Developmental Education: Reflections on a Chat-Research Program in the Netherlands

This article describes the evolution of a Dutch cultural–historical research program, called Developmental Education. Since the 1970s the program elaborates a first generation version of the activity theory approach to learning and development, closely following the works of Vygotskij and Leont'ev. The research program is connected to a broad actor network bringing teachers, educators, and researchers together who share the commitment to Vygotskij's developmental theory and methodology. The mission of the research program is the collaborative constitution of a Vygotskian form of school education. In the elaboration of the research program it is demonstrated how this research program problematises some of the core concepts of current Vygotskian theory, and how these conceptual and associated empirical and practical problems are solved. On account of the problem solving potential of the research program, it is argued that this research program has proven to be progressive over the past decades.