Contribution to the study of personality by 'pioneers' of the cultural historical school: Revisiting earlier research in search for learning

Abstract

In times when vocational education and training (VET) faces challenges from a variety of research problems, for example, dropouts and motivation for vocational oriented studies, it becomes important deepening into different theoretical and empirical sources. The development of a comprehensive theory of personality in cultural historical school is the result of the works of what we could well consider as research 'pioneers' within this school. The presentation and analysis presented in this article tries to contribute to VET research through systematising and drawing attention to some of the most relevant contributions of these pioneers. Critical remarks are presented though a critical review is not within the scope of the article. The analysis presented here is made with awareness of the complexities and the risks involved in all attempts to summarise what was a remarkable creative production in research that extended for decades. The reader should also observe that the scope of the presentation and focus of attention here is limited to the specific contribution of these leading scholars to the development of a theory of personality. Been this limitation highlighted the article expects to contribute to better understanding studies of personality within the cultural historical school henceforth serving to the advance of research within VET.

Keywords

• Personality
• individual
• cultural historical theory
• learning, cognition