2,124 research outputs found
To Act and Learn: A Bakhtinian Exploration of Action Learning
This paper considers the work of the Russian social philosopher and cultural theorist, Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin as a source of understanding for those involved in action learning. Drawing upon data gathered over two years during the evaluation of 20 action learning sets in the north of England, we will seek to work with the ideas of Bakhtin to consider their value for those involved in action learning. We consider key Bakhtin features such as Making Meaning, Participative Thinking, Theoreticism and Presence, Others and Outsideness, Voices and Carnival to highlight how Bakhtin's can enhance our understanding of the nature of action and learning
Negotiating the inhuman: Bakhtin, materiality and the instrumentalization of climate change
The article argues that the work of literary theorist Mikhail M. Bakhtin presents a starting point for thinking about the instrumentalization of climate change. Bakhtinâs conceptualization of humanâworld relationships, encapsulated in the concept of âcosmic terrorâ, places a strong focus on our perception of the âinhumanâ. Suggesting a link between the perceived alienness and instability of the world and in the exploitation of the resulting fear of change by political and religious forces, Bakhtin asserts that the latter can only be resisted if our desire for a false stability in the world is overcome. The key to this overcoming of fear, for him, lies in recognizing and confronting the worldly relations of the human body. This consciousness represents the beginning of oneâs âdeautomatizationâ from following established patterns of reactions to predicted or real changes. In the vein of several theorists and artists of his time who explored similar âdeautomatizationâ strategies â examples include Shklovskyâs âostranenieâ, Brechtâs âVerfremdungâ, Artaudâs emotional âcrueltyâ and Batailleâs âbase materialismâ â Bakhtin proposes a more playful and widely accessible experimentation to deconstruct our âhabitual picture of the worldâ. Experimentation is envisioned to take place across the material and the textual to increase possibilities for action. Through engaging with Bakhtinâs ideas, this article seeks to draw attention to relations between the imagination of the world and political agency, and the need to include these relations in our own experiments with creating climate change awareness
What can managers learn online? Investigating possibilities for active understanding in the online MBA classroom
Online MBAs have become integral to business schoolsâ portfolios and the number of MBA students opting for an online version looks set to grow. In the wake of well documented critiques of traditional MBA formats, this expansion prompted us to examine the potential for critically reflexive learning ideals in asynchronous MBA learning environments. Building the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model we elaborate elements of Bakhtin and Shotterâs dialogism to develop the notion of âactive understandingâ as a means to study an online MBA classroom. We present two illustrative episodes to show how aspects of active understanding may unfold and we point to the role of infrastructure, curriculum and instructor interventions in developing more genuine dialogical exchanges. Our findings suggest that online MBA course designers can learn from CoI approaches to which we add that critically reflexive learning is situationally sensitive; requiring the capacity to create and recognize nuance and difference in the written communication; making the other the focus of learning. We conclude with implications for pedagogy and technology infrastructure
Ambiguity and the dialogical self: In search for a dialogical psychology.
It is intuitively felt that ambiguity plays a crucial role in human beingsâ everyday life and in psychologistsâ theoretical and applied work. However, ambiguity remains essentially non-problematised in psychological science since its foundation. This article analyses positivist and social constructionist perspectives on ambiguity in the context of their epistemological and ontological fundamental assumptions. The relational thesis of social constructionism is further analysed and it is argued that it constitutes a âweak thesisâ concerning the relational constitution of human beings. In the second part, a dialogical alternative is elaborated. In this perspective, ambiguity is placed in the context of relationship and both are brought to an ontological ground. Therefore, it is argued, ambiguity is a fundamental property of human experience and plays a fundamental role in the consti tution of (inter)subjective processes. The impact of this thesis on dialogical perspective on self is elaborated
Grasping the dialogical nature of acculturation
In this interesting article, Andreouli (2013). Identity and acculturation: The case of
naturalised citizens in Britain. Culture & Psychology, 19, 1â47) presents a dialogical perspective
on acculturation. To support this perspective, the author integrates the
Dialogical Self Theory and the Social Representations Theory. Drawing on her theoretical
explanation, we develop a conceptual review focused on two pairs of constructs â
social representations/I-positions and polyphasia/polyphonia. Andreouliâs empirical
study allowed her to operationalize some critiques about the two-dimensional perspective
and its strategies on acculturation. Nevertheless, it seems that the author ends up
replicating a more conventional and dual way of thinking. Their results give us privileged
access to the negotiation of meanings and activation of promoter signs or, in other
words, to the dialogical dynamics between I-positions. In this respect, we suggest that
the assumption of a more dialogic and semiotic lens could be an interesting further
development to this study
Ruelle-Perron-Frobenius spectrum for Anosov maps
We extend a number of results from one dimensional dynamics based on spectral
properties of the Ruelle-Perron-Frobenius transfer operator to Anosov
diffeomorphisms on compact manifolds. This allows to develop a direct operator
approach to study ergodic properties of these maps. In particular, we show that
it is possible to define Banach spaces on which the transfer operator is
quasicompact. (Information on the existence of an SRB measure, its smoothness
properties and statistical properties readily follow from such a result.) In
dimension we show that the transfer operator associated to smooth random
perturbations of the map is close, in a proper sense, to the unperturbed
transfer operator. This allows to obtain easily very strong spectral stability
results, which in turn imply spectral stability results for smooth
deterministic perturbations as well. Finally, we are able to implement an Ulam
type finite rank approximation scheme thus reducing the study of the spectral
properties of the transfer operator to a finite dimensional problem.Comment: 58 pages, LaTe
Translanguaging and Public Service Encounters: Language Learning in the Library
This article explores the information desk of a city library as a site for language learning. Using a linguistic ethnographic approach, the interactions between a customer experience and information assistant and the many library users who approach her information desk were analysed. Findings are that, in addition to providing information about library resources, information desks are sites at which bits and pieces of different languages are taught and learned. Such language teaching and learning episodes created interactions of inclusion and welcome that went far beyond purely transactional information. Rather, languageârelated episodes created moments of human contact and engagement, which were upheld through the translanguaging practices of interactants, the disposition and workplace competence of library staff, and the spatial ecology of the information desk. Furthermore, the article contributes to ongoing theoretical debates about translanguaging by noting that normativity and pressure toward uniformity are as much a part of languaging processes as creativity and flexibility. Our definition of translanguaging recognises the opposing pull of centrifugal and centripetal forces. The article ends by asking what schools, and language education, might learn from public libraries in creating arenas that maintain communitarianism, diversity of expression, and the development of civic skills
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