Book Description

The Vygotsky Anthology brings together, for the first time, a selection of extracts from the best translations available of Vygotsky’s writings, spanning the entire arc of his career. Vygotsky was arguably one of the greatest educational psychologists of the 20th century. Grounded in his experience as a teacher, an expert in special education, a research psychologist and an outstanding theorist, the editors of this unique anthology chart his enormous influence on professionals working in education and child development around the world. The extracts are introduced by the editors’ commentaries, helpfully setting them in the context of Vygotsky’s life and work, providing a collection of work that adequately represents his writing, and conveying some of the great pleasures of reading him. In the passages selected here, his voice is clearly heard, the intellectual brilliance of his insights is reflected, his line of argument is clear, and his humour and humanity are evident. With its inclusion of recent translations of essential texts, this anthology will help students to understand the full diversity of Vygotsky’s influence on today’s classrooms. Seen as a companion volume to Myra Barrs’ previous work Vygotsky the Teacher (Routledge, 2022), the value of this text to teachers, educational psychologists, and other practitioners working in the field of education and child development will be significant and lasting. It is a key reference book for new generations of Vygotsky students.