Vygotsky in Science Education research: the dialogue between past and future perspectives

Vygotsky’s ideas have been present in Brazilian science education for more than three decades. Nevertheless, communication across studies remains limited. This study aims to examine whether the findings reported by Bonfim, Solino, and Gehlen in dissertations and theses reflect the trends observed in journal articles. The corpus analyzed includes papers published by science education researchers affiliated with research groups that explicitlyidentify the Cultural-Historical Theory as their framework. The results indicate that such a relationship does exist; however, the analysis suggests a ten-year gap between the two types of publication. When examining relative research output, certain categories – such as special education and didactic-pedagogical practices – show growth trends, while others, including teacher education and non-formal learning environments, remain stable. By contrast, the category addressing student and/or teacher perceptions displays a declining trend.