The claim by Wertsch and Youniss [1987] that Vygotsky’s developmental psychology could best be explained as a response to the social task of nation building is examined. It is argued that the Soviet educational system of the 1930s to 1950s was incompatible with Vygotsky’s theory, for children were taught in terms of everyday, ‘spontaneous’ concepts rather than ‘genuine’ concepts. The context for the development of Vygotsky’s theory was not nation-building and compulsory schooling but rather the European tradition of emphasizing conceptual as opposed to preconceptual reasoning. The Drive against Illiteracy of the 1930s may be seen, in view of research studies of different types of literacy, as a campaign aimed at practical literacy at a pseudoconceptual level, not at a metalinguistic awareness requiring genuine concepts.

Keywords:
Cognitive development, History of psychology, Literacy, School learning, Social influences, Vygotsky
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© 1987 S. Karger AG, Basel
1987
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