Children Learn by Observing and Contributing to Family and Community Endeavors: A Cultural Paradigm (eBook)

Front Cover 1
Children Learn by Observing and Contributing to Family and Community Endeavors: A Cultural Paradigm 4
Copyright 5
Contents 6
Contributors 14
Chapter One: A Cultural Paradigm-Learning by Observing and Pitching In 16
1. Introduction 17
2. What Are Key Features of Learning by Observing and Pitching In? 19
3. The Chapters of This Volume Deepen Understanding of LOPIs Facets 1-6 21
4. Facet 7. Assessment 24
4.1. Known-Answer Quizzing in School Lessons and Evaluation 26
4.2. Known-Answer Quizzing or Supportive Guidance with Toddlers 27
4.3. Meeting Up with Tests 30
5. The Power of Paradigms 31
5.1. Paradigm Shifts by Individuals 31
5.2. Paradigm Shifts by Institutions 31
5.3. Learning to Navigate Several Paradigms 33
Acknowledgments 33
References 33
Section I: Children Observing And Pitching In 38
Chapter Two: Collaborative Work or Individual Chores: The Role of Family Social Organization in Children´s Learning to Co ... 40
1. Introduction 41
2. Cultural Variations in Child Collaboration at Home and in Community Endeavors 42
3. Family Activities in Cherán and Guadalajara 43
4. Collaboration in Family Work Among the Purhépecha Families from Cherán 45
5. Cosmopolitan Children´s Involvement in Work at Home 48
6. Initiative, Autonomy, and Learning in Collaboration 50
7. Generating Collaboration, Initiative, and Considerateness by Working Together 53
7.1. Co-Laborating and Developing Consideration for Others 54
8. Chores as an Individual Responsibility 55
9. Parents Conceptions of How Collaboration in Work Is Part of Education and Development 58
10. When School Ways Replace LOPI, Important Skills and Values Are Lost 61
11. Family Social Organization for Children´s Development Through Co-Laboration 62
Acknowledgments 63
References 64
Chapter Three: Children´s Everyday Learning by Assuming Responsibility for Others: Indigenous Practices as a Cultural Her ... 68
1. Introduction 69
2. The Cultural Value System of Cuidado or Assuming Responsibility 72
3. Generational Changes and Cultural Continuity in the Community of San Jerónimo Amanalco 74
4. Continuity Across Two Generations: Children, Nahua Age Groups, and Cuidado Practices 77
5. Four Settings for Practices Where the Value of Stewardship is Learned and Responsibility for Others Is Assumed: A Pers ... 82
5.1. Stewardship of the Milpa, or Cornfield 82
5.2. The Raising, Fostering, and Protection of Domestic Animals 84
5.3. The Indigenous Practices of Stewardship Related to Bodily Health and Balance 90
5.4. Participation in Family Ceremonial Life: Assuming Responsibility for the Souls of the Departed in the Day of the Dea ... 94
6. Conclusions 96
6.1. Social Organization of Stewardship Practices, and Its Relation with the Tradition of Learning by Observing and Pitch ... 96
6.2. Continuities in a Context of Change: Learning and the Value of Stewardship in the Face of Increased Formal Schooling ... 98
Acknowledgments 102
References 102
Chapter Four: Supporting Children´s Initiative: Appreciating Family Contributions or Paying Children for Chores 106
1. Introduction 107
2. Aspects of Learning by Observing and Pitching In (LOPI) Supporting Children’s Collaborative Initiative 108
2.1. Children´s Integration and Initiative in Mature Family and Community Endeavors 109
2.2. Parents Support Children´s Autonomous Helping and Avoid Controlling Children´s Involvement 110
2.3. Cultural Values and Expectations That Emphasize Children Helping Without Being Asked 112
3. Attempts to Control Children´s Compliance in Divided and Assigned Family Work 113
4. Domingos as Part of LOPI, a Paradigm Supporting Children´s Collaborative Initiative 115
5. Use of Domingos Versus Allowances in Relation to Children´s Help at Home 116
5.1. Cultural Differences in Giving Children Domingos Versus Allowances 117
5.2. Cultural Values, Goals, and Assumed Benefits of Domingos and Allowances 118
6. Distinct Cultural Approaches to Encouraging Children´s Learning and Helpfulness 121
7. Domingos, LOPI, and Expanding Motivational Theories with Cultural Research 121
Acknowledgments 124
References 124
Chapter Five: Adults Orientation of Children-And Children´s Initiative to Pitch In-To Everyday Adult Activities in a Tsot ... 128
1. Introduction 128
2. The Study and the Community 130
3. Children´s Initiative in Three Everyday Activities 131
3.1. Activity1. ``Mar Washes clothes´´ 132
3.1.1. Fragment 1: Mar´s Initiative 133
3.1.2. Fragment 2. Guidance and Support in Finding the Work Materials 135
3.1.3. Fragment 3. Guidance and Support in Concrete Actions to Execute the Activity 135
3.1.4. Fragment 4. Final Process in the Activity (Hanging the Sweater) 136
3.2. Activity2: ``Beto Shelling beans´´ 138
3.2.1. Fragment 1: Initiative 139
3.2.2. Fragment 2. The Grandmother Helps Beto Distinguish a Rotten Bean Pod from a Good One 140
3.2.3. Fragment 3. The Grandmother Helps Beto Realize That Only the Hulls Are Thrown Away 141
3.3. Activity3. ``Beto (Age 3) Takes Initiative in Construction´´ 143
3.3.1. Fragment 1: Initiative 143
3.3.2. Fragment 2. Beto´s Initiative and Insistence 144
3.3.3. Fragment 3. Beto´s Reinvolvement in the Activity 145
4. Contributions to the LOPI Model 147
References 149
Chapter Six: Respect and Autonomy in Children´s Observation and Participation in Adults Activities 152
1. Introduction 152
2. Learning to ``Be Like People´´ in the Quechua Region 154
3. Quechua Notions of Respect and Autonomy 156
4. Children´s Participation by Observing Activities 158
5. Learning in the Framework of Caretaking and Upbringing as Experienced by Children 161
6. The Development of Capacities for Autonomy 164
References 166
Chapter Seven: Mayan Children´s Creation of Learning Ecologies by Initiative and Cooperative Action 168
1. Introduction 169
2. The Study 171
3. Children´s Cooperation and Learning in Situated Learning Ecologies 172
3.1. Learning Ecology 1: The Child Takes Initiative to Contribute to an Ongoing Task 176
3.2. Learning Ecology 2: Providing Guidance as a Result of the Learner´s Initiative 181
3.3. Learning Ecology 3: Occasional Monitoring of the Near Competent Child 186
4. Conclusions 190
Acknowledgments 194
References 195
Chapter Eight: Children´s Avoidance of Interrupting Others Activities in Requesting Help: Cultural Aspects of Considerateness 200
1. Cultural Values Related to Considerateness in Collaboration 202
2. Cultural Differences in Children´s Requests for Help With Considerateness 204
3. Unobtrusive Nonverbal Communication in Coordinating with Others 204
4. Experience with Cultural Practices in Indigenous Mexican Heritage and Western Schooling 205
5. The Situation: Requesting Help to Make a Toy 208
6. Coding Children´s Efforts to Avoid Interrupting 209
7. The Two Mexican-Heritage Backgrounds Were Similar4 210
8. US Mexican-Heritage Children More Commonly Avoided Interruption of the Adult´s Activity than the European American ESE ... 211
9. Most Requests Avoiding Interruption Were Nonverbal Among US Mexican-Heritage Children 213
10. Values and Contexts: When Respeto Goes to School 214
11. Considerate Coordination of Activities as Social/Cognitive Skill 216
Acknowledgments 216
References 217
Chapter Nine: Young Children´s Attention to What´s Going On: Cultural Differences 222
1. Introduction 223
2. Third-Party Attention in a Quasi-Naturalistic Setting 225
3. The Children and Their Communities 227
4. The Context of the Home Visit 228
5. Coding the Child´s Attention During Opportunities for Third-Party Attention 229
6. Direct Involvement and Opportunities for Third-Party Attention 230
7. Cultural Differences in Young Children´s Third-Party Attention 231
7.1. Third-Party Attention 231
7.2. Other Foci of Attention 232
8. Children´s Brief Glances Without Signs of Interest in Learning 233
9. Considering the Generality of Cultural Differences in Third-Party Attention 233
10. What Might Explain the Pattern of Results? 234
10.1. How May Attentiveness to Surrounding Events Be Encouraged by Families and Communities? 235
10.2. How Might Attention to One´s Own Activity Be Encouraged by Families and Communities? 236
10.3. How Might an Emphasis on Attending to Surrounding Events Function in Schools? 237
10.4. Attentiveness to Surrounding Events May Foster Children´s Learning 238
Acknowledgments 239
References 239
Chapter Ten: Día de los Muertos: Learning About Death Through Observing and Pitching In 244
1. Introduction 245
2. Details of Día de los Muertos 245
3. Día de los Muertos and Surrounding Events 247
3.1. Lead-Up to Día de los Muertos 247
3.1.1. Learning About Día de los Muertos in Public Schools 248
3.1.2. Trips to el Mercado 248
3.1.3. Preparing the Family Ofrendas 249
3.1.4. Visiting Ofrendas at Homes in Tlapanalá, Puebla 253
3.2. The Dead Return to the Living 254
3.3. Visits to the Cemetery 256
3.3.1. Decoration of the Graves and Offerings 256
3.3.2. Family Time at the Cemetery 257
3.3.3. Vigil 257
4. Children´s Perspectives on Día de los Muertos 258
5. Conclusion 261
References 263
Section II: Learning by Observing and Pitching in (LOPI) Fits with Cultural Cosmovisions 266
Chapter Eleven: Conceptions of Educational Practices Among the Nahuas of Mexico: Past and Present 268
1. Introduction 269
2. Two Sorts of Knowledge in Nahuatl Ideology About Learning and Teaching 271
2.1. Knowledge Inside the Individual (Base mat-) 272
2.2. Shared or Shareable Knowledge or the Known (Base mach-) 273
3. Nahuatl Theories on the Person and Educative Attitudes 273
3.1. Soul, Interiority and the Powerlessness of Educators 274
3.2. Teachers, Wise Persons, and Elders in Education 275
3.3. Principal Aspects of Educative Guidance 276
4. Promoting Learning by Observing and Pitching In 277
4.1. Facilitating Copresence 277
4.2. Making ``the Known´´ Available to Children 279
4.2.1. No Secrets for Daily Activities, Skills, and Tools 279
4.2.2. Making Acts and Their Results Apparent 280
4.3. Training Attention Through Fulfilling Specific Tasks 280
4.4. Preparing Responsibility Step by Step 281
4.5. Encouraging Keen Attention Through Advice 283
4.6. Valuing Calm, Care, and Patience 283
References 285
Chapter Twelve: Learning to Inhabit the Forest: Autonomy and Interdependence of Lives from a Mbya-Guarani Perspective 288
1. Introduction 289
2. Environment, Learning, and Interdependence of Lives 292
3. Growing up Through Learning Environmentally Relevant Skills 295
4. An Integrated Ecological Cosmology Emphasizing Learning by Participation Rather Than Dividing Individual Versus Collective 298
Acknowledgments 301
References 301
Chapter Thirteen: Learning and Human Dignity Are Built Through Observation and Participation in Work 304
1. Introduction 304
2. The Performance of tunk-pëjkk (Work) Dignifies People 306
3. A Human/Person (jääy) Is a Socio-Natural Entity 307
4. Reciprocity Between the Work of the People, of the Domestic Animals, and of the Elements and Phenomena of the Earth-Nature 308
5. Work and Collaboration 310
6. Learning to Work by Means of Observation and Participation 312
7. Observation and Creativity 313
8. Repertoires of Practice and Variability 314
References 316
Chapter Fourteen: Learning by Observing, Pitching in, and Being in Relations in the Natural World 318
1. Introduction 318
2. Why Cultural Ecologies? 320
3. More-Than-Human (MTH) Conceptions of Communities 320
4. The Role of Attention to MTH Agency in Adult-Child Interactions 324
Acknowledgments 326
References 326
Chapter Fifteen: Using History to Analyze the Learning by Observing and Pitching In Practices of Contemporary Mesoamerica ... 330
1. Introduction 331
2. Indigenous Knowledge Systems and LOPI 333
3. Historical Continuity and LOPI 337
3.1. Communal Labor 337
3.2. Trueque, a Community System of Reciprocal Exchange 340
3.3. Respeto and Reciprocity 343
4. History as a Tool in the Analysis of Indigenous-Heritage Communities 345
5. Conclusion: Historical Observations of LOPI Practices 351
References 354
Chapter Sixteen: ``My Teacher Is Going to Think Theyre Crazy´´: Responses to LOPI Practices in U.S. First-Grade Classrooms 356
1. Introduction 357
2. First Graders in the United States Using LOPI 358
2.1. Everyday Routines of Observing and Pitching In 359
3. Using Film to Compare Responses to Ms. Bailey´s Classroom 360
4. That Will Not Work for the Children at Our School 361
5. Teachers Responses to the Film 363
5.1. Exception to the Teachers Responses 364
6. Parents Responses to the Film 366
7. First-Graders Responses to the Film 367
8. Strong Messages about Learning and Behavior 368
9. Deficit Ideas and Learning Practices 369
Acknowledgments 370
References 370
Chapter Seventeen: Learning by Observing and Pitching In and the Connections to Native and Indigenous Knowledge Systems 372
1. Introduction 373
2. Violence, Erasure, and Native Peoples 374
3. Native and Indigenous Education 376
4. Native Resistance(s) and Agency in Education 378
5. Neoliberal Bi/Multi/Inter/Pluricultural Education 380
6. Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Learning by Observing and Pitching In 382
7. LOPIs Contributions for Understanding IKS and Indigenous Learning Pedagogy 384
8. Conclusion 390
Acknowledgments 391
References 391
Chapter Eighteen: Children´s Participation in Ceremonial Life in Bali: Extending LOPI to Other Parts of the World 396
1. Introduction 397
2. Methodological Considerations 399
3. Children´s Participation in Community Activities in Bali: A Form to Belong and Contribute 399
4. The Community Spirit: To Belong as a Sense of Collectiveness 401
5. Social Organization of Learning Settings for Children to Participate in the Gamelan Orchestra 403
6. The Importance of Gamelan Music in Bali 404
7. Informal Settings for Learning Music: The Family and Community 405
8. Formal Settings for Learning Gamelan Music: Rehearsals in the Community Academy of Arts 409
9. Gamelan Music as a Way to Build Character and Devotion to the Social Environment 412
10. Final Reflections 414
References 415
Author Index 416
Subject Index 416
Contents of Previous Volumes 434
Back Cover 451