Vygotsky Meets Whiteness Studies: Toward a Theory of White Zones of Proximal Development

• In Event: The Critical Importance of Race and Racialization When Considering How People Learn, What Should Be Taught and By Whom, and to What Ends

Abstract

Purpose
The main purpose of this paper and presentation is to synthesize Vygotsky’s “zone of proximal development” with a sociology of whiteness in education. We argue that marrying Vygotsky with race theory in general, and a critical study of whiteness in particular, reinvents him for the purpose of applying his theory to the special circumstances in which educators find themselves, a point on which he consistently insisted (cf. Freire, 1993). In forging a critique of whiteness with Vygotsky’s theories, we interpret his ideas within a racial activity system to understand better the social and cognitive development of a dominant racial group and in turn contribute a learning theory to the study of whiteness.

Theoretical Framework
Vygotsky is known for arguing that individual development is part of social and historical development. His work argues that the nexus of our learning, our ability to interpret content and context, and our capacity to develop are primarily social. To that extent, Vygotsky’s sociological insight may be captured by his concept of the ZPD. We employ the critical framework of Whiteness Studies to reinterpret Vygotsky’s major concepts, especially the ZPD.

Mode of Inquiry
Vygotsky’s research presents a dialectical approach to learning and development that leaves space for the introduction of new tools with which to work through existing problems. In particular, we use the tools of Whiteness Studies to understand and investigate the racial implications of Vygotskian concepts, such as the ZPD, in order to place his thought within the concrete educational contexts found in racialized nations like the United States.

Materials
Our source of engagement in this paper and presentation is Vygotsky’s writings and secondary writings that interpret his work. We focus on the Vygotskian concepts of phenotypic and genotypic analyses, the relationship between thought and language, the concept of socio-cultural mediation, and the ZPD.

Warrants for arguments
A Whiteness Studies intervention within Vygotskian theory pushes the limits of developmental theory when it analyzes the contours of a white ZPD. When racialized to consider whiteness, certain terms and concepts, such as Vygotsky’s genotypic and phenotypic analyses, take on a different significance, even different meanings. As a racially sensitive framework, particularly within a US-based understanding, Vygotskian theory is limited without critical attention to the development of white identity and whiteness as an ideology. By focusing on this nexus, Vygotskian theory fulfills part of its historical mission as a concrete sociology of culture. While the ZPD has been widely used in the US context, this essay proposes that the use of the ZPD to understand the development of the racially dominant group opens a space of possibility for resolving persistent social and educational inequalities.

Scholarly significance
The scholarly significance of this work arises from the expansion of Vygotsky’s theories to allow educators to grapple with issues of race and whiteness. A whiteness critique of Vygotsky’s major contributions, offers possible spaces for intervening in the development of white identities that reproduce persistent inequality in our educational system.

Authors

• Zeus Leonardo, University of California - Berkeley

• Logan Alexis Manning, The University of Texas - San Antonio