Culture and participation: a paradigm shift. (April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rogoff, Barbara
• Is Part Of: Current opinion in psychology. Volume 8(2016)
• Page Start: 182
• Page End: 189
• Publication Date: 2016-04
• Subjects: Psychology -- Periodicals; 150.5
• DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.12.002
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2352-250X

Abstract

Highlights: Culture can be conceived of as ways of life in which people participate. A focus on participation entails a paradigm shift, to a transactional worldview. Communities' ways of organizing learning are based on cultural paradigms. Learning by Observing and Pitching In to ongoing endeavors is a cultural paradigm. LOPI may be especially common in Indigenous-heritage communities of the Americas. Abstract : The present article makes the case that the study of culture would do well to shift the notion of culture to 'ways of life, ' rather than treating culture as static characteristics of groups (e.g. ethnicity). This would entail a paradigm shift, to focus on people's participation in cultural communities, across generations. The shift fits a transactional worldview, contrasting with the interactional worldview that is common in mainstream research and everyday life in the US. The article focuses on a way of organizing children's learning that fits the participation paradigm — Learning by Observing and Pitching In to the activities of family and community — that appears to be common in Indigenous and Indigenous-heritage communities of the Americas.