stack 1989)

      This is just one dimension in which the communities which exhibit legitimate peripheral participation are wildly different from one another. What are the implications of this for "designers" like ourselves? It is also noteworthy to consider the sharp contrast between the difference in cycles established by these communities with the incredibly uniform "cycles" that we have settled upon in traditional schooling.

    3. In the process, newcomers learn how to make (some-times difficult) repairs, they learn the skills of war-story tell-ing, and they become legitimate participants in the community of practice.

      This makes me believe that story telling allows apprentices to gain social knowledge on/about that community. Would this not be considered cultural learning?

    4. Finally, we explore contradictions inherent in learning, and the relations of the resulting conflicts to the development of identity and the transformation of practice.

      Are there social conflicts as well that should be explored? Old timers vs. new comers?

  4. Jul 2015
    1. I have asked this question all my life. I have sought the answer through my reading and writings, through the music of my youth, through arguments with your grandfather, with your mother. I have searched for answers in nationalist myth, in classrooms, out on the streets, and on other continents. The question is unanswerable, which is not to say futile.

      (I know this is an aside... but maybe it isn't.) Just in case anybody needed a definition of "inquiry," these sentences would do just fine. I know it can seem like too much to ask of youth, but I think we can find ways to help them to find the question they have been asking all of their lives, just like Coates's question here: "unanswerable, which is not to say futile." How different that is from finding a "researchable question."

  5. May 2015
  6. Mar 2015
  7. May 2014
  8. Apr 2014
    1. Users can choose to keep their highlights and annotations private, or to share them with the world, which leads into our key step in creating a more collaborative and open scientific community.

      Expand on this more to explain how sharing highlights and annotations is key to more collaboration and openness. What do you imagine PeerLibrary will make possible for the scientific community that they cannot do now?

  9. Jan 2014
    1. Data represent important products of the scientific enterprise that are, in many cases, of equivalent or greater value than the publications that are originally derived from the research process. For example, addressing many of the grand challenge scientific questions increasingly requires collaborative research and the reuse , integration, and synthesis of data.

      Who else might care about this other than Grand Challenge Question researchers?

    1. Questioning and examination are the tools of reflection: Hear an idea, ponder it, question it, modify it, explore its limitations. When the idea is presented by a person, the audience can interrupt, ask questions, probe to get at the underlying assumptions. But the author doesn’t come along with a book, so how could the book be questioned if it couldn’t answer back? This is what bothered Socrates.

      This is what bothered socrates.

  10. Oct 2013
  11. Sep 2013
    1. ABIGAIL ADAMS, REMEMBER THE LADIES, 1776

      What does this exchange tell us about John, Abigail, and Mercy? About expectation for the day?

      How revolutionary was the exchange? How typical was this kind of relationship? How much impact might it have had

  12. Aug 2013
    1. I want to know how this stigma developed. Why can we look at a person with a broken arm or chicken pox and wince when we do, but then carry on with our lives when, on the flipside, someone mentions that they have a psychological disorder of some sort causes us to look at them with big eyes and then scoot away?
    1. Is Alexander arguing that African American women are defined more by their race than by their gender, whereas white women are defined more by their gender than their race?

      Why does Alexander suggest this? How might this approach affect the history of Women?

    2. When Castañeda talks about how women of color are ignored, I wonder if there's a detriment of calling all women that aren't white women of color. Wouldn't that lead to lumping them all together, making stereotypes about them, and ignoring the vast diversity in that group? Just like the experiences of white women can be different from those of women of color, can't the same be said for Hispanic women, Asian women, and black women since they also all have different experiences.

      Discuss.

    3. As a women and gender studies major and a Hispanic woman, I find myself realizing more and more that most of my classes only assign one class to talk about women of color. I wish to understand more why we still ignore women of color when talking in the context of women's history and how we would fix this problem.

      Why is this and how might we fix it?

    4. I wonder how this idea that ‘wages define real work’ applies to today’s society in regards to pay inequality among different races and genders.

      Can we think of examples from today of the impact of this distinction?