Reading :: Dialogical Approaches and Tensions in Learning and Development

 Dialogical Approaches and Tensions in Learning and Development: At the Frontiers of the Mind 

Edited by Nathalie Muller Mirza and Marcelo Dos Santos Mamed 

I picked up this book because I’ve been very interested in dialogical approaches lately. This book was helpful for overviewing dialogic thought in education, psychology, and affiliated disciplines. At the same time, I read it on the plane and didn’t take notes — so this review will be brief, more of a pointer toward what I should reread. 

So what should I reread? Especially useful to me was the editors’ introduction, in which they overview different traditions of dialogue, grounding the collection in the tradition of Bakhtin, Vygotsky, and Mead. I really appreciated the level of detail here as well as the forecasting for the rest of the book.

The rest of the book covers topics such as dialogism in psychology; in the making of social theories; in makerspaces; and in literacy. The only contributor I recognized was Roger Saljo, whose work on units of analysis has been useful to me. In his contribution, “Sign-Making, Inscriptions and Access to Epistemic Practices: Development in a Designed World,” he considers sign-making as a sociocultural activity that we involve across all of our practices. He takes a Vygotskian perspective here, thinking through Vygotsky’s contributions before moving on to more contemporary perspectives.

Overall, I found the book interesting, although a little far from my field in places. Still, I plan to revisit it. If you’re interested in dialogical approaches, certainly pick it up!