Collaboration at a microscale: Cultural differences in family interactions.

Using a holistic, process approach, this article brings attention to cultural differences in the prevalence of fluid synchrony in collaboration, at a microanalytic scale of analysis that is embodied in the processes of everyday life. We build on findings that in a number of Indigenous American communities, fluid and harmonious collaboration is prioritized both in community organization at a scale of years and centuries, and in everyday family interactions and researcher-organized tasks at a scale of days, hours, or minutes. We examined whether this sophisticated fluid collaboration could be seen even at a scale of fractions of seconds. At a microscale of 200-millisecond segments, Guatemalan Mayan triads of mothers and children frequently engaged mutually, in fluid synchrony together, when exploring novel objects. They did so more commonly than did European American mother-child triads, who usually engaged solo or in dyads, with one person left out, or resisted each other. This microanalysis of mutuality in family interactions reveals the role of culture in the foundations of thinking and working together in both Mayan and European American communities, and the fruitfulness of considering developmental processes holistically.

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.

Collaborative Work or Individual Chores: The Role of Family Social Organization in Children's Learning to Collaborate and Develop Initiative.

In many communities, children learn about family and community endeavors as they collaborate and become involved in community activities. This chapter analyzes how parents promote collaboration and learning to collaborate at home in an Indigenous and in a non-Indigenous Mexican community. We examine variation among parents with different extent of experience with schooling and concepts regarding child development and relate these to patterns of child collaboration at home among Mexican Indigenous and urban families. Drawing on interviews with 34 mothers in the P'urhépecha community of Cherán, Michoacán, and 18 interviews in the cosmopolitan city of Guadalajara, Mexico, we argue that the social nature of participation may be a key feature of learning to collaborate and pitch in in families and communities where school has not been a central institution of childhood over generations.