Cultural variation in young children’s access to work or involvement in specialised child-focused activities

Abstract

Ethnographic literature indicates that in many cultural communities around the world, children have extensive opportunities to learn through observing and participating in their community’s work and other mature activities. We argue that in communities in which children are often segregated from adult work (as in middle-class European American communities), young children instead are often involved in specialised child-focused activities such as lessons, adult–child play (and scholastic play), and conversation with adults on child-related topics. We examine this argument with systematic time-sampled observations of the extent of 2- to 3-year-old children’s access to adult work compared to their involvement in specialised child-focused activities. Observations focused on 12 children in each of four communities: two middle-class European American communities (West Newton, Massachusetts and Sugarhouse, Utah), Efe foragers of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and indigenous Maya of San Pedro, Guatemala. West Newton and Sugarhouse children had less frequent access to work and were involved more often in specialised child-focused activities than Efe and San Pedro children. The results support the idea that the middle-class European American children’s frequent involvement in specialised child-focused activities may relate to their more limited opportunities to learn through observing work activities of their communities. It may be less necessary for the Efe and San Pedro children to be involved in specialised child-focused activities to prepare them for involvement in mature community practices, because they are already a regular part of them.

Firsthand learning through intent participation

“…A study of young children's everyday activities supported the idea that there would be more specialized, child-focused activities accompanying limited access to adult work for 3-yearolds in middle-class families than in two communities where older children routinely contribute to family work (Morelli et al, 2003). In two middle-class European-American communities, 3-year-olds had less opportunity to observe adult productive work and were more often involved in lessons and scholastic play than in an Efe foraging community in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a Mayan town in Guatemala.…”

“…In communities in which children engage regularly with adults in mature activities, they may seldom be involved in specialized childfocused instruction (Morelli et al, 2003;Rogoff, 1990Rogoff, , 2003. For example, Guatemalan Mayan 9-year-olds primarily interacted with adults in the context of joint involvement in household or agricultural work.…”

“…They often stay in settings in which the adults' primary activities are to tend them and the home or school facility and not often to engage in the wider range of work and social activities of their community (Morelli et al, 2003;Whiting & Whiting, 1975;Rogoff et al, 1993). [However, U. S. children whose parents work at home are often involved in their parents' work, in a progression from watching, to carrying out simple tasks, to giving regular assistance, to regular work (Beach 1988)].…”

“…In Kokwet (East Africa) 2-to 4-year-olds spent much of their time watching the activities of family members (Harkness & Super, 1992). In a Guatemalan Mayan town, a foraging community in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and a tribal community in India, young children routinely had access to their families' economic activities -weaving, shopkeeping, gathering food, or working in fields or factories (Morelli et al, 2003;Morelli & Tronick, 1992;Rogoff et al, 1993).…”

A child's work: the importance of fantasy play. Vivian Gussin Paley. 2004. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 2004. pp. 111, $19, ISSBN 0-226-64487-1 (Hb)

“…Indeed, young children in traditional societies do often help in subsistence activities}in limited ways to be sure, but this is real work (Gosso et al, 2005;Morelli et al, 2003). This approach is not absent in western education; Montessori, in her original nursery curriculum, rather discouraged fantasy play, and encouraged children to actually help in various ways, tidying the classroom, doing simple cooking and food serving tasks.…”