Criticism to the method of social constructionist research from Vygotsky’s psychology

The use of Vygotsky's thought to counter the positivist experimental model was one of the fates of his theory in the West. One of Vygotsky's appropriations has made by social constructionism. This theoretical movement has been used as a research method in several areas of knowledge, including in the educational context. In this sense, we perform a comparative analysis of the concepts of Vygotsky that are used by this movement and its implications for the theory of knowledge. We find that some concepts of Vygotsky are taken without taking into account the totality of his work, especially his conception of language. We will argue that authors like Gergen and Shotter generalized Vigotski's explanations on child development for all stages of cultural development. Finally, we will analyze the constructivist understanding of imagination. We will show that separating the imagination from Vygotsky's account of the relationship between language and thought has led constructionism to a postmodern interpretation of this Soviet psychologist.

Keywords:
Research methods; social constructionism; Vygotsky