Dewey, Vygotsky, and the Social Administration of the Individual: Constructivist Pedagogy as Systems of Ideas in Historical Spaces

Abstract

Current constructivists’ pedagogies draw on the writings of early 20th century Russian psychologist Vygotsky and the American phhilosopher/psychologist Dewey. This occurs without examining the historical spaces of the past and present in which that knowledge is socially constructed. This emptying of history in systems of knowledge is odd for an intellectual project concerned with cultural-historical theories. To address this omission, the writings of Dewey and Vygotsky are examined as part of the turn-of-the-century human sciences. They functioned to bring the new democratic political rationalities into the governing of individual conduct. Contemporary pedagogical theories that draw on Dewey and Vygotsky maintain this function of governing conduct, but with different narratives and images. The differences are made visible when comparing the “problem-solving individual” in education with the images of the individual inscribed in social theory, state policies, economics, and the military. My moving between the past and the present and between education and other social practices directs attention to the shifting terrain that relates school knowledge, power, and problems of social inclusion/exclusion.