Andrew D. Coppens

Children's Initiative in Contributions to Family Work in Indigenous-Heritage and Cosmopolitan Communities in Mexico

This article addresses cultural differences in childrens initiative in helping in their home. Many 6- to 8-year-old children from an Indigenous-heritage community in Guadalajara, Mexico, were reported to engage, on their own initiative, in complex work for the benefit of the whole family (such as tending younger siblings, cooking, or running errands). In contrast, few children from a cosmopolitan community in Guadalajara, in which families had extensive experience with Western schooling and associated practices, were reported to contribute to family household work, and seldom on their own initiative. They were more often reported to be involved in activities managed by adults, and to have limited time to play, compared with the children in the Indigenous-heritage community, who were often reported to have plenty of time for free play and often planned and initiated their own after-school activities. The differences in childrens contributions on their own initiative support the idea that children in some Indigenous American communities have opportunities and are expected and allowed to learn with initiative by observing and pitching in to collaborative endeavors of their families and communities.

Children's Initiative in Family Household Work in Mexico

Childrens views on their household work as mutual contribution within the family may encourage their initiative in pitching in. We asked 9- and 10-year-old children from a Mexican city how they viewed child participation in family household work. Almost all of the 16 children reported that children want to contribute to family household work, which they regarded as the shared responsibility of everyone in the family. However, the 8 children who lived in an Indigenous-heritage community were more often reported to take initiative to make broad and complex work contributions than children from a newly schooled community. The children in the Indigenous-heritage community more often emphasized their mutual coordination and collaboration with other members of the family, whereas children from the newly schooled community often focused on their personal contributions. We examine cultural values that may support children in viewing household work as part of being a responsible family member, and consider the possibility that these encourage childrens development of initiative.

Learning by Observing and Pitching In: Benefits and Processes of Expanding Repertoires

To conclude this special issue of Human Development on Learning by Observing and Pitching In to family and community endeavors (LOPI), we argue that everyone can benefit from learning to do things in more than one way, expanding our repertoires of practice. We examine potential developmental benefits for childrens collaborative initiative, alertness, and skills in perspective-taking, self-regulation, and planning, in addition to acquiring particular information and skills. To deepen our understanding of the processes involved in LOPI, we discuss further research to investigate suggestions that LOPI may routinely involve: a calm measured pace; articulate nonverbal conversation and parsimonious verbal conversation that build on shared endeavors; encouragement of appropriate behavior through narrative approaches; and assessment in support of learning to contribute to shared productive endeavors. We conclude by recommending a wider use of LOPI and argue that this way of supporting learning involves sophisticated community and individual efforts and organization.

Repertoire of practice: Reconceptualizing instructor competency in contemporary adventure education

Abstract Historically, adventure educators have used the metaphor of hard and soft skills to understand their practice: hard skills representing technical competencies, and soft skills representing interpersonal competencies. In light of current research and in the face of increasingly complex varieties of adventure practice, the categorization of skills into “hard” or “soft” may obscure important aspects of experiential learning and limit the development of an effective pedagogy for adventure education. This paper interrogates the hard/soft metaphor from various perspectives and offers “repertoire of practice” (Wenger, 1998) as a possible framework to further discuss instruction and learning in contemporary adventure education. ‘What we have learned to see something as, becomes in turn, the guide to our outward practical activity’. (Wartofsky, 1979, p. 207)

A Dialectical Approach to Theoretical Integration in Developmental-Contextual Identity Research.

Future advances in identity research will depend on integration across major theoretical traditions. Developmental–contextualism has established essential criteria to guide this effort, including specifying the context of identity development, its timing over the life course, and its content. This article assesses 4 major traditions of identity research—identity status, eudaimonic identity, sociocultural theory, and narrative identity—in light of these criteria, and describes the contribution of each tradition to the broader enterprise of developmental–contextual research. This article proposes dialectical integration of the 4 traditions, for the purpose of generating new questions when the tensions and contradictions among theoretical traditions are acknowledged. We provide examples from existing literature of the kinds of research that could address these questions and consider ways of addressing the validity issues involved in developmental–contextual identity research.

Noticing Learners’ Strengths Through Cultural Research:

Cultural research can help to identify strengths of cultural communities that are often viewed through a deficit model. Strengths-based approaches open researchers, practitioners, and the public to seeing the logic and value of cultural practices that vary from mainstream approaches. Strengths-based approaches include and extend beyond concerns for social equity: They are necessary for scientific characterization of human cognitive and social processes as well as for effective educational and societal practices. An example of a cultural strength is the sophisticated collaboration shown by many Indigenous-heritage children from North and Central America, which contrasts with the common practice in middle-class communities of dividing up activities into separate roles. These distinct approaches to working together fit with broader cultural paradigms that offer insights into human development as well as inspiration for alternative approaches. As an anonymous reviewer noted, the strengths of each group can be leveraged to mesh with the strengths of others.