Subjectivity and temporality: Contributing to a discussion on theoretical, methodological and epistemological consideration in cultural-historical theory

Vygotsky’s cultural-historical concept of perezhivanie has created debates from which various theoretical and methodological understandings and uses of the concept have eventuated. One such contemporary concept is Gonzalez Rey’s conceptualisation of subjectivity, which provides a way to investigate and understand both previously overlooked aspects of development, as well as the epistemology of cultural-historical research itself. Specifically, in this paper, the concepts of subjective sense and subjective configuration (González Rey, 2004) are combined with temporality in the case study methodology that investigates a child as she moves with her family to temporarily reside in Malaysia. González Rey’s concepts of subjectivity, combined with temporality, enable us to understand the nuances of the child’s emergent identity in everyday life as she experiences an international transition. A cultural-historical dialectical interactive methodology (Hedegaard, 2008) was used to analyse the everyday life of the child, and interview data of the mother and teacher, and the method reflected upon. This paper reports on the theoretical, and methodological, considerations that both develop subjectivity and create tension and challenges when using an under-explored concept by examining 1) the contributions, challenges, and limitations of the methodology, and 2) the study’s theoretical and epistemological contributions. I argue that combining subjectivity and temporality supports an understanding of identity construction using cultural-historical theory, and in addition contributes to general discussions of cultural-historical concepts.