Foundations of Piaget’s and Vigotski’s theories and their potential in school cartography: assumptions for initial teacher education

Abstract

This article discusses the potential contributions of learning and development theories to the field of School Cartography, with a particular focus on the initial education of Geography teachers. School Cartography is understood as an interdisciplinary field situated at the intersection of Education, Geography and Cartography, and has been increasingly recognized as a domain that examines theories, methodologies and practices aimed at understanding the inseparability of cartographic language from the processes of teaching and learning Geography. The study outlines the historical development of this field in Brazil, initially grounded in Piaget’s Genetic Epistemology and, more recently, informed by Vygotsky’s Historical-Cultural Theory, emphasizing their distinct conceptions of development and learning, as well as their implications for educational practice. The article aims to: provide an overview of the foundational principles of both theories; examine their intersections with research in School Cartography; and demonstrate how these theoretical frameworks inform the thematic and methodological structure of a proposed School Cartography course within undergraduate Geography teacher education programs in Brazil.