CALL FOR PAPERS
Early Education & Development, Special Topic Issue:
Vygotskian Perspectives in Early Childhood Education:
Translating Ideas into Classroom Practice
Guest Editor - Adam Winsler, George Mason University
Although the ideas of Lev Vygotsky are now central theoretical grounding within early childhood
education, it is still often a challenge to implement Vygotskian and neo-Vygotskian ideas in early
childhood classrooms. This may be due to the fact that many of the central constructs within this
tradition (i.e., scaffolding, Zone of Proximal Development - ZPD) have often been conceptualized and
empirically examined at the one-on-one, adult-child level, rather than at the level of classroom
processes. Furthermore, the conceptual and methodological complexity of sociocultural and semiotic
analyses can at times become an obstacle to effective integration of scholarship and practice in
this area. This special issue of Early Education and Development is devoted to compiling an
effective selection of both empirical and theoretical papers that will together make a significant
contribution to advancing early childhood policy, practice, and applied developmental science by
both informing, and learning from, practice in applied settings. Preference will be given to
classroom-based research, to works that clearly articulate the particular Vygotskian ideas under
consideration, and to papers that are clearly relevant, accessible, and useful for early childhood
professionals.
Potential topics for consideration (a nonexclusive list) include: observational studies of
teacher-child interaction, scaffolding, and/or mediated learning experiences in early childhood
classrooms; peer scaffolding in the classroom and how teachers facilitate this process; scaffolding
children’s learning in small and large groups; model early childhood programs; dynamic assessment in
early childhood; children’s private speech and its relevance for early childhood educators, activity
theory approaches to early development and learning; the ZPD; language use and cultural transmission
in the classroom; the use of technology and other cultural artifacts in the classroom; Vygotskian
perspectives on early childhood special education and/or school readiness; internalization; cultural
transmission; socially-shared cognition; play as self-scaffolding within the ZPD; Intersubjectivity;
and cultural universals and variation in early childhood development and learning.
Submissions will follow the Journal’s regular blind review process, and the Special Issue Editor and
Journal Associate Editor will make all acceptance decisions. Accepted manuscripts not included in
the special issue (due to space restrictions) may be published in a future issue of the Journal.
Manuscripts submitted must strictly conform to the formatting and writing style requirements of APA
Publication Manual (5th edition).
Electronic submissions (in MSword format - specify special issue) should be sent to:
pdm2e@virginia.edu
Hard copy submissions (4 copies) should be sent to:
Early Education and Development, Special Issue: Vygotskian Perspectives in Early Childhood
Education, University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400267, 147 Ruffner Hall, Charlottesville, VA 22904
Submission Deadline: September, 1, 2002. Publication of the special issue is scheduled for mid 2003.
For additional information, contact Adam Winsler, Department of Psychology, George Mason University,
Fairfax, VA 22030 (703) 993-1881 - awinsler@gmu.edu
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