Rogoff’s argument

“Humans develop through their changing participation in the sociocultural activities of their communities, which also change” (11).

“Human development is a process by which people transform through their ongoing participation in cultural activities, which in turn contribute to change in their cultural communities across generations” (37).

This definition challenges several assumptions:

• Learning requires teaching (direct instruction, an expert knower instructing a non-expert child)

• The process of human development is universal and independent of culture

• Learning occurs only or mainly in childhood• Culture is static and unchanging• Learning is about developing personal skills or

qualities (e.g.,literacy) rather than how a person uses literacy in their participation in an activity

• It is possible to distinguish between the person and the activity.

Learning does not require direct instruction

What does learning look like?

Human Development is not Universal

Learning occurs throughout the lifecourse

• When one enters a new job

• When one enters a new phase of life: toddlerhood vs. elderhood

• When one changes how one participates in a sociocultural activity

People participate in different social groups across their everyday lives and lifespans, and switch roles across those contexts.

Communities change

• People often participate in more than one community

• Those communities are in the midst of change, guided by people’s goals and cultural understandings and the changing circumstances they create through those goals

• Borrowings from elsewhere: hurricane

This classroom as a sociocultural activity

• What seems “normal” and “natural” to you about this sociocultural activity?

• How did it come to seem normal to you? How did you learn to “do school”?

• Did you create this activity? Did you inherit this activity?• How does change happen in this activity?• What roles are available in this activity? Who are you here?

People will learn different thingsaccording to….

1. The social groups to which they have access, in which they can participate.

2. The social roles available to them in those social groups.

Childhood as a social identity that limits some roles and allows for others.

Although what childhood means in different social groups varies.

Learning is about participation in sociocultural activities, not skill acquisition or a general sense

of competence that crosses domains

• Cognition/intelligence: how do you measure it? Rogoff, p. 39-40.

• What is going on here? Why is there a disconnect?• How do we find out what someone knows or can do?• What kind of sociocultural activity is the conversation?

Role of the interviewer? Role of the respondent?

Because individual development constitutes and is constituted by

social and cultural-historical activities and practices, it becomes

difficult to separate out persons and activities.