The Cambridge Handbook of Sociocultural Psychology

Edited by JAAN VALSINER Clark University and ALBERTO ROSA Universidad Autonoma de Madrid

.,.,.:i..,, CAMBRIDGE ;:; UNIVERSITY PRESS CONTENTS vii

21 The Creation of New Cultures in Peer Interaction 444 William A. Corsaro and Berit 0. Johannesen 22 "Culture Has No Internal Territory": Culture as Dialogue Eugene Matusov, Mark Smith, Maria Alburquerque Candela, and Keren Lilu 23 Cultural-Historical Approaches to Designing for Development Michael Cole and Yrjo Engestrom 24 Money as a Cultural Tool Mediating Personal Relationships: Child Development of Exchange and Possession Toshiya Yamamoto and Noboru Takahashi 25 The Family: Negotiating Cultural Values Nandita Chaudhary

PA RT VI: F R O M S O C I A L C U LT U R E T O P E RS O NA L C U LT U RE

26 Culture and Social Representations 543 Gerard Duveen 27 The Institutions Inside: Self, Morality, and Culture Fiero Paolicchi 28 Identity, Rights, and Duties: The Illustrative Case of Positioning by Iran, the United States, and the European Union Fathali M. Moghaddam and Kathryn A. Kavulich 29 Symbolic Politics and Cultural Symbols: Identity Formation Between and Beyond Nations and States 5 9 1 Ulf Hedetoft 30 The Dialogical Self: Social, Personal, and (Un)Conscious 608 Joao Salgado and Miguel Gon~alves

·•· PA RT VII: M AK I N G S E N S E O F T H E PAS T F O R T H E F U TU RE : MEMORY AND SELF-REFLECTION 31 Social and Cognitive Determinants of Collective Memory for Public Events Guglielmo Bellelli, Antonietta Curci, and Giovanna Leone 32 Collective Memory James V Wertsch 33 Issues in the Socio-Cultural Study of Memory: Making Memory Matter David Middleton and Steven D. Brown 34 The Social Basis of Self-Reflection Alex Gillespie General Conclusions: Socio-Cultural Psychology on the Move: Semiotic Methodology in the Making Alberto Rosa and Jaan Valsiner

Index CHAPTER 23

Cultural-Historical Approaches to Designing for Development

Michael Cole and Yrjo Engestrom

The goal of this chapter is to summarize the­ In the century since Vygotsky wrote these ory and research descended from Vygotsky ideas, mainstream psychology, which has and his followers that takes seriously the generally accorded culture only a peripheral idea that practice is essential for testing role in human nature, has firmly institution­ and improving theory. We refer to this alized precisely the division between theory approach as "cultural-historical activity the­ and practice ("basic versus applied research") ory" (CH/AT) (Cole, 1996; Engestrom, 1999; against which Vygotsky was arguing. Never­ Engestrom, Miettinen, & Punamaki, 1999; theless, we believe that Marx and Vygotsky Roth, Hwang, Goulart, & Lee 2005). were correct - the implementation of the­ This approach to theory and practice, ory in practice is not a marginal scientific which is frequently traced back to Marx, was goal in the study of human development - clearly articulated by Vygotsky, for whom it is essential to understanding the complex the use of Marxism in psychology was a life­ interplay of different life processes, "in life," long concern: not just in theory. As Engestrom (1993: 98) put it, "The epistemology of activity theory Practice pervades the deepest foundations transcends the dichotomy between theory of the scientific operation and reforms it and practice." from beginning to end. Practice sr;;rs the tasks and seroes as the supreme judge of theory, as its truth criterion ... The most complex contradictions of psycholog­ Cultural-Historical Activity ical methodolol!Jl are transferred to the Theory (CH/AT) ground of practice and only there can they be solved. There the debate stops beingfruit­ Cultural-historical activity theory (CH/ AT) less, it comes to an end. (Vygotsky, 192 7I brings together ideas associated with the 1997: 305-306) names of L. S. Vygotsky, A. R. Luria, and CULTURAL-HISTORICAL APPROACHES TO DESIGNING FOR DEVELOPMENT

A. N. Leontiev. It has been common in opposing views weight different aspects of recent years to emphasize differences bet­ the dynamic system of development differ­ ween Vygotsky and Luria, on the one hand, ently, or view them from a slightly different and Leontiev on the other (van der Veer & perspective in their overall approaches, they Valsiner, 1991). According to such interpre­ treat activity and mediation as two aspects tations, Vygotsky and Luria are best asso­ of a single, whole in human life world. ciated with the principle that the distin­ guishing characteristic of specifically human psychological functions is that they are cul­ Some Basic Principles Used in turally mediated: 'The central fact of human CH/ AT-Inspired Intervention existence is mediation" (Vygotsky, 1997'. Research 138). By contrast, so the story goes, Leon­ tiev believed that his colleagues overem­ Keeping in mind that there are a variety phasized the cultural mediation of thought of views on important issues among those and underemphasized the embeddedness identified as CH/ AT theorists, the follow­ of thought in human activity. It might be ing are some theoretical principles generated argued that a significant disagreement exists from this position that have been tested in to this day among those who consider Vygot­ the intervention studies we review in this sky and his colleagues as a starting point chapter. for constructing a theory of human devel­ opment and those who start with Leon­ 1. Mediation through artifacts. The initial tiev (1978). According to this line of inter­ premise of the Russian cultural-historical pretation, those who follow Vygotsky have school was that human psychological pro­ focused attention on processes of mediation, cesses entail a form of behavior in which adopting "mediated action" as a basic unit material objects are modified by human of analysis (Wertsch, del Rio, & Alvarez, beings as a means of regulating their inter­ 199 5; Zinchenko, 198 5). By contrast, follow­ actions with the world and each other. As ers of Leontiev are said to choose "activity" A. R. Luria put it, artifacts incorporated into as a basic unit of analysis (Engestri::im, 1987; human action not only "radically change his Kaptelinin, 1996). 1 conditions of existence, they even react on The basic impulse underlying a CH/ AT him in that they effect a change in him and approach is to reject this either/or dichoto­ his psychic condition" (Luria, 1928: 493). my. Instead, adherents of a CH/ AT per­ As a result of acquiring this "cultural habit spective argue that whatever their disagree­ of behavior," human beings begin to regulate ments, Leontiev (1981) readily acknowledges themselves "from the outside." This char­ the constitutive role of cultural mediation acteristic of human behavior gives rise to in his account of activity while Vygotsky the method of double stimulation. An early insisted on the importance of activity as the application of this method was to provide an context of mediated action (1997 ). In similar adult suffering from Parkinsonism with bits fashion, one sees contemporary scholars who of paper, by means of which he was able to are seen as somehow in opposition with each walk across a floor (Luria, 1932). It has subse­ other on this fundamenta~ point adopting quently been widely used in designing meh­ an "and/both" not an "either/or" approach. ods for re-mediating the behavior of adults So, for example, James Wertsch argues for with brain damage, or mentally retarded "mediated action in context" as a basic unit children (Amano, 1999; Luria, 1979). As we of analysis while Yrji::iEngestri::im argues that see below, it has become a central princi­ "the activity is the context" and ( as we shall ple guiding research on the development of see) pays great attention to principles of work practices among adults (Engestri::im, mediated action in both his theory and in his 2005). We will discuss double stimulation empirical research. While the presumably in more detail later in this chapter. MICHAEL COLE AND YRJO ENGESTROM

2. Activity as the essential unit of analysis. concepts imply the centrality of culture to The complementary basic premise of the human life. Culture is present in the form cultural-historical approach, adopted from of the tools, signs, rituals, and so on that Hegel by way of Marx, is that the analysis mediate human activity. It is simultaneously of human psychological functions must be present in all the symbolic forms that have situated in historically accumulated forms of accumulated over the social group's history, human activity. Unfortunately, the meaning whether that history is oflong or short dura­ of the term, activity, no less than the term tion. Lotman (1989) referred to this totality culture, is a bone of contention among schol­ of meaning making materials, the "semio­ ars from different disciplines and national sphere," which he defined as "the semiotic traditions. 2 According to A. N. Leontiev, space necessary for the existence and func­ tioning of languages." Human psychology is concerned with the In some forms of intervention, culture is activity of concreteindividuals, which takes treated as a locally emerging activity sys­ place either in a collective - that is, jointly tem involving a briefer stretch of history with other people - or in a situation in which the subject deals directly with the such as the participants at English football surrounding world of objects - for example, matches or in an afterschool club (Nocon, the potter's wheel or the writer's desk. [ . .. J 2004). In this latter case, the term "idiocul­ With all its varied forms, the human indi­ ture" is especially helpful. Adopting Gary vidual's activity is a system in the system Alan Fine's useful notion: of social relations. It does not exist without these relations. The specificform in which it An idioculture is a system of knowledge, exists is determined "bythe forms and means beliefs, behaviors, and customs shared "by of material and mental social interaction members of an interacting group to which (Verkher) that are created "by the devel­ members can refer and that serve as the opment of production and that cannot be basis of further interaction. Members rec­ realized in any way other than the activity ognize that they share experiences, and of concretepeople. (1981, 4 7) these experiences can be referred to with the expectation they will be understood "by Unfortunately, the USSR was not a place other members, thus being used to construct where social scientists were easily permit­ a reality for the participants. (Fine, 1987, ted to conduct research on the wide range 125) of activities that the theory specified as its basic units of analysis, let alone the larger 4. Adoption of a genetic perspective. As social system. Although restricted, the early Wertsch (1985) points out, Vygotsky used Russian CH/ AT theorists demonstrated that the notion of "genetic" in the sense of seek­ at least in some institutional settings it was ing the origins of current phenomena· by possible to make activity a genuine object studying the history of the phenomena in of study while at the same time paying question) This general principle has several close attention to the processes of media­ implications for CH/ AT-inspired interven­ tion with which activity is mutually con­ tion research, depending upon the nature of stituted. Contemporary research has enor­ the intervention involved. mously broadened the range of activities and institutions to which scholars have been able A) Interventions Must Last for an Appropri­ to turn their attention (Hedegaard, Chaik­ ate Amount of Time. An important implica­ lin, & Jensen, 1999; Engestrom, Lompscher, tion of a commitment to the use of genetic & Riickriem, 2005). methods with respect to formative inter­ ventions is that they are unlikely to be 3 . The cultural organization of human life. brief forays into the field followed by an Implied, but not made prominent in our dis­ intense period of data analysis and writ­ cussion of mediation and activity is that both ing, as is often the case with laboratory CULTURAL-HISTORICAL APPROACHES TO DESIGNING FOR DEVELOPMENT experiments. Rather, the duration of the • The "preschool era" in conventional text­ experiment must be appropriate to the books is the era when play is the leading time course of the "formative" ( develop­ activity. mental) processes under examination. In the • During what is conventionally referred examples to be reviewed here, the forma­ to as middle childhood, formal learning tive experiments/interventions lasted for a becomes the leading activity. period varying between several months and • Late childhood and Adolescence are del­ several years. icately referred to as the age when peer relations become the leading activity. B) Taking account of chronological age. In • Maturity, roughly past the age of 18-19, so far as one is interested in psychologi­ has work as its leading activity. cal analysis, it seems obvious that interven­ tion strategies need to take into account the Vygotsky, Luria, and Leontiev, were of chronological age of the participants whose course, conducting research on the lead­ activity is under study. It makes a difference ing activities that were being institutional­ if one is seeking to test the efficacy of a new ized in the USSR at the time. This work form of curriculum with preschoolers, high was hampered both by the fact that serious school students, or working adults. In addi­ research on the world of work was ideolog­ tion to the obvious fact that as children grow ically restricted and by the age-graded seg­ from birth to maturity, and the capacities mentation of people's lives in the country of adults change as they grow older, early where they lived. On a world scale, schooling CH/ AT theorists suggested that it is helpful is not universal nor is being part of an indus­ to conceive of conventional age periodiza­ trialized political economy. It is no surprise, tion in terms of the idea of its leading activity. then that evidence from various parts of the According to Elkonin (1971), traditional world demonstrates important cultural vari­ development stages are best conceived of in ations in the timing and content of leading terms of the kinds of activity that dominate activities in different societies and markedly the lives of people at a given age. Associated different forms of organizing labor, factors with each leading activity is a particularly that are of obvious importance in the design potent source of motivation. As Leontiev of formative interventions (Gaskins, 1999; summarized the idea, Rogoff, 2 oo 3). What is constant despite such variation Some types of activity are the leading ones is that the organization of people's activities at a given stage and are of greatest signifi­ is arranged in such a way that the cultural cance for the individuals' further develop­ knowledge that is made manifest in every­ ment and others a subsidiary one. We can day activities of young ( or inexperienced) say, accordingly,that each stage of psychic people is simultaneously the form of the development is characterized by a definite relation of the child to reality that is the leading activity characteristic of the social leading one at that date and by a defi­ group. A leading activity represents a socio­ nite type of leadingactivity. (Leontiev, 1981, cultural group's notion of the behaviors and 395) sequences of behaviors that should be man­ ifested by anyone who is reaching the age Although the terminology differs some­ or level of experience where "that can be what according to the particular writer, a expected." rough correlation between typical stages of development with canonical stage theories 5 . Social origins of higher psychological func­ would read roughly like the following:4 tions. Vygotsky argued that all means of cul­ tural behavior (behavior mediated by cul­ • The initial leading activity is coordination tural artifacts) are social in their essence. with the group into which one is born. They are social too, in the dynamics of their MICHAEL COLE AND YRJO ENGESTROM origin and change, as expressed in what selves likely to be distinguished by age, social Vygotsky called "the general law of cultural status, authority, and degrees of experience development": with respect to the activity, to name but a few relevant characteristics. The "formative Any function in children's cultural devel­ process" is itself a form of joint medi­ opment appears twice, or on two planes. ated activity in which critical analysis of the First it appears on the social plane and then notion of "more capable peer" should be part on the psychologicalplane. First it appears of the analysis. between people as an interpsychological category and then within the individual Consequently, a CH/ AT approach to child as an intrapsychological category. implementation research requires resear­ (Vygotsky, 1981, 163) chers to attend not only to their theory and data, as one does in the study of genetic While Vygotsky was writing specifically effects among fruit flies. In addition it is also about children, the same principle applies necessary to attend to the quality of that at any age. If we combine the idea of lead­ practice as it is evaluated by the community ing activities and the idea that develop­ that plays host to the intervention. Without mental change is promoted by having peo­ the community's support, the intervention, ple with different kinds of knowledge and no matter how well it works out "in the­ ability engage jointly in a variety of cultur­ ory" will ultimately fail. The medical dic­ ally organized, sanctioned activities, it pro­ tum remains fully in force: Do no harm. duces an apparently clear design strategy: There is an ethical dimension to practices create interventions in which more knowl­ that involve one person's intervention into edgeable and less knowledgeable people and the lives of others. their cultural tools engage each other. The issue then becomes how do they engage each other? Example Intervention Studies Combining Theory and Practice 6. The ethical and strategi.c contradictions of intervention research. Consideration of the It is not possible in a chapter of this length to social circumstances most conducive to pro­ provide an exhaustive account of the body of moting developmental change makes it clear formative-experimental research that places that in using a particular theory, with its par­ cultural mediation and activity at its con­ ticular judgments about potential desirable ceptual center. Such an account would take futures, one is not "just testing out a the­ systematically into consideration a number ory." By virtue of the intervention's location of ingenious interventions that were car­ at the level of a culturally organized activ­ ried out during the middle decades of the ity it is partially constitutive of that activ­ 20th century, many of them by researchers ity. The values of intervention researchers, inspired by Kurt Lewin's ideas. Similar in by virtue of their infusion into those activ­ many ways to CH/ AT, Lewin's version of ities, become a part of the ensuing devel­ genetic field theory encouraged culturally opmental process. As we shall see, different informed implementations, but employed research strategies can usefully be seen as dif­ a vocabulary from social psychdogy where ferent responses to the dilemma of needing culture is rarely used, but the relevant con­ to influence the futures of others as a means cepts appear in the form of "norms" and of testing CH/ AT theory. "values." Sherif and Sherif's (1956) text In short, the relationship between on social psychology, for example, pro­ researchers and other intervention partic­ vides a wide example of studies focused ipants needs to be a part of the analysis. on the role of norms, values, and conven­ It must also be kept in mind that non­ tions as key constituents of the small group researcher activity participants are them- structures. Social Psychologists of this kind CULTURAL-HISTORICAL APPROACHES TO DESIGNING FOR DEVELOPMENT clearly rendered their central ideas empir­ Russian students (Zukerman, 2003) and ically testable through the construction of several non-Russian scholars (Hedegaard & specially designed social settings and the­ Lompscher, 1999; Schmittau, 199p, b). oretically motivated changes in those set­ Two theoretical propositions lie at the tings (such as the famous Robber's Cave heart of the Elkonin-Davydov approach, experiment). This research, along with var­ which entail additional CH/ AT principles ious lines of action research needs to be when theory and practice are combined. revisited for the rich insights concerning First, there is the position, championed espe­ intervention research centered on questions cially by Davydov, that knowledge forma­ of culture and development that they can tion follows the path of "ascending from provide. the abstract to the concrete" that is inti­ However, our focus here is on interven­ mately linked to the particular conceptual tion research that grows out of the CH/ AT content to be mastered. This general epis­ tradition. Recognizing that space does not temological approach is derived from the permit us the luxury of deep and broad way in which Karl Marx formulated a com­ coverage simultaneously, we have chosen to prehensive, concrete theory of capitalism highlight three research programs that differ from the abstract "germ cell" or "kernel" of in the cultural and historical circumstances the commodity as a contradictory unity of in which they were carried out, the particu­ use value and exchange value (see Ilyenkov, lar populations and institutions that are the 1982). Davydov (1988) summarized how focus of the intervention, and the CH/ AT this method could be a powerful strategy principles that they highlight as a guide to of learning and teaching in the following their intervention strategies. We conclude by terms: placing this research in the overall landscape of culturally informed developmental inter­ When moving toward the mastery of any ventions. Their combination appears to pro­ academic subject, schoolchildren, with the vide an interesting way to "triangulate" on teacher's help, analyze the content of the the role of culturally organized activity in curricular material and identify the pri­ mary general relationship in it, at the same human development. time making the d4covery that this rela­ tionship is manifest in many other partic­ ular relationships found in the given mate­ The Elkonin - Davydov rial. ... When schoolchildren begin to make Teaching/Learning lnterventions5 use of the primary abstraction and the pri­ mary generalization as a way of deducing Perhaps the domain where Russian CH/ AT and unifying other abstractions, they turn ideas have been most frequently put to the the primary mental formation into a con­ test using formative experimentation is the cept that registers the "kernel" of the aca­ intervention research program initiated and demic subject. This "kernel" subsequently instituted by D. B. Elkonin and V. V. Davy­ serves the school children as a general prin­ ciple whereby they can orient themselves dov (Davydov, 1988 a, b, c; Zuckerman, 6 in the entire multiplicity of factual curric­ 2005). Through their influence at the Rus­ ular material which they are to assimilate sian Institute of Psychology in the Academy in conceptual form via an a.0 cent from the of Pedagogical Developmental Sciences they abstract to the concrete." (Davydov, 1988b, were able to organize several multi-year 22-23) formative experiments, sometimes referred to as "teaching/learning" experiments, as Second, and closely related to the first, is a means of implementing state mandated the idea ofleading activities, reformulated in school reforms (Kaminski, 1994; Markova, terms of the sequencing of the curriculum 1979; Yanchar, 2003). This line of work is still across grade levels to take account of age­ being expanded by Elkonin and Davydov's expectant activities and associated sources of MICHAEL COLE AND YRJO ENGESTROM motivation (Elkonin, 1971). In the Elkonin­ number. This initially abstract concept needs Davydov approach these two ideas are com­ to be introduced at the very beginning of bined such that the logical sequence of instruction and then must be "filled in" with curricular content is meshed with leading a great variety of concrete instantiations activities in order that what children need of the initial germ cell/abstraction. Davy­ to learn in order to fill in their initial, gen­ dov describes the general principles of this eral, but empty abstractions as they rise to "filling-in" process as follows: more complex forms of concrete reality also satisfies needs associated with the leading The children's assimilation of the basic idea activities that will motivate them to engage of the concept of real number should begin in the hard work of dealing with problems with the mastery of the concept of quantity for which they need to come up with new and with the study of the general properties of the quantity. Then all kinds of real num­ solutions. bers can be assimilated on the basis of the Davydov argued that the process of children's mastery of the modes whereby ascending from the abstract to the concrete those properties are concretized. In this case, leads to a new type of theoretical concept, the idea of real number will be "present" to theoretical thinking, and to theoretical in the teaching of mathematics from the consciousness. By "theory" he meant "an outset. (1988b: 67) instrumentality for the deduction of more particular relationships" from a general Choosing real numbers and measurement underlying relationship, not a set of fixed of quantity as the germ cell of mathemat­ propositions (Davydov, 1988, Part2 :2 3). The ics education contrasts sharply with the cur­ classic example that inspired Davydov is riculum in other countries that begins by Ilyenkov's (1982) analysis of commodity, teaching children to count and to support the contradictory unity of use value and their mastery of the basic arithmetical oper­ exchange value, as the germ cell of the socio­ ations through the introduction of a wide economic formation of capitalism. variety of empirical examples. The Elkonin­ In summary, the Elkonin-Davydov teach­ Davydov approach also involves a wide vari­ ing/learning curriculum was designed in ety of empirical examples. But they are orga­ each subject matter area in such a way that it nized to serve as concrete manifestations of was structured around theoretical concepts the initial, "germ cell" abstraction of quan­ appropriate to that domain and that class­ tity. And, importantly, learning about quan­ room life was organized to insure that the tity and relative quantity precedes the intro­ forms of activity and concrete materials were duction of concepts of number, counting, used in an optimally motivating and intel­ and arithmetic. lectually effective way. This curriculum has In order to realize these ideas in actual been implemented in a number of subject curriculum units, the iconic Elkonin­ matter domains from which we have cho­ Davydov mathematics curriculum begins sen to emphasize mathematics as an exam­ roughly as follows: Initially the children are ple because it is particularly well worked out asked to compare the quantity embodied in and has attracted the attention of mathe­ various pairs of objects and to say whether matics ecbcators in many parts of the world the amounts (leT1gth,vc:ume, etc.) are equal (Davydov, 1988; Schmittau, 2003). or not equal and if unequal, which is greater in the aspect of quantity involved. The dif­ ferences between the objects are sufficient The Example of Mathematics so that the children can easily make this judgment. As applied to the domain of mathematics, Then they are shown pairs of objects that the Elkonin-Davydov curriculum is designed are relatively similar in quantity so that they to provide students with the clearest pos­ must pick up the object pairs and place them sible understanding of the concept of real next to each other such that they are aligned CULTURAL-HISTORICAL APPROACHES TO DESIGNING FOR DEVELOPMENT 49 1 at one end and then look to see whether Expanding on the Elkonin-Davydov the other ends match - when both ends Approach match, the objects are "equal in length," and so on. Many examples are given using vari­ The conceptual structure and sequencing of ous object attributes until the children can the curriculum is not a magic bullet that stu­ make such comparative judgments automat­ dents master and teachers implement with ically, as an operation. ease. First, it is important to emphasize that Next the children might be presented a the special conceptual structure of the cur­ new set of problems with objects that cannot riculum is complemented by extensive use be physically moved and aligned such as two of graphic devices (including simple alge­ line segments on two blackboards at oppo­ braic equations, and varied opportunities site ends of the room and asked to compare to make physical models that embody the them in length. The operations that worked mathematical relations involved). Second, earlier are no longer usable: the child cannot children are not expected to be independent pick up bookcases or line segments made learners at the start of the process. In fact, of chalk and carry them across the room in the ability to work collaboratively, to cre­ order to line them up. Now the role of the ate intellectual divisions of labor in the ser­ teacher is to arrange for the children to work vice of allowing every participant to solve on the problem together until, perhaps with the problem, is assumed to require nourish­ some intervention by the teacher, they come ing along with the particular conceptual con­ up with using the idea of a mediating tool tent involved (Rubtsov, 1991; Zuckerman, such as a piece of string or a stick that is 1994). the same length as one of the chalk line seg­ This approach also requires that chil­ ments. They can then carry the mediating dren be motivated to tackle the issues that "yard stick" across the room and make the are laid before them, the socially inherited comparison as before, but now through the cultural tools of the academic disciplines. mediated action of measuring. In her research at a Moscow school that Now the idea of measurement as the ratio was the center of developmental education of the length of the mediating tool to the research during Elkonin and Davydov's life­ object(s) being measured is introduced. At times, Zuckerman (1994, 2003) has focused first the examples picked are whole nuvi• particularly on organizing instruction so that bers but later they will be fractions or it was both motivating to the students and even irrational numbers. As Jean Schmittau cognitively organized in the theoretically (2003), who has conducted a good deal of appropriate way. This challenge could be work Davydov's theory and methods com­ met, she believed, if instruction could be ments, when, in later grades, the children organized so the child learned the "tasks, are introduced to fractions and irrational methods, and means and devices of the numbers, they are not required to reconcep­ actual kinds of social activity in which he tualize number, unlike curricula that start can be expected to engage in later life" with counting whole numbers, where an (pp. 4-5). In a manner reminiscent of entirely new set of operations is needed each Dewey, she argued that to produce appro­ time a new concept of nurt1ber is intro­ priate and sufficient internal motivation, the duced. Schmittau provides additional exam­ assignments should draw upon "the context ples, extending her observations to multipli­ and structure of the kinds of activities that cation and division that students encounter children can expect to engage in later" (p. 5). in later grades, to affirm the effectiveness Over and above being motivated and mas­ of Davydov's germ-cell theory approach. tering domain specific content, success in Zuckerman (2005) shows how this approach the curriculum, because it is focused on produces results that compare favorably creation of theoretical knowledge, depends with alternatives using contemporary inter­ upon children engaging in active inquiry and national testing standards. an ability to reflect upon their own problem 492 MICHAEL COLE AND YRJO ENGESTROM solving efforts - an ability that it is fash­ function of a sign. Thus, the child actively ionable to refer to as metacognition in the incorporates these neutral objects into current literature on cognitive development the task of problem solving. We might say (Hartman, 2001). that when difficulties arise, neutral stimuli The purpose and the entire methodology take on the function of a sign and from that of the Elkonin-Davydov curriculum is "to point on the operation's structure assumes an essentially different character. develop educated, knowledgeable students who have mastered the cultural values of the By using this approach, we do not limit our­ past, yet are capable of overcoming the con­ selves to the usual method of offering the fines of cultural traditions by going beyond subject simple stimuli to which we expect a generally accepted solutions and frameworks direct response. Rather, we simultaneously offer a second series of stimuli that have a to solve novel problems" (Zuckerman, 2003, special function. In this way, we are able to 195). But consider what this means, even in study the process of accomplishing a task the classroom. It is the rare teacher, never by the aid of specific auxiliary means; mind the rare statesperson, who wishes to thus we are also able to discover the inner be questioned at every turn about the "cul­ structure and development of higher psy­ tural values of the past." After all, 2 + 2 chological processes. (Vygotsky, 1978, 74- equals 4, and to question why is to display 75) stupidity, or its often misidentified cousin, ignorance. A theoretically founded, inquiry­ The application of the method of double based educational curriculum is designed stimulation by Russian psychologists tended precisely to develop incessant questioning, a to focus on individual behavior of children critical, reflective person who produces nov­ or medical patients who were provided with elty through mastery and who risks being potential tools to carry out tasks that were judged a fool. beyond their current capabilities (for a con­ Davydov's work was initially a key inspi­ cise summary of early studies, see Luria, ration for the Finnish group of activity the­ 1979). An extension of this idea to collec­ orists who have expanded the use of the tive behavior with adults indicates how the theory to the world of work. Foundational basic logic of the method can be extended ideas of developmental work research were as a tool of intervention research. systematically laid out in Engestrom's book The Finnish developmental work re­ Learning "by Expanding ( 198 7, 1998). Sub­ searchers have used a generalization of the sequently, the work led to an intervention method of double stimulation as a key ele­ toolkit based on the principle of double ment in their intervention research, focused stimulation. on development of adult work practices (Engestrom, 2005). They create what they term "Change Laboratories," temporary act­ Developmental Work Research: ivity systems that are set up within existing Focusing on the Method organizations (e.g., hospitals, schools, facto­ of Double Stimulation ries, banks). The events that transpire in the Change Vygotsky described the idea of double stim­ LaLoratory are. organized to position the ulation as follows: intervention as a "tool" chosen by the sub­ ject (the people working in that institution) The task facing the child in the experimen­ as a means of solving some perceived prob­ tal context is, as a rule, beyond his present capabilities and cannot be solved "byexist­ lems in the ongoing regime of work. At ing skills. In such cases a neutral object is this high level of abstraction, the Change placed near the child, and frequently we are Laboratory occupies the role of the "medi­ able to observe how the neutral stimulus is ating artifact" within a socially organized, drawn into the situation and takes on the group with which to engage in the "cultural CULTURAL-HISTORICAL APPROACHES TO DESIGNING FOR DEVELOPMENT 493

Change Laboratory

Workers Object of Work

Figure 2 3 .1. Basic mediational triangle with the Change Laboratory in the Position of the mediator. habit of behavior" (Vygotsky, 1929). In its present, and the future. Each set of three­ abstract form, a Change Laboratory can layered writing surfaces is used for repre­ be represented by the archetypal mediating senting the work activity in a different way. triangle (Figure 2 3 .1). But the Change Lab­ One is called a "mirror" that is intended to re­ oratory is not a stick or a word, or a pencil, present to the participants critical examples it is a complex set if artifacts and procedures of their current difficulties as manifested in organized to serve as a tool for practition­ recordings of particularly problematic situ­ ers to change the conditions of their work. ations and disturbances in routines as well Engestrom has diagrammed the prototypi­ as novel innovative solutions. This surface cal layout of a change laboratory space in represents the 'first stimulus' in Vygotskian the following diagram (Figure 2 3 .2). terms. A central element within a Change The second set of writing surfaces repre­ Laboratory-as-auxiliary stimulus is a set of sents a conceptually mediated image of the three ·writing surfaces, each of which has participants' situation using models such as three "layers" representing the past, the Engestrom's expanded triangle of systems of , /' MODEL, VISION ' ' IDEAS, TOOLS ' MIRROR Tools • Videotaped work situations Subjec~Object> ·interviews Outcome • Statistics Rules Community Division of • etc. labor FUTURE \.. .A \.. NOW '- '- '- J '- PAST J '- J

/0 Q□ Video projector Scribe 0 0- Researcher­ 0000 interventionists Practitioners

'Video camera

Figure 2 3 .2. The prototypical layout of a Change Laboratory. 494 MICHAEL COLE AND YRJO ENGESTROM

activity (Engestrom, 1987, p. 78). Concep­ their past and currently conceived problems tual models are filled by participants with and arrive at a new vision of those prob­ specific contents and used as tools for inter­ lems and their solution, a model and plan preting the contradictions behind current for future action. troubles in a more systematic, historically Engestrom and his colleagues refer to specified and generalizable way. Engestrom such sequences as cycles of "expansive learn­ refers to this as the "model/vision" space, ing" that are induced by interacting with where people use models of their past the world through the Change Laboratory. and present circumstances to envision how Overall, a cycle is likely to require ten or the future might be organized to differ in twelve weekly sessions followed by one or intended ways from the present and past. two follow-up sessions a few months later. This surface represents the "second stimu­ Then it is time to begin the process once lus" in Vygotskian terms. again, leading, in successful circumstances to The third surface, physically located in a "spiral of development." One cycle often the middle of the first two surfaces, is for leads to the next one, and within the cycles recording the participants' ideas about the there are smaller cycles of problem solving sorts of tools that might be used to deal with and learning. their problematic situation and to record The researchers do not envision this pro­ intermediate, partial, solutions. Here partic­ cess of development as a smoothly flow­ ipants might record schedules or flowcharts ing, seamless sequence. It is, rather, always of their work processes, diagrams of orga­ bedeviled by contradictions, breakthroughs, ,I nizational structures, ways of categorizing "double binds," adjustment, and resistance. responses to interviews, etc. Engestrom But it is a process that embodies, how­ notes that in this intermediate zone, they ever imperfectly, the collective agency of the might try out their ideas by making up practitioners involved. 1 1 1 simulations or by engaging in role-playing. Change Laboratory interventions have il ' The participants in a Change Laboratory been conducted in dozens of variations ,) i : HJI (including practitioners, a scribe selected since the first prototypes were tested in from among them, and the researcher/ 199 5. The initial focus on a single orga­ interventionists) ordinarily sit at tables nizational unit as a spearhead of develop­ where they can see the three writing/ ment has been complemented with "Bound­ ·I drawing surfaces, watch videotapes of their ary Crossing Laboratories" with participants rol prior interactions, and see and interact with from multiple collaborating organizations each other. The videotaping is important (Engestrom, Engestrom, & Kerosuo, 2003) because videotaped work situations are and "Competence Laboratories" which put typically used as material for the "mirror" frontline practitioners and their managers in part of the laboratory sessions. Each session intense dialogue with one another (Ahonen, is also videotaped for research and to Engestrom, & Virkkunen, 2000; Virkkunen facilitate the reviewing of critical laboratory & Ahonen, 2004). events in subsequent sessions. Change Laboratories are judged by their The Finnish researchers organized this practical outcomes. These outcomes are not array and sequence of r,1ediating tools primarily understood in terms of traditioi:al on the theoretically reasonable assumption cognitive variables. Practitioners are inter­ that "as the participants move between ested in actual changes in their work prac­ the experiential mirror and the theoreti­ tices, including new objects, tools, rules, and cal model/vision, they also produce inter­ divisions of labor. Thus, the creation and mediate ideas and partial solutions, to be practical testing of the "care agreement" tested and experimented with" (Engestrom, toolkit for the negotiated collaborative care Virkkunen, Helle, Pihlaja, & Poikela, 1996: of patients with multiple illnesses and mul­ 12). As this sequence is implemented, the tiple caregivers in the Helsinki area may practitioners move from a recognition of be judged in terms of the actual utility of CULTURAL-HISTORICAL APPROACHES TO DESIGNING FOR DEVELOPMENT 495

the artifacts named "care agreement," "care the construction of what the researchers map" and "care calendar" (Engestrom, 2001). characterize as "a perspectival concept" in These tools, when used by practitioners, are which the practitioners envisioned and rep­ judged by their potential to reduce gaps, resented two desirable systems of their work, overlaps, and fragmentation in the care of a near-future one and a more distant future concrete patients. They are materially pal­ model. Crucial to such collective concept pable learning outcomes. formation is that the future models are Collective learning outcomes in Change named, depicted with the help of systemic Laboratory processes may also be assessed models, and elevated to concreteness by using such indicators as transformations over means of identifying and actually imple­ time in the quality of discourse within menting practical steps toward their real­ the community of practitioners. Thus, ization (Engestrom, Pasanen, Toiviainen, & the Change Laboratory process conducted Haavisto, 2 oo 5). among the teachers of a middle school led to a qualitative shift in the way the teachers talked in their meetings about students. The Designing and Implementing researchers followed the Change Laboratory Activities as Idiocultures: process and the subsequent implementation The 5th Dimension of its results for a period of 18 months. At the beginning, the teachers talked about their A distinctive characteristic of a good deal students in predominantly negative terms, as of American intervention research within lazy and incompetent. the CH/ AT tradition is that it takes cul­ "Half of the students will be like that, tural variation and the social creation of they'll skip the whole idea. I have an oral social inequality as a central concern, draw­ presentation assignment at the moment, one ing upon anthropological and sociological student has held a presentation, and oth­ ideas about culture and context to design ers have skipped it. This is what they will and implement interventions. The notion of always do." culture that informs this line of work is an , Toward the end of the process, positive amalgam of American cultural anthropol­ talk about students as energetic and compe­ ogy (D'Andrade~ 1984; Goodenough, 1994) tent increased radically and remaiJ:led at a and the ideas of the original Russian CH/ AT high level. theorists and their successors (Cole, 1996); "Well, I thought about someone, for culture is treated as a special kind of example in my class, that she or he at least medium, constituted of ideal/material arti­ will definitely not do it. And then there facts assembled as part of the behavioral have been these positive surprises, the per­ patterns manifested in social practices along son has actually produced a project, and a with their associated values and beliefs. On good one, too. Students who have other­ any given occasion ("according to the con­ wise been doing pretty poorly, and have been text") a subset of these resources is recruited absent a lot and so on, they have actually as instruments for achieving the objectives shaped up really well." of those involved. The design challenge, Interestingly enough, negative talk did from this perspective, is to create new not disappear but stayed also at a relatively kinds of activities that promote the desired high level of frequency. The authors call form of development and are suitable for a this "expansion by enrichment" (Engestrom, given social group at a particular time and Engestrom, & Suntio, 2002). place. Another way to assess the outcomes of The particular intervention we describe Change Laboratory interventions is to trace in detail is called a 5th Dimension. At the the formation and implementation of novel most abstract level, a 5th Dimension inter­ theoretical concepts. A Change Laboratory vention can be represented by a triangle conducted in a commercial bank led to ( see Figure 2 3 .3), with the 5th Dimension LI 496 MICHAEL COLE AND YRJO ENGESTROM UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY

Common activity

Figure 2 3. 3. The basic organization of joint activity between a university and a community institution.

Activity System mediating the interaction of The Social-Ecology of 5th Dimensions two institutions; a university ( or college) and another organization in its community. Most, but not all, 5th Dimensions have At a next level of abstraction, each part of been implemented during the after school the overall system can be differentiated (see hours with the overall goal of providing chil­ Figure 2 3 .4). dren development-enhancing experiences, These two diagrams make it clear that particular activities associated with intel­ the 5th Dimension is a medium for joint lectual and social development (Cole, & activity between two institutions that col­ the Distributed Literacy Consortium, 2006; laborate in its implementation and ongoing Vasquez, 2002). Consequently, 5th Dimen­ care. What is hinted at, but not clear in sions are, from the perspective of par­ the diagram, is that when we move to the ticipants, suspended in the temporal gap level of implementation, the spatial sym­ between school and home while at the same metry of the triangular design architecture time they are mediating between a local obscures an important reality: as an idiocul­ community institution and a University that ture, the 5th Dimension has to be located is both inside and outside the community somewhere. As a rule, that "somewhere" ( as indicated by the eternal rhetoric of town­ has been in a community inst:tution that gown relationships). cares for K-6 children after school, but 5th A conspicuous characteristic of the com­ Dimensions have also been implemented at munity organizations that host children after the local university in some cases. For pur­ school is that their resources are sufficient to poses of simplicity, we focus on implemen­ keep children off of the streets and out of tations of 5th Dimensions that are physically trouble, but they rarely have the resources located in a particular community organi­ to make their activities rich in developmen­ zation with joint participation by children tal/intellectual potential. Yet, they espouse and adults from both of the cooperating intellectual development ( coded as educa­ institutions. tion) as a major goal. CULTURAL-HISTORICAL APPROACHES TO DESIGNING FOR DEVELOPMENT 497

This combination of attributes suggests sion. Children come and go as they the basis of reciprocity between university please. and community organizations that motivates 2. It involves the mixing of leading activi­ their collaboration in creating 5th Dimen­ ties because afterschool is a time in the sions. From a University perspective, the day when children are often allowed to community organization that provides space play, yet adults want them to be learn­ and regularly present children also provides ing. In addition to mixing play and edu­ the university and its students a laboratory cation, it emphasizes affiliation because setting needed by their students. From the the social and emotional bonds between perspective of a community organization, undergraduate children provide a pow­ the University is providing it valued re­ erful foundation of their participation in sources to accomplish its goals. the 5th Dimension. 3. It is multi-generational in three impor­ tant senses. First, when speaking of the Designing the Joint Activity children and the undergraduates, age and educational expertise differentiate We concentrate here on the design of the the participants. Second, when speaking joint activity and the way in which it pro­ of researcher/professors and children, vides tests of various theoretical principles. the undergraduates are an "intermedi­ From what has been said so far, the following ate" generation with whom it is attrac­ characteristics of the joint activity emerge. tive and easy for the children to interact. Third, when speaking of length of par­ 1. It is voluntary, at least in the sense that ticipation in the idioculture of the 5th the state does not require children to Dimension, the children are often of an go to afterschool programs, and within older, and more experienced, generation those programs, no one requires the chil­ of the members, than the undergradu­ dren to participate in the 5th Dimen- ates so they are the more capable peers.

STH dimension activity. system - Mate - computers - artwork -webpage t I \ Overall program ◄ ► LCHC, - Homework roor,. Practicum courses - Sports facilities, in department of - Art communication, - free play human development, and Psychology

UCSD..

Figure 2 3 + The University-Community partnership expanded to include its constituent parts. MICHAEL COLE AND YRJO ENGESTROM

4. It occurs across a span of as many essary for you and the child to have fun and years so long as it continues to be sus­ make progress. The presence of college or tained. This long time span allows one university undergraduates is a major draw for to study cycles of activity as they are the children. influenced by such factors as changes As a means of distributing the chil­ in the school calendar, the continu­ dren's and undergraduates' use of the var­ ities and discontinuities in participation ious games, the 5th Dimension contains a structures, secular changes in technol­ tabletop or wall chart maze consisting of ogy, financial support, etc. It is also a number of rooms, initially 20 (see Fig­ possible to study several levels of the ure 2 3 . 5). Each room provides access to two activity system ranging from the minute or more games, and the children may choose to minute interactions within the 5th which games to play as they enter each Dimension, to changes in children over room. months and years, undergraduates over Games are played using "task cards" writ­ quarters and semesters, the overall struc­ ten by project staff members for each game. ture of the joint activity over its sup­ They fulfill several goals. They are designed porting institutional arrangements over to help participants (both children and years. undergraduate students) orient to the game, to form goals, and to chart progress toward becoming an expert. They provide a variety Describing the Ideal-Type of requirements in addition to the intellec­ tual tasks written into the software or game A major expectation is that the particular activity itself These additional requirements activity system that arises under the con­ routinely include having participants exter­ straints described thus far will differ from nalize their thinking and learning or reflect each other in a myriad of ways. However, upon and criticize the activity, sometimes over time it seems possible to discern a more by writing to someone, sometimes by look­ or less stereotypical description of a 5th ing up information in an encyclopedia, or Dimension in a given U-C Partnership sys­ by teaching someone else what one has tem of the sort one might use in a descrip­ learned. tion made available to parents. The following There is an electronic entity (a wizard/ description has been used in several publi­ wizardess/Maga, Golem, Proteo, etc.) who cations for this purpose (e.g., Brown & Cole is said to live in the Internet. The entity 2004). writes to (and sometimes chats with) the The 5th Dimension is an educational children and undergraduates via the Internet activity system that offers school aged chil­ and they write back. In the mythology of the dren a specially designed environment in 5th Dimension, the electronic entity acts as which to explore a variety of off-the-shelf the participants' patron, provider of games, computer games and game-like educational mediator of disputes, as well as the source of activities during the after school hours. The computer glitches and other misfortunes. computer games are a part of a make-believe Because it is located in a community insti­ play world that includes non-computer t...ition, the 5th Dimension activities require games like origami, chess, Boggle, and a vari­ the presence of a local "site coordinator" who ety of other artifacts. greets the participants as they arrive and College or university students enrolled in supervises the flow of activity in the room. a course focused on fieldwork in a commu­ The site coordinator is trained to recognize nity setting play, work, and learn as the chil­ and support the pedagogical ideals and cur­ dren's partners. In assisting children, the stu­ ricular practices that mark the 5th Dimen­ dents are encouraged to follow the guideline: sion as "different"- a different way for kids Help as little as possible but as much as nee- to use computers, a different way of playing CULTURAL-HISTORICAL APPROACHES TO DESIGNING FOR DEVELOPMENT 499

HOST INSTITUTION (Boys and Girls Club)

The Domain of the Wizardess

Task cards Journey logs Non­ comP}lter 'ad:ivity \ / area

Tele­ The maze commun.ications I \ center Software Wi2:ard mail i,__ _ __. fJ,_ ~ fl

Figure2 3 .5. A schematic representation of a Fifth Dimension.

0 with other children, and a different way of dent fieldnotes, which number more than interacting with adults. 26,000 between 1990 and 2605 . ., • The specific data sources used by different implementers of a 5th Dimension (approx­ Evaluating the Intervention imately 40 different research groups from different parts of the world) depend heav­ There have been a great variety of analyt­ ily upon the expectations of their local com­ ical methods used to evaluate the useful­ munities, the professional criteria of the aca­ ness and shortcomings of CH/ AT principles demic disciplines they answer to, the specific in the design of 5th Dimensions (Blanton, interests of the investigator, and the re­ Moorman, Hayes, & Warner, 1997; Cole, & sources available to them (see Cole, & the Distributed Literacy Consortium, 2006; the Distributed Literacy Consortium, 2006 Mayer, Schustack, & Blanton, 1999). These or consult www.uclinks.org/Resources for rr..:thods include specially de~igned tests that access to detailer-I reports). sample forms of knowledge and skill that Looking first to the activity systems as make up the explicit content of the activi­ a whole, perhaps the most obvious result ties, questionnaires, indices of the monetary is that the idioculture that forms is highly support provided by both the University and sensitive to local constraints and resources. Community institutions, videotaped records No two 5th Dimensions, even when imple­ of extended episodes of interaction between mented by the same researcher with the undergraduates and children engaged in var­ same group of students in two community ious local practices, and data mining of stu- organizations of the same kind in highly 500 MICHAEL COLE AND YRJO ENGESTROM similar communities, look like replicas of In evaluating the success of the design each other. Many common features are evi­ principles for promoting children's devel­ dent - the mixture of play and education, opment, the logic of evaluating develop­ a friendly, but often-contentious welter of mental processes and the logic of evaluat­ overlapping social interactions, the presence ing developmental products have, from the of some common games and routines. But beginning, been in constant tension. When­ within a period of months, if not weeks, ever there is voluntary participation there each idioculture takes on its own charac­ is the probability that selection factors are teristics, a blend of values, norms, and prac­ in play. However, in some socio-ecological tices characteristic of the local institution (its circumstances plausible comparison groups staffing, architectural structure, its location can be constituted and wherever this has in the community, etc.) and its University been possible, 5th Dimensions have been partners (who may be from backgrounds in shown to improve academic achievement of education or linguistics, sophomores or a variety of kinds. From a CH/ AT perspec­ seniors, predominantly of one ethnic group tive, this information tells us little about the or several, etc.). process of development, but it does provide Tracing implementations in widely dis­ evidence sought by the University and the parate conditions quickly reveals that some Community that the outcomes of whatever 5th Dimensions have failed to survive initial processes are at work meets their criteria meetings between universities and poten­ for the products they are seeking. Without tial community sponsors. Others have been such evidence, it is more difficult to coax implemented and run successfully, only to support from University and Community cease operation after less than a year as administrators. a result of inability to satisfy institutional Some investigators have combined a strat­ imperatives that went undetected in the egy of giving tests that are interpreted as ob­ startup phase (for example, the inability of jective measure of performance changes staff to keep track of the turnover of under­ with analyses of field notes and videotapes graduate participants owing to a univer­ that provide evidence about the processes sity employing a quarter system combined that produce the test results. When such with strict regulations about the presence of analyses have been carried out, they reveal "strangers" at an afterschool program). Oth­ the ways that organization of 5th Dimension ers have continued to a point where the idiocultures routinely encourages the kinds two collaborating institutions discover that of mediated joint activity between more and they do not really share a common vision less capable peers that results in mastery of a good developmental environment for of intellectual content, motivation to solve children or when the level of continuity in difficult problems, and increased skill at staffing ( on either the university or commu­ collaboration-in-the-service-of-learning that nity side) is inadequate, degrading the qual­ provide plausible explanations for changes ity of the ensuing activity. Still others have in tested performance. continued for several years, but coincidence In short, 5th Dimension idiocultures rou­ of several "risk factors" ( decreased funding, tinely create an institutionalized version of loss of key personnel in two or more parts of a zone of proximal development fc: partic­ the system) have led to their demise despite ipants. Unlike the educational and pretend their recognized value. Finally, many imple­ play interactions discussed by Vygotsky, mentations prosper and increase in scope, in the 5th Dimension there is often cre­ sometimes "giving birth" to new generations ative confusion about who the more capa­ of 5th Dimensions. At the time of this writ­ ble peers might be (for example, when ing, 28 years after the experiment began, novice undergraduates encounter children dozens of 5th Dimensions and their associ­ highly skilled in playing educational com­ ated university-community superstructures puter games about which they know noth­ are in operation. ing). But the general culture of collaborative CULTURAL-HISTORICAL APPROACHES TO DESIGNING FOR DEVELOPMENT learning that is created within the 5th Di­ menters develop age-appropriate activities mension appears to serve the development that embody the "genetically primary" start­ of all. ing points and its subsequent concretizations There have been several kindred interven­ mediated by algorithmic schemas and mod­ tions strategies used by American CH/ AT els. These activities and the mediating tools theorists to design interventions that seek they employ must maintain children's inter­ to incorporate cultural variation associated est while constantly challenging them to go with the culture of a local social group into beyond already-mastered stages of domain­ the design of activities. Thus, for exam­ relevant knowledge to discover and elab­ ple, Carol Lee has re-organized classroom orate ever-more varied and complex gen­ discourse in high-school literature classes eralizations appropriate to the conceptual where students are predominantly African­ domain. American using literature in which distinct As reported by Davydov and his collea­ African-American speech genres are promi­ gues, their mathematics curriculum, when nent as the starting point of the curriculum properly implemented, engenders in chil­ (Lee, Spencer, & Harpalani, 2003). dren a theoretical approach to the subject matter that produces high levels of achieve­ ment as indicated by their ability to master Assessing CH/ AT in Practice higher levels of the mathematics curriculum at an earlier age and to generalize the knowl­ We began by introducing an approach to cul­ edge they acquire to novel problems. Simi­ ture and human development that prizes the lar claims have been made for the teaching testing of cultural-historical, activity-based of grammar, a notoriously difficult subject to approaches in practice. We end by compar­ teach in elementary and middle school stu­ ing the three research programs we used as dents (Markova, 1979). examples and by discussing how a CH/ AT Notably absent from reports of this rese­ approach fits into the broader landscape arch during the Soviet era were reports of cultqrally informed developmental inter­ of what other aspects of children's behav­ ventions. Each of the three examples uses ior may have changed as a result of this a distinctively different mixture of CH/ AT curriculum. Rubtsov (1991), for example, principles in the design and implementation demonstrated that children's understanding of its intervention strategies as researchers was improved by organizing presentation of seek to grapple with the specific cultural, problems to groups of children in such a institutional, and historical circumstances in way that their conceptual development was which their interventions take place. enhanced when the distribution of prob­ The Elkonin-Davydov research program lem elements induced children to discover came into existence during the 1960s in critical features of the conceptual content the USSR and was directed at changes in through collaborative problem solving. But formal education. It is distinctive for the Soviet classrooms were renowned for the heavy emphasis it places on the concep­ rigid discipline and use of teacher-led peda­ tual content that it seeks to develop, its gogical methods that one might think inim­ focus on developing theoretical thinkin_s, ical to theoretical thl:1king. and its use of the idea of leading activi­ Research in the Elkonin-Davydov tradi­ ties in organizing instruction that is moti­ tion conducted following the demise of the vating for its students. The starting point USSR has done a good deal to reveal conse­ of this kind of intervention is a philosoph­ quences of their instructional methods that ical and historical reconstruction of the they, themselves, did not highlight. Zucker­ logic of the subject matter as a means of man (2003), for example, emphasizes the choosing the starting point and the log­ fact that implementation of the Elkonin­ ical sequencing of the curriculum. The Davydov method does indeed engender a intervention then requires that its imple- theoretical approach to learning in children, MICHAEL COLE AND YRJO ENGESTROM but that this theoreti:cal approach entails possible to combine local culturally valued marked change in classroom discourse such knowledge with universal conceptual con­ that children directly challenge their teach­ tent to the benefit of the children's intellec­ ers to come up with theoretically appropri­ tual development. ate justifications for their statements about Despite, its successful demonstration of (say) a mathematical proof. Noting the the utility of CH/ AT principles in practice, reflective attitude that this form of cur­ the Elkonin-Davydov research program has riculum develops in children, Zuckerman yet to gain wide acceptance. This outcome, comments that "Developing reflection is as as we shall see, is relevant to evaluating the dangerous as experimenting in nuclear other two research programs that have been physics and genetic engineering, with an out­ the focus of our attention. come just as uncertain" (2003: 195). The Change Laboratory came into being Zuckerman's comment raises the ques­ as part of a research program focused on tion of culture and development in a way adult work. It is distinctive in its focus on quite different from that illustrated by the using the principle of dual stimulation as Elkonin-Davydov curriculum -what are the a method of providing adult workers with cultural norms in society such that such a tools to become agents of change within curriculum can be implemented on a broad their own workplaces. The Change Labo­ scale? Observations in classrooms around ratory interventions currently face at least the globe reveal that encouraging intellec­ two intertwined challenges. First, the diffu­ tual challenges from their students is not sion, generalization, and sustainability of the widespread (Hiebert et al., 2003). It requires outcomes of single laboratories are problem­ that teachers have strong command of their atic. Traditional social science notions of gen­ subject matter and are well trained in the use eralizability and sustainability easily lead to of the Elkonin-Davydov approach includ­ the expectation that forms of intervention ing its encouragement of reflective theoreti­ and their outcomes should remain essen­ cal thinking. When such conditions are met, tially unchanged over time and across sites, however, the results appear as impressive as at the very least, for a given kind of work those reported by Davydov and his Russian and institutional setting. From a CH/ AT per­ colleagues (Schmittau, 19933, b ). spective, this is clearly a misguided expec­ Particularly worth mentioning in this tation; culturally organized social innova­ regard is an application of the Elkonin­ tions are dynamic systems of activity that Davydov approach as reported by Hede­ require constant reconfiguration to stay gaard and Chaiklin (2005). Their work took alive. But how are researchers supposed to place in a poor, Latino area of New York City trace, document and assess such dynamic in an afterschool setting and was focused processes of generalization and sustained on concepts from the social sciences. While development? no appropriate comparison is possible to A second challenge arises from the very similar children engaged in standard cur­ core of the method of dual stimulation. ricula, Hedegaard and Chaiklin report the Vygotsky and his colleagues saw dual stimu­ same kinds of ability to make use of con­ lation as the basic mechanism of formation c~ptual models and to g~neralize learn­ of voluntary action and will. In contempo­ ing to novel examples that are reported rary parlance, they sought to understand the by Davydov, Schmittau, and others. Aside role of agency in development. In. a manner from the fact that it took place in an after­ that bears clear analogies to dilemmas fac­ school setting which afforded less hierarchi­ ing the Elkonin-Davydov formative experi­ cal relations between teachers and children, ments, it is likely that the most important a notable aspect of this work was that it outcomes of Change Laboratory interven­ used locally significant concrete exemplars tions are changes in the collective agency to fill in the abstractions the children were of the participants, understood as their abil­ encouraged to master, thereby showing it is ity to challenge existing conditions and to CULTURAL-HISTORICAL APPROACHES TO DESIGNING FOR DEVELOPMENT m1tiate change processes. These change intervention will be, in principle, different processes, if they became general, would in various ways from very other instanti­ shake the foundational assumptions of their ation creates difficult problems of appro­ institutions - the workplace in the case of the priate description and evaluation. It also Change Laboratory, the School in the case deals with the issue of agency; who ini­ of the Elkonin-Davydov curriculum. From tiates the university-community collabora­ a methodological point of view we need to tions 7 Whose voice dominates discussions of understand how the formation of new kinds the activities that are the basis of joint activ­ of collective agency can be conceptualized ities between supporting institutions 7 Like and empirically identified. And from a larger, the Elkonin-Davydov project it must strug­ societal, point of view we need to under­ gle to create forms of activity that are appro­ stand the cultural-historical conditions that priate to the (various) age characteristics, but will permit such forms of collective agency unlike the Elkonin-Davydov project it does to become general in society. not restrict itself to well specified conceptual In addition, the successes of the Change domains, opting instead to provide a vari­ Laboratory in Finland, a country which ety of contents embodied in a variety of age­ retains a relatively strong notion of social appropriate games and problem solving tasks welfare in a world increasingly dominated in order to deal with the enormous variety by neo-liberal forms of economic and polit­ of its participants. ical organization, raise the question of how While there is little doubt that 5th Dime­ even the research program carried out there nsions more or less routinely succeed in can be generalized to countries such as the creating genuine zones of proximal devel­ United States where privatization and short­ opment for their participants, this project term profit dominate work practices. As shares with the Change Laboratory severe we have emphasized, the kind of forma­ challenges concerning how to describe tive interventions demanded by the logic of and evaluate the dynamic, always-in-change CH/ AT research must be carried out over characteristics of the activity systems it cre­ significan~t periods of time and involve sig­ ates. Current social science norms expect nificant expenditures. By contrast, the typ­ unambiguous quantifiable descriptions such ical managerial consulting practices in the • as those provided by standardized tests United States are short term and increas- ' or measure of "output." But the volun­ ing the collective agency of the workers is tary nature of participation and the always­ unlikely to win the consultants an invita­ variable nature of implantations, dependent tion to return. Once again, the macro socio­ on their contexts, defy such standardized cultural features of the society place clear assessments. And, like the Change Labora­ restrictions on potential generalization of tories, those who would use the 5th Dimen­ demonstrably successful applications of the­ sion to challenge CH/ AT theories turn to ory in practice. "real life" measures of effectiveness: Does The same dilemmas, in somewhat differ­ the community provide resources to con­ ent form, confront projects such as the 5th tinue the collaborations between university Dimension, which arose as a means of creat­ and community 7 Do 5th Dimensions gen­ ing inter-institutional joint activities focused eralize from their institutions of origin 7 Are on the design and implementation of devel­ they taken up (generalized to) distinctly dif­ opmental enrichment activities for children ferent social, cultural and economic circum­ in the afterschool hours. It highlights the cre­ stances? And if they are, do they remain "the ation of idiocultures that bring together sev­ same" despite the changes in content and eral CH/ AT principles such as the method context? of dual stimulation and leading activities Taken as an ensemble, these three for­ to create zones of proximal development. mative interventions indicate the fruitful­ Like the Change Laboratory interventions, ness of a theory-practice methodology using the principle that every instantiation of the CH/ AT principles. At the same time, each MICHAEL COLE AND YRJO ENGESTROM faces challenges to its own sustainability. away, they shape and are shaped by future, Those challenges are, to a certain extent, emerging, constraints (Cole & Subbotsky, specific to the problematic conditions that 1993; Griffin & Cole, 1984). each was designed to address (e.g., poor The Russian term, obuchenie, is often trans­ education, difficulties in the organization of lated as education. We prefer the some­ what awkward translation, teaching/learning, working life). But common across all three because both sides of this interactive process kinds of formative interventions is resistance are implicated in the Russian term. There is that arises when their successes come into a more general term in Russian, obrazovanie, conflict with the larger social conditions which is a closer equivalent to the English that underlie the social problems they were term, education. designed to transcend. It is at this point 6 The approach developed by Davydov and that each intervention can be recognized as Elkonin has been given different names a form of critical theorizing about existing since its inception in the 196o's. Early on conditions in the societies they are a part 0£ it was referred to as "teaching/learning based Each reveals ways in which the explicit ide­ on content-related generalizations," then as ologies of modern industrialized bureaucra­ "educational activity" and later as "develop­ tized societies espouse values (guaranteeing mental education." all children high quality education, creating effective, fulfilling environments for adult work) that they systematically undermine. References Finally, each provides society with alterna­ tives that satisfy their society's values, show­ Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, K. A. (1989). To Sergei ing that while there is a way to solve explic­ Rubinstein birth centenary: A profile of Sergei Rubinstein's life and work. Soviet Journal of itly stated social problems, there is, in a deep Psychology, 10 (s), 16-2 8. sense, a lack of will to do so. Ahonen, H., Engestrom, Y., & Virkkunen, J. (2000). 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