This issue of Mind, Culture, and Activity includes a symposium of three articles with a separate introduction and two additional articles. Together, this research highlights links between cultural-historical and activity theoretical approaches and community-based research on learning and development, historical linguistics, and mathematics education. Michael Cole and Katie Simpson have written the introduction for the symposium on community-based research. We introduce, below, the final two articles.
The fourth article, written by Ekaterina Schnittke, highlights a link between cultural-historical theory and linguistics. In this article, Schnittke advances the idea that texts that are written by children today may provide insight into early vernacular writings, the purview of historical linguists, given their similarities. Drawing upon the Uniformitarian Principle, which holds that the processes of language change in the past are uniform with those today, Schnittke examines Old Russian documents called birch bark letters that were written between the 11th and 15th Centuries. Her research provides a case for linking the early phase of the development of a language with literacy acquisition, a case with implications for identifying the evolutionary stage of written language and the level of writing development in a particular text.
Timothy Koschmann and Junko Mori, the authors of the fifth article, elaborate the notion of “learning by talking” by exemplifying and analyzing the work of one student as he becomes accountable as a participant in dialogue. The student is in an 8th Grade mathematics classroom in Japan. Becoming accountable requires that participants engage in respectful dialogue, draw upon their knowledge of the discipline, and offer accepted reasoning. This detailed analysis illustrates both a form of mathematical accountability, as well as how it is achieved and made visible in classroom practice. The research has implications for elaborating what counts as “good” or accountable talk in classroom settings and, thus, sheds light on the reform of mathematics education.
Finally, the editors note with deep regret the passing of Roland Tharp, long time colleague in exploring the role of culture in development and education in the Vygotskian tradition. This issue is dedicated to him.