turkle_papert_1990 - Epistemological Pluralism and the Revaluation of the Concrete.pdf
Papert and Turkle explain how dominant notions of science favor a particular epistemological style that they describe as hard: top-down, rule-based, favoring distance between subject and object, and often instrumental.
In contrast, they describe how soft approaches to knowing and learning (bottom-up, relational, seeing oneself in an object) are not only valid, but sometimes superior (a bricoleur can reason through a situation relationally when rules break down).
They explain how the dominance of a hard view can make those who favor a soft approach (mainly women in their study) feel excluded. However, computers offer an important opportunity and medium for supporting epistemological pluralism - both hard and soft approaches.
Turkle and Papert open with two stories of women in an intro Harvard CS class: Lisa and Robin. They describe how Lisa and Robin prefer to approach problems.
Lisa approaches programming like she might her poetry, getting to know words and "feeling her way from one word to another." When she writes poetry, she understands each word and how they fit together. She wants to bring this approach to programming, writing out smaller building block procedures even when working on a larger program instead of using pre-packaged parts (she resents the opacity of 'black-boxed' parts she doesn't understand).
Her teachers explain that Lisa's approach is a waste of time and holds her back. Lisa eventually gives in to this pressure and adapts, conforming to the dominant style. In the process, she alienates herself from the material and process.