Languages: English with extended summary in Spanish, Spanish with extended summary in English This volume brings together diverse contributions on culture and education undertaken on the basis of the sociocultural approach. The book gives the reader some thematic variety and conceptual diversity that are difficult to find in any other current selection, allowing the reader to have direct access (with no other restrictions than that of the quantity of articles s/he is faced with), to what is the essence of the socio-cultural paradigm in today’s world: very diverse answers to very different cultural situations in different parts of the world, provided by groups of researchers and practitioners in education, who come from theoretical traditions that are sometimes divergent and even opposing, and who concur in the search for the roots of development and learning in the cultural and educational contexts. Idiomas: Inglés, con resumen extenso en español, Español con resumen extenso en inglés Este volumen reúne diversas aportaciones sobre la cultura y la educación realizadas desde la perspectiva sociocultural. El libro le ofrece al lector una variedad temática y una diversidad conceptual difícilmente accesibles en cualquier otro tipo de selección al uso, permitiéndole acceder directamente, sin otros límites que los impuestos por la propia afluencia de trabajos, a lo que constituye la esencia del paradigma sociocultural en el mundo de hoy: respuestas muy diversas a situaciones culturales muy distintas en todo el mundo, realizadas por grupos de investigadores y trabajadores de la educación que, aún proviniendo de tradiciones teóricas a veces divergentes y hasta enfrentadas, coinciden en buscar en los entornos culturales y educativos las raíces del desarrollo y el aprendizaje.

How is something as broad and complex as a personality organized? What makes up a satisfactory theory of personality? In this ambitious book, Jaan Valsiner argues for a theoretical integration of two long-standing approaches: the individualistic tradition of personalistic psychology, typified by the work of William Stern and Gordon Allport, and the semiotic tradition of cultural-historical psychology, typified by the work of L. S. Vygotsky. The two are brought together in Valsiner's theory, which highlights the sign-constructing and sign-using nature of all distinctively human psychological processes. Arguing that the individualistic and the cultural traditions differ largely in emphasis, Valsiner unites them by focusing on the intricate relations between personality and its social context, and their interplay in personality development. The semiotic devices internalized from the social environment shape an individual's development, and the flow of thinking, feeling, and acting. Valsiner uses this theoretical approach to illuminate two remarkable, and remarkably different, phenomena: letters from the mother of Allport's college roommate, a key empirical case in Allport's theory, and the ritual movements of a Hindu temple dancer. Valsiner shows how both exemplify basic human tendencies for the cultural construction of life courses. The Guided Mind shows the fundamental unities in the vastly diverse phenomenon of human personality.

Languages: English with extended summary in Spanish, Spanish with extended summary in English The works included in this volume offer a comprehensive approach to the updating of theories, methodological innovation and empirical application in relation to the most central problems in the educational process, in three sections: adult-child interaction in family and experimental contexts; teacher-pupil interaction in the school context; and learning and development in peer interaction. This volume is a clear exponent of the vigour of the sociocultural approach, from which it emphasises the cultural, social and communicative nature of learning, development and the construction of knowledge. Idiomas: Inglés, con resumen extenso en español, Español con resumen extenso en inglés Los trabajos recogidos en este volumen ofrecen un equilibrado compendio de actualización teórica, innovación metodológica y aplicación empírica a los problemas más centrales del proceso educativo agrupadas en tres secciones: La interacción adulto-niño en contextos familiares y experimentales, la interacción maestro-alumno en el contexto escolar, y el aprendizaje y el desarrollo en la interacción entre iguales. Este volumen es un claro exponente de la pujanza de la aproximación sociocultural, desde la que se enfatiza el carácter cultural, social y comunicativo del aprendizaje, el desarrollo y la construcción del conocimiento.

In this deeply probing, intellectually challenging work, Dr. JaanValsiner lays the groundwork for a dynamic new cultural-historicalapproach to developmental psychology. He begins by deconstructingtraditional developmental theory, exposing the conceptual confusionand epistemological blind spots that he believes continue toundermine the scientific validity of its methodologies. Hedescribes the ways in which embedded cultural biases shapeinterventional goals and influence both the direction researchtakes and the ways in which research data are interpreted. And hesuggests ways in which researchers and clinicians can become moreaware of and transcend those biases. Dr. Valsiner then develops a hierarchical, systemic model thatportrays development as an open-ended, dialectical process. Centralto Valsiner's approach is the premise that, since each child isunique--as are his or her life conditions--deviations in functionor the rate of development from a prescribed norm are just aslikely to be constructive adaptations to changing environmentalpressures as symptoms of psychological disorder. Drawing uponsources as varied as linguistic philosophy, structuralanthropology, thermodynamics, and systems theory, as well as thework of many of the leading figures in twentieth-centurydevelopmental theory, Valsiner argues convincingly for an approachto developmental psychology mature enough to recognize thedifference between healthy variability and dysfunction. In later chapters the focus shifts from development in the abstractto the everyday challenges encountered by the developing child.Case histories illustrate the subtle interplay of cultural,physiological, and psychological factors in shaping childhoodbehavior. Called an "intellectual tour de force" by the Bulletin of theMenninger Clinic, Culture and the Development of Children's Actionis important reading for developmental psychologists, childpsychologists, and all child clinicians. "Of course, no science progresses in a linear fashion. It movesinterdependently with the society in which it is embedded, makinguse of the narrative forms in describing itself to its insiders andoutsiders. The rhetoric of scientists about their science istherefore necessarily inconsistent. Sciences are both socialinstitutions within a society and social organizations that attemptto build universal knowledge. It is a complicated task forpsychology to be both knowledge-constructing and self-reflexive atthe same time. Nevertheless, it is the latter kind of reflexivitythat guides the actual construction of knowledge." -- JaanValsiner "[This book] is a fascinating and important work that challengesmuch of contemporary developmental psychology. The Second Editionhas changed in a number of respects, and much new material has beenadded, but at root, Valsiner grapples with the question 'how shallwe understand development?' He continues to struggle also with whathe describes rather vividly as the 'epistemological windmills ofpsychology.' His challenge is summed up succinctly in two linesfrom a poem by T. S. Eliot: * Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? * Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?" -- -- fromthe Foreword by Kevin Connolly

The Routledge International Companion to Education addresses the key issues underpinning the rethinking and restructuring of education at the beginning of the new millennium. The volume contains over fifty major contributions exploring a wide range of issues, including: * philosophy of education * the economics and resourcing of education * testing and assessment: current issues and future prospects * standards * multiculturalism * anti-racism * computers in classrooms * mother tongue education * civics and moral education. Each chapter gives a contemporary account of developments in the field, and looks to the future and the directions that new activity and inquiry are likely to take. All the chapters are written from an international perspective.