The Transformative Mind: Expanding Vygotsky's Approach to Development and Education

by Anna Stetsenko

Overview

The book suggests a transition from a relational worldview premised on the socio-political ethos of adaptation towards a transformative worldview premised on the ethos of solidarity and equality. Expansively developing Vygotsky's revolutionary project, the Transformative Activist Stance integrates insights from a vast array of critical and sociocultural theories and pedagogies and moves beyond their impasses to address the crisis of inequality. This captures the dynamics of social transformation and agency in moving beyond theoretical and political canons of the status quo. The focus is on the nexus of people co-creating history and society while being interactively created by their own transformative agency. Revealing development and mind as agentive contributions to the 'world-in-the-making' from an activist stance guided by a sought-after future, this approach culminates in implications for research with transformative agendas and a pedagogy of daring. Along the way, many key theories of mind, development and education are challenged and radically reworked.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521865586
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/01/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	434
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.29(h) x 1.14(d)

About the Author

Anna Stetsenko is recognized for contributions to sociocultural and activity theories around the world. Rooted in Vygotsky's project, she has worked to advance it across several decades and international contexts bringing in experiences of teaching and researching in leading universities and research centers in the US, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Russia. She is widely published, in several languages, and is a sought-out speaker at many large international conferences. With her interdisciplinary expertise in psychology, philosophy and education, and an international background, her writing cuts across many fields and connects cutting edge developments and insights from a variety of frameworks.

Table of Contents

Introduction: setting the stage: the paradox of continuity versus change; Part I: 1. Charting the agenda: from adaptation to transformation; 2. Situating theory: the charges and challenges of theorizing activism; Part II: 3. Vygotsky's project: methodology as the philosophy of method; 4. Vygotsky's project: relational ontology; 5. Vygotsky's project: from relational ontology to transformative worldview; Part III: 6. Transformative activist stance: ontology; 7. Transformative activist stance: agency; 8. Transformative activist stance: encountering the future through commitment to change; Part IV: 9. The mind that matters; 10. Illustration: memory and anticipation of the future; 11. Implications for education: teaching-learning and development as activist projects; Concluding remarks: toward democracy and pedagogy of daring; Bibliography; Appendices.