Academic Perezhivanie, University Education, Human Development: Vygotsky’s Contributions to Higher Education

Abstract

This study aims to develop the concept of academic perezhivanie, based on Vygotsky’s concept of perejivânie (perezhivanie), as understood in the works that belong to the final phase of his life (Vygotski, 1934/2018a; Vygotski, 1934/2006a). In understanding perezhivanie as a dynamic unit of consciousness, we find an important conceptual key to understand the psychological university students’ development. We showed that the relation between students and training practices in Higher Education produces academic perezhivanie that mobilize awareness and guide the senses about what it means to be a student and professional in a given area, resulting in transformations that generate new ways of thinking, feelings in university students and positions towards academic life. In this way, the concept of academic perezhivanie constitutes an important tool for the analysis of academic success and failure processes, the quality of training practices and assistance policies and student permanence, as it constitutes a qualitative indicator of university life.