Cultural-Historical Psychology

Focus

Human development

Principal Metaphors

  • Knowledge is …
  • Knowing is … being
  • Learner is … an individual in interpersonal relationships
  • Learning is … developing, progressing
  • Teaching is … reorienting perceptions

Originated

1920s

Synopsis

Cultural-Historical Psychology brought together psychologists, educationalists, medical specialists, physiologists, and neuroscientists around the shared goal of forming an integrative science for a new theory of consciousness. Cultural-Historical Psychology aimed to account for the inseparability of mind, brain, behavior, and culture, founded on the premise that a one’s development (voluntary attention, logical memory, formation of concepts) progresses inward from one’s relationships with others. Subdiscourses include:
  • Cultural-Historical Theory of Development (Lev Vygotsky, 1930s) – a metatheory that regards human development as mostly a social process, rooted in the observation that perceived regularities of human mental development both radically differs from that of all other species and can vary dramatically from one cultural group to another

Commentary

The “Circle” group, responsible for Cultural-Historical Psychology, was formed in 1924 and disbanded in 1941 with Germany’s invasion of Russia. Cultural-Historical Psychology thus sits more as an historical artefact than a vibrant site of inquiry. Even so, its grounding holist attitude and its progressive insights are still received as cutting edge across much of educational research and practice.

Authors and/or Prominent Influences

Lev Vygotsky Alexander Luria

Status as a Theory of Learning

Cultural-Historical Psychology is not quite a theory of learning, but developments from this movement were influential in the formulation of Socio-Cultural Theory.

Status as a Theory of Teaching

Cultural-Historical Psychology is not a theory of teaching.

Status as a Scientific Theory

Cultural-Historical Psychology is more of a movement than a scientific theory, although the concept of a unifying theory of consciousness was studied by an interdisciplinary team.

Subdiscourses:

  • Cultural-Historical Theory of Development

Map Location



Please cite this article as:
Davis, B., & Francis, K. (2024). “Cultural-Historical Psychology” in Discourses on Learning in Education. https://learningdiscourses.com.


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