Guest Lecture on Culture and Community in Middle Childhood for HDFS 305

1. Culture and Community
HDFS 305: Middle Childhood
March 26, 2011
Rebecca Swartz, Guest Lecturer

2. A little warm up… Where
Children Sleep
Art by James Molison
 http://video.pbs.org/video/1889400527
 http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/wh
ere-children-sleep/

3. Culture and Community
 The world of the child is largely defined by the
culture-specific mentalities and practices of child-
rearing
 Consider goals, values, and context of children in
different cultural communities
 Cultural conditions refer to the local mentality
models, beliefs, and moral norms. These that give
shape all features of the child’s world

4. Chinese Elementary School
List 3 most striking examples of the cultural context
upon school children’s experience. How is this
different than your school experience?
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=AVevfpgRR5I&feature=related
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=JfjvESuKf80&feature=g-
vrec&context=G24f7f7fRVAAAAAAAACA

5. Culture: The Social Organization of Childhood
Experience
 The function of domestic groups:
 Extent to which work and family are separated
 The size of domestic groups:
 nuclear unit is the smallest in the world
 Compounds and joint families/Differing
opportunities for interaction and different
expectations for child behavior.

6. Culture: The Social Organization of Childhood
Experience
 Group composition:
 What defines the domestic group?
 Compounds or homesteads
 Social density and boundedness of domestic
groups:
 Density depends on wealth/resources and social rules
of interaction not size of group
 Physical and conceptual boundaries of domestic units
that impact children’s interactions

7. Culture: The Social Organization of Childhood
Experience
 Caregiving relationships:
 No universal pattern of caregiving; adaptable
to conditions
 Cared for by other kin (W. Africa; Micronesia)
 Sibling care (sub-saharan Africa, Oceania,
Okinawa, S.E. Asia)
 Grandmothers, other adult women
 Fathers/males

8. Culture: The Social Organization of Childhood
Experience
 Age-graded activities:
 Schooling creates extreme age-grading
 Resulting peer groups not natural/universal
 Societies without schools:
 More multiage and intergenerational mixing
 Promotes learning
 Increased sense of responsibility, cooperation,
sensitivity in older sibs

9. Cultural Mentalities regarding childhood
social relations
 Moral direction: cultural mentalities of child
care are goal driven – how a child’s
development should move:
 Western ‘ethics of autonomy’
 Other societies value ‘ethics of community’ or
‘ethics of divinity’
 Mentalities differ in desired virtues and goals
of development

10. Cultural Mentalities regarding childhood
social relations
 Each ethic highlights specific view of self
 Autonomyincrease choice/personal liberty
 Communityoffice holder; role=self
 Divinityspiritual entity; bearer of legacy
 Meaning of parental practices best understood with
reference to moral ends that justify means in that
particular culture
 Promote behavior/survival; follow cultural customs

11. Cultural Influences on
Development
 Communication
 By age 3 culturally specific interpersonal behavior
is evident
 Social behavior
 Cultural standards of interpersonal distance vary
 Ainsworth’s model (Attachment) reflects culturally
influenced European American parental practices;
not universal

12. Small Group Work
 Find a group of 4-5 other students and work
through the questions on the handout.
 We will join together to share in group
discussion.

13. Hmong Children in Wisconsin
List 2 thoughts regarding cross cultural
challenges immigrant children experience to
their development from the video clip.
http://video.wpt2.org/video/1726513324/
(39:53-56:40 min on video)