Culture, Schooling, and Children's Learning Experiences

As countries experience increasing cultural diversity both within and between their borders, contemporary researchers are exploring the connection between culture and children's learning and academic experiences. One important goal is to provide all children with educational experiences that are culturally sensitive, relevant, and effective in helping them reach their maximum potential and preparing them for the future. With over twenty-five contributing authors, this volume investigates the connection between culture and children's schooling and learning experiences from multidisciplinary perspectives, diverse methodologies, and cross-cultural and culture specific approaches. The common thread running through the chapters is the understanding that learning is an activity that takes place within cultural contexts. Together, the chapters highlight the forces that shape children's everyday learning experiences. Core themes address how parental beliefs and cultural ways of learning and problem-solving shape children's learning experiences and social interactions with teachers; the importance of quality early childhood education and playful learning to children's school success and development; and how the complex intersection of cultural variables with forces such as historical injustice, social and educational inequality, economic stability, and political ideologies shape children's learning. The volume honors the experiences of Indigenous, newcomer, first-generation children, and children of underrepresented communities and highlights the vital role that policy makers, teacher educators, schools, and classroom educators play in helping all children reach their academic and social potential.

Robyn M. Holmes is a Professor of Psychology and associated faculty member in the History and Anthropology Department at Monmouth University. Her teaching and research interests reflect cultural and multidisciplinary perspectives. She is the author of How Young Children Perceive Race (Sage, 1995), Fieldwork with Children (Sage, 2008), and Cultural Psychology: Exploring Culture and Mind in Diverse Cultural Communities (Oxford University Press, 2020). She has also written numerous articles and chapters on play and culture, play and early childhood, recess, sport, and development, which have appeared in the American Journal of Play, International Journal of Play, Play & Culture Studies, Children's Folklore Review, Perceptual Motor Skills, Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts, and the Journal of Sport Behavior. Jaipaul L. Roopnarine is Pearl S. Falk Professor of Human Development at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, and Professor Extraordinary of Developmental Psychology at Anton de Kom University of Suriname, Paramaribo. His research interests include father-child relationships across cultures, mental health in Caribbean families and children, early childhood education in international perspective, and children's play across cultures. He has published several volumes on culture and development including Caribbean Psychology: Indigenous contributions to a global discipline (American Psychological Association, 2016) and Fathering in Cultural Contexts: Developmental and Clinical Issues (Routledge, 2019). He is currently Editor of the Caribbean Journal of Psychology.