Vygotsky in Iran: A Personal Account

Vygotsky has been introduced in Iran since 1985 following the translation and publication of his book Thought and Language (1962). This book has been treated as an important classic in Persian academic circles and has been evaluated as an influential source of research and theoretical formulation in the area of developmental as well as cognitive psychology. The author describes his experience of getting to know the ideas of Vygotsky and the process of translation of his work as a personal story and an account of international collaboration. Broad social, cultural and historical contexts of work of Vygotsky as well as outstanding Western psychologists, such as Donald Hebb, are considered. An overview of development of Vygotsky's ideas about concept formation, zone of proximal development, meaning and sense, and inner speech in Persian dissertations and research projects is presented. The author concludes that vygotskian psychology is rather a process than an end product and outlines the perspectives of its development in Iran.

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