On the Possibility of a Cultural Psychology Theory of Pedagogy

Abstract

The most viable paradigm for conducting research in a developing country is that of socio-historical-cultural psychology. To date this paradigm has been able to clarify how dissimilar people act differently in their own situated contexts. The effects of mediated learning in context, an important unit of analysis for the discipline, have been seen in literacy and learning contexts. The paradigm, although originally very clear about the cognitive consequences of formal schooling has in recent times been a little more careful about the claims that it makes. Although the paradigm is burgeoning, to date, we do not have a theoretically motivated account of learning in formal contexts, and this paper attempts to break new ground in this area. The implications of cultural psychology for formal language learning are teased out.


(Journal for Language Teching: 2002 36(1-2): 118-133)