describe the ideals that surrounded learning within team life and to capture—primarily through detailing the language of activities—manifestations of the environment of learning that the specialized domain of Little League baseball provided.
do we consider little league a #communityofpractice?
Although the aura of "learning to be like the experts" hung over the team, none of the members claimed that they wanted to play in the major leagues or grow up to become a professional ballplayer. Those interviewed said that, aside from giving them time to be with their friends, playing ball allowed them to get "the basics" and to be creative with these basics. They expected practice sessions to be devoted to learning about elements of certain types of action in the game and to assume a certain independently gained level of knowledge on their part. They often used their own knowledge of cases—of players, plays, and games—to ask questions, make a point, or challenge other players' analyses of certain plays.
"Fantasy and game play serve as precursors to participation in an institutional life where individuals are treated as scholars, bosses, or at-risk-children and events such as the granting of tenure, a corporate raid, and the self-esteem of at-risk-children are taken in all seriousness. But to see imagination extended so is simply to recognize that it pervades cultural life" (Holland 51).
This is the logical next step - even though none of these players ever intends to play in the big leagues, they are gaining valuable experience, not only in knowing how to play the game, but because they are able to see themselves as part of a group that does things in a certain way for certain reasons. This kind of experience is key to being able to live and interact in all of the figured worlds that they will need to in the future.
Sociodramatic play presents, then, a special situation for conditionality in that it is made possible by a meta-awareness on the part of all participants that the call for the play is a call for pretense or imagination. Although both children and adults will sometimes introduce invitations to pretense by specific lexical markers, such as suppose, let's pretend. or imagine, it is more often the case that sociodramatic play is initiated simply by an announcement of counterfactual conditions (e.g., "Man on second, top of the eighth inning ..." said during practice drill on grounders).
Heath's description of sociodramatic play is in line with Hollands ideas of Figured Worlds, where participants suspend their disbelief and enter into the world of pretend. Being able to do this requires an imagining of one's own identity as a part of the world that is being created.
Some boys studied the rules and talked with their fathers and the coach about specific rules that applied to Little League or that offered guidance on interpreting umpires' judgments. Others chose to alternate batting as a right-hander or left-hander, to deviate from expected styles of pitching, or to make the most of the lack of balance between their talents (e.g., boys who did not have the highest batting averages were sometimes best known as fast runners).
This is a different in identities, right? Some boys studied and talked about it with their peers and some boys discussed the skills with themselves.
Often, after a sociodramatic play, he would ask the boys to analyze what had taken place within the action elicited from the set-up of the situation.
This is teaching the boys how to be active listeners. The boys are being taught this skill that will them become a part of their identity as being observant.
The town offers multiple types of neighborhood-based organizations, boasts more libraries per capita than any other city its size in California, and supports consistent news coverage of the athletic and artistic activities of its youth.
All these factors of the community already have taken their role in shaping the parents identities, and then the parenting styles, and have thus been influenced onto the child.
thin the season, the boys participated intensely in apprenticeship with an expert (
Would Becker be a good citation here? Would Becker agree with this statement?
he weakest outfielder of the early season could move to catcher by mid-season; the smallest player who lagged behind all the other players in running time and batting power could become the team's strategist. The coach and players called attention to these differences often, both during practices and in interviews
Here, the coach is shaping identity of the players by providing them resources (see Nasir, et al. 2003). These resources vary depending on the perceived strengths and abilities of players. Valuing difference legitimizes this difference in participation.
Baseball, sometimes disparagingly characterized as a game in which sixteen people stand around and wait for two people to do something, provides abundant occasions for players to put their problem solving and creating of possible worlds into words—usually in the form of "what-if," "if-then," or "did-you-see" narratives
I can see how this argument can resonate with the figured worlds theoretical lens. Players must construct figured worlds of action dependent on what happens next.
Baseball, sometimes disparagingly characterized as a game in which sixteen people stand around and wait for two people to do something, provides abundant occasions for players to put their problem solving and creating of possible worlds into words—usually in the form of "what-if," "if-then," or "did-you-see" narratives
I can see how this argument can resonate with the figured worlds theoretical lens. Players must construct figured worlds of action dependent on what happens next.
The purpose of the fieldwork reported in this study was to describe the ideals that surrounded learning within team life and to capture—primarily through detailing the language of activities—manifestations of the environment of learning that the specialized domain
I am linking this right away with the AA article and the excerpt in LPP. Particularly because of this focus on language. "How to talk like a ..." has a lot to do with "being a..." according to both LW and these authors. Thus it seems that language, it's development, and its use, in particular ways supports particular identities.
ge- and gender-related habits, institutional values, and situated meanings that are at once spontaneous, adaptive, and historically established.
Moments are mediated through identity, and its shared/divergence from norms and values. This is an interesting characterization of anthro and does give a sense that identity will play a part in this analysis.
or eventcasts to be interactive narratives, the boys and the coach had to be familiar with not only the syntax of SAT but also the technical vocabulary surrounding aspects of the game, from major league statistics (scats) to names of the catcher's equipment.
There are so many facets to this figured world of little league. Artifacts play a crucial role, as does language and terminology. There are official sets of terminology, like the ones mentioned here, and other more slang terms, which were mentioned before (marshmallow for a ball that is easy to hit). The use of the various artifacts as well as the specialized language facilitates an identity as a little leaguer. This is similar to Nasir's hurdlers where there was specialized language and ways that the coaches spoke to the kids, and also similar to the expected behaviors in AA, and the way to deliver a narrative there. There is also specialized language within AA (12 steps, the "Big Book," hitting bottom, etc). Use of the specific terminology in all cases strengthens the conection to the figured world.
value of differences among learners
related to identity. each player is coming to the team with not only differences but also multiple identities (student, brother, religious affiliation, etc). what impact do those identities have on their identity as a little league baseball player?
Learners assume prototypical identities as professionals
even though they didn't express a desire or expectation to become professional baseball players as adults (p.119)
the coach gives cues to the boys to bring into place certain scenarios in which players take on certain roles, execute particular actions, and may meet with several outcomes. T
I'm having some trouble deciding whether little league is a community of practice or a figured world, especially with regard to how identity is shaped. If we say that within a figured world, individuals have agency to identify themselves in a certain way and they can also be positioned in particular ways by other participants, it seems like this team is a figured world. At the same time, it seems like access is necessary to be part of little league which is a condition of a community of practice.
In baseball season, I look at the paper every day. I watch, like, the high-lights on the news, listen to the radio. and I hear different stuff, like what other players are doing and that lets me know, like, that's a new thing for me. I always keep learning new things about baseball, and it makes me do the same things on the field.
This directly relates to the building 'islands of expertise'. Though the act of reading the paper during baseball season is not directly effecting his playing, it is helping to solidify his knowledge about baseball as an island of expertise.
onsistent attention to monitoring by all members kept individuals from becoming isolated and spread positive evaluations as well as descriptive analyses of moves and actions across all team members. Monitoring was a consistent public activity; it held little value as a private indulgence. T
I see this practice of monitoring as related to identity development, particularly in relation to Becker's discussion of evaluation. In baseball, this monitoring acts as a constant evaluation. Becker describes the benefit of such evaluation, including that it is immediately observable and is not restricted to just technical matter. I think it's also very important that in baseball, this monitoring is personalized which I think lends itself to identity development
commitment to using sources of knowledge about the game other than those immediately at hand in their own practices. One player summarized his learning about baseball outside of practice as follows: In baseball season, I look at the paper every day. I watch, like, the high-lights on the news, listen to the radio. and I hear different stuff, like what other players are doing and that lets me know, like, that's a new thing for me. I always keep learning new things about baseball, and it makes me do the same things on the field
Motivation for learning outside the designated learning space (baseball practices or games). I think this relates to constructing Funds of Knowledge, these boys are creating a new specific fund of knowledge by engaging with existing sources of information. Which then that reminds me of LPP, these boys as newcomers reaching out to oldtimers for information and knowledge. However, it's complicated because they are not directly in contact but instead learning through artifacts and secondary sources created by the oldtimers.
strict segregation of roles by agent and recipient of transmission. Moreover, learner progress, especially within formal education, is determined by the display capabilities of the learner, who must provide evidence of matching a path of development laid down by th
Arguing against traditional transmission oriented forms of schools, rather refers to learning as a social and collaborative process. Not just the "Students" are learning but the "Teachers" as well - encourages empowerment and motivation to participate in the community
eachers need to move beyond the formal confines of the curriculum to parallel, build on, and expand the content and forms of everyday reasoning. H
References possibilities for motivation by recognizing and engaging different literacies - reminds me of the Islands of Expertise. "Even when a child loses interest and an island of expertise begins to fade, the abstract and general themes that used the island's rich knowledge as a launching pad will remain connected to children's other knowledge" (pg. 334). That knowledges and practices are built and expanded upon, provides for complex means of motivation
oice into a more excited and proud-sounding par-ent voice, implicitly praising the boy and asking how he knew what the ob-ject was
the discussion about language and tone reminds me of what we read in #littleleague. The coach uses conversation to influence his players in particular ways, teach them certain skills, behaviors, attitudes, values.