Abstract
There are many theories that have informed early childhood education, including cultural-historical and activity theories. In this chapter, we present a discussion of cultural-historical and activity theories, beginning with the foundational logic that has informed both these theories – dialectical logic. We focus our discussion specifically on play and learning because this is the period of development being addressed by this handbook. Beginning with the original conception of play, learning and development proposed by Vygotsky, this chapter moves forward to the contemporary context of early childhood education, where we specifically illustrate key concepts from cultural-historical and activity theories through the research and theoretical writing of leading early childhood scholars. Cultural-historical concepts have been extensively used in the contemporary literature, as foundational for the key themes of: Play pedagogy; Pedagogical models that support the development of play; Play from the perspective of children; and Digital play. Together, these point to how cultural-historical concepts have been used by scholars to inform their work, as well as setting out the challenges and future directions in early childhood education.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Unity (единство) in Russian original text (Vygotsky 1984, Vol 6, p. 58).
- 2.
In Russian original it is interpsychological ( интерпсихическая ) and intrapsychological (интрапсихическая ) (Vygotsky 1983, p. 145)
- 3.
We refer to a new translation of Vygotsky paper on play of 1966 published in the special issue of International research in Early Childhood journal.
- 4.
This article of Leontiev was published in Russian in 1959 (Leontiev 1959, pp. 270–286).
- 5.
New translation of this paper was done Veresov in 2000 and is available at https://www.marxists.org/archive/elkonin/works/1971/stages.htm
References
Adams, M. (2015). Play, Pedagogy, Learning and Development: A Cultural Historical Perspective. Paper presented at the Pacific Early Childhood Education Research Association annual conference (PECERA), Sydney, Australia.
Adams, M., & Fleer, M. (2016a). The relations between a “push down” and “push up” curriculum: A cultural-historical study of home play pedagogy in the context of structured learning in international schools in Malaysia. Contemporary Issues of Early Childhood, 17(3), 328–342. https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949116660955.
Bateson, G. (1971). The message ‘This is Play.’. In R. E. Herron & B. Sutton-Smith (Eds.), Child’s play (pp. 261–266). New York: Wiley. (Reprinted from B. Schaffner (Ed.), Group processes: Transaction of the second conference, New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, 1956).
Björk-Willén, P., & Aronsson, K. (2014). Preschoolers’ “animation” of computer games. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 21(4), 318–336. doi:10.1080/10749039.2014.952314.
Bodrova, E., & Leong, D. J. (1998). Development of dramatic play in young children and its effect on self-regulation: The Vygotskian approach. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 19(2), 115–124.
Bredikyte, M. (2011). The zones of proximal development in children’s play. Academic dissertation. University of Oulu, Finland.
Chaiklin, S. (2003). The zone of proximal development in Vygotsky’s analysis of learning and instruction. In A. Kozulin, B. Gindis, V. Ageyev, & S. Miller (Eds.), Vygotsky’s educational theory in cultural context (pp. 39–62). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Davydov, V. V. (1988). Problems of developmental teaching: The experience of theoretical and experimental psychological research. Soviet Education, XXX(8), 1–97.
Diamond, A., Barnett, W., Thomas, J., & Munro, S. (2007). Preschool program improves cognitive control. Science, 318(5855), 1387–1388.
Duncan, R., & Tarulli, D. (2003). Play as the leading activity of the preschool period: Insights from Vygotsky, Leont'ev, and Bakhtin. Early Education and Development, 14(3), 271–292.
Edwards, S. (2011). Play as a leading activity: The relationship between imagination and reality in children’s contemporary play worlds. Cambridge Journal of Education, 41(2), 195–210.
Edwards, S. (2013). Digital play in the early years: A contextual response to the problem of integrating technologies and play-based pedagogies in the early childhood curriculum. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 21(2), 199–212.
Edwards, S., Cutter-Mackenzie, A., & Hunt, E. (2010). Framing play for learning: Professional reflections on the role of open-ended play in early childhood education. In L. Brooker & S. Edwards (Eds.), Engaging play (pp. 136–151). Oxford: Open University Press.
Elkonin, B. D. (1971). Toward the problem of stages in the mental development of the child. Voprosy psikhologii, 4, 538–563.
Elkonin, B. D. (2005/1978). The psychology of play. Journal of Russian and East European psychology, 43(1) and 43(2). Originally published as Elkonin, D.B. (1978). Psihologiya igry [The psychology of play]. Moscow: Pedagogika.
Elkoninova, L., & Bazhanova, N. (2007). Forma I material suizetno-rolevoi igri doshkolnikov. [The form and the material of preschooler’s make-believe play]. Kulturno-istroricheskaya psihologia [Cultural-Historical Psychology], 2, 2–11.
Ferholt, B. (2007). Gunilla Lindqvist’s theory of play and contemporary play theory. Retrieved on 2 September, from http://lchc.ucsd.edu/Projects/PAPER1%20copy-1.pdf
Ferholt, B. (2009). The development of cognition, emotion, imagination and creativity as made visible through adult-child joint play: Perezhivanie through playworlds. (Unpublished PhD thesis).University of California, San Diego, USA.
Ferholt, B., & Lecusay, R. (2010). Adult and child development in the Zone of Proximal Development: Socratic dialogue in a playworld. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 17(1), 59–83.
Fleer, M. (2009). A cultural-historical perspective on play: Play as a leading activity across cultural communities. In I. Pramling-Samuelsson & M. Fleer (Eds.), Play and learning in early childhood settings: International perspectives (pp. 1–19). The Hague: Springer.
Fleer, M. (2013). Collective imagining in play. In I. Schousboe & D. Winther-Lindqvist (Eds.), Children’s play and development: Cultural-historical perspectives (pp. 73–87). The Hague: Springer.
Fleer, M. (2014a). Beyond developmental geology: A cultural-historical theorization of digital visual technologies for studying young children’s development. In M. Fleer & A. Ridgway (Eds.), Visual methodologies and digital tools for researching with young children. International perspectives on early childhood education and development series (pp. 15–34). The Hague: Springer.
Fleer, M. (2014b). The demands and motives afforded through digital play in early childhood activity settings. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 3, 202–209.
Fleer, M. (2014c). Theorising play in the early years. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
Fleer, M. (2016). Digital playworlds in an Australia context – supporting double subjectivity. In T. Bruce, M. Bredikyte & P. Hakkarainen (Eds.), Routledge handbook of play in early childhood. London: Routledge Press/Taylor and Francis Group.
Gaskins, S., Haight, W., & Lancy, D. F. (2007). The cultural construction of play. In A. Goncu & S. Gaskins (Eds.), Play and development.Evolutionary, sociocultural, and functional perspectives (pp. 179–202). Great Britain: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc.
Goncu, A., & Gaskins, S. (Eds.). (2007). Play and development. Evolutionary, sociocultural, and functional perspectives. Great Britain: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc.
Goncu, A., Tuermer, U., Jain, J., & Johnson, D. (1999). Children’s play as cultural activity. In A. Goncu (Ed.), Children’s engagement in the world. Sociocultural perspectives (pp. 148–170). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Goncu, A., Jain, J., & Tuermer, U. (2007). Children’s play as cultural interpretation. In A. Goncu & S. Gaskins (Eds.), Play and development. Evolutionary, sociocultural, and functional perspectives (pp. 155–178). Great Britain: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc.
Goouch, K. (2008). Understanding playful pedagogies, play narratives and play spaces. Early Years: An International Research Journal, 28(1), 93–102.
Hakkarainen, P. (2006). Learning and development in play. In J. Einarsdottir & J. T. Wagner (Eds.), Nordic childhoods and early education. Philosophy, research, policy, and practice in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden (pp. 183–222). Charlotte: Information Age Publishing.
Hakkarainen, P. (2010). Cultural-historical methodology of the study of human development in transitions.Cultural-Historical. Psychology, 4, 75–89.
Hakkarainen, P., & Bredikyte, M. (2008). The zone of proximal development in play and learning. Journal of cultural-historical psychology, 4(4), 2–11.
Hakkarainen, P., Bredikyte, M., Jakkula, K., & Munter, H. (2013). Adult play guidance and children’s play development in a narrative play-world. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 21(2), 213–225.
Hedegaard, M., & Fleer, M. (2013). Play, leaning and children’s development: Everyday life in families and transition to school. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hedges, H. (2010). Whose goals and interests? The interface of children’s play and teachers’ pedagogical practices. In L. Brooker & S. Edwards (Eds.), Engaging play (pp. 25–38). Oxford: Open University Press.
Hedges, H., & Cooper, M. (2014). Engaging with holistic curriculum outcomes: Deconstructing ‘working theories’. International Journal of Early Years, 22(4), 395–408.
Husa, S., & Kinos, J. (2005). Academisation of early childhood education. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 49(2), 133–151.
Kravtsov, G. (2008). A cultural-historical view of play. Paper presented at the Vygotsky Symposium, Monash University, Peninsula campus, Frankston, Australia.
Kravtsov, G. G., & Kravtsova, E. E. (2010). Play in L.S. Vygotsky’s nonclassical psychology. Journal of Russian and Easter European Psychology, 48(4), 25–41.
Kravtsov, G. G., & Kravtsova, E. E. (2011). The cultural-historical basis of the ‘Golden Key’ program. International Journal of Early Years Education, 19(1), 27–34.
Kravtsova, E. E. (1999). Preconditions for developmental learning activity at pre-school age. In M. Hedegaard & J. Lompscher (Eds.), Learning activity and development (pp. 220–245). Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.
Kravtsova, E. E. (2004). Metodologicheskoye znachenie vzgliadov D. B. Elkonina na detskuyu igru [Methodological significance of El’konin’s approach to child’s play]. Mir psihologii i psihologia v mire [World of Psychology and the Psychology in the World], 1, 68–76.
Kravtsova, E. E. (2006). The concept of age-specific new psychological formations contemporary developmental psychology. Journal of Russian and East European European Psychology, 44(6), 6–18.
Kravtsova, E. E. (2010). Cultural-historical/nonclassical basis of the “Golden Key” school program. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 48(4), 61–75.
Leontiev, A. N. (1959). Psihologicheskie osnovy doshkolnoi igri [The psychological principles of preschool play]. Problemy razvitia psihiki [Problems of development of mind]. Moscow: Izatelstvo Akademii pedagogicheskih nauk.
Leont’ev, A. N. (1983). Izbranye psikhologicheskie proizvedenia [Selected psychological works] (Vol. 1, pp. 303–324). Moscow: Pedagogika.
Leontyev, A. N. (2009). The psychological principles of preschool play. The development of mind. In M. Cole (Ed.), Selected works by Alexei Nikolaevich Leontyev (pp. 331–354). Pacifica: Marxists Internet Archive.
Lindqvist, G. (1995). The aesthetics of play: A didactic study of play and culture in preschools. Uppsala: Uppsala University.
Lindqvist, G. (2001). When small children play: How adults dramatize and children create meaning. Early Years, 21(1), 7–14.
Lindqvist, G. (2003). Vygotsky’s theory of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 15(4), 245–251.
Lobman, C. L. (2003). What should we create today? Improvisational teaching in play-based classrooms. Early Years, 33(2), 131–142.
Lubovsky, D. (2009). The concept of leading activity in the works of L. S. Vygotsky and his followers. Cultural-historical psychology, 11(4), 2–6.
McInnes, K., Howard, J., Miles, G., & Crowley, K. (2011). Differences in practitioners’ understanding of play and how this influences pedagogy and children’s perceptions of play. Early Years, 31(2), 121–133.
Miller, R. (2011). Vygotsky in perspective. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Moore, H. L. C (2014). Young children’s play using digital touch-screen tablets. Unpublished PhD thesis. The University of Texas, Austin, USA.
Nicolopoulou, A., de Sa, A. B., Ilgaz, H., & Brockmeyer, C. (2010). Using the transformative power of play to edcuate hearts and minds: From Vygotsky to Vivian Paley and beyond. Mind Culture, and Activity, 17(1), 42–58.
Parmar, P., Harkness, S., & Super, C. M. (2004). Asian and Euro-American parents’ ethnotheories of play and learning: Effects on preschool children’s home routines and school behaviour. International Journal of Behavioural Development, 28(3), 97–104.
Parmar, P., Harkness, S., & Super, C. M. (2008). Teacher or playmate?Asian immigrant and Euro-American parents’ participation in their young children’s daily activities. Social Behavior and Personality, 36(2), 163–176.
Pellegrini, A. D. (2011). (Ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the development of play. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pramling Samuelsson, I., & Carlsson, M. A. (2008). The playing learning child: Towards a pedagogy of early childhood. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 52(6), 623–641.
Pramling Samuelsson, I., & Johansson, E. (2009). Why do children involve teachers in their play and learning? European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 17(1), 77–94.
Pramling Samuelsson, I., & Pramling, N. (2014). Children’s play and learning and developmental pedagogy. In L. Brooker, M. Blaise, & S. Edwards (Eds.), The sage handbook of play and learning in early childhood (pp. 169–179). Los Angeles: Sage.
Pui-Wah, D. C., Reunamo, J., Cooper, R., Liu, K., & Vong, P. (2015). Children’s agentive orientations in play-based and academically focused preschools in Hong Kong. Early Child Development and Care. doi:10.1080/03004430.2015.1028400.
Rainio, A. P. (2008). From resistance to involvement: Examining agency and control in a playworld activity. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 15(2), 115–140.
Rainio, A. P. (2009). Horses, girls, and agency: Gender in play pedagogy. Outlines, 1, 27–44.
Ridgway, A., Quinones, G., & Li, L. (2015). Early childhood pedagogical play: A cultural-historical interpretation using visual methodology. The Hague: Springer.
Schousboe, I., & Winther-Lindqvist, D. (2013). Introduction: Children’s play and development. In I. Schousboe & D. Winther-Lindqvist (Eds.), Children’s play and development: Cultural-historical perspectives (pp. 3–11). The Hague: Springer.
Sim, S. L. (2015). The playful curriculum: Making sense of purposeful play in the twenty-first-century preschool classroom. In C. Koh (Ed.), Motivation, leadership and curriculum design (pp. 225–241). The Hague: Springer.
Smirnova, E., & Gundareva, O. (2004). Igra I proizvolnost u sovremennyhdoshkolnikov [Play and self-mastering in contemporary pre-school children]. Voprosy psihologii [Questions in Psychology], 1, 91–103.
Smirnova, E., & Ryabkova, I. (2010). Structura i variant suzetnoi igry doshkolnika [The structure and variants of a preschooler’s narrative play]. Psihologicheskaya nauka i obrazovanie [Psychological Science and Education], 3, 62–70.
Stephen, C., & Plowman, L. (2014). Digital play. In L. Brooker, M. Blaise, & S. Edwards (Eds.), The Sage handbook of play and learning in early childhood (pp. 330–341). Los Angeles: Sage.
Stetsenko, A., & Arievitch, I. M. (2010). Cultural-historical activity theory: Foundational worldview, major principles, and the relevance of sociocultural context. In S. R. Kirschner & J. Martin (Eds.), The sociocultural turning psychology: The contextual emergence of mind and self (pp. 231–252). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sumsion, J., Grieshaber, S., McArdle, F., & Shield, P. (2014). The ‘state of play’ in Australia: Early childhood educators and play-based learning. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 39(3), 4–13.
Talamo, A., Pozzi, S., & Mellini, B. (2010). Uniqueness of experience and virtual playworlds: Playing is not just for fun. Mind Culture, and Activity, 17(1), 23–41.
Theobald, M., Danby, S., Einarsdottir, J., Bourne, J., Jones, D., Ross, S., et al. (2015). Children’s perspective of play and learning for educational practice. Education Sciences, 5(4), 345–360.
Trawick-Smith, J. (2012). Teacher-child play interactions to achieve learning outcomes. In R. C. Pianta (Ed.), Handbook of early childhood education (pp. 259–277). London: The Guilford Press.
van Oers, B. (2008). Inscripting predicates: Dealing with meaning in play. In B. van Oers, W. Wardekker, E. Elbers, & R. van der Veer (Eds.), The transformation of learning: Advances in cultural-historical activity theory (pp. 370–379). New York: Cambridge University Press.
van Oers, B. (2009). Developmental education: Improving participation in cultural practices. In M. Fleer, M. Hedegaard, & J. Tudge (Eds.), Childhood studies and the impact of globalization: Policies and practices at Global and Local levels – World Yearbook of Education, 2009 (pp. 293–317). New York: Routledge.
van Oers, B. (2010). Children’s enculturation through play. In L. Brooker & S. Edwards (Eds.), Engaging play (pp. 195–209). Berkshire: Open University Press.
van Oers, B. (2012). Developmental education: Foundations of a play-based curriculum. In B. van Oers (Ed.), Developmental education for young children: Concept, practice, and implementation (pp. 13–26). The Hague: Springer.
van Oers, B. (2013a). Is it play? Towards a reconceptualisation of role play from an activity theory perspective. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 21(2), 185–198.
van Oers, B. (2013b). An activity theory view on the development of playing. In I. Schousboe & D. Winther-Lindqvist (Eds.), Children’s play and development: Cultural-historical perspectives (pp. 231–250). The Hague: Springer.
van Oers, B., & Duijkers, D. (2013). Teaching in play-based curriculum: Theory practice and evidence of developmental education for young children. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 45(4), 511–534.
Verenikina, I., Herrington, J., Peterson, R., & Mantei, J. (2010). Computers and play in early childhood: Affordance and limitations. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 21(1), 139–159.
Veresov, N. (2004). Zone of proximal development (ZPD): The hidden dimension? In A.-L. Ostern & R. Heilä-Ylikallio (Eds.), Language as culture: Tensions in time and space (pp. 13–30). ABO Akademi: Vaasa.
Veresov, N. (2006). Leading activity in developmental psychology: Concept and principle. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 44(5), 7–25.
Veresov, N. (2014). Refocusing the lens on development: Towards genetic research methodology. In M. Fleer & A. Ridgway (Eds.), Visual methodologies and digital tools for researching with young children (pp. 129–149). Dordrecht: Springer.
Veresov, N. (2016). Duality of categories or dialectical concepts? Integrative Psychological and Behavioural Science, 50(2), 224–256. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-015-9327-1.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1929). Concrete human psychology. Soviet Psychology, 27(2), 53–77.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1935). Umstvennoe razvitie detei v protsesse obuchenia. Moscow: UCHPEDGIZ.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1966). Play and its role in the mental development of the child. Voprosy Psikhologii (Psychology Issues), 12(6), 62–76.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1971). The psychology of Art. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1983). Sobranie sochinenii [Collected works] (Vol. 3). Moscow: Pedagogika.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1984). Sobranie sochinenii [Collected works] (Vol. 6). Moscow: Pedagogika.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1993). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky (Vol. 2). New York: Plenum.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1997). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky (Vol. 4). New York: Plenum.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1998). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky (Vol. 5). New York: Plenum.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1999). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky (Vol. 6). New York: Plenum.
Vygotsky, L. S. (2004). Imagination and creativity in childhood. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 42(1), 7–97.
Vygotsky, L. S. (2005). Appendix.From the notes of L. S. Vygotsky for lectures on the psychology of preschool children. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 43(1), 90–97.
Vygotsky, L. S. (2016). Play and its role in the mental development of the child. New translation with introduction and afterword of N. Veresov and M. Barrs. International Research in Early Childhood, 7(2), 3–25.
Wallerstedt, C., & Pramling, N. (2012). Learning to play in a goal-directed practice. Early Years, 32(1), 5–15.
Wong, P. L., & Fleer, M. (2012). A cultural-historical study of how children from Hong Kong immigrant families develop a learning motive within everyday family practices in Australia. Mind Culture and Activity, 19(2), 107–126.
Wong, P. L., & Fleer, M. (2013). The development of learning as the leading activity for Hong Kong immigrant families in Australia. International Research in Early Childhood Education, 4, 18–34.
Wood, E. (2010). Reconceptualising the play-pedagogy relationship: From control to complexity. In L. Brooker & S. Edwards (Eds.), Engaging play (pp. 11–24). Oxford: Open University Press.
Wood, E. (2014). The play-pedagogy interface in contemporary debates. In L. Brooker, M. Blaise, & S. Edwards (Eds.), The sage handbook of play and learning in early childhood (pp. 145–156). Los Angeles: Sage.
Wood, E., & Hall, E. (2011). Drawings as spaces for intellectual play. International Journal of Early Years Education, 19(3–4), 267–281.
Zinchenko, V. P. (2007). Thought and word: The approaches of L.S. Vygotsky and G.G. Shpet. In H. Daniels, M. Cole, & J. V. Wertsch (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky (pp. 212–245). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fleer, M., Veresov, N. (2018). Cultural-Historical and Activity Theories Informing Early Childhood Education. In: Fleer, M., van Oers, B. (eds) International Handbook of Early Childhood Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0927-7_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0927-7_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-024-0925-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-024-0927-7
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)