Vygotsky and Freire: Linked Through the Transformative Power of Language


CABE, 2003
Los Angeles, CA
February 14, 2003
Joan Wink, Ph.D. LeAnn G. Putney, Ph.D.
info@joanwink.com putneyl@unlv.edu
California State University, Stanislaus University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Carli Kyles, M.Ed.
kylesc@unlv.edu
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

    Agenda
  • Sharing Vygotskian principles through graphic representations
  • Participants think, pair, share, scribble, convey
  • Adding Freire's political stance
  • Participants think, pair, share, scribble, convey again
  • Teaching as a mentoring act
    Principles from Vygotsky
  • Thought and Language
  • Sociocultural Context
  • Zone of Proximal Development
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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

Vygotsky, L. S. (1997). Educational Psychology (R. Silverman, Trans.). Boca Raton, FL: St. Lucie Press.

    Principles from Freire
  • Reading the Word
  • Reading the World
  • To Name
  • To Reflect Critically
  • To Act
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Seabury Press.

Freire, P. (1998). Pedagogy of freedom: Ethics, democracy, and civic courage (Patrick Clarke, Trans.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

    Critical Praxis Framework
  • NoteTaking
       Describe
       What is going on in this event?
  • NoteMaking
       Interpret
       Why is it happening (from different perspectives)?
  • NoteRemaking
       Transform
       How can I use this to change my practice?
Wink, J., & Putney, L. G. (2002). A Vision of Vygotsky. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Vygotsky Extended: Learning is NOT…
  • Linear or one-way
  • Leading only from teacher to student
  • Simply knowing what the teacher knows
"For present-day education, it is not so important to teach a certain quantity of knowledge as it is to inculcate the ability to acquire such knowledge and to make use of it."
(Vygotsky, 1997, p. 339)

    Vygotsky Extended: Learning as an act of Mentoring…
  • Learning is reciprocal and dynamic
       Education is a process of mutual and continuous adaptation of both camps (teacher/student) (Vygotsky, 1997, p. 349)
  • A collaborative process
       Participants engaged in genuine activity
          Child
          Child's social environment
          Teacher as director (Vygotsky, 1997)


    Freire: Mentoring is…
  • Authentic
       teacher does not adopt the role of mentor
  • Challenging
       the student's creative freedom
          stimulates the construction of the student's autonomy
  • A liberatory task
       transcends the instructive task
  • Believing
       in total autonomy/freedom/development of the mentee