Social constructivism and the process‐content distinction as viewed by Vygotsky and the pragmatists

Abstract

In a recent article in this journal, Stetsenko and Arievitch compared and contrasted 3 versions of social constructivism, all of which successfully deal with one vexing epistemological problem, the separation of mind and world. However, solutions offered by the first 2 approaches are problematic, according to the authors, because of the way they treat the subject‐object issue. On this score, Gal'perin's (1989) brand of post‐Vygotskianism is preferred because it manages to retain the individual while externalizing the mind. As I point out in this article, all 3 approaches fail when it comes to solving a third, equally intractable problem—the process versus content dualism. In the last part of the article, I present a promising solution to all 3 problems first proposed by Peirce and Dewey and later embraced by Lev Vygotsky in the last years of his life.