Pentti Hakkarainen

Cultural-historical and activity theory has proposed many important theoretical ideas for the educational sciences, which inspired the creation of different pedagogical approaches and models around the world. It is worth noticing that many important theoretical concepts of the cultural-historical and activity theory have become universally accepted and used in the contexts of education regardless of the prevailing theoretical paradigms.

This is probably the cost that has to be paid for being widely known. It is not the first time when certain theoretical concepts become widespread, a deeper systemic understanding of psychological theory itself is lost. Despite the fact that such a fate befell many of the concepts of the cultural-historical activity theory, there are many interesting attempts to deepen and further develop the approach.

The introductory article introduces several important theoretical statements formulated by the creators of cultural-historical and activity theory that have significantly contributed to the development of pedagogical ideas and based on which important educational research is being conducted today. It discusses in detail how the ideas of Vygotsky, A.N. Leontiev, D.B. Elkonin, Davydov, Galperin, Talyzina, N.N. Podd'iakov and other Russian scholars were understood and further developed in Scandinavia, other countries, and especially in the educational research of Latin American scholars. The introductory article ends by introducing the topics and research problems of scientific articles published in this special issue of the journal.