Introduction
In this chapter, you will study the central concepts of a cultural-historical theory of child development. The chapter will detail Vygotsky's theory of child development, as well as introduce key contemporary concepts by theorists such as Mariane Hedegaard and Elena Kravtsova. The specific cultural-historical concepts to be discussed are:
• periodisation
• crisis
• the social situation of development
• the relations between the ideal and real form
• the zone of actual and proximal development
• motives
• leading activity
• leading motives – the play motive and the learning motive.
Through engaging with the content of this chapter, it is anticipated that you will:
• meet the ideas of contemporary child development theorists working in education, such as Mariane Hedegaard and Elena Kravtsova (Vygotsky's granddaughter), and long-standing theorists Lev Vygotsky, Daniil Borisovich Elkonin and Lidya Ilyinichna Bozhovich
• be oriented to a cultural-historical theory of child development for informing educational practice
• become aware of those concepts that make up a cultural-historical view of child development.
Cultural-historical theory is complex because it captures and theorises children's development while it is taking place. This means that many concepts are needed to explain the complexity of children's development. The system of concepts that will be discussed, and that make up Vygotsky's theory, goes beyond what is traditionally associated with his work.
In this chapter, you will build upon the sociocultural concepts introduced in Chapter 2 and the case study material presented thus far in the Resourceful Community case study.
This chapter begins with an expansion of the two families already introduced in the Resourceful Community case study – the Peninsula and Westernport families. Through analysing the stories of the teachers, children and families, key concepts from a cultural-historical conception of child development can be better understood. However, before the details of a cultural-historical conception of child development are given, you will meet the giants who began and developed the theoretical concepts, and those who took the concepts further for use in contemporary contexts.
The biographies of Vygotsky, Kravtsova and Hedegaard
Lev (LS) Vygotsky is known as the founder of cultural-historical theory. He was born in 1896 and died in 1934. During his short life, he changed the course of research in many fields – particularly education and psychology. He became known as an original thinker who contributed a new theory of child development.
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