Dynamics between self and culture in school: A dialogical and developmental perspective

Considering self-development a fundamental aspect of education, the study builds on a semiotic-cultural constructivist approach and the Dialogical Self Theory to make sense of the relationship between self-other-culture. The analysis of the educational trajectory of Ken demonstrated how dialogical relations supported the changes he experienced as a learner. The methodological design consisted of observations, focus group sessions and interviews during one year. The analysis of the various communicative interactions used the concept of positioning to address the relational basis of self-dynamics, the interface of human communication and self, and the interdependence of the semiotic affective system of the self and the community. Results of Ken's case suggested a significant change from an initial disruptive self-qualification as a student to the emergence of a confident voice about himself as an intelligent and capable learner. Analyses suggest teaching practices have the potential to mobilize meaning negotiations and active participation, positioning and counter-positioning, generating possibilities of integration of knowledge systems and self-development oriented to the future. The study claims that the dynamics between self and culture which leads to ontogenetic development are engendered by semiotic-affective social interactions; and that the quality of such interactions is the product of a long history of social mediation of self-meaning processes.