Socio-historical Psychology as the basis for understanding teaching practice

Abstract

This article seeks to address the importance of producing knowledge about the subjective aspects of teaching practice in order to understand it beyond its theoretical definitions, i.e., to acknowledge its contradictions and mediations. This study presents a discussion of the theoretical assumptions of Socio-historical Psychology, which is rooted in the dialectical and historical materialism, which, in turn, are the basis for the studies conducted by the research group “Teaching practice and subjectivity”. These studies have made major contributions to the critical knowledge in education. The present article initially discusses categories such as Mediation, Historicity, Activity, Senses, Meanings, and Subjectivity. Subsequently, the concepts of “real practice” and “real life practice” are introduced, followed by the simple and crossed self-confrontation techniques proposed by Yves Clot. It is essential to highlight the importance of the theoretical framework to support the entire process of the research since it is a scientificity criterion of the produced knowledge and the required coordination between all research steps.