Undergraduate Research Sociocultural Perspectives

Sociocultural approaches form a theoretical tradition that explains learn- ing, identity development, and knowledge creation not merely as cognitive or purely internal processes. Rather, it understands these educational phe- nomena in a holistic way – as practices that belong to society and its various cultural ways of life. This means that person and environment are not divided between a mental and immaterial realm of subjectivity on the one hand, and a material realm of objects, guaranteeing objectivity, on the other. Such a division is seen as an effect of societal conditions and epi- stemological practices. Instead, sociocultural approaches emphasize that learners (and their subjectivity) change and develop within certain contexts and in relations with others. Their learning is always situated, and socially and culturally configured. Thus, science – as a field of practices with manifold societal and cultural dimensions – can also be considered a con- text of learning.