TEACHING THE PRESENT, PAST AND POSSIBLE

CHAPTER SUMMARY

What the Present, Past and Possible are referred is to Social studies, History and
Literature and what are some very important topics to know what is going on with
the culture in the education field. For this Bruner suggests four crucial ideas, which
are reflection, agency, collaboration and culture, from where he takes the most
relevant points to conclude the constant change of culture, and how this evolves
through communication.

Reflection: It is referred as not simply learning in the raw but making what you
understand about it, making sense, going meta, to think about ones thinking.

The object of interpretation is understanding, not explanation and because of this

without stories to think about, our mind is not enrich, thus is does not understand so
we are reduced to fear and trembling.

In a way to understand how to think history it is described as a discipline of

understanding the past rather than as an account of what simply happened. History
never simply happens, It is constructed by historians and children are taught to be
historians rather than potted correct histories. A story making can help a child
discover where a theory (rather than a story) is needed.

In the case of narrative its purpose it is truth likeness which is composed of

coherence and pragmatic utility and a respectful tough-mindedness toward
alternative stories is in no sense antithetical to scientific thinking.

Agency and collaboration need to be treated together as they work hand by hand
in order to make thinking work. Agency refers to take more control of your own
mental activity whereas collaboration means to share the resources of the mix of
human beings involved in teaching and learning. Mind is inside the head, but it is
also with others.

As suggested by Locke, mind is an impressionable surface on which the world writes

its message. The agentive view takes mind to be proactive, problem-oriented,
attentionally focused, selective, constructional, directed to ends. What gets into
mind is more a function of the hypothesis in force than what is bombarding the
sensorium. Decisions, strategies, heuristics are the key notions of the agentive
approach to mind. The human appreciation of logical relations, particularly a
sensitivity to logical contradiction.

The mental life of human infants has been found to be far more agentive that we
ever expected, thanks to a whole generation of research. We do not learn a way of
life and ways of deploying mind unassisted, unscaffolded, naked before the world.
The give and take of talk make the collaboration possible so mind seek out for
dialogue and discourse with other active minds. It is through this dialogic, discursive
process that we come to know the Other and their point of view, their stories. We
learn an enormous amount not only about the world but about ourselves by
discourse with others.

Ann Brown, who was working in a project on Oakland, has brought together agency
and collaboration in the design of classroom culture, generating their own hypothesis
and negotiating with other, including teachers. They also put themselves in the role
of teachers offering their expertise to those with less. In this way it is seen that kids
are tougher critics than teachers and because of this skills are the instruments of
agency acquired through collaboration. Without skills we are powerless.

Culture is described as the way of life and thought that we construct, negotiate,
institutionalized, and after it's settled, end up calling it reality to comfort ourselves.

Established, almost irrelevant irreversibly stabilized way of thinking, believing, acting,

judging. Cultures have been in the process of change, and becoming greater.
Thanks to migration, trade and the rapid exchange of information culture is evolving
very quickly.

Even though many cultures may manage their own problems and habits in their own
way, they do have some similarities like to keep faith in the ability to change for the
better, knowing that a final and settled end can never be attained. Even though
culture is expanding, kids are stuck to their televisions or phones, triggering the
power of street culture, which takes to the increasing fear of suburban kids about
going into the city.

School is seen as a culture itself, not just a preparation for it, instead is a warming
up. Culture is a toolkit of techniques and procedures for understanding and
managing your world.