The Perils of Translation: A First Step in Reconsidering Vygotsky's Theory of Development in Relation to Formal Education

In this brief note I want to address the problem of translating into English the Russian word, obuchenie, as it concerns ongoing discussions of Vygotsky’s ideas about the arrangement of children’s experience by adults for the purposes of education and the relationship between learning and development that such arrangements engender. My current concern with this topic is part of an ongoing international re-examination of the ideas of L. S. Vygotsky in light of relatively recent, extensive translations of a large proportion of his works. These retranslations and this re-examination, particularly Chaiklin (2003), have for some years now enlivened the ongoing discussion held amongst members of the far-flung, international discussion that accompanies publication of Mind, Culture, and Activity, so it seems most appropriate to publish this note here.1 My present comments are occasioned by the efforts of Andy Blunden, David Kellogg, and myself to work through the implications of such a reconsideration for Vygotsky’s general theory of development.2 This discussion, although productive, has not yet led to agreement sufficient to warrant publication of a full-fledged article, but the importance of getting people to rethink the issues of learning and development in light of the translation of the key term, obuchenie, seems too important to await the fate of our more extensive effort to re-evaluate and rearticulate a number of related key concepts and their interrelationships, including the relation of “wholes and parts,” which bespeaks the importance of German gestalt psychology’s influences on Vygotsky’s thinking,