Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This article deals with the problem of the formation of historical representation from the perspective of mediational means and mediated action. According to this approach, mental representations emerge as a result of individuals' actions performed with mediational means such as language. These mediational means are provided by the sociocultural setting in which individuals function. The article analyses the impact that recent profound political, economic, social and cultural changes which have taken place in Eastern Europe have had on the formation of historical representation. The sociocultural changes involved are illustrated by changes in the official account of important historical events as presented in high school textbooks. The historical representations of individuals are examined through an analysis of essays about World War II written by 21 undergraduate students in 1992. Several narrative elements were identified and analysed. The results indicate that the subjects' representations of World War II were rather poorly organized and that elements of the official history continue to prevail in them. A few narrative elements from what was unofficial history during the socialist period were incorporated into official history, but they were the exception and were not well integrated into the structure of the texts produced by the subjects. It is concluded that the representations of social phenomena such as historical events are formed with the use of mediational means available in a given sociocultural setting and that it may be quite difficult to restructure these mediational means when the sociocultural setting undergoes rapid change.

Keywords

mediation mediational means representation sociocultural text

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Albert, A. [Roszkowski, W.] (1983). Najnowsza historia Polski 1918-1980 [The recent history of Poland: 1918-1980]. Warsaw: KRAG.

Bakhtin, M.M. (1986). Speech genres and other late essays ( C. Emerson & M. Holquist , Eds.; V.W. McGee, Trans.). Austin: University of Texas Press.

Berti, A.E. , & Bombi, A.S. (1988). The child's construction of economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Davies, N. (1982). God's playground: A history of Poland: II. 1795 to the present. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Delval, J. (1989). La representacion infantil del mundo social [Children's representations of the social world]. In E. Turiel & I. Enesco (Eds.), El mundo social en la mente infantil [The social world in children's minds]. Madrid: Alianza.

Furth, H.G. (1978). Young children's understanding of society. In H. McGurk (Ed.), Issues in childhood social development. London: Methuen.

Jahoda, G. (1984). The development of thinking about socio-economic systems. In H. Tajfel (Ed.), The social dimension. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kopalin'ski, W. (1971). Slownik wyrazow obcych i zwrotdw obcojfzycznych [The dictionary of foreign words and expressions]. Warsaw: Wiedza Powszechna.

Lea, S.E.G. , Tarpy, R.M. , & Webley P. (1987). The individual in the economy: A textbook of economic psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

10.

Luczyfiski, J. (1992). Functional composition strategies of narrative texts written by children on various levels of operational intelligence development. Polish Psychological Bulletin, 23(2), 153-167.

11.

Luczyniski, J. (1995). The analysis of functional text structure in the studies on children's written narratives. Polish Quarterly of Developmental Psychology, 1(1), 33-39.

12.

Radziwill, A. , & Roszkowski, W. (1994). Historia 1871-1945. Podrfcznik dla szk6l srednich. [History 1871-1945. A textbook for high schools]. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.

13.

Scinto, L.F.M. (1986). Written language and psychological development. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

14.

Siergiejczyk, T. (1986). Dzieje najnowsze 1939-1945. Historia dla szkdl?rednich (klasa IV liceum og6lnoksztatcqcego oraz klasa III technikum i liceum zawodowego. [The recent history 1939-1945. History textbook for grammar school grade IV and technical high schools grade III]. Warsaw: WSiP.

15.

Tulviste, P. , & Wertsch, J.V. (1994). Official and unofficial histories: The case of Estonia. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 4(4), 311-329.

16.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1983). The prehistory of written language. In M. Martlew (Ed.), The psychology of written language: Developmental and educational perspectives. Chichester: Wiley.

17.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1986). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

18.

Wapifiski, R. (1978). Historia dla klasy IV liceum og6lnoksztalcqcego oraz dla klasy III technikum. [History textbook for grammar school grade IV and technical high schools grade III]. Warsaw: WSiP.

19.

Wertsch, J.V. (1991). Voices of the mind: A sociocultural approach to mediated action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

20.

Wertsch, J.V. (1994). Struggling with the past: Some dynamics of historical representation. In M. Carretero & J. F. Voss (Eds.), Cognitive and instructional processes in history and the social sciences (pp. 323-338). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

21.

Wertsch, J.V. , & O'Connor, K. (1994). Multivoicedness in historical representation: American college students' accounts of the origins of the United States. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 4(4), 295-309.

22.

Wertsch, J.V. , & Rozin, M. (in press). The Russian Revolution: Official and unofficial accounts. In J.F. Voss & M. Carretero (Eds.), Learning and instruction in history. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

The Multivoicedness of Historical Representations in a Changing Sociocultural Context: Young Polish Adults' Representations of World War II

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References