Observing Sociocultural Activity

Rogoff, B. (2008). Observing sociocultural activity on three planes: Participatory appropriation, guided participation, and apprenticeship. Pedagogy and practice: Culture and identities, 58-74.

Summary:

This article focuses on cognitive development. It contrasts Rogoff’s sociocultural ideas with those of theorists who propose an internalized, individual, static cognitive development. Rogoff frequently addresses interdependence in a sociocultural approach. In sociocultural activity, she identifies three interdependent planes of focus-community/institutional, interpersonal, and personal (p. 59). One may be in focus, but cannot be separated from the others. In examining the community/institutional plane, she addresses apprenticeship as a cultural experience, involving more than dyads, but multiple members of a community. Guided participation is on an interpersonal plane, seen as a process, including face to face interactions and joint participation through more distantly related activities (I’m thinking Skype, emails, etc.). Communication and coordination are central to this idea. Rogoff asserts “actions are deliberate (not accidental or reflexive), often in an opportunistic, improvisational fashion” (p. 64). Guided participation may include interactions intended to instruct, or simply to inform or make available. Finally, she discusses the concept of participatory appropriation. She notes it is “a process of becoming, rather than acquisition” (p. 60). Through participation, people change and this impacts similar cognitive or sociocultural activities. This is contrasted with internalization, which segments time into past, present, and future and “involves a storage model of mind” (p. 68) with the individual as primary unit of analysis. In contrast, individual, interpersonal, and cultural units of analysis work together in a symbiotic relationship. Time is not segmented in participatory appropriation. According to Rogoff, “Development is a dynamic process, with change throughout rather than accumulation of new items or transformation of existing items” (p. 69).

Key quotes:

“The study of mind, of culture, and of language (in all its diversity) are internally related: that is, it will be impossible to render any one of these domains intelligible without essential reference to the others” (Bakhurst, 1988, p. 39, as cited in Rogoff, 2008, p. 59).

“Dewey (1916) put it, people ‘live in a community in virtue of the things which they have in common; and communication is the way in which they come to possess things in common’ (p. 5)” as cited in Rogoff, 2008, p. 64).

“Appropriation is a process of transformation, not a precondition for transformation” (p. 68).

Connections:

As I read this for an assignment related to a research assistant position, I repeatedly connected to my literacy coach role with pre-service teachers (PSTs). Just as children work across these planes of apprenticeship, guided participation, and participatory appropriation in sociocultural activities, so do my PSTs. The idea of deliberate, yet sometimes improvisational, actions related to guided participation is exactly what I do as I listen to my PST’s and provide support for their participatory appropriation. Through the support of their collaborating teachers, peers, and other school personnel, they have a rather large sociocultural support group. However, I’m wondering how much of that group has been used to apprentice and guide. I think I will definitely implement more use of their peers in the guidance throughout this semester. Tools I might use include peer observations, video analysis with peers, and peer feedback on lesson plans.