Irreconcilable differences in Vygotsky’s and Bakhtin’s approaches to the social and the individual

An educational perspective

Datos Bibliográficos

ID18975280
AutoresE Matusov (0000-0001-7587-2266, University of Delaware, autor de correspondencia)
Año2011
Volumen17
Número1
Páginas99-119
Fecha de publicación2011-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCulture & Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1354-067X • E-ISSN: 1461-7056
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1354067x10388840
OpenAlexW2063874361
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas31
Referencias citadas33

In Western psychology and education, up until very recently, Bakhtin has often been introduced as a scholar whose approach was compatible with and an extension of Vygotsky’s cultural-historical approach. I argue that this continuity is problematic. Vygotsky’s approach to the social was heavily influenced by Hegel’s universalist, mono-logic, mono-logical, developmental (diachronic), activity-based philosophy. Bakhtin developed a pluralistic, essentially synchronic, dialogic, discourse- and genre-based approach to the social, involving the hybridity of co-existing competing and conflicting varieties of logic. Extrapolating Bakhtin’s approach in education and psychology, I argue that from Bakhtin’s dialogic framework, when a child (or any other person) is a subject of development — as in developmental psychology, or a subject of learning — as in education, development, its goals, and developmental values defining the teleology of the development, become (again) unknown for the participant (e.g., a developmental psychologist or parent)

Dialogic · Epistemology · Hegelianism · Sociology · Teleology · Educational and Psychological Assessments · Innovative Education and Learning Practices · Philosophy · Psychology · Russian Literature and Bakhtin Studies