Hookoomsing, H

Continuing the heritage of Vygotsky as a complexivist: insights from a research project among pre-primary learners in Mauritius

By Oozeerally, S

Beyond his contributions to the field of psychology, Vygotsky may be considered as 'one of the first thinkers in complexity' (Jorg, 2011 p. 14). Vygotsky challenged linear causality and defended the idea of the transcendence of individual learning to focus on the generative potential of learning and development through social interactions, emergence, and self-organisation; these are central ideas of complexity. Based on an epistemology of complexity (Morin, 2008; Alhadeff-Jones, 2013), this contribution aims to present the findings and ex post facto reflections on a research project, carried out in 2016-2017, which explored and modeled the language experienciations (Engel, 2007) of early childhood learners in thirteen pre-primary schools in the multilingual island of Mauritius. A complexity case-study design (Hetherington, 2013) was used and the findings present ways young learners integrate environmental, contextual and linguistic complexity in their own personal, yet socio-collective trajectories towards the construction of their learning.