Western educational researchers have eagerly accepted activity theory (AT) also known as cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) to collect and analyze data in rich description of complex situations. As this theory is applicable to a wide variety of disciplines, this review is limited to education and specifically to qualitative studies of kindergarten to twelfth grade (K-12) during the last decade. Of the 1577 articles retrieved, 21 articles were found to actually use CHAT theoretical constructs such as the unit of analysis, mediation, and internalization/externalization of learning implying some difficulty with the inherent complexity of the theory. The significance of this overview includes a brief history of the theory's development, examples of effective use of CHAT in a specific area of educational research, a discussion of the theory's strengths and weaknesses, as well as theoretical utility for the researcher and practitioner contemplating the use of this framework. (Contains 4 figures and 2 tables.)