Re: vygotsky and contextualism

Ellice A Forman (ellice+ who-is-at pitt.edu)
Fri, 19 Mar 1999 15:06:16 -0500 (EST)

The classic source for "contextualism" is Steven Pepper's book "World
Hypotheses" (1942). Berkeley: Univ of CA Press. There is an extensive
discussion of the contextualist metaphor and it is contrasted with
organicism and mechanism.

Another source for contrasting paradigms is Altman, I., & Rogoff, B.
(1987). World views in psychology: Trait, interactional, organismic, and
transactional perspectives. In D. Stokols & I. Atlman (Eds) Handbook of
environmental psychology (Vol 1) NY: Wiley. They rename contextualism as
transactional (following Dewey) and build upon Pepper.

Another more recent and very interesting comparison of approaches to
context (including CHAT) can be found in van Oers (1998). From context to
contextualizing. Learning and Instruction, 8 (6), 473-488.

Ellice Forman
Dept of Psychology in Education
University of Pittsburgh