Child integration

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Child integration is the inclusion of children in a variety of mature daily activities of families and communities. This contrasts with, for example, age segregation; separating children into age-defined activities and institutions (e.g., some models of organized schooling). Integrating children in the range of mature family and community activities gives equal value and responsibility to children as contributors and collaborators, and can be a way to help them learn. Children's integration provides a learning environment because children are able to observe and pitch in as they feel they can. [1]

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In the United States, child integration into "adult" life is not as common as it used to be. However, in other cultures social norms continue to incorporate children into the mature, productive activities of the family and community. In all cultures child integration is present in one way or another. For example, nearly all children's first language learning seems to be supported through integration with a mature linguistic community. Children usually are not taught in a classroom how to speak, but instead learn by observing the language and pitching it when they can.

Examples of children in collaborative communities

Children in Indigenous communities participate in mature activities with the guidance from someone who has practice in that activity. When engaged in shared endeavors the guider and the learner both notice and assess how much understanding the learner has in the task and the guider provides support if it is needed. [2]

Indigenous cultures emphasize and instill values of being respectful, empathic and cooperative to their children. These values are practiced through tasks like co-sleeping and group play which helps bring about close connections within the family and community. [3]

There are many different ways children can be integrated into society. One example, child care educators in certain Native communities, like the First Nations in Canada have taught children traditional language, where then the children have the responsibility to spread that language knowledge by teaching their parents and other family members, thus ingratiating them into society with responsibility to carry on the language legacy. [4]

The Chippewa people have several different methods of teaching, such as lecturing and counseling, and integrating children into adult and community life. Overall, the children do the same tasks as their mothers and fathers just on a smaller scale. For example, a young girl might learn to make nets like her mother and uses the same knots her mother uses but makes smaller nets than her mother. Throughout the years she will slowly make bigger and bigger nets and perfect the skill that her mother and her mother's mother before her had. These skills may be learned by observation and sometimes if a specific person in the community is very skillful at something, the adults might recommend the child go find that person and learn from them. [5]

Community endeavors

The integration of children into community and family endeavors in Indigenous American Communities begins as early as infancy. Among the Mayan peoples of the Yucatan peninsula, children are allowed to roam freely allowing them ample opportunity to become acquainted with the mundane activities of the family. In the Mexican indigenous community of the Mazahua, children will coordinate their activities with those of their parents in a manner that allows them to cooperate in familial endeavors and may at times be granted a leading position in the endeavor. Children are considered to be valuable and responsible contributors of the community. The process of child integration into mature activities begins in infancy and continuous throughout time; between ages 3 and 4 the child will already be participating in some of the family's day to day activities, by ages 5 and 7 that child will already be cooperating in most of the endeavors that adults engage in and will have also earned several important responsibilities which can range from performing certain household tasks to providing childcare for younger siblings. [6]

The cultural practice of integrating children in the mature activities of the family and community is common in many Indigenous American communities. Many integrate children into "adult" activities, work life, and other cultural practices at a very young age. Among the Quechua people of the Andes, families accept the child as a part of an integral process towards a collective wellbeing. [7] Two-year-olds in the Chillihuani community frequently get their own food and drink, and those of herding families participate in herding and caring for the animals. [8] In this community, work and play are not two separable things (i.e., one for adult and one for children). The children enjoy having real responsibilities and find pride in being able to contribute to their society.

Similarly, some Chippewa communities of Washington also commonly integrate children in the mature activities of the community. Children are expected to observe and work with their parent to be able to develop skills for that line of work. Young girls assist their mothers with beadwork, household chores, chopping wood, etc., and boys are expected to work on canoe-making with the men and are given arrows to learn hunting skills at 5 or 6 years old. [9]

Daily household activities provide the child the ability to learn cultural practices such as different food dishes, hygiene, and parenting skills, as well as the social values and religious beliefs. [10] [11] It is common for children in Indigenous American communities to learn through trial and error instead of explicit instruction. This is due to the cultural understanding of "echando a perder se enesena la gente" (throwing to lose, teaches people) which promotes optimism and growth of the child in the community, allowing the youth to feel comfortable making mistakes as long as they keep working towards their goal. [12]

Children in the town of Tepoztlan are encouraged to participate in community activities. The people there believe that everyone can contribute something to community endeavors. Young children are encouraged to participate by being brought to various meetings and activities by their mothers, so as they grow older, they request to be admitted into the group on their own will. [13]

Political movements and civic life

Some Indigenous American communities can incorporate young children into the political activities of the community. Political violence and displacement within the community of San Agustin Loxicha, Oaxaca created an important aspect of child participation in the community's struggle. [14] In this community, it is common for young children to take part in marches or sit-ins, hunger strikes, school life, child play, and accept the political part of their lives instead of seeing it as a hardship or something to be pitied. [15]

In the Nahua indigenous town of Tepoztlan located near Mexico City, children, adolescents, and older members of the community were involved in a 5-year long political movement against the construction of a golf course in their town. During assemblies children participated by aiding in the preparation of food and drinks for the crowd, while adolescents brought in groups of peers to further political involvement in the community. During marches and protest children and adolescents were active members of the civic movement. Any repression that the group suffered on behalf of the authorities was not seen as something negative in the experience of the youth, but was instead something that would further motivate their desire to be politically active. Through their integration into the political structure of the civil movement, the child's/adolescent's understanding of the issue expanded to such a degree that they would not only have physical presence in the group but would also be capable of offering new perspectives and potential solutions to the issue at hand. It is important to note that none of the children and adolescents involved were forced to do so. If a child showed an interest in the political movement they were encouraged by the adults to become participants but ultimately the choice was always left to them. Once a child decided to become involved the parents and other adults respected the pace and rhythm of that involvement. [16]

Language brokering

In some immigrant communities, children link their family and friends to the environment around them by translating and paraphrasing words, phrases or occurring situations. [17] This practice is known as language brokering and is used by children in immigrant communities to integrate themselves into family endeavors and into civil society. [18] The child's contribution by language brokering integrates them into many environments, such as the doctor's office, at parent-teachers' conferences, banks, housing offices, and various sorts of negotiation activities. Subsequently, children who engage in language brokering are more likely to also be representatives of their community when transitioning into adulthood. [19] Child integration has become very important to form linkages between new immigrant communities and the predominant culture and new forms of bureaucratic systems.

With the increased interaction in larger societies children in Indigenous Mayan communities who are bilingual help monolingual parents as interpreters. For example, the children will translate for parents when selling products in the barrios of Cancun, where the primary language is Spanish. [20]

Productive endeavors

In some indigenous communities, children are often integrated as active participants into family and community work. Child work is often a vital contribution towards community productivity and typically involves non-exploitative motivations for children's engagement in work activities. [21]

In some families, young children contribute to the family's finances by taking a job in a factory or a store under the supervision of a formal adult figure, while some join the family business under the oversight of their parents and older siblings. When children join the family business they tend to gain knowledge of a trade such as accounting, public relations and how to be able to time manage. Some children not only obtain an economic boost for the family as a whole, but also learn autonomy and altruism with regards to having their own earned income to support the family and also to spend for themselves. [22]

Children's motivation as integrated contributors

Children in Indigenous American communities pitch in to community endeavors because they experience their contribution having a tangible effect on their community. The children often contribute without being told and children get to learn how to do the activity as they contribute. However, children aren't just born with this way of learning by observation; they have been given the opportunity by being encouraged to attend, observing, and participating in mature activities. [23] In indigenous communities, children's and adult's interests in participation must be viewed as equal, not just the adults forcing their views onto the children. Children are seen as a part of community just as much as adults. In many cultures, children are expected to take on tasks that are important to community. Children are also seen as integral members of the community, rather than separate from adults. Some cultures even give children control over specific goods, such as livestock or arable land and the expectations that come with this may also be seen as forms of participation. These ideas of children actively participating in their communities and influencing the society opens up opportunities for the participation of children [24]

History of age segregation in the West

Segregating children by age was not always the norm in the United States. A century and a half ago, children in the US had access to a wide range of adult activities and were integrated into multiple aspects of family functioning and survival. The change from this integration into segregation was a product of industrialization, Western formal schooling, child labor laws, social services agencies, and the rise of disciplines such as Psychology and Education. A combination of the above caused a shift from family working as a unit to separation of economic activities and services such as childcare emerged. [25]

Related Research Articles

Observational learning is learning that occurs through observing the behavior of others. It is a form of social learning which takes various forms, based on various processes. In humans, this form of learning seems to not need reinforcement to occur, but instead, requires a social model such as a parent, sibling, friend, or teacher with surroundings. Particularly in childhood, a model is someone of authority or higher status in an environment. In animals, observational learning is often based on classical conditioning, in which an instinctive behavior is elicited by observing the behavior of another, but other processes may be involved as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parenting</span> Process of raising a child

Parenting or child rearing promotes and supports the physical, emotional, social, spiritual and cognitive development of a child from infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the intricacies of raising a child and not exclusively for a biological relationship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adult education</span> Any form of learning adults engage in beyond traditional schooling

Adult education, distinct from child education, is a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained self-educating activities in order to gain new forms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values. It can mean any form of learning adults engage in beyond traditional schooling, encompassing basic literacy to personal fulfillment as a lifelong learner, and to ensure the fulfillment of an individual.

Teasing has multiple meanings and uses. In human interactions, teasing exists in three major forms: playful, hurtful, and educative. Teasing can have a variety of effects, depending on how it is used and its intended effect. When teasing is unwelcome, it may be regarded as harassment or mobbing, especially in the workplace and school, or as a form of bullying or emotional abuse. If done in public, it may be regarded as humiliation. Teasing can also be regarded as educative when it is used as a way of informal learning. Adults in some of the Indigenous American communities often tease children to playfully illustrate and teach them how their behavior negatively affects the community. Children in many Indigenous American communities also learn by observing what others do in addition to collaborating with them. Along with teasing, this form of informal learning is different from the ways that Western American children learn. Informal ways of child learning include mutual responsibility, as well as active collaboration with adults and peers. This differentiates from the more formal way of learning because it is not adult-oriented.

Collaborative learning is a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together. Unlike individual learning, people engaged in collaborative learning capitalize on one another's resources and skills. More specifically, collaborative learning is based on the model that knowledge can be created within a population where members actively interact by sharing experiences and take on asymmetric roles. Put differently, collaborative learning refers to methodologies and environments in which learners engage in a common task where each individual depends on and is accountable to each other. These include both face-to-face conversations and computer discussions. Methods for examining collaborative learning processes include conversation analysis and statistical discourse analysis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native Hawaiians</span> Indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands

Native Hawaiians are the indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands.

Youth participation is the active engagement of young people throughout their own communities. It is often used as a shorthand for youth participation in any many forms, including decision-making, sports, schools and any activity where young people are not historically engaged.

Barbara Rogoff is an American academic who is UCSC Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research is in different learning between cultures and bridges psychology and anthropology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Childhood in Maya society</span>

The role of the children in ancient Mayan civilization was first, and foremost, to help their elders. Once children turned five or six, they were expected to contribute to the family and community. They were treated as young adults and received more responsibilities as they grew older.

Team learning is the collaborative effort to achieve a common goal within the group. The aim of team learning is to attain the objective through dialogue and discussion, conflicts and defensive routines, and practice within the group. In the same way, indigenous communities of the Americas exhibit a process of collaborative learning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Informal learning</span> Category of learning situation

Informal learning is characterized "by a low degree of planning and organizing in terms of the learning context, learning support, learning time, and learning objectives". It differs from formal learning, non-formal learning, and self-regulated learning, because it has no set objective in terms of learning outcomes, but an intent to act from the learner's standpoint. Typical mechanisms of informal learning include trial and error or learning-by-doing, modeling, feedback, and reflection. For learners this includes heuristic language building, socialization, enculturation, and play. Informal learning is a pervasive ongoing phenomenon of learning via participation or learning via knowledge creation, in contrast with the traditional view of teacher-centered learning via knowledge acquisition. Estimates suggest that about 70-90 percent of adult learning takes place informally and outside educational institutions.

Informal education is a general term for education that can occur outside of a traditional lecture or school based learning systems. The term even include customized-learning based on individual student interests within a curriculum inside a regular classroom, but is not limited to that setting. It could work through conversation, and the exploration and enlargement of experience. Sometimes there is a clear objective link to some broader plan, but not always. The goal is to provide learners with the tools they need to eventually reach more complex material. It can refer to various forms of alternative education, such as unschooling or homeschooling, autodidacticism (self-teaching), and youth work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Play (activity)</span> Voluntary, intrinsically motivated recreation

Play is a range of intrinsically motivated activities done for recreational pleasure and enjoyment. Play is commonly associated with children and juvenile-level activities, but may be engaged in at any life stage, and among other higher-functioning animals as well, most notably mammals and birds.

Age segregation is the separation of people based on their age, and may be observed in many aspects of some societies. Examples of institutionalized age segregation include age segregation in schools, and age-segregated housing. There are studies of informal age segregation among adolescents. Age segregation in schools, age grading, or graded education is the separation of students into years of education by approximately the same age.

Learning through play is a term used in education and psychology to describe how a child can learn to make sense of the world around them. Through play children can develop social and cognitive skills, mature emotionally, and gain the self-confidence required to engage in new experiences and environments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indigenous education</span> Education that focuses on teaching within formal or non-formal educational systems

Indigenous education specifically focuses on teaching Indigenous knowledge, models, methods, and content within formal or non-formal educational systems. The growing recognition and use of Indigenous education methods can be a response to the erosion and loss of Indigenous knowledge through the processes of colonialism, globalization, and modernity.

Child work in indigenous American cultures covers child work, defined as the physical and mental contributions by children towards achieving a personal or communal goal, in Indigenous American societies. As a form of prosocial behavior, children's work is often a vital contribution towards community productivity and typically involves non-exploitative motivations for children's engagement in work activities. Activities can range from domestic household chores to participation in family and community endeavors. Inge Bolin notes that children's work can blur the boundaries between learning, play, and work in a form of productive interaction between children and adults. Such activities do not have to be mutually exclusive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child development of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas</span> Overview of the child development of the indigenous peoples of the Americas

Styles of children’s learning across various indigenous communities in the Americas have been practiced for centuries prior to European colonization and persist today. Despite extensive anthropological research, efforts made towards studying children’s learning and development in Indigenous communities of the Americas as its own discipline within Developmental Psychology, has remained rudimentary. However, studies that have been conducted reveal several larger thematic commonalities, which create a paradigm of children’s learning that is fundamentally consistent across differing cultural communities.

Child development in Africa addresses the variables and social changes that occur in African children from infancy through adolescence. Three complementary lines of scholarship have sought to generate knowledge about child development in Africa, specifically rooted in endogenous, African ways of knowing: analysis of traditional proverbs, theory-building, and documentation of parental ethno-theories. The first approach has examined the indigenous formulations of child development and socialisation values embedded in African languages and oral traditions. Several collections of proverbs have been published in different African languages, and their content has been analysed to show the recurrence of the themes of shared communal responsibility for children's moral guidance and the importance of providing it early in life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Language brokering</span>

Language brokering, also known as child language brokering, refers to the informal act of translation by children and young people between a family member and a dominant language speaker, whereby children can influence both the message and its portrayal. Because their inter-family language differs from the predominant language in society, these children are or must become bilingual.

References

  1. ↑ Paradise, Ruth; Rogoff, Barbara (2009). "Side by Side: Learning by Observing and Pitching In". Journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology. 37 (1): 102–138. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1352.2009.01033.x.
  2. ↑ Rogoff, Barbara; Paradise, Ruth; Arauz, Rebeca; Correa-Chavez, Maricela; Angelillo, Cathy (2004). "Firsthand learning through intent participation". Analise Psicologia. 1: 11.
  3. ↑ Maschinot, Beth (2008). The changing face of the United States: The influence of culture on early child development. Zero to Three.
  4. ↑ Ball, Jessica; Simpkins, Maureen (2004). "The community within the Child: Integration of Indigenous Knowledge into First Nations Childcare Process and Practice". The American Indian Quarterly. 28 (3): 480. doi:10.1353/aiq.2004.0091. S2CID   161422432.
  5. ↑ Hilger, Sister, M.I. (1951). "Chippewa child life and its cultural background". Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology (Bulletin 146): 55–60, 114–117.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ↑ Rogoff, Barbara; Paradise, Ruth; Mejia Arauz, Rebeca; Correa-Chavez, Maricela; Angelillo, Cathy (2003). "First Hand Learning Through Intent Participation". Annual Review of Psychology. 54 (1): 175–203. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145118. PMID   12499516. S2CID   5636418.
  7. ↑ Bolin, I. (2006). Growing up in a culture of respect: Child rearing in highland Peru. Austin: University of Texas Press p. 43
  8. ↑ Bolin, I. (2006). Growing up in a culture of respect: Child rearing in highland Peru. Austin: University of Texas Press p. 43, 48
  9. ↑ Hilger, M. I. (1951). Chippewa child life and its cultural background. Washington: U.S. G.P.O.)p. 56
  10. ↑ Zelizer, Viviana. 2005. Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
  11. ↑ Gaskins, Suzanne & Ruth Paradise. 2010. Learning through Observation in Daily Life. In: David Lancy, John Bock & Suzanne Gaskins (eds.), The Anthropology of Learning in Childhood. Lanham: Altamira Press, pp109.
  12. ↑ Urrieta, L (2013). "Familia and Comunidad-Based Saberes: Learning in an Indigenous Heritage Community". Anthropology & Education Quarterly. 44 (3): 320–335. doi:10.1111/aeq.12028.
  13. ↑ Percy-Smith, Barry; Thomas, Nigel (2009). A handbook of children and young people's participation: Perspectives from theory and practice. New York: Routledge. pp. 141–149. ISBN   978-0-203-87107-2.
  14. ↑ Smith, Anne-Marie (2007). "The Children of Loxicha, Mexico: Exploring Ideas of Childhood and the Rules of Participation". Children, Youth and Environments. 17 (2): 34. doi:10.1353/cye.2007.0072. S2CID   258964942.
  15. ↑ Smith, Anne-Marie (2007). "The Children of Loxicha, Mexico: Exploring Ideas of Childhood and the Rules of Participation". Children, Youth and Environments. 17 (2): 43–44. doi:10.1353/cye.2007.0072. S2CID   258964942.
  16. ↑ Corona Caraveo, Yolanda (2006). "Todos Como Uno: la participación infantil en comunidades de tradicion indigena". III Conferencia de la Red Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Childwatch International: 1–9.
  17. ↑ Orellana, Marjorie, F. & Reynolds, Jennifer & Meza Marie (January/February/March 2003) "In other words: Translating or para-phrasing as a family literacy practice in immigrant households", Reading Research Quarterly 38, 12-34.
  18. ↑ Bauer, Elaine (2010) "Language brokering: Practicing active citizenship", mediazioni 10, http://mediazioni.sitlec.unibo.it Archived 2014-06-06 at the Wayback Machine , ISSN 1974-4382
  19. ↑ Bauer, Elaine (2010) "Language brokering: Practicing active citizenship", mediazioni 10, http://mediazioni.sitlec.unibo.it Archived 2014-06-06 at the Wayback Machine , ISSN 1974-4382
  20. ↑ Gaskins, Suzanne (2003). "From corn to cash: Change and continuity within Mayan families". Ethos. 31 (2): 248. doi:10.1525/eth.2003.31.2.248.
  21. ↑ Bourdillon, Michael (2010). Rights and Wrongs of Children's Work . Rutgers University Press. ISBN   978-0-8135-4889-0.
  22. ↑ Salazar, M. (1991). Young workers in Latin America: protection or self-determination?. Child Welfare, 70269-283.
  23. ↑ Coppens; et al. (June 2014). "Benefits and processes of expanding repertoires". Human Development. 57 (2–3): 150–161. doi:10.1159/000356770. S2CID   144612422.
  24. ↑ Percy-Smith, Barry; Thomas, Nigel (2009). A handbook of children and young people's participation: Perspectives from theory and practice. New York: Routledge. pp. 141–149. ISBN   978-0-203-87107-2.
  25. ↑ Rogoff, B.; Glida, M.; Chavajay, P. (2010). "Children's Integration in Communities and Segregation From People of Differing Ages". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 5 (4): 431–440. doi:10.1177/1745691610375558. PMID   26162189. S2CID   1391080.
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