The Transformative Mind: Expanding Vygotsky's Approach to Development and Education

The book suggests a transition from a relational worldview premised on the socio-political ethos of adaptation towards a transformative worldview premised on the ethos of solidarity and equality. Expansively developing Vygotsky's revolutionary project, the Transformative Activist Stance integrates insights from a vast array of critical and sociocultural theories and pedagogies and moves beyond their impasses to address the crisis of inequality. This captures the dynamics of social transformation and agency in moving beyond theoretical and political canons of the status quo. The focus is on the nexus of people co-creating history and society while being interactively created by their own transformative agency. Revealing development and mind as agentive contributions to the 'world-in-the-making' from an activist stance guided by a sought-after future, this approach culminates in implications for research with transformative agendas and a pedagogy of daring. Along the way, many key theories of mind, development and education are challenged and radically reworked.

Anna Stetsenko is recognized for contributions to sociocultural and activity theories around the world. Rooted in Vygotsky's project, she has worked to advance it across several decades and international contexts bringing in experiences of teaching and researching in leading universities and research centers in the US, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Russia. She is widely published, in several languages, and is a sought-out speaker at many large international conferences. With her interdisciplinary expertise in psychology, philosophy and education, and an international background, her writing cuts across many fields and connects cutting edge developments and insights from a variety of frameworks.