Introductory comments

From WikEd

In her introductory comments to this part of her text Rogoff moves toward embedded the individual and culture together rather that to hold on to traditional concepts of the individual and culture as separate. Further, she remarks that not only was culture conceived as separate but also as a static collections of habits, norms and beliefs which might influence an individual. She contends in this section that this over simplification and misrepresentation of the nature of the relationship of culture and the individual calls for a new way of seeing culture. She presents the relationship as a dynamic interplay engaged in the process of defining and redefining the individual as well as the culture. The foundation for this argument is based on the results of testing in the 70’s that had the intent of revealing the true competence of individuals apart from cultural influence. However, there were mixed results from the testing in that the observations of the individuals in the native environment contradicted the results of the testing. The basis of the problem was in the assumption that cognition would display competence across various situations and cultures. Ultimately the test led to a connection of the experience of the people and the performance. For instance in situation where questions provided bias toward formal schooling the performance was poor in regions in which there was little formal schooling but observations of the people in their daily experience belied the fallacy in the tests assumptions not recognizing the integral place of culture in an individual’s knowing. This lays the foundation for a new way of seeing culture and the individual moving from the concept that children develop in a uniform way through stages regardless of the culture and could be identified by a uniform means. Further, this also identified the same problem with concepts of culture as monolithic and uniform but separate from the individual though influential generalizing across entire populations. Though gains have been made in coming to understand the relationship of culture and the individual Rogoff contends that there needs to be a new way of viewing and defining culture than by the traditional forms and an embracing of the idea of not so much culture as an influence which lends the idea of an external focus rather as interwoven as a part of the fabric of the individual to culture to individual tapestry in the ongoing process of participation in socio-cultural activities.