Publication and Dissemination

The Mind, Culture, and Activity Homepage is an interactive forum for a community of interdisciplinary scholars who share an interest in the study of human mind in its cultural and historical contexts. Its emphasis is research that seeks to resolve methodological problems associated with the analysis of human and theoretical approaches that place culture and activity at the center of attempts to understand human nature. Its participants come from a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, cognitive science, education, linguistics, psychology and sociology.

external image xmcaanim.gifThe Mind, Culture, and Activity Homepage seeks to integrate a variety of activities in the community into one on-line resource. As such, it acts as a portal for the Mind, Culture, and Activity Journal, an interdisciplinary, international journal with a focus on the study of the human mind in its cultural and historical contexts, as well as the on-line discussions from the XMCA mailing list, personal prouploads of our participants, and links to other related Web sites. We invite all people interested in any aspect of our activities and research to contribute to a common dialogue among e-mail discussants, journal subscribers, and interested researchers.

 

XMCA Related Web Sites and Resources include:

Conferences

 Cultural Historical Activity Theory

Cultural-Historical Special Interest group of AERA: The Cultural-Historical Research special interest group focuses on mediated action, history, and the role of human agency and activity theory in the tradition of Vygotsky, Luria, Leontev, Bakhtin, Mead, and many others (see and decide yourself who we are).

Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research – Helsinki: The methodology of developmental work research (DWR) relies on interventions aimed at helping practitioners analyze and redesign their activity systems. Our theoretical framework is cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) in which the idea of expansive learning is of central importance.

International Society for Cultural and Activity Research (ISCAR): ISCAR is a newly formed organization that grew out of two, related academic societies. The first was ISCRAT, the International Society for Cultural Research and Activity theory. The second was the Society for Sociocultural Research. During the past 20 years, several conferences and seminars on themes central to activity theory and sociocultural approaches held in the Nordic countries, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Brazil. The two societies agreed to join together in 2002 and will hold the first ISCAR conference in Seville, Spain, in September, 2005.

Diversity and Identity

Gender Equity, An article by Education Week on the Web about gender equity: The article looks at various perspectives on gender equity as well offering a comprehensive listing of resources from Education Week and other sources.

Deconstructing “Difference” and the Difference This Makes to Education, By Nicholas C. Burbules: The tension between sameness and diversity has been an ongoing feature of modern educational theory and practice, especially in the United States. We seem fundamentally torn between, on the one hand, a desire to use education to make people more alike (whether this is in regards to a “melting pot” of citizenship values and beliefs; the essential texts of “cultural literacy”; the factual knowledge and skills that can be measured by standardized tests; or the establishment of uniform national standards across the curriculum) and, on the other hand, a desire to serve the different learning styles and needs, the different cultural orientations, and the different aspirations toward work and living represented by the diverse population of students in public schools.

Women and Girls Last: Females and the Internet, By Janet Morahan-Martin: The Internet has been dominated by males since its inception. Although use of the Internet by females has increased dramatically in the last few years, women and girls worldwide still use the Internet less and in different ways than males. Low Internet use by females not only gives them less access to information and services available online, but also can have negative economic and educational consequences. This paper discusses barriers to greater female use of the Internet: the Internet as new technology, the masculine Internet culture, and gendered communication styles online.

Rethinking Schools. Rethinking School is an urban educational journal that is published four times a year. Their focus is on educational reform with a strong focus on equity and social justice issues. Brazilian educator Paulo Freire writes that teachers should attempt to “live part of their dreams within their educational space.” Rethinking Schools believes that classrooms can be places of hope, where students and teachers gain glimpses of the kind of society we could live in and where students learn the academic and critical skills needed to make that vision a reality.

Education

American Educational Research Association. The American Educational Research Association is concerned with improving the educational process by encouraging scholarly inquiry related to education and by promoting the dissemination and practical application of research results.

Research in the Teaching of English: This vision of what “research in the teaching of English” means is broad and inclusive. Committed to publishing manuscripts that maintain RTE’s tradition of excellence while reflecting the diversity of sites, methodological perspectives, and ontological orientations that have newly enriched literacy studies in recent years.

Networks. An on-line journal focused on teacher research. This journal offers teachers working in classrooms from pre-school to university a place to share their findings and learn from each other.

Gestalt Psychology

Society for Gestalt Theory: Site of the international “Society for Gestalt Theory and its Applications,” founded in 1978 to further the development and application of the Gestalt theory of the so-called “Berlin School” (Wertheimer, Koffka, Koehler, Lewin) in various fields of science, research and practice.

Linguistics and Semiotics

Charles S. Peirce Studies: This site provides links to five of Peirce’s most important papers. Here, Peirce puts himself in the place of Aristotle and Kant and carves out his list of phenomenal categories. These categories gird all of Peirce’s thought, from his logic to his cosmology. Like Kant, he believed these categories describe those aspects of reality necessary for us to be able to reconcile discrete sensory data into the unity of consciousness which we experience.

The Bahktin Center: The Bakhtin Centre was founded in October 1994. Its purpose is to promote multi- and inter-disciplinary research on the work of the Russian philosopher and theorist Mikhail Bakhtin and the Bakhtin Circle, and on related areas of cultural, critical, linguistic and literary theory.

The Narrative Psychology Homepage: This site focuses upon narrative perspectives in psychology and allied disciplines and provides an interdisciplinary guide to bibliographical and Internet resources concerned with “the storied nature of human conduct” (Sarbin, 1986).

Philosophical Dialectics

Psychology and Marxism: The site explores the relationship between Marxism and Psychology. Its central focus is the Cultural-Historical school of Vygotsky.

The Marxist Internet Archive: A comprehensive site devoted to Marxism in general. In addition to Marx/Engels, they have major collections on Lenin, Trotsky, and Women.

Pragmatism

The Center for Dewey Studies: The Center for Dewey Studies at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale was established in 1961 as the “Dewey Project.” In the course of collecting and editing Dewey’s works, the Center amassed a wealth of source materials for the study of America’s quintessential philosopher-educator, John Dewey.

John Dewey: Democracy and Education: An online version of Dewey’s (1916) book Democracy and Education made available by Project Gutenberg.

Mead Project 2.0 and Project Inventory. A repository for the publications of George Herbert Mead. The site also provides access to related publications by other writers, including source documents referenced by Mead, some biographical and historical notes, and commentaries on Mead’s work.

Social Constructionism

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood. An online international research journal with articles in pdf format. It provides a forum for researchers and professionals who are exploring new and alternative perspectives in their work with young children (from birth to eight years of age) and their families. The journal aims to present opportunities for scholars to highlight the ways in which the boundaries of early childhood studies and practice are expanding, and for readers to participate in the discussion of emerging issues, contradictions and possibilities.

Technology

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication: A web-based, peer-reviewed scholarly journal.


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