A Psychology of Becoming

Here's where I share what I'm thinking about. I would love your comments.

04 Apr

Posted at 17:55h in Culture, Education, Human Development, Learning Environments, Outside of School, Psychology of Becoming, Youth Development

April 4, 2011 At the end of the week I travel to New Orleans for the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), a huge gathering (probably 14,000!) of mostly PhDs and graduate students involved in studying teaching and learning. Over five days, there will be many hundreds of...

03 Mar

Posted at 03:23h in Activity Theory, Applied Theatre, Community Organizing, Culture, Education, Health Care, Human Development, Learning Environments, Philosophy, Politics, Postmodern Marxism, Psychology, Psychology of Becoming, Psychotherapy, Social Therapeutics, Social Therapy, Vygotsky, Youth Development

March 3, 2010 Please help me publicize a unique program—The International Class. I began this seven years ago and had no idea how much it would help me and all its participants grow, or how powerful the impact would be on community organizers and talented educators and peformers, or what a...

15 Feb

Posted at 04:16h in Activity Theory, Education, Human Development, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Psychology of Becoming, Vygotsky

February 14, 2011 In the early 1990s I edited a journal, Practice: The Magazine of Psychology and Political Economy (culture, sociology and economics were also covered and many issues included poetry and photos). No computer files exist and so any article has to be scanned if it's to be available to...

31 Jan

Posted at 00:34h in Activity Theory, Culture, Education, Human Development, Learning Environments, Outside of School, Performance Movement, Politics, Psychology of Becoming, Social Therapeutics, Vygotsky, Youth Development

January 30, 2011 “Here is an idea for solving the education crisis in America. What if all the kids currently failing in school pretended to be good learners? What if all the adults – teachers, principals, administrators, parents – played along and pretended that the kids were school achievers, heading for...

26 Jan

Posted at 18:59h in Community Organizing, Culture, Human Development, Learning Environments, Outside of School, Psychology of Becoming, Theatre, Vygotsky, Youth Development

January 26, 2011 A young friend of mine, Francelli Chapman, keeps a very active blog that I’m learning a lot from. An example: This great quote from Maya Angelou’s book, Letter to My Daughter—“Never whine. Whining lets a brute know that a victim is in the neighborhood.” Francelli calls her blog, “The...

23 Jan

Posted at 19:39h in Culture, Education, Human Development, Learning Environments, Outside of School, Performance Movement, Psychology of Becoming, Theatre, Youth Development

January 23, 2011 As a practitioner of and theoretician on how play and performance are essential for development across the life span, I see people developing and transforming through their ensemble activities all the time—in the spaces and places where they’re invited and encouraged to actively create their performances of themselves....

20 Jan

Posted at 19:24h in Activity Theory, Education, Learning Environments, Psychology of Becoming

January 20, 2011 Here’s another blog I recommend: Jim’s Tech Class. The Online Home of Collaboration 3.0. Jim is Jaime (Jim) Martinez, PhD in Urban Education, former corporate computer techie and computer public school teacher, an innovator who understands how kids learn. I like his blog for his commentary on educational...

18 Jan

Posted at 18:19h in Community Organizing, Culture, Human Development, Performance Movement, Psychology of Becoming, Psychotherapy, Social Therapeutics, Social Therapy

January 18, 2011 If you need a pick-me-up today, something to inspire you, maybe this will do the trick: Ishita Sanyal is founder of the Calcutta-based grassroots mental health group, Turning Point, and an avid promoter and proselytizer on behalf of a social therapeutic approach to mental health. On a subcontinent where...

05 Jan

Posted at 21:47h in Culture, Education, Human Development, Learning Environments, Performance Movement, Psychology of Becoming, Vygotsky, Youth Development

January 5, 2011 In December I was in Serbia for the annual meeting of  Zdravo da Ste, a community of a hundred or so Vygotskian-influenced educators, psychologists, social workers and artists who bring the joy of pointless performance to children and adults through workshops and ongoing programs. We spent the weekend...