Learning in Cultures of Social Interaction

Abstract

This article addresses the ways in which the cultures of institutions and patterns of social interaction exert a formative effect on the what and how of learning. The way in which the social relations of institutions are regulated has cognitive and affective consequences for those who live and work within them. The current state of the art in the social sciences strives to provide a theoretical connection between specific forms, or modalities, of institutional regulation and of consciousness. The attempts that have been made to do so tend to the inability to generate analyzes and descriptions of institutional formations that are predictive of consequences for individuals. At the same time, Social policy tends not to commit to the personal consequences of different forms of institutional regulation. An approach will be discussed in order to establish connections between the principles of the regulation of institutions, discursive practices and the formation of consciousness. This approach is based on the work of the British sociologist Basil Bernstein and the Russian social theorist Lev Vygotsky.