Vgotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

Vgotsky’s Sociocultural Theory Lev Semenovich Vygotsky was born in 1896 in Tsarist, Russia to a middle class Jewish family. At that time there were very strict rules on where Jewish people could live, work, and how many people could be educated. Vygotsky was privately tutored in his younger years and was fortunate enough to be admitted into Moscow University through a Jewish lottery. His parents insisted that he apply for the Medical school but almost immediately upon starting at Moscow University he transferred into the Law school. The Humanities classes at Moscow University were not stimulating enough for Vygotsky so he simultaneously enrolled in a private college, Shaniavsky, to study history and philosophy in order to obtain his aspiration of acquiring more knowledge. Vygotsky ended up graduating from both universities just as World War I was ending (Recker, 1996). After College, Vygotsky taught at numerous institutions for about seven years. In 1924 he wrote his PH D thesis, The Psychology of Art. A few years later he began a career as a psychologist and with the help of Alexander Luria and Alexei Leontiev he “began the Vygotskian approach to psychology” (Christina, 1999). Fortunately, Vygotsky was able to write seven books and numerous articles before he passed away from Tuberculosis in 1934. In 1936, psychology in Russia was under the control of Stalin’s regime and unfortunately Vygotsky’s work was not one of the few that was allowed to be taught. About 25 years later when Stalin died and the Cold War ended, the political influence on the academics of psychology was lessened and Vygotsky’s work was able to re-emerge into the Russian Society. It wasn’t until the late 1980’s that his work became popular in the United States (Recker, 1996). Vygotsky is most well known for his sociocultural theory: “This theory suggests that social interaction leads to continuous step-by-step changes in children 's thought and behavior that can vary greatly from culture

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