ABSTRACT
In this chapter I will attempt to present an overview of Vygotsky’s theoretical contribution to the field. The discussion concerning mediation that is to be found in Chapter 1 lays the foundation for this overview. Scribner captured the essence of this foundation in the following way:
Vygotsky’s special genius ‘was in grasping the significance of the social in things as well as people. The world in which we live is humanised, full of material and symbolic objects (signs, knowledge systems) that are culturally constructed, historical in origin and social in content. Since all human actions, including acts of thought, involve the mediation of such objects (‘tools and signs’) they are, on this score alone, social in essence. This is the case whether acts are initiated by single agents or a collective and whether they are performed individually or with others.
