How Did Lev Vygotsky Influence Marxism?

Lev S. Vygotsky is often referred to as an influential person in the world of education based on his research in psychology. Vygotsky was born and raised in the Russian empire in 1896 to a very affluent Jewish family. His father was quickly appointed as the United Bank of Gomel where their family spent all of Vygotsky’s childhood (“Lev Vygotsky”, 2014). Potentially influenced by his mother's training in education, Lev was a quick study and successful in his own education. He had originally intended to study medicine but eventually graduated from the University of Moscow with a degree in law. He started his own family with a woman named Rosa Smekhova soon after graduation; they had two daughters together (“Lev Vygotsky”, 2014). Cherry (2017)
said, “His formal work in psychology did not begin until 1924 when he attended the Institute of Psychology in Moscow” (Lev Vygotsky Psychologist Biography, para. 3).
Vygotsky had several contributions to the psychological side of education. He has been called the "Mozart of Psychology". Morrison (2017) summarizes Vygotsky’s key ideas as sociocultural theory, the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), scaffolding, and cooperative learning or social learning (p.70). Vygotsky’s work focuses on the different social interactions between children and others in their world and how those interactions affect the development of a whole child. He strongly felt that "the experiences children have influenced their development" (Morrison, p.89).
Play was a huge part of Vygotsky’s studies. “To Vygotsky, it was trivial and unnecessary to separate play from the great variety of experiences that occur during childhood” (Morgan, p.109). Vygotsky describes play as either pleasurable or not pleasurable, such as losing a game; but both are critical to the development and both fulfill the needs of the child. He describes the play as a piece of the child's social interactions. Those interactions include peer to peer, child to adult, and child within a family or community. Morrison states, "Development is supported by social interaction: "Learning awakes a variety of developmental processes that are able to operate only when the child interaction with people in his environment and in collaboration with his peers.” (p. 88). Though play was crucial in describing the social development, it really allowed Vygotsky to dive farther into other theories of development.
One of the most influential impacts Vygotsky had in child development and psychology is the concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) and it is used heavily in early childhood education connecting play to child development. Bodrova and Leong said, "Vygotsky's ideas of play creating the ZPD of a child and play being the leading activity for children of preschool and kindergarten age laid the foundation for the theories of play developed by his students and generations of post-Vygotskian scholars" (p. 376). Morrison shared a visual representation of ZPD of the level of challenge compared to the level of competence with the amount of assistance was given by the child's teacher (p. 89).
Another important concept shared throughout Vygotsky’s research is the idea of scaffolding. Morrison defines scaffolding as the “assistance in the ZPD that enables children to complete task they cannot complete independently” (p. 89). This idea clearly supports the idea that children learn through social interactions. Those interactions happen at different levels of interactions that grow from intense support to independence. Teacher and child collaboration was a key concept in scaffolding.
Karl Marx and therefore the Marxist theory heavily influence Vygotsky’s work.
“Vygotsky could not have avoided the effect this philosophy had on his life and invariably, his methods - based on this, we can deduce that the Russian Revolution is major evidence of the influence Marxism had his life's work” (“Essays”, 2013). Though, some researchers agree there is no doubt there is a connection between the Marxist theory, there are others who would say there are some differences. Veresov said “Vygotsky’s philosophical orientation was wider than Marxism. Indeed, his first insights into the problems of the personality and human consciousness were philosophical rather than psychological” (n.d.). Veresov also stated, “He was a child of the Silver Age of Russian culture and philosophy and the influence of this should not be underestimated” (n.d.). The Silver Age was a multiple decade period of creativity. “The Silver Age Some traits in Vygotsky's theory, traditionally considered as Marxist – such as the concept of the social origins of mind or sign as a psychological tool have deeper and wider roots in works of Shpet, Blonsky, Sorokin and Meierhold” (n.d.). Shpet was heavily referred to in articles covering the influences over Vygotsky. "We have biographical data to confirm that during his university years (1913-1916) Vygotsky attended lectures by G. G. Shpet (1879 - 1937) and participated in his seminars on ‘ethnic psychology'" (Veresov, n.d.). Though because of politics of the
time, Vygotsky was unable to reference the ideas of other theorist, connections can be made. Such connections include environmental experiences and objective meaning.
There are many researchers that have built off the ideas that Lev Vygotsky.
Albert Bandura (1991) and Urie Bronfenbrenner (1979), among others, also associated developmental learning with social and cultural influences (Morgan, p. 110). Bronfenbrenner looked at a child's development in relation to those systems around the child (Morrison, p. 94). "Daniel Elkonin was a colleague of Vygotsky who continued his work on play and developed a comprehensive theory that, in turn, gave rise to an entire school of thought in Soviet psychology and education" (Brodrova and Leong,
p377).
Some professionals who follow the work of Vygotsky "share the emphasis on play not as a reflection of past experiences but as an activity essential for the development of a "future child" (Bodrova and Leong, p.376). “Vygotsky’s model of teaching and learning has significantly influenced “early-literacy” programs, such as Reading Recovery and Guided Reading. Yet, this theory is in contradiction to what is happening in many schools today” (Blake and Pope, p. 63).
Morrison stated that “Many current practices such as cooperative learning, joint problem solving, coaching, collaborations, mentoring, and other forms of assisted learning are based on Vygotsky’s theory of development and learning” (p. 90). A popular curriculum that is used in today's classrooms is Reggio Emilia which is based on Piaget, constructivism, Vygotsky and Dewey" (Morrison, p. 106). Throughout many introductory and theory-based classes for pre-service teachers, Lev Vygotsky's name repeats over and over; the focus of the study is through the study of his own research or through the implications that have come from his studies. His life was short but Vygotsky was able to make a significant impact on the path of early education through his work in psychology. His work connected children to their communities and environments, which is still used widely in preschool and elementary classrooms today. In fact, his ideas are often referred to as the best practice. While Vygotsky may have been a trendsetter in his ideas, his legacy will last forever.