Abstract
We discuss Konstantinos Alexakos, Jayson Jones and Victor Rodriguez’s hermeneutic study of formation and function of kinship-like relationships among inner city male students of color in a college physics classroom. From our Critical Complexity Science framework we first discuss the reading erlebnisse of students laughing at and with each other as something that immediately captured our attention in being transformative of the classroom. We continue by exploring their classroom and research experience as an emergent structure modifying their collective as well as their individual experiences. As we analyze both the classroom and the research space as a complex system, we reflect on the instructor/students interactions characterized by an asymmetrical “power” relationship. From our analysis we propose to consider the zone of proximal development as the constantly emerging and transforming person experience (erlebnisse and erfahrung).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alexakos, K., Jones, J. K., & Rodriguez V. H. (2011). Fictive kinship as it mediates learning, resiliency, perseverance, and social learning of inner-city high school students of color in a college physics class. Cultural Studies of Science Education, doi:10.1007/s11422-011-9317-7.
Appadurai, A. (2006). The right to research. Globalisation Societies and Education, 4(2), 167–177.
Bakhtin, M. (1984). Rabelais and his world. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Campbell, D. T. (1974). Downward causation’ in hierarchically organized biological systems. In F. J. Ayala & T. Dobzhansky (Eds.), Studies in the philosophy of biology (pp. 179–186). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Deng, M. C., Eisen, H. J., Mehra, R. M., Billingham, M., Marboe, C. C., Berry, G., et al. (2006). Non-invasive detection of rejection in cardiac allograft recipients using gene expression profiling. American Journal of Transplantation, 6, 150–160.
Deng, M. C., Kämmerling, L., Erren, M., Günther, F., Kerber, S., Assmann, G., et al. (1995). Relation of interleukin(IL)-6, tumor-necrosis factor-a, IL-2, and IL-2-receptor-levels to cellular rejection, allograft dysfunction and mortality early after cardiac transplantation. Transplantation, 60, 1118–1124.
Deng, M. C., & Raia, F. (2010). The relational act: A model to improve the practice of medicine. Paper presented at the 9th global conference of health, illness, and disease, Oxford, UK, September 11–13, 2010. In M. Vaccarella & M.C. Deng (Eds.), Relational concepts in medicine. Witney Oxfordshire: The Inter-Disciplinary Press.
Deng, M. C., & Raia, F. (in press). Generalizing the relational act framework-encountering the other and the self. In M. Vaccarella & N. Godbold (Eds.), Interactive processes in health, illness and disease. Witney Oxfordshire: The Inter-Disciplinary Press.
Elmesky, R., & Tobin, K. (2005). Expanding our understandings of urban science education by expanding the roles of students as researchers. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 42, 807–828.
Gadamer, H. G. (1960) Wahrheit und Methode. Tubingen: Mohr; Italian translation. G. Vattimo, Verità e metodo, Milano: Bompiani 1983.
Gleick, J. (1987). Chaos: Making a new science. New York: Viking Penguin.
Jardine, D. (2006). On hermeneutics: Over and above our wanting and doing. In J. Kincheloe & K. Tobin (Eds.), Doing educational research: A handbook (pp. 269–288). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Kincheloe, J. L., & McLaren, P. L. (1994). Rethinking critical theory and qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 138–157). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Kincheloe, J. L., & Tobin, K. (2009). The much exaggerated death of positivism. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 4, 513–528.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (1997). Chaos/complexity science and second language acquisition. Applied Linguistics, 18(2), 141–165.
Lemke, J. L. (2000). Material sign processes and ecosocial organization. In P. B. Andersen, C. Emmeche, & N. O. Finnemann-Nielsen (Eds.), Downward causation (pp. 181–213). Denmark: Aarhus University Press.
Maraini D. (1974). Donne mie. Turin: Einaudi. (English version: (1984) Women at war. New York: Italica Press).
Marjanovic-Shane, A. (2010) From yes and no to me and you: A playful change in relationships and meanings. In M. C. Connery, V. P. John-Steiner & A. Marjanovic-Shane (Eds.), Vygotsky and creativity (pp. 41–59). New York: Peter Lang
Newman, F., & Holzman, L. (1999). Beyond narrative to perform conversation. In L. Holzman (Ed.), Performing psychology: A post modern culture of mind (pp. 87–110). London: Routledge.
Raia, F. (2008). Causality in complex dynamic systems: A challenge in earth systems science education. Journal of Geoscience Education, 56, 81–94.
Raia, F., & Spera, F. J. (1997). Simulation of crustal anatexis: Implications for the growth and differentiation of continental crust. Journal of Geophysical Research, 102, 22629–22648.
Roth, W. M., & Tobin, K. (2010). Solidarity and conflict: Prosody as a transactional resource in intra- and intercultural communication involving power differences. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 5, 807–847.
Salthe, S. (1985). Evolving hierarchical systems. New York: Columbia University Press.
Sewell, W. H., Jr. (1992). A theory of structure: Duality, agency, and transformational. American Journal of Sociology, 98, 1–29.
Tobin, K. (2006). Qualitative research in classrooms: Pushing the boundaries of theory and methodology. In K. Tobin & J. Kincheloe (Eds.), Doing educational research: A handbook (pp. 15–58). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
von Bertalanffy, L. (1978). General system theory: Foundations, development, applications. New York: G. Braziler Inc.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1994). The problem of the environment. (Original 1935). In R. van der Veer & J. Valsiner (Eds.), The Vygotsky reader (pp. 338–354). Oxford: Blackwell.
Waldrop, M. (1992). Complexity, the emerging science at the edge of order and chaos. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This paper addresses issues raised by Konstantinos Alexakos, Jayson K. Jones and Victor H. Rodriguez in fictive kinship as it mediates learning, resiliency, perseverance, and social learning of inner-city high school students of color in a college physics class. Cultural Studies of Science Education (doi:10.1007/s11422-011-9317-7).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Raia, F., Deng, M.C. Playful and mindful interactions in the recursive adaptations of the zone of proximal development: a critical complexity science approach. Cult Stud of Sci Educ 6, 903–914 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-011-9356-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-011-9356-0