Vygotsky and Creativity

by Maskens (Editor), Ana Marjanovic-Shane (Editor), Vera P. John-Steiner (Editor)

The second edition of Vygotsky and Creativity: A Cultural-historical Approach to Play, Meaning Making, and the Arts presents an enriched Vygotskian perspective on children's and adults' symbolic engagement with imagination, artistic expression, and multi-modal forms of expression. Artists, psychologists, and educators present their research and practice in different learning environments and analyze their findings with a reliance on cultural historical activity theory. The connections between creative expression, learning, teaching, and development are situated in a theoretical framework that emphasizes the social origins of individual development and the arts. The authors share a view of learning as an imaginative process rooted in our common need to communicate and transform individual experience through the cultural lifelines of the arts. Vygotsky and Creativity, Second Edition includes the additional work of internationally known Vygotskian scholars whose contributions enhance theoretical, expressive, and pedagogical views on creativity, play, and the social construction of meaning making.

354 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2010

Reviews

[Peaches · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really helpful read to understand what Vygotsky theorized about creativity, play, and art. All I remember about his work was from my undergrad, where we really just focused on the ZPD, so this was interesting. I do wish more examples extended past early childhood and elementary, but to be fair, that was what Vygotsky, at least to my knowledge, focused on a great deal as well.
Also, I love the cover. It's gorgeous!

[Zach]

This book overflows with practical yet transformative methodologies. If you already have a sense about the importance of play, meaning-making, and the creative act and would like to improve your theoretical underpinnings as well as add some new techniques, then this book is for you. It has helped take my naive curiosity on the subject and move it along towards an epistemological curiosity -- as Freire might put it.