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.

No abstract

No abstract

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 researcherorganized 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. K E Y W O R D Scollaboration, culture, Indigenous people of the Americas, microscale, synchronyIn a home visit interview from a US researcher, this Mayan mother was asked to help her 17-month-old toddler operate some novel objects. The sequence in the screen shots occurred 7 s after the mother was handed a clear plastic jar containing a little plastic doll, by the Mayan research assistant (at Second 0 of this episode). The mother had placed the jar on the mat in front of the toddler, as the toddler reached for it and the mother's 5-year-old son scooted near the toddler. The mother had removed the wooden lid and put it aside, between the two children. She had then reached into the jar and picked up the little doll and showed it to the toddler, who was holding the edge of the jar with one hand. We focus on the fluid synchrony that shows in the few seconds of interaction that occur at 7 s into the episode:The 5-year-old leans forward and picks up the lid by its handle, while the mother puts the little doll back down in the jar. The mother begins to lean back out of the way as the 5-year-old begins to extend the lid toward the jar. All three people are watching the action and moving their arms and torsos in tandem, coordinating their moves as they operate the jar together. By 8 s, the mother is sitting up, smiling as she leans to watch the children closely while the 5-year-old stretches to hold the lid over the jar. At 9 s, the toddler and the mother watch with interest as the 5-year-old tries to show the toddler how the lid fits on the jar. However, the toddler's fingers are still holding the edge of the jar, so lid cannot be attached. At 10 s and the following seconds, the 5-year-old puts the lid aside, as the mother smiles and gently tells him to let go of it, as the toddler watches. The 5-year-...

No abstract