Constructing Educational Possibilities Through Revitalization of the Vygotskian Radical Legacy in Cultural Historical Research

• In Event: Addressing Persistent Inequities in Education Through Cultural Historical Research

Abstract

Purpose
Within Cultural Historical Research, there has emerged a call for the reclamation of the transformative Vygotskian legacy aimed at resisting and restructuring racialized social infrastructures that uphold white supremacy and perpetuate racial hierarchy (Stetsenko, 2021). This study sought to expand “formative intervention methodology” (Engeström, 2016) to divulge inequitable social infrastructures and promote stakeholders’ emancipatory future making.

Theoretical Framework
Despite the transformative Vygotskian tradition’s focus on dismantling injustice, critiques in formative intervention scholarship have highlighted inadequate attention to socio-political contexts and insufficient clarity of the endpoints of equitable futures research (Authors et al., 2023; Stetsenko, 2021). Reclamation includes working with educational stakeholders from nondominant communities for imagining and enacting a “sought-after future,” (Stetsenko, 2020, p. 11) with attention to equity, sociohistorical contexts, and emancipatory goals (Gutierrez et al., 2016).

Methods
We retrospectively analyzed two case studies exploring expansive possibilities of formative interventions for equitable futures, investigating how each study 1) utilized mediating artifacts to disclose inequitable infrastructure; and 2) promoted transformative learning experiences of participants.

Data Sources
We used data from two social change interventions informed by formative intervention methodology. The first was a participatory, discussion-based intervention, aimed at fostering resilience and development in Black adolescent girls. Twenty-two girls from a K-8 urban charter school participated, with observations, artifacts (e.g., drawings), and process notes recording discussions as data. The second study, the Future Making Learning Lab, is an inclusive systemic design intervention aiming to develop a new school system addressing racial disparities in school discipline. Data from nine stakeholders across eight Lab sessions were collected, including video-recorded sessions and artifacts (e.g., school policies).

Results
The first case utilized a “discourse-based formative intervention” (Author, under review) for transformative social and emotional learning among Black adolescents. Researchers employed transformative theoretical tools, including Black feminist, sexual script, and hip-hop feminist theories, to organize critical discussions on Black women/girls’ portrayal in the media. Popular songs and music videos served as mediating tools, supporting participants in identifying and deconstructing controlling images of Black women in the music industry. Participants used drawings and written reflections to reimagine futures in which they resist controlling images. The second case applied the Universal Design for Learning framework (Waitoller & Thorius, 2016) to address racial injustice in school discipline. Researchers used academic/behavioral outcome data, historical documents/articles, school discipline protocol, and GIS and attendance maps to facilitate the analysis of racialized disparities in school discipline and their historical roots. Collectively, participants envisioned transformative solutions including leveraging familial and community assets and providing school staff resources for culturally responsive behavioral support for students.

Scholarly Significance
Formative intervention methodology can serve as a powerful instrument in cultivating new knowledge and tools for addressing pressing systemic contradictions. Despite its explicit equity-oriented focus, formative intervention scholarship has been called upon to address racial injustice in politicized contexts (Stetsenko, 2021). These case studies illustrate the expansive potential of formative intervention methodology when combined with explicit socio-political attention, and equity-oriented mediating artifacts, for disclosing (in)visible practices, ideologies, and structures and reimagining futures.

Authors

• Rebekah Pollock, Georgia State University

• Dosun Ko, Santa Clara University