To Create Psychology’s Own Capital

“Vygotsky’s Neglected Legacy”: Cultural-Historical Activity Theory

“…Yet in his lifetime, the philosophical basis for dialectical materialism was still in its infancy, which saw maturity only after his death by philosophers such as Evald Il’enkov (1974/1977/1960/1982). We believe that the least understood and most violated tenet in Western interpretations of CHAT likely is the dialectical nature of consciousness, which includes cognition, memory, and personality, among others (Elhammoumi, 2002). This situation is unfortunate, because dialectics is “possibly the most appropriate frame of reference for the study of human development, and indeed was actually developed as an explanation for human development” (Glassman, 2000, p. 2).…”

Supporting students’ development through collaborative reflection: interrogating cultural practices and perceptions of good practice in the context of a field trip

“…One of the roles of the university tutors in this study, was to support critical reflection and collaborative meaning-making in order to position the students to actively and fully consider their own perspectives and their future activity in relation to students, children, communities and society, with greater sensitivity, knowledge and understanding. This socio-constructivist approach to meaning-making, scaffolded by a knowledgeable other in the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky 1978), facilitated potential for deeper engagement and conceptual development, and enabled the students to apply that which was learned collectively in a social context, to their own subjective understanding (Elhammoumi, 2002). This reduced the possibility of limiting the interpretation of observations in ways that might re-inforce, rather than develop, previous understandings (Gelfuso 2015).…”

Embracing History through Transforming It

“…Vygotsky's embeddedness in Marxist thought, though overlooked in traditional accounts in the West, has been a common reference point in Russian psychology and, perceived as obvious, was neither mentioned nor elaborated sufficiently ('omitted by default'). It has also been highlighted by a number of authors in the West, instigating important changes in traditional views of Vygotsky (especially by Newman & Holzman, 1993, who have inspired many Western scholars to 'notice' Marx in Vygotsky; more recently by Elhamoumi, 2002;Jones, 2002;Ratner, 2000). There is a need, however, to continue elaborating the implications of Vygotsky's Marxist roots for various aspects of his approach, such as that on learning and development, and here we offer steps in this direction.…”