The cultural-historical approach started in the 1930s by Lev Vygotsky, who held that learning and instruction are the means to development, is the foundation for she Radical-Local Theory of Teaching and Learning formulated by Mariane Hedegaard and Seth Chaiklin in the first part of the book. The central concern in this approach to education is how to integrate particular historical and cultural conditions that the children encounter into educational practices. The second half of the book is an extensive case study of an after-school programme for Puerto Rican primary students in East Harlem....

Children live their lives across various social settings, including homes, kindergartens, schools and different kinds of institutions. The different contributions of this book focus on children's perspectives, and on how children learn and develop through taking part in activities in social communities such as families, peer groups, classrooms, and day care institutions. This collection illustrates different ways of dealing with varying social contexts, and the research presented involves questions about children's world-making, anchored in children's daily lives. The studies are inspired by...

Children live their lives across various social settings, including homes, kindergartens, schools and different kinds of institutions. The different contributions of this book focus on children's perspectives, and on how children learn and develop through taking part in activities in social communities such as families, peer groups, classrooms, and day care institutions. This collection illustrates different ways of dealing with varying social contexts, and the research presented involves questions about children's world-making, anchored in children's daily lives. The studies are inspired by...

This book explores the dynamics in children's everyday lives as they move between school and the family, with particular consideration of how children's motives change in response new challenges. Professors Mariane Hedegaard and Marilyn Fleer follow four children, two from Australia and two from Denmark, over a twelve-month period. Using these case studies, they show how children's everyday activities, play, and the demands of both family and educational contexts influence their learning and development. The authors contribute to a sociocultural theory formulation that includes the child's...

The contributors to this collection employ the analytic resources of cultural-historical theory to examine the relationship between childhood and children's development under different societal conditions. In particular they attend to relationships between development, emotions, motives and identities, and the social practices in which children and young people may be learners. These practices are knowledge-laden, imbued with cultural values and emotionally freighted by those who already act in them. The book first discusses the organising principles that underpin a cultural-historical...