International Society for Cultural
and Activity Research

Members of the Monash University Child and Community Development (CCD) Education Faculty Research Group (FRG) have had the privilege of enjoying good coffee and stimulating philosophical conversations as they have engaged in a series of three dialectical logic workshops led by Andy Blunden (A co-Editor of the Journal Mind, Culture and Activity). The three, three-hour sessions were held off campus and attended by faculty staff and doctoral students. Professor Marilyn Fleer (ISCAR President and CCD FRG leader) initiated the May 2011 workshops to further the group’s interest and experience of dialectical logic within their individual and collective research endeavours. In particular the purpose of the workshops was to inform conversations about cultural-historical concepts that were being used by the group. The workshops were constructed around a series of questions posed by Andy Blunden. Each participant provided an answer to their assigned question before the start of the workshop series. Questions included “What is an Australian?” “What is poverty?” “How do you define relative and absolute?” “What is the cause of crime?” “What is context?” “What is an activity?” During the sessions specific questions were explored with the aim of bringing out the dialectical character of concepts. Session one focused on the topic of concepts and their development; session two focused on the notion of reciprocity, opposites and unity; discussion during the third and final session centred on some of the specific concepts theorised by Vygotsky, his colleagues and present day scholars using his work.

The following are comments from three participants:

“Andy’s workshop provided a very good opportunity to rethink dialectics. It supported my current PhD thesis writing as my research draws upon Vygotsky’s dialectic concepts to investigate young children’s bilingual heritage language development. The workshops enhanced my dialectical thinking, which helped me comprehend Vygotsky’s important concepts of child development, such as “the relations between language and thinking”, “word meaning”, “play” and “higher mental functions.” Liang Li (Doctoral student).

“I have really appreciated the way Andy has structured these workshops in terms of a focus on dialectical logic in a way that has made me more aware of how it ‘works’, the moment, to use a word that has come forward from our discussions. There is something very traditional and refreshing about sitting around the table having some philosophical talk. Maybe something different happens because we are away from the campus and in a new environment.” Dr Jane Bone (Senior Lecturer).

“Andy’s questions supported exploration of the problems of concepts, and the process of getting to the essence of things. For me, these workshops have been intense, emotional and most thoroughly provoking.” Dr Avis Ridgway (Lecturer).

Contributed by Dr Hilary Monk