Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

484 The Praeger Handbook of Education and Psychology
as part of the price of admittance to the community. There are alternatives to remedying the
most onerous problems with it, however. In the example I just provided, the choice to accept
a subordinate position is likely to be taken on willingly and novices may have some flexibility
in the selection of experts they work with. That submission is willing does not ensure that the
relationship is not oppressive. One can, however, encourage learners to create prescriptions for
themselves with the understanding that such prescriptions will undergo constant revision as the
learner’s expertise improves.
REFERENCES
Maturana, H. R., and Varela, F. J. (1980). Autopoiesis and Cognition. London: D. Reidel.
Varela, F. J. (1992). Whence perceptual meaning? A cartography of current ideas. In F. J. Varela & J. Dupuy
(Eds.), Understanding Origins (pp. 235–271). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
———. (1981). Autonomy and autopoiesis. In G. Roth & H. Schwegler (Eds.), Self-Organizing Systems
(pp. 14–23). Frankfurt: Campus Verlag.
Varela, F. J., Thompson, E., and Rosch, E. (1991). The Embodied Mind. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.