Author: Malcolm Reed

Over the last year, we have witnessed a dramatic spike in authoritarian discourses, experienced the continuous degradation of public institutions, and seen a steady rise in vitriol against non-dominant populations across the globe. The institutionalization of anti-intellectual ideologies has many wondering about the impact on learning and educational outcomes. Scholars working from a sociocultural and critical perspective are wondering: does Vygotsky still matter? Or better yet, how does he matter? Over the last four decades, Vygotsky’s theories (and that of his colleagues) have become some of the most utilized frameworks for innovations in education in formal and informal settings. In that time, Vygotsky’s original work has given birth to a wide range of theories and practices, including Socio-Cultural, Cultural-Historical, Activity, and related critical and post-modern approaches, all of which are represented by the Cultural-Historical Research SIG.

The CHR SIG of AERA is therefore calling for proposals for the 2018 Annual Meeting that represent the breadth and relevance of Vygotskian, Socio-Cultural, Activity and related theory, research and practice for education in the 21st century. We are particularly seeking proposals that represent:

·      The diversity of approaches that fall under the umbrella of CHR, including, socio-cultural, Marxist, activity, and arts-based and postmodern approaches.

·      The role of language and linguistics in Vygotskian inspired theories of learning and development.

·      The relevance of Vygotsky for innovations in education that offer creative responses to the ongoing education “crisis” in the US and around the world

·      The range of methodologies that utilize CH approaches, including mixed methods, action research, arts based research, and performance studies.

·      The diversity of fields and settings in which CH theory is used and to which it is applicable (i.e. early childhood, outside of school, STEM learning, literacy, adult learning, ELL).

·      Proposals that explore the past, present and future of CH approaches.

·      Proposals that address the intersections of CH theories with critical theories that include, for example, focus on relations of power, activities that create the “Other,” and sources of oppression.

We have tried to support as many students and early career people as we can with free membership or sponsorship for ISCAR 2017 in Quebec City, and we have also extended a reduced rate for people with proposals accepted from a list of countries with lower incomes. We now need to close the offer of free membership for 2017. The new Executive Committee of ISCAR, which will be elected during the Quebec Congress, will come into office through 2017 to 2020, and it will decide what financial support it will offer in the future.

On behalf of the International Society for Cultural-historical and Activity Research (ISCAR), we deplore the violence committed against people at prayer in their holy place, the mosque in Québec City. This isolated action, by a lone student with far-right affiliation, is murderous, terroristic and insupportable. Among the six innocent people who have been killed is a professor from the student’s own university. ISCAR extends its sorrow to the people and families affected and to our friends, colleagues and students at Université Laval. We wish to stand in solidarity with the Muslim community of Québec City and alongside all citizens of every nation and religion in condemning this atrocity.

Malcolm Reed, President of ISCAR

EUROPEAN DOCTORATE IN TEACHER EDUCATION (EDITE)

EDITE – EJD PROGRAMME VACANCIES: 15 EARLY STAGE RESEARCHER POSITIONS AT FIVE EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES

APPLICATION DEADLINE: DECEMBER 4, 2015

The EDiTE project offers 15 full-time researcher positions in the field of Teacher Education at five universities (host universities) for well-motivated and excellent early stage researchers from Europe and other countries (under the condition that the funding authority approves the funding of all 15 ESR positions). The positions are financed from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie-Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement number 676452.

Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) are invited to apply to pursue individual research projects at one of the five partner universities (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary; University of Innsbruck, Austria; University of Lisbon, Portugal; University of Lower Silesia, Wroclaw, Poland and Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic) in the framework of the joint EDiTE research program as employed researchers. They will also be enrolled in the EDiTE PhD programme at host universities. The overall term of employment is 36 months, which should be concluded by a successful research project with the awarding of the PhD title by the host institution and a joint EDiTE diploma by the EDiTE university consortium.

For information on how to apply, please visit www.edite.eu.

[Sent by Beata Zamorska via xmca]

[I am posting this on behalf of MOISES ESTEBAN-GUITART. Please follow the link below to the journal and support it if you are interested. Malcolm Reed]

Dear members of the scientific committee of the Journal Papeles de Trabajo
sobre Cultura, Educación y Desarrollo Humano / Working Papers on Culture,
Education, and Human Development,

On behalf of the editorial board, I would like to thank you for your
support and acceptance to join the scientific committee of the Journal.
Your acceptance will certainly add value to the Journal and this will make
possible to visualize an international community which has certain
convergences around human behavior which were largely reduced during the
20th century both to the behaviorist “black box” and to the cognitivist
“mechanism”. Aristotle said that “Being can be said in many ways” and
elusive and complex concepts such as “culture” can also be conceptualized
in many different ways: social institutions, cultural artifacts,
lifestyles or sociocultural practices. In any case, I suspect that all of
us share a special feeling for the critical role that both culture and
education have for the development of higher psychological processes and
ultimately for the human mind and behavior.

Secondly, I would like to acknowledge and thank the work done by David
Poveda, founder of the journal, and also to the editorial team of the
“Universidad Autónoma de Madrid”. David has now taken the role of editor
of the Journal “Linguistics and Education” and it is my honor and pleasure
to inherit the editorial responsibility of the Journal that David began 10
years ago, in 2005, and which was edited, with the help of his team, in an
exceptional way and with great success. I would like to congratulate and
thank David and wish him good luck in his new publishing challenges.

Attached below you will find the link to the new website where you will be
able to see your names as part of the scientific committee as well as the
accepted papers, instructions for authors and reviewers and others:

http://psicologia.udg.edu/PTCEDH/presentation.asp

The Journal has now opened a call for articles to be reviewed in any of
the three modalities previewed. The articles to be reviewed can be sent in
both Spanish and English to the following address: [email protected]

Do not hesitate to send an article, if you consider it appropriate, as
well as to facilitate information to colleagues and friends so they can
send their work. The Journal, as you will see, is oriented towards
conceptualization work, empirical analysis (preferably qualitative
studies) and social and educational intervention from a sociocultural
perspective. In this sense, the Journal sympathizes with other existing
journals such as “Culture & Psychology”, “Mind, Culture and Activity”,
“Learning, Culture and Social Interaction” or “Human Development”, of
which some of you are also editors. The particularity of Working Papers is
that it is one of the few journals that accept articles in Spanish from a
Vygotskian perspective emphasizing the relationship between human
development, culture and education.

We hope to be able to contribute towards reflection and putting into
action a way of understanding human condition in which we are the result
of participation in educational practice ( both in schools and beyond
them) in which we appropriate of the artifacts which orient, extend and
motivate higher psychological processes such as verbal thought, identity
or intentional memory. Proactive processes and mechanisms that mark the
psychological development of people as well as the particular relationship
among them and the ecological niches where human activity is located,
distributed and exists.

I just want to thank you again for your willingness and generosity.

Best regards,

Editorial board of “Papeles de Trabajo sobre Cultura, Educación y
Desarrollo Humano / Working Papers on Culture, Education, and Human
Development”