Abstract
In the following introduction to the edited volume Children, Development and Education the reader is introduced to two schools of thought: historical anthropology – a revision of the German philosophical anthropology under the influences of the French historical school of Annales and the Anglo-Saxon cultural anthropology – and cultural-historical psychology – a school of thought which emerged in the context of the Soviet revolution and deeply affected the discipline of psychology in the twentieth century. Four significant and interrelated motions of thought, common in both of these schools, are briefly described under the labels: (a) subjectivity, (b) performativity, (c) infans absconditus, and (d) historicity. The introduction emphasizes the primacy of language and signs for the constitution of human subjectivity and the dramatic aspects of child development and examines the symbolic and performative aspects of ritual practices which play a central role in child-rearing, education, and the socialization of children. The impossibility of representation of children and childhood is also discussed and the epistemological position of double culturality and historicity, which enables cultural-historical scholars to reflect on the cultural-historical specificity of their own discourses and methodologies, is briefly outlined. Furthermore, the introduction emphasizes the importance of historical analysis in the context of a broader understanding of history as an ongoing open-ended process and of human development as a process of purposeful collaborative transformation (Stetsenko, 2008). The introduction concludes with a brief presentation of the two main parts of the edited book – which is expected to contribute significantly to what can be called “cultural-historical science.”
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
See acknowledgements for details.
- 2.
- 3.
As an exception to this one might regard the work of Valsiner (1998) which offers a general methodological frame for the study of historical processes as well as enters into dialogue with anthropological approaches.
- 4.
The study of Althans presented in Chapter 7 (this book) provides an example of this approach by exploring the double historicity and culturality of western childhood.
- 5.
Although many types or modes of “difference” are investigated, we decided to use the word “gender” in the title of this part in order to make clear the connection to feminist scholarship and especially the so-called “third wave” of feminism.
References
Adorno, G., & Benjamin, W. (2005). W. Benjamin: Briefwechsel 1930–1940. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Ariès, P., & Duby, G. (1985). Histoire de la vie privée, vol. 1–5. Paris: Seuil.
Badiou, A. (2005). Being and event. London and New York: Continuum.
Bakhtin, M. (1973). Problems of Dostoevsky’s poetics. Ann Arbor: Ardis.
Barad, K. (2003). Posthumanist performativity: Toward an understanding of how matter comes to matter. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 28, 801–831.
Benjamin, W. (2006). Berlin Childhood around 1900. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Berg, E., & Fuchs, M. (Eds.). (1993). Kultur, Soziale Praxis, Text: Die Krise der Ethnographischen Repräsentation. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Blackman, L., & Walkerdine, V. (2001). Mass Hysteria: Critical Psychology and Media Studies. Houndmills and New York: Palgrave.
Bowker, G., & Star, S. L. (1999). Sorting things out: Classification and its consequences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Braudel, F. (1949). La Méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen à l’époque de Philippe II. Paris: A. Colin.
Burke, P. (1991). The French historical revolution: The Annales school, 1929–89. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York. Routledge.
Butler, J. (1997). Excitable speech: A politics of the performative. London and New York: Routledge.
Chaiklin, S. (2001). The theory and practice of cultural-historical psychology. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.
Chaiklin, S. (2003). The Zone of Proximal Development in Vygotsky’s analysis of learning and instruction. In A. Kozulin, B. Gindis, V. Ageyey, & S. Miller (Eds.), Vygotsky’s educational theory in cultural context (pp. 39–64). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chaiklin, S., & Lave, J. (1993). Understanding practice: Perspectives on activity and context. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Cole, M. (1996). Cultural psychology: A once and future discipline. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Conquergood, D. (2002). Performance studies: Interventions and radical research. The Drama Review, 46(2), 145–156.
Dafermos, M. (2002). The cultural-historical theory of Vytgotsky: Philosophical, psychological and pedagogical aspects. Athens: Atrapos.
Daniels, H. (2008). Vygotsky and research. London: Routledge.
Daniels, H., Cole, M., & Wertsch, J. V. (Eds.). (2007). The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Davydov, V. (2008). Problems of developmental instruction: A theoretical and experimental psychological study. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers.
Delari, A. Jr., Passos, B., & Vladimirovna, I. (2009). Alguns sentidos da palavra perejivanie em L. S. Vigotski: notas para estudo futuro junto á psicologia russa. Accessed November 21, 2010, from http://www.vigotski.net/casa.htm
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1980/1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Dreier, O. (2008). Psychotherapy in everyday life. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Dux, G. (2000). Historisch-Genetische Theorie Der Kultur. Weilerwist: Velbrück.
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1965). Theories of primitive religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fichtner, B. (1996). Lernen Und Lerntätigkeit. Phylogenetische, Ontogenetische Und Epistemologische Studien. Magburg: BdWi-Verlag.
Fleer, M., Hedegaard, M., & Tudge, J. (2009). World yearbook of education 2009: Childhood studies and the impact of globalization: Policies and practices at global and local levels. New York: Routledge.
Foucault, M., Gros, F., Ewald, F., & Fontana, A. (2005). The Hermeneutics of the subject: Lectures at the Collège De France, 1981–1982. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.
Foucault, M., Martin, L. H., Gutman, H., & Hutton, P. H. (1988). Technologies of the self: A seminar with Michel Foucault. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Freire, P. (1973). Education for critical consciousness. New York: Seabury Press.
Freire, P. (1986). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.
Gebauer, G., & Kamper, D. (Eds.). (1989). Historische Anthropologie. Zum Problem Der Humanwissenschaften Heute Oder Versuche Einer Neubegründung. Reinbek: Rowohlt-Taschenbuch.
Gebauer, G., & Wulf, C. (1995). Mimesis: Culture, art, society. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Geertz, C. (1975). The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays. London: Hutchinson.
Geertz, C. (1995). After the fact: Two countries, four decades, one anthropologist. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Ginzburg, C. (1980). The cheese and the worms. The cosmos of a sixteenth-century Miller. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Haraway, D. (1997). Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium. Femaleman© Meets Oncomouse™. New York: Routledge.
Harris, M. (2001). The rise of anthropological theory. A history of theories of cultures. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.
Hedegaard, M. (2001). Learning in classrooms: A cultural-historical approach. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.
Hedegaard, M., & Chaiklin, S. (2005). Radical-local teaching and learning: A cultural-historical approach. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.
Hildebrand-Nilshon, M. (1980). Die Entwicklung der Sprache: Phylogenese und Ontogenese. Frankfurt/Main: Campus.
Hildebrand-Nilshon, M., Kim, C.-W., & Papadopoulos, D. (2002). Kultur (in) Der Psychologie: Über Das Abenteuer Des Kulturbegriffs in Der Psychologischen Theorienbildung. Heidelberg: Asanger.
Holzkamp, K. (1993). Lernen: Subjektwissenschaftliche Grundlegung. Frankfurt am Main: Campus.
Holzman, L. (2009). Vygotsky at work and play. London and New York: Routledge.
Hüppauf, B., & Wulf, C. (Eds.). (2009). Dynamics and performativity of imagination: The image between the visible and the invisible. New York: Routledge.
Keiler, P. (2002). Lev Vygotsky: Ein Leben Für Die Psychologie. Weinheim: Beltz.
Kontopodis, M. (2009a). Culture, dialogue and emerging educational challenges: An introduction. In M. Kontopodis (Ed.), Children, culture & emerging educational challenges: A dialogue with Brazil (pp. 9–23). Berlin: Lehmanns Media.
Kontopodis, M. (Ed.). (2009b). Children, culture and emerging educational challenges: A dialogue with Latin America. Berlin: Lehmanns Media.
Kontopodis, M., & Newnham, D. S. (Guest Eds.). (2011). Expanding Cultural-historical and Critical Perspectives on Child and Youth Development/ Introduction to Ethos Dialogue 2011. Ethos, 35(3).
Kontopodis, M., & Niewöhner, J. (Eds.). (2011). Das Selbst als Netzwerk: Zum Einsatz von Körpern und Dingen im Alltag. Bielefeld: transcript.
Kotik-Friedgut, B., & Friedgut, T. H. (2008). A man of his country and his time: Jewish influences on Lev Semionovich Vygotsky’s world view. History of Psychology, 11(1), 15–39.
Ladurie, Le Roy E. (1978). Montaillou: Cathars and catholics in a French village, 1294–1324. London: Scolar Press.
Latour, B. (1994). Les Objets Ont-Ils Une Histoire? Rencontre De Pasteur Et De Whitehead Dans Un Bain D’ Acide Lactique. In I. Stengers (Ed.), L’effet Whitehead (pp. 197–217). Paris: Vrin.
Latour, B. (1999). Pandora’s hope: Essays on the reality of science studies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Law, J. (2004). After method: Mess in social science research. London: Routledge.
Law, J., & Mol, A. (2002). Complexities: Social studies of knowledge practices. Durham: Duke University Press.
Lévi-Strauss, C. (1992). Tristes tropiques. New York: Atheneum.
Leont’ev, A. (1978). Activity, consciousness, and personality. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice and Hall.
Liberali, F., & Rahmilevitz, E. (2007). Shared creativity in Brazilian schools: Different contexts, one pursuit. In V. Kalnberzina (Ed.), Radosa Personiba (Creative Personality) (pp. 261–266). Riga: SIA.
Lompscher, J. (1989). Psychologische Analysen der Lerntätigkeit. Berlin: Volk und Wissen.
Lompscher, J., & Galperin, P. J. (1972). Probleme der Ausbildung Geistiger Handlungen: Neuere Untersuchungen zur Anwendung der Lerntheorie Galperins. Berlin: Volk und Wissen.
Malinowski, B. (1922). Argonauts of the Western Pacific. London: Routledge.
Marcus, G. E. (1986). Contemporary problems of ethnography in the modern world system. In J. Clifford & G. E. Marcus (Eds.), Writing culture: The poetics and politics of ethnography (pp. 165–193). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Mead, M. (1950). Sex and temperament in three primitive societies. New York: New American Library.
Mol, A. (2002). The body multiple: Ontology in medical practice. Durham: Duke University Press.
Morss, J. (1990). The biologising of childhood: Developmental psychology and the Darwinian myth. Hove and East Sussex: Erlbaum.
Newman, F., & Holzman, L. (1993). Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary scientist. London: Routledge.
Papadopoulos, D. (1999). Lew S. Wygotski: Werk Und Wirkung. Frankfurt am Main: Campus.
Pessoa, F. (2001). The book of disquiet by Bernardo Soares, assistant bookkeeper in the city of Lisbon (R. Zenith, Trans.). London and New York: Penguin.
Puzyrei, A. A. (2007). Contemporary psychology and Vygotsky’s cultural-historical theory. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 45(1), 8–93.
Robbins, D. (2001). Vygotsky’s psychology-philosophy: A metaphor for language theory and learning. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Robbins, D. (2003). Vygotsky’s and A.A. Leontiev’s semiotics and psycholinguistics: Applications for education, second language acquisition, and theories of language. Westport: Praeger Publishers.
Robbins, D., & Stetsenko, A. (Eds.). (2002). Voices within Vygotsky’s non-classical psychology: Past, present, future. New York: Nova Science.
Sahlins, M. (1976). Culture and practical reason. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Seeger, F., Voigt, J., & Waschescio, U. (1998). The culture of the mathematics classroom. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Spinoza, B. de, & Curley, E. M. (1994). A Spinoza reader: The ethics and other works. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Stephenson, N., & Papadopoulos, D. (2006). Analysing everyday experience: Social research and political change. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Stetsenko, A. (2005). Activity as object-related: Resolving the dichotomy of individual and collective planes of activity. Mind, Culture and Activity, 12(1), 70–88.
Stetsenko, A. (2008). From relational ontology to transformative activist stance on development and learning: Expanding Vygotsky’s (CHAT) project. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 3, 471–491.
Stetsenko, A., & Arievitch, I. (2010). Cultural-historical activity theory: Foundational worldview and major principles. In J. Martin & S. Kirschner (Eds.), Sociocultural Perspectives in Psychology (pp. 231–253). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Tervooren, A. (2006). Im Spielraum von Geschlecht und Begehren: Ethnographie Der Ausgehenden Kindheit. Weinheim: Juventa.
Valsiner, J. (1998). The guided mind: A sociogenetic approach to personality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
van Oers, B. (1998). From context to contextualizing. Learning and Instruction, 8(6), 473–488.
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., Elbers, E., Wardekker, W., & van der Veer, R. (Eds.). (2008). The transformation of learning: Advances in cultural-historical activity theory. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Veresov, N. (2004). Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): The Hidden Dimension? In A.-L. Ostern & R. Heila-Ylikalko (Eds.), Sprak Som Kultur – Brytningar I Tid Och Rum (Language as Culture – Tensions in Time and Space) (pp. 13–30). Vasa: ABO Akademi.
Vianna, E., & Stetsenko, A. (2006). Embracing history through transforming it: Contrasting Piagetian versus Vygotskian (activity) theories of learning and development to expand constructivism within a dialectical view of history. Theory & Psychology, 16(1), 81–108.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Collection and Trans. of Original Texts Ed. by M. Cole. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1925/1971). The psychology of art. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1929/2005). Concrete human psychology: An unpublished manuscript Publication. Retrieved May 25, 2009, from The Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition: http://lchc.ucsd.edu/MCA/Paper/Vygotsky1986b.pdf
Vygotsky, L. S. (1930/1978). Tool and symbol in child development. In L. S. Vygotsky (Ed.), Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes (pp. 19–30). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1930–1934/1998). Child psychology (S. Sochinenij, Trans.). In L. S. Vygotsky (Ed.), The collected works (Vol. 5). New York and London: Plenum.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1931/1997). The history of development of higher mental functions (M. Hall, Trans.). In R. Rieber (Ed.), The collected works (Vol. 4, pp. 1–251). London and New York: Plenum.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1932–1934/1998). The problem of age (S. Sochinenij, Trans.). In L. S. Vygotsky (Ed.), The collected works: Vol. 5. Child Psychology (pp. 187–206). New York and London: Plenum.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1933/2002). Play and its role in the mental development of the child: Psychology and Marxism internet archive. Published online: http://www.marx.org/archive/vygotsky/works/1933/play.htm date of access: 2006-11-22
Vygotsky, L. S. (1934/1987). Thinking and speech (N. Minick, Trans.). In R. Rieber (Ed.), The collected works of Vygotsky: Vol. 1. Problems of general psychology (pp. 39–288). New York and London: Plenum.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1934/1994). The socialist alteration of man. In R. van der Veer & J. Valsiner (Eds.), The Vygotsky reader (pp. 338–354). Oxford and Cambridge: Blackwell.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1934/1999). The teaching about emotions: Historical-psychological studies (S. Sochinenij, Trans.). In R. Rieber & M. J. Hall (Eds.), The collected works (Vol. 6, pp. 69–235). New York and London: Plenum.
Wagner-Willi, M. (2005). Kinder-Rituale Zwischen Vorder-Und Hinterbühne: Der Übergang von Der Pause Zum Unterricht. Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
Walkerdine, V. (1993). Beyond developmentalism? Theory & Psychology, 3(4), 451–469.
Walkerdine, V. (1998). Counting girls out: Girls and mathematics (New ed.). London and Bristol, PA: Falmer Press.
Wittgenstein, L., & Anscombe, G. E. M. (2003). Philosophical investigations: The German text, with a revised English translation (3rd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Wolfe, C. (2010). What is posthumanism? Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
Wulf, C. (2002). Educational anthropology. Münster and New York: Lit.
Wulf, C. (2003). Educational science: Hermeneutics, empirical research, critical theory. Münster and New York: Waxmann.
Wulf, C. (2005). Zur Genese Des Sozialen: Mimesis, Performativität, Ritual. Bielefeld: transcript.
Wulf, C. (2009). Anthropologie: Geschichte, Kultur, Philosophie. Köln: Anaconda.
Wulf, C. (Ed.). (1997). Vom Menschen. Handbuch Historische Anthropologie. Weinheim: Beltz.
Wulf, C. (Ed.). (2001). Das Soziale als Ritual: Zur Performativen Bildung von Gemeinschaften. Opladen: Leske + Budrich.
Wulf, C. (Ed.). (2004). Bildung im Ritual: Schule, Familie, Jugend, Medien. Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
Wulf, C. (Ed.). (2007). Lernkulturen im Umbruch: Rituelle Praktiken in Schule, Medien, Familie Und Jugend. Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
Wulf, C. (Ed.). (2010). Gesten in Erziehung, Bildung, Sozialisation. Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
Wulf, C., Göhlich, M., & Zirfas, J. (Eds.). (2001). Grundlagen Des Performativen: Eine Einführung in die Zusammenhänge von Sprache, Macht Und Handeln. Weinheim: Juventa.
Wulf, C., & Kamper, D. (Eds.). (2002). Logik und Leidenschaft. Erträge Historischer Anthropologie. Berlin: Reimer.
Wulf, C., & Zirfas, J. (Eds.). (2004). Die Kultur des Rituals: Inszenierungen, Praktiken, Symbole. München: Fink.
Wulf, C., & Zirfas, J. (Eds.). (2007). Pädagogik des Performativen. Theorien, Methoden, Perspektiven. Weinheim and Basel: Beltz.
Wygotski, L. (1987a). Das Problem der Alterstufen. In J. Lompscher (Ed.), Lew Wygotski. Ausgewählte Schriften (Vol. 2, pp. 53–90). Köln: Rugenstein.
Wygotski, L. (1987b). Die Krise des Einjährigen. In J. Lompscher (Ed.), Lew Wygotski. Ausgewählte Schriften (Vol. 2, pp. 163–199). Köln: Rugenstein.
Acknowledgements
The work presented here is the result of long interdisciplinary research cooperation between anthropologists, educational scientists, and psychologists and has its origins at two international conferences funded by the German Research Foundation and co-organized by Michalis Kontopodis, Christoph Wulf, Bernd Fichtner, Martin Hildebrand-Nilshon, and Maria Benites at the Free University Berlin (2006) and at the University of Siegen (2007) as well as at further meetings held in the context of International Conferences in Toronto (ISTP, 2007) and San Diego (ISCAR, 2008). We would like to thank the German Research Foundation, the Faculty of Education and Psychology at the Free University Berlin, the Department of Educational Science at the University of Siegen and the Department of European Ethnology at the Humboldt University Berlin for making this long international scientific exchange possible, as well as for funding the translation and proof-reading of the chapters of this book. Special thanks are due to Kareth Schaffer, Diana Aurisch, and Thomas La Presti for their patience in dealing with all the challenges of translation and proof-reading, and for the excellence of their work. Last but not least we would like to thank the Springer Series’ “International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development” editors, Marilyn Fleer and Ingrid Pramling, for their kind cooperation in publishing this book.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kontopodis, M., Wulf, C., Fichtner, B. (2011). Introduction: Children, Development and Education – A Dialogue Between Cultural Psychology and Historical Anthropology. In: Kontopodis, M., Wulf, C., Fichtner, B. (eds) Children, Development and Education. International perspectives on early childhood education and development, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0243-1_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0243-1_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-0242-4
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-0243-1
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)