The reception of Vygotsky in pedagogical literature for Norwegian teacher education

Abstract

In this article, we study the reception of Vygotskian theory in pedagogical literature for Norwegian teacher education. The article analyzes three widely used textbooks for pre-service teachers in the five-year integrated master’s degree program, looking at how Vygotsky’s work is articulated and disseminated in the readings. Although Vygotsky’s ideas are an important frame of reference for the pedagogical thinking in the textbooks, the findings indicate that Vygotsky’s theory is presented in a fragmented way and is largely disconnected from the social and scientific context of its formation. The article argues that the tendency to interpret Vygotsky in a cultural and historical vacuum represents a concealed potential for making Vygotsky’s ideas applicable in the current educational debate.