Vygotsky, Education and Revolution

by Shirley Franklin

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky was a Russian Marxist educational philosopher and psychologist who was born in 1896 and died of tuberculosis under Stalin's repressive regime in 1934. During this short life he was exceptionally productive in his research into how children learn and develop. His ideas are extremely relevant today, as testing dominates education, with governments demanding higher standards from schools and teachers, but having little understanding of how children learn. Vygotsky shows us that learning is a more complex process, that it is above all social, interactive and cultural. Vygotsky is often cited in academic circles, but it is less well-known that his ideas about education and development were linked to a commitment to revolutionary social change, such as he witnessed in the early years of the Russian Revolution. This book is an attempt to show the background and development of his ideas, and to explain them accessibly for students, teachers, parents and others who are interested in language, communication, special educational needs, the development of the individual, and the relationship between learning, culture and society.

Genres: Education

112 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Duester · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm still going to give this five stars even though I felt that the biographical chapters utilized a stilted writing style overly fond of simple declarative sentences. The theoretical sections were excellent primers that covered the essentials: language, ZPD, play/creativity...

But what really stood out is the penultimate chapter, "Special Education Needs." This is Franklin's strong suit given her professional experience, which CLEARLY shows in the section, an impassioned appeal to the relevance of Vygotsky's praxis not just for our students who are most in need of a more suitable and meaningful education, but for ALL students.

When people ask me why I won't shut up about Vygotsky, I'm going to point them to this book. It does the best job clearing up the most common misreadings of his theory I've seen yet (looking at you, ZPD and play). Even given the (small) stylistic issue I mentioned, it does an excellent job of conveying that Vygotsky was a genius far ahead of pedagogical developments which were to come decades later, and ultimately a good, earnest, and dedicated person who died far too young.

[Luke Illeniram · Rating 3 out of 5]

A commendable small book that summarises the life and work of Vygotsky with analysis of how the socialist Marxist views of 1920s/30s Russia shaped his views. Nice to put some context into the life of a writer oft-cited in education courses.