CONTRIBUTIONS OF IMAGINATION TO THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION: AN ANALYSIS BASED ON HISTORICAL-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY

ABSTRACT

This theoretical article aims to present a research group’s understanding about the concept of imagination from the perspective of Historical-Cultural Psychology, focusing, above all, on the ideas developed by Vigotski and some of his interlocutors. Based on this perspective, imagination is understood as a higher psychological function responsible for creating horizons, freeing the subject from his concrete reality. By enabling, intertwined with thought, the subject reaches abstract ways of thinking, the imagination assumes great relevance in the teaching/learning process, being fundamental, therefore, to the actions developed at school. It is also intended, in this article, to reflect about the concept of freedom in relation to the imagination, aiming to highlight the importance of imaginative processes for the subject’s development. Furthermore, an analysis is carried out in relation to the concept of freedom, as proposed by Historical-Cultural Psychology and its relationship with imagination. The article ends by highlighting the need for advances in the understanding of imagination and its importance in promoting the adolescents’ development and in appropriating school knowledge.

Keywords:
imagination; freedom; historical-cultural psychology

RESUMO

Este artigo, de natureza teórica, tem como objetivo apresentar a compreensão de um grupo de pesquisa acerca do conceito de imaginação na perspectiva da Psicologia Histórico-Cultural, focalizando, sobretudo, as ideias desenvolvidas por Vigotski e alguns de seus interloculores. Com base nesta perspectiva, compreende-se a imaginação como uma função psicológica superior responsável por criar horizontes, libertando o sujeito de sua realidade concreta. Por possibilitar, imbricada ao pensamento, que o sujeito alcance formas abstratas de pensar, a imaginação assume grande relevância no processo de ensino/aprendizagem, sendo fundamental, portanto, às ações desenvolvidas na escola. Intenta-se, ainda, neste artigo, refletir sobre o conceito de liberdade na relação com a imaginação, visando destacar a importância dos processos imaginativos para o desenvolvimento do sujeito. Ainda, é realizad uma análise com relação ao conceito de liberdade, tal como proposto pela Psicologia Histórico-Cultural e sua relação com a imaginação. O artigo se encerra destacando-se a necessidade de avanços na compreensão da imaginação e sua importância na promoção do desenvolvimento de adolescentes e para a apropriação do conhecimento escolarizado.

Palavras-chave:
imaginação; liberdade; psicologia histórico-cultural

RESUMEN

En este artículo, de naturaleza teórica, se tiene como objetivo presentar la comprensión de un grupo de investigación acerca del concepto de imaginación en la perspectiva de la Psicología Histórico-Cultural, centrando, sobre todo, en las ideas desarrolladas por Vygotsky y algunos de sus interlocutores. Con base en esta perspectiva, se comprende la imaginación como una función psicológica superior responsable por crear horizontes, libertando el sujeto de su realidad concreta. Por posibilitar, imbricada al pensamiento, que el sujeto alcance formas abstractas de pensar, la imaginación tiene gran relevancia en el proceso de enseñanza/aprendizaje, y es fundamental, por lo tanto, a las acciones desarrolladas en la escuela. Se intenta, aún, en este artículo, pensar sobre el concepto de libertad en la relación con a la imaginación, con objetivo de destacar la importancia de los procesos imaginativos para el desarrollo del sujeto. Aún, se realiza un análisis con relación al concepto de libertad, tal como propuesto por la Psicología Histórico-Cultural y su relación con la imaginación. El artículo se clausura destacándose la necesidad de avances en la comprensión de la imaginación y su importancia en la promoción del desarrollo de adolescentes y para la apropiación del conocimiento escolarizado.

Palabras clave:
imaginación; libertad; psicología histórico-cultural

INTRODUCTION

This article, of a theoretical nature, presents our understanding of the concept of imagination in the Lev Semionovitch Vigotski’s work, highlighting his contribution to the field of School/Educational Psychology. Therefore, the objective is to discuss the concept of imagination based on Historical-Cultural Psychology, highlighting its relation with the learning process, appropriation of knowledge and freedom. With regard to its organization, firstly, a brief overview of the research focused on the study of the imagination is presented with the objective of situating the field of investigation; then we discuss the conception of imagination in Historical-Cultural Psychology, inserting it as a Superior Psychological Function of great relevance to the development process of the subject and, finally, we discuss the relation between imagination and freedom, taking it as a function that allows the subject to come and go in different times and spaces, even those that he has never accessed empirically. The article ends by pointing out the importance of the imaginative process for the development of the subject and the need for education to consider the power of imagination in educational practices.

In the development of humanity, imagination played a key role in transforming the products of nature into cultural artifacts. According to Vigotski (2009), the inventions of ancient civilizations, such as hieroglyphics, for example, even the most advanced forms of writing and scientific, religious and artistic productions, ultimately derive, without any exception, from the human imagination.

The study of imagination has been a topic of interest since Ancient Greece. Plato, for example, understood the imagination as belonging to the soul, being passive and receptive in relation to the phenomena of the environment, approaching it as characteristics of the sense organs. Aristotle’s understanding, on the other hand, follows the opposite direction when considering it active power and integrated to the psychic dynamics, which moves the affections, reason and human will (Massimi, 2011; Tateo, 2016), a view that is similar to the one we will present and which are based on studies by Vigotski (2009).

In the West, Augustine of Hippo, better known as Saint Augustine, developed great reflections about the imagination and, according to the Christian philosopher, each man would retain in his memory the images of the external world, so that, upon hearing a word, it is possible to recognize the object through its image. This is what constitutes human thought, because for Augustine, the act of thinking required the presence of images placed in memory, ready to be made available to the imagination. In this sense, to know or think about a subject or object it would not be necessary to be present in the empirical situation (Massimi, 2011). And, for a long time, imagination was understood in this way - separately from reason, as the ability to produce images of reality that would only require the function of memory, a vision that favored its split with rationality (Tateo, 2016).

However, nowadays, in scientific productions of the last five years, the theme has been the focus of reflections from different areas and fields of knowledge, especially education and psychology, there seems to be a certain consensus that imagination is an indispensable function in educational process, fundamental for learning and also for the development of creativity. The latter, in particular, has been at the center of attention of several researchers in the field of psychology, in different approaches and practices (Arruda & Martínez, 2012; Maheirie et al., 2007; Mozzer & Borges, 2008; Silva & Nakano, 2012; Montezi & Souza, 2013).

Among these researches, one specifically proposed to analyze the bibliographic production on creativity. Silva and Nakano (2012) highlighted that most studies in the field of psychology, which focus on this theme and that of imagination, aim to develop assessment instruments that aim to provide parameters for creativity such as ability. They also note that most of the studies developed about the subject have children and adults as subjects, with adolescents being the least researched population. This approach to the theme of imagination departs from Vigotski’s conception, who understands it as a psychological function that is linked to other functions in the permanent movement that characterizes the psychological system.

Approaching the concept presented here, Castro, Mano and Ferreira (2011) claim that imagination is present in all human activity and is the result of human beings’ unsuitability to the existing reality. Such unsuitability works as a driving force to boost the creative activity, responsible for materializing what was imagined, pushing the subject to seek better conditions of existence. In the words of the authors, “those who are adapted to reality and in a harmonious relationship with the world cannot create anything” (p. 545), that is, alienation is one of the dimensions that limit the development of imagination in favor of human emancipation, and school education, with its function and structure, could produce critical thinking about reality, generating needs that drive the subject towards creative and emancipatory practices.

Internationally, we find some articles on imagination that start from Vigotski’s ideas (Andrée & Lager-Nyqvist, 2013; Fleer, 2013; Lindqvist, 2003; Tateo, 2016; Zittoun & Cerchia, 2013;). Most of these studies are of a theoretical nature and propose a reinterpretation of the author’s concept of imagination, two of which refer to empirical studies that aim to contribute to the understanding of the role of imagination in human development, among them, that of Zittoun and Cerchia (2013). The authors argue that imagination should not be understood only as a reproduction of reality, but also as a possibility of enrichment and expansion. This is because with the help of imagination, the subject is able to think about objects and phenomena whose visualization is not possible. It was found that fictitious situations, in which the subject needs to resort to imagination, can be a way of developing thinking and expanding the experience of children and adolescents.

The second empirical study found, carried out by Fleer (2013), investigated the influence of imaginary situations on the appropriation of scientific concepts by 3 and 4-year-old children. For this, the experiences of three teachers who used narratives of fairy tales to teach students such concepts were analyzed. During the storytelling meetings, the students presented experiences that enabled them to understand different phenomena, favored learning and the development of consciousness, making it possible to configure such experiences through imagination. It was also found that children reconfigured meanings of life through engagement in scientific conversations, mediated by the narrative of fairy tales, that is, by mobilizing imagination linked to thinking through concepts, which leads to the learning of scientific concepts. In this process, the teacher’s mediation helped the children to regulate their attention, developing a new form to perceive when they turned to aspects of their daily life, but proposing a way of perceiving and scientific knowledge, expanding their ways of seeing themselves and the world.

For us, both empirical studies are of esteemed relevance, as they reveal that imagination, far from being dissociated from reason, when understood linked to it, can be conducive to school practices that promote knowledge, development, and enrich experiences aimed at learning schooled content. In this article, we will bring our understandings developed from studies by the research group PROSPED (Processos de Constituição do Sujeito em Práticas Educativas)¹, based on Historical-Cultural Psychology, on the way we understand imagination and its relation with the learning process, appropriation of knowledge and the idea of freedom.

THE CONCEPTION OF IMAGINATION IN HISTORICAL-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY

Understanding the concept of imagination in Vigotski is not an easy task, similar to what happens with the study of the other higher psychological functions that the author postulates as constituents of the psychological system. Imagination in Vigotski’s work (2009) can be understood as a superior psychological function and, therefore, its nature and origin emanate from the subject’s experiences and are sustained in the interrelationships of other psychological functions (Vigotski, 2009).

Therefore, to understand the imagination it is necessary to reflect about its origin, and the study of other functions, such as perception, memory, thought and speech, offers subsidies to access its genesis. This is because, according to Vigotski (2009), imagination is based on the experience and development of some psychological functions, albeit at a not so elaborate level, and it is a premise for the information in the environment to be signified or accessed by the subject, composing, therefore, the repertoire of his experience.

In this sense, it is important to consider that the experience is different in each age group or depending on the level of knowledge of reality and, therefore, an adult who has some knowledge about art or history, for example, will have a totally different experience when enter the Sistine Chapel compared to a person who has never heard of Michelangelo or the Vatican. The external context is the same, but the possibilities of meaning and attribution of meaning are totally different and, therefore, the experience will also be different (Vigotski, 2010).

Understanding the experience from this perspective means considering that imagination “tiene siempre una larga historia tras de s픲 (Vigotski, 2009, p. 14) and, therefore, imagination in children, adolescents and adults acts in very different ways, since the repertoire of experiences is at stake. That is, the teenager has more possibilities to imagine than the child, however, commonly, the child is seen as the one with the imagination more available to act in reality, which can be explained by the spontaneity present in it, and absent in the teenager who cares about the judgments of others (Vigotski, 2009).

According to Vigotski (2009), imagination throughout the process of development of the subject, integrates him to reality in four ways or levels, which must be understood as permanent processes that integrate subject and environment, involving from the simplest to the most complex forms. The more developed the psychological functions, the greater the possibilities for the subject to access reality, and the opposite is also true, since imagination is integrated into the entire psychological system, and the development of a psychological function implies the restructuring of the system as all.

The first relationship between imagination and reality is the fusion of both. All content that elucidates the imagination has its origin in elements taken from reality, derives from and depends on the direct experience of the subject. At this first level, which is usually characteristic of young children, imagination is supported by the triad: perception, speech and memory (Vigotski, 2009).

Perception is responsible for capturing information and external objects, which are meant with the help of speech and stored in memory. These processes constitute both the child’s imagination and thinking. In this way, in the small child, memory, perception, imagination and thought work together and merged, to later differentiate themselves.

In this sense, for the child to imagine is to think through images, a process that refers to the internalization of objects with the help of memory, perception and speech. The child needs external elements to imagine, which can be easily noticed during play activities.

Throughout human development, the basis of imagination will always be concrete, in the sense of emanating from the needs and interests that are built from the subject-environment relation, but its action will not always be dependent on the visual-direct dimension, as in this first one stage described by Vigotski. From adolescence onwards, imagination cannot be defined as a reflection of the concrete situation in which the subject lives, since its functioning becomes more complex and is expanded as a function of the leap that occurs in the development of the psyche at that moment in life. This is because the main pillars that support imagination (perception, memory, speech, among others) are internalized by the subject and the predominance is of the order of semantics, sense, meaning and concept (Vigotski, 2009).

This advance of imagination considerably expands the subject’s experience, who is able to perceive facts and phenomena that are beyond direct observation and constitute the second level of the relations between imagination and reality (Vigotski, 2009). This level is more complex than the previous one, since the relationship between imagination and reality is not interdependent, or only occurs in the presence of external-visual objects. The subject accesses the experience from concepts transmitted and learned by the narrative of another(s). For example, I may not have lived in the period of Ancient Rome, but when accessing its historical characteristics, getting to know some of its artists and their works, this knowledge becomes part of my experience and, therefore, constitutes content for the imagination.

The third level of connection between imagination and reality proposed by Vygotsky (2009), has the affective dimension - emotion - as central, as the author understands that all feelings and emotions interfere in the way we apprehend reality, to the point that our affections become congruent with the images, impressions and ideas of reality. In the words of Vigotski (2009): “bien buen sabido es que, cuando estamos alegres vemos com ojos totalmente distintos de cuando estamos melancólicos” (p. 9)³.

The opposite is also easily observed, when external factors or objects cause us feelings and emotions of a similar nature. To exemplify this idea, Vigotski (2009) gives the example of colors: “ El hombre simboliza com el color negra al dolor y al luto; com el blanco a la alegría; com el azul la tranquilidade; la insurreccín com el rojo” (p. 10)⁴. This fact is known and called Common Emotional Sign, which refers to a combination of images and events that have the same affective basis. Thus, there is an intense link among imagination, emotion and thought. Its essence focuses on the following idea: everything that builds the imagination reciprocally influences our feelings and thoughts and vice versa, and this structure does not agree with an external logic, but an internal one to the subject.

In this sense, from the third form reported by Vigotski (2009), it is possible to affirm that the separation between intellectual and affective aspects in the constitution of thought is one of the main mistakes of psychology. When this split occurs, the possibility of explaining the causes of thought and imaginative processes ends, because an analysis that adopts the totality of the phenomenon takes into account that, at the basis of every action, there is a motive, a need and interests. The same occurs in the reverse process, the affective bases are the way to understand how the imagination is constituted and acts in each subject (Vigotski, 1991; 2009).

The fourth and last form highlighted by Vygotsky (2009) as the relationship between imagination and reality refers to the content of imagination, which can be objectified as something new, formed from the association and dissociation of the elements of reality. This relationship can be understood as the most advanced, which closes and opens, at the same time, the dialectical movement of the singular-particular-universal in the production of the creative act which, in turn, involves a complex process of elaboration and internalization of possible phenomena to be grasped from reality. Certain aspects or characteristics of the environment are apprehended, which are stored in memory, and others are lost because they are not capable of meaning and attribution of meaning.

Thus, the process consists of the dissociation of objects or phenomena apprehended from reality, according to the possibilities of attribution of meanings and senses by the subject, and the grouping of information accessed, which are integrated into the subject’s repertoire of knowledge. In general, this process produces new associations that, when objectified, transform the environment and the subject. Therefore, imagination works in the transformation of man, it is creative, it starts from the abstract, creates and transforms the concrete in a permanent process that ascends to more elaborate and complex levels, as the subject advances in development.

We believe that knowledge plays a fundamental role in this process, not in the sense of providing certainties, answers, but of provoking questions, doubts, malaise, imbalances, among other feelings that put imagination and creativity in motion. In this sense, to promote the development of the creative process, it is not enough to expand and enrich the subject’s experience, it is necessary to create situations in which the conceptual system is exercised, challenged, set in motion and objectified in reality.

Often, this creative dimension is understood in a naturalized way, as a characteristic of some people, limiting itself to the great geniuses who marked our history. However, according to Vigotski (2009), everyone is able to create, and creation is not only related to great inventions, but is related to any combinatorial action of pre-existing elements in the physical and social environment and is born from man’s constant need to develop new ways of thinking and acting in reality. The author also states that creative action requires the transmission of thought in words, involves awareness and mastery of thought itself. So creating is work.

Having explained the four levels or forms of relationship between imagination and reality, it is important to emphasize that these must be understood not as isolated processes, which evolve in a growing continuum, but which act together and simultaneously, and at times there may be a prevalence of a certain aspect, which in no way excludes the participation of others. And understanding them helps us understand the role of imagination in human development.

Studying the works of Vigotski (1998; 2009) in which he deals with imagination, the importance he gives to this Superior Psychological Function in the development of the psyche becomes evident. Imagination would be linked to all psychological functions when they become superior, that is, it is what gives them the mediated character, since the quality of superior is equivalent to the process of meaning that constitute them. An example of this understanding is Vigotski’s (2001) explanation that the word is the child’s first form of generalization, that is, when naming a certain object, the child assigns meanings to it that he will use to recognize it in other situations and, in doing so, him, he needs to imagine that the characteristics he identifies in the real object are equivalent to the word he uses to name it. This process, still tied to the material world, advances gradually, as the child is inserted into new interactive contexts, in which they access other cultural productions. In this movement, the relations among psychological functions are expanded, building nexuses that constitute greater complexity to psychological functioning, while thinking by concept, for example, which is based on abstraction, becomes possible for the subject.

Abstraction, in turn, is only carried out by the action of imagination, that is, the development of thought by concept is only effective when the subject is able to detach himself from objects in the real world to think, explain, understand principles and concepts. For example, it is one thing to understand the growth of a plant by observing it, measuring it and recording its evolution; another is to understand the rotation and translation movements of the Earth without being able to perceive or observe them, or with the perception that one is stopped in space and time. Or yet, understand the speed of light, or the theory of relativity, which requires great imaginative effort to understand. The more abstract and complex the concept, the more the work of imagination is demanded from the psyche.

It is clear that thinking by concept, or abstract thinking, also demands other functions that produce new relations characterizing the complex functioning of every psyche, that is, the psyche, as Vigotski (2001) understands it, is a system and a once one function is changed, all the others change as a result of new relations among them. It is in this sense that the author will say that the structure of higher psychological functions does not change, because what changes are the relationships they establish, giving a new quality to psychological functioning.

Thus, the importance of all psychological functions in promoting the development of the subject, it is possible to affirm that imagination, in adolescence, assumes prevalence, acting in the development of abstract thinking and favoring creative processes. Hence the importance of investing in the mobilization of imagination in educational contexts, since it is fundamental to the appropriation of knowledge, especially those taught in the final years of Elementary School and High School, which are characterized by abstraction and complexity.

The dialectical movement that characterizes psychological functioning allows us to affirm that, in this sense, the more concepts the subject has mastery, the more developed his imagination will be. A second proposition incorporates the first, since in the apprehension of concepts, especially those that are more abstract and complex, the articulation and relation among the concepts already apprehended by the subject is necessary. And each time he appropriates new concepts, new relationships are established, promoting new syntheses among the conceptual system (Vigotski, 2009). Still, another idea that we are interested in defending is related to emotion and concerns the needs and feelings that permeate adolescence. Often, desires or needs that are not possible to be fulfilled find a form of expression in the imagination.

Fleer (2013), a scholar of the concept of imagination in Vygotsky, developed the concept of affective imagination referring to a process that she calls empathic in which the subject is able to think and reflect on other people’s feelings and emotions, highlighting the role of stories in arousing this process in young children. We can extend this concept and generalize to the art world in general as a possibility to awaken this kind of imagination.

Finally, we defend the idea of ​​imagination as mobilizing the possibility for the subject to project himself into the future, insofar as it favors the production of horizons to which to address himself (Tateo, 2016). Their aspirations and motives materialize in certain images and meanings and produce the becoming. In other words, imagination also makes the future present, which increases its importance even more in schooling processes, since positive and negative aspects compete in this process of materialization and meaning of the future. Therefore, it is urgent to reflect with educators about the potential of imagination in the production of meanings and the relationship of meanings with the production of becoming.

Such functionalities that permeate the development of the imagination can be synthesized and contemplated in a characteristic of extreme importance in the constitution of the human and which is one of the main pillars of the Historical-Cultural theory: freedom. The more developed the subject’s imagination, the greater his possibilities of being free.

IMAGINATION AND FREEDOM

The concept of freedom is often understood from a liberal point of view, referring to the detachment of the subject from the social, as if it - freedom - the will and interest emanated from the subject himself. In this way of understanding, freedom is associated with a break with the rules and social determinations that, many times, have at their base only the sensation generated by the transgression of such laws. On the other hand, other theories of psychology have the conception that the social determines human development and that, therefore, freedom would be something unattainable, a utopia, as we would always be subject to social constraints (Sawaia, 2009).

This conception of freedom is criticized by Sawaia (2009), as it cancels out what is most important to man: his uniqueness. In his words:

The psychologist, often out of fear of psychologism and the reduction of the individual to himself, isolated from the social, tends to abandon the subject, his joys and sufferings, everything that represents the singular, and turns exclusively to analysis and analysis action in social determinations. He thus creates a deadly trap for his praxis: if the subject is an object that cannot defend itself against social determinations, there is no place for the idea of ​​transforming society; or, since subjectivity is a mechanical effect of the presence of capitalism and individuation is exclusively the subjectivation of socio-historical processes of submission, it remains for us only to know and criticize the mechanisms of training (p. 365).

The author criticizes the fact that in this process the social is taken as a determinant of development and forgets important dimensions for the understanding of freedom such as affections, thought and imagination. It corroborates, therefore, the concept of freedom in Vigotski (2006), which does not start from the liberal conception, nor from social determinism, but seeks to break with the individual/social split, proposing a dialectical understanding of this relation. For the author, the concept of freedom is related to the appropriation of the social by the subject, based on the logic that the more the subject knows himself, the greater his possibilities of freedom. This meaning is affiliated with the idea of Espinosa (1957), a philosopher who studied in depth when he was still young, for whom being free is equivalent to knowing the causes of the happy or sad affections that take us in our lives. That is, if I know the causes of my affections, I can act on them and then free myself from their yoke. A movement, however, that depends on imagination as a possibility to go beyond the limits of the real, of my geographical and temporal condition, to project myself in situations that, although fictitious, can be lived with real emotions.

This kind of experience involves both the conditions of the environment and the affections, needs and interests of the subject. Therefore, here lies our concern with the learning and development of adolescents.

Therefore, the scope of freedom must always be understood as a long process that involves cooperation, as it is only effective in and with the collective. According to Delari Junior (2013), cooperation, overcoming and emancipation would be the ethical principles of Vigotski’s theory and would be at the base of the idea of ​​freedom. Overcoming refers to the belief in the subject’s ability to develop, surpassing their own limits once social situations are present that favor it. In other words, overcoming is not effected by individual action, but requires the cooperation of other people, which can constitute a reason for the subject to cooperate with himself.

It is through the union of these two principles - overcoming and cooperation - that emancipation becomes possible, understood by us as the human capacity to think beyond the given reality, which has at its base the awareness of oneself and the surrounding world. Emancipation, however, can only be achieved in and with the collective, since emancipating oneself from this perspective demands building with others in relationships the same conditions of overcoming and cooperation. That is, no one emancipates himself alone, without the collective also reaching this condition.

From this perspective, freedom can be understood as the ability of the subject to guide his actions and choices based on the knowledge of the reasons for these actions and choices, therefore, Vigotski (2006) states that the only way to conquer freedom is through the development of the thinking through concepts, which favors ways of understanding the world in a critical and complex way, based on abstractions and generalizations that allow for a broader meaning of the world.

The freedom acquired through knowledge allows the subject to imagine other modes of relationship, favoring overcoming and facilitating cooperation, by allowing him to understand his own and others’ needs and emotions. Thus, imagination is a condition for freedom, because it is through it that we are able to recreate our past, project our future, put our needs and interests into action and, therefore, assume the leading role in our stories.

Sawaia (2009), when adopting the assumptions of Spinoza’s philosophy and Vigotski’s theory, highlights the important role of imagination in human freedom, which is based on emotions and thought. According to the author, every emotion makes use of the imagination, as it makes it possible to expand the human experience, to understand one’s own and others’ emotions. Only with the integration of thought, affection and imagination freedom becomes possible, in the sense of placing the subject as the author of his story, capable of projecting himself in different situations, recognizing himself, or being strange, before doing something. your choices and make your decisions. It is worth saying that the greater the freedom of the subject, the greater their possibilities of imagination.

That is why the question of imagination is so important and deserves to be studied and worked on in conjunction with educational contexts, as it will allow the expansion of the subject’s experience, offering greater possibilities to think about oneself and the world, guiding development towards the liberty.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

In the preceding items, we sought to reflect on the imagination as a Superior Psychological Function and its contribution to the appropriation of knowledge, emphasizing thinking by concept, necessary for the mastery of abstract knowledge, for the process of subject development and the conquest of freedom as a horizon of a life conscious of oneself, of the other and of one’s role in the world.

This understanding, based on Vigotski’s postulations about the constitution and functioning of the human psyche, leads to a reflection on the importance of social contexts in offering conditions that promote the development of the subject. Among these contexts, the school is highlighted, precisely because it constitutes itself as a collective space that favors interactions with the diversity of norms and values, and access to new knowledge, which becomes more complex as the subject advances in schooling.

Imagination enables man to appropriate and transform his concrete reality, create and recreate forms of existence, thus favoring the advancement of human productions - material and symbolic (Vigotski, 2009). This understanding makes the link between imagination and school education indispensable, as most of the concepts taught in it are abstract and require imagination for their appropriation, access and understanding (Barbosa & Souza, 2015). The greater the complexity of the concepts, the greater the need to mobilize the imagination (Souza, 2016), and in this sense lies our understanding that psychology can greatly contribute to the explanation of the relationship between imagination and learning.

The concept of imagination in Vigotski allows us to think about different actions and paths in school education, especially in the performance of the school psychologist. In our research and interventions working with the concept of imagination, we have seen its important role in the production of horizons and becoming that promote development. What we find is that not only the physical and social environments are materialized as a source of development, but also the imagined environment. This finding was possible from our studies and intervention proposals in schools with adolescents, developing storytelling and story production activities, in partnership with Portuguese language teachers (Barbosa, 2012; Souza, 2016; Barbosa & Souza, 2010).

In this article, we highlight the need for imagination to be considered in all spheres of Basic Education, as a condition for the formation of the student. However, beyond the student, imagination, understood as a psychological function that favors the visualization of horizons, would not be an important element to think about teacher training, their working conditions and possibilities of overcoming teaching conditions and conflicts? What would be the horizons of teachers in relation to their profession? Could it be that the lack of attractiveness of the profession, or even the high rates of illness and dropout, is not rooted in this horizon, or the absence of it? How do teachers imagine students’ horizons?

These are questions that point to the limitations of this study, but that justify the plausibility of investing in other studies on the theme of imagination in education and beckons for new research topics that overcome the centrality of imagination only in early childhood education. Thus, there are many ways that need to be thought and contemplated for imagination to have its deserved place in school and in the understanding of human development, offering many possibilities and practical and theoretical challenges for school psychology.

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• 1
  Processes of the Subject’s Constitution in Educational Practices.
• 2
  “has a long history behind itself”.
• 3
  “has a long history behind itself”.
• 4
  “Well, you know that, when we are happy, we see with totally different eyes from when we are melancholic”

• Work carried out with funding from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq)
• This paper was translated from Portuguese by Ana Maria Pereira Dionísio.
• 5
  “The man symbolizes pain and mourning with the black color; like white to joy; with the blue the tranquility; the insurrection with the red”

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  22 June 2022
• Date of issue
  2022

History

• Received
  06 May 2019
• Accepted
  23 Sept 2019