Cultural Psychology: A Once and Future Discipline

Cultural Psychology outlines a theoretical framework for cultural-historical investigation into human cognitive development predicated on analysis of everyday human activities. The author traces the role of culture in the history of psychological research, discusses lessons from cross-cultural research in Liberia, builds upon the Russian cultural-historical school (Vygotsky et al) and discusses the practical application of recent research into social activity and learning (5th Dimension, Field College). Throughout, Michael Cole persuasively argues that human cognition is culturally and socially constituted and articulates methodologies for studying cognitive development through joint activity. I am interested in the implications of this work for educational strategies and on academic disciplinary boundaries. If cognitive development is constituted by specific social and cultural activities how do we rethink pedagogical practices? What helpful role can standardized tests really play in education? How do we rethink academic boundaries that separate studies of human sciences from culture? Can assessment tools useful for members of one cultural group be applied to members of other groups? Many of these issues are taken up in the engaging latter chapters of Cultural Psychology where Cole describes his work with different innovative educational programs incuding the 5th Dimension. Good stuff.

Mike Cole's influential and important book examines the role of culture in the history of psychology. His main points of inquiry are "Why do psychologists find it so difficult to keep culture in mind?" and "If you are a psychologist who believes that culture is a fundamental constituent of human thought and action, what can you do that it scientifically acceptable?" Answering these questions takes us through many disciplines and countries. Cole draws on Russian cultural-historical theories of activity and mediation first put forth by Vygotsky, Luria, Leontiev and others as well as his own research among the Vai of Liberia and children through the Fifth Dimension program. The books stresses that the crossing of disciplinary boundaries is of central importance to expanding our understandings of processes human thought and learning. In interrogating how to be scientifically rigorous, credible and accepted while keeping culture as a central tenet of human thought and action, Cole is concerned with "ecological validity" and "behavior-in-context," which question whether it is possible to take behavior or activity in one context and then make expansive generalizations to many contexts (i.e. does the ability or inability to correctly answer multiple choice questions on a timed SAT exam really measure how well one will do in a college setting or how well do tests conducted in a laboratory really allow for understandings of behaviors outside the lab?). Extending questions of ecological validity and behavior-in-context, Cole is extremely interested in sustainability. It is not enough to make broad generalizations from an isolated lab or classroom, rather the goal is to understand behavior in real life situations that effect life as it is lived. This means trying to find better ways to understand and treat learning disabilities, to improve literacy and academic performance in children as well as making tenable connections between disciplines that brings in new ideas and methods to affect positive change and keep it implemented and going. This book is excellent for those interested in culture, interdisciplinary studies, psychology (and its history), and education.

This book revolves around two thematic lines of questioning. First, Cole is asking what is the role of culture in the mind. To attempt an answer, he explores the history of psychology. He discusses the process of division that the human sciences underwent at the end of the nineteenth century and the turn of the twentieth, and how the constitution of psychology as a science meant its divorce from history and culture. Cole traces various proposals for reconciling the experimental and historical sciences, discussing Mill's dual psychology, Volkerpsychologie, descriptive psychology, and Wundt's proposal for a dual psychology. He emphasizes Wundt's argument that once cultural history intertwines with individual experience, they can no longer be disentangled to be studied with experimental methods, and that genetic methods are needed to address culturally mediated psychological processes. Cole's second axial line of questioning is, if one is a psychologist who believes that the role of culture in mind is significant, how does one conduct research while maintaining scientific credentials? To address this question Cole takes as a point of departure cultural-historical activity theory, and expands upon the basic principles laid out by Vygotsky, Luria, and Leontiev among others to formulate a more complex and nuanced understanding of the intertwining of the natural and cultural lines. Cole extends Vygotsky's insights to posit the co-evolution of the phylogenetic and ontogenetic. He stresses that adopting a cultural-historical approach does not answer the question of how to carry out analyses, and writes toward formulating a methodology that addresses the issue of describing and analyzing everyday life. M Walsh's Review: Every now and then a book enters the academic scene, and it produces a shift in our way of understanding a discipline. Read and reread, taught in classrooms, taken up by one and then another discipline that sees in it something new, something that relates to our contemporary context, Michael Cole's Cultural Psychology is just such a book. In this compelling read, Cole outlines a program for developmental psychology as a cultural-historical science - a potentially revolutionary move that ruptures the way developmental psychology has traditionally been conceived. Drawing on Russian cultural-historical activity theories and American pragmatic social sciences, Cole thoughtfully weaves together a cultural-historical approach to the study of mind. Two provocative questions guide his project. He asks: Why do psychologists find it so difficult to keep culture in mind? If you are a psychologist who believes that culture is a fundamental constituent of human thought and action, what can you do that it scientifically acceptable? To answer the first question, Cole gently guides the reader into the annals of psychology in an attempt to locate the paradigmatic moment when experimental psychology was severed from the history of psychology

This is by far the best work of psychology I have read. Although I have been familiar with the works of Vygotsky, Luria and Co. for a long time, Cole takes these ideas to a new level. It is utterly convincing, practical and engaging. The book is structured like a mystery novel. It begins with the author being sent to Liberia to help diagnose the reasons for the failure of the new school system introduced as part of the country's modernisation plans. Each new turn solves one mystery but throws up a new mystery, and we are drawn along with this puzzle - how do people learn? Every teacher should read this book. Compulsory reading!

Mike Cole carefully chronicles the historical roots of culture in psychology. He demonstrates that psychologists have worried about the cultural aspects of human behavior since the onset of their discipline. It was only a matter of time before psychology developed to the point where it could no longer ignore the "activity system" that gives it life. Mike Cole helps us gain this insight.