Abstract
We analyze the discourse on human development in educational psychology manuals written for teacher training. “Recapitulation theory” is seen in this discourse. This theory, developed by Ersnt Haeckel in the field of embryology in the late nineteenth century, asserts that individuals pass through different development stages that correspond to the adult form of their ancestors in the evolutionary sequence. It was appropriated by psychology and served as an explanatory model for various different aspects of development, for everything from individual and group differences in the shape and size of the brain to the evolution of language and morals. The analysis refers to the writings of Michel Foucault on discourse analysis and to those of Nikolas Rose on the history of psychology.
Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919; Michel Foucault (1926-1984; Nikolas Rose (1947; developmental psychology; teacher training