Cultural forms of behaviour and their development in human history / Formas culturales de comportamiento y su desarrollo en la historia humana

Abstract

In this paper, it is claimed that an educational situation can be used as a basic unit of analysis to examine the dynamics of the relation between a human being’s mental phenomena and their historical era. The authors exploit Vygotsky’s concept as a theoretical tool to analyse educational macro- (e.g., shaped by politics) and micro-policies (e.g., shaped by parents and teachers) that shape educational situations on two main potential dimensions: (1) general–particular; and (2) past–future oriented. It is assumed that these dimensions play a crucial role in the learning of current cultural tools, a necessary process for synchronizing individual and historical times. Moreover, since educational policies may change, the relationship between the dynamics of historical narratives and human mental adaptation to an unstable context is also considered. Finally, a global variety of educational situations with respect to their historical reference are shown through selected chosen examples.