Culture as Pattern: This point of view sees culture as stable ways of acting, behaving, knowing, making meaning, and interacting with other people (Matusov and Marjanovic-Shane 2017). Members are unaware of the culture, but see it is natural or logical.
Pediatric Model: The pediatric model of early socialization is dominant in non-western rural or subsistence contexts where the home life is impoverished and nonliterate. This model emphasizes physical survival, health, and wellbeing. Children may be taught values through oral storytelling and then, when they are old enough, the focus shifts to specific skills needed to survive in that context.
Respect-Obedience Model: A respect-obedience model emphasizes that children are to defer to the authority of adults. Depending on the cultural context, children are taught to demonstrate respect for adults in various ways—such as looking down when the adult is speaking to them and/or remaining quiet unless spoken to.
Pedagogical Model: The pedagogical model of early socialization was developed through research with middle-class American mothers and is typical in western where most learners complete secondary school and many receive postsecondary education. The focus is on optimal development and preparation for schooling therefore independence, extensive verbalization, mathematical and literacy skills, and asking and answering questions are common between adult and child.
Parental Ethnotheories: Parental ethnotheories are their cultural beliefs and understandings about children’s behaviour and development (interactional styles, discipline, supporting development and so forth). These ideas are based on what parents believe is right for the child (Super & Harkness 1996).
Developmental Niche Theory: The developmental niche theory challenges the idea that child development is a universal process. It is a framework for understanding the cultural structure and environment of the child’s development (Super & Harkness 1986; 2013). This theory has three main subsystems that mediate the child’s experience: the physical and social settings where the child lives, child rearing or child care customs, and the psychology of the caregivers. The corollaries assume that these subsystems operate in an interdependent and generally consistent manner. This theory is described further in Extend Your Understanding.
Individualistic Cultures: Individualistic cultures have a pattern of socialization oriented toward preparing young children to be independent or to separate from their parents. Identity, then, is rooted in the individual and children learn to think in terms of the self. Tasks are prioritized over relationships. For example, when a teacher explores the topic “I am special” with the children, it reinforces the importance of the individual over the group by centring on the child. Young children might be encouraged to feed and dress themselves from a young age to develop independence.
Collectivistic Cultures: Collectivist cultures have a pattern of socialization oriented toward preparing young children to be part of a group or collective. Identity, then, is rooted in the collective or the group and a sense of belongingness within this network. Relationships are prioritized. The “I am special” topic would be dissonant with members of a collectivist culture who would not separate the child from the group in this manner. Similarly, adults might feed and dress young children until middle childhood not because they are incapable of caring for themselves, but to model the care for others that is necessary to maintain harmony in the group.
Normative Collectivism: This concept considers the interests of the group or the collective to be more important than those of the individual. For instance, a child is given some toys as a birthday gift and her parents make her give some of the toy to her cousin, who has very few toys. The child’s desire to keep the toy is outweighed by the goal of keeping harmony within the family. Of course, this might not be the only rationale.
Vertical Collectivism: This term is sometimes used to refer to normative collectivism. It means that inequality within the group or an authority ranking within the group is accepted or expected. In the previous example, the child accepts the authority of her parents.
Horizontal Collectivism: Horizontal collectivism emphasizes that, within a group, individuals are equal in status. The child would not be asked to give away her toy to her cousin because her feelings and desires are taken into account.
Perezhivanie: This term was used by Vygotsky to define personal and cultural characteristics of an experience (or lived experience). It explains how the same cultural/environmental characteristics are lived or experienced differently by different individuals and how these different lived experiences affect individuals’ behaviours depending on how they understand them. In the context of schooling, it emphasizes that each student learns or constructs meaning differently.
Funds of Knowledge: This is a pedagogical approach where teachers spend time with their students and their families in order to identify the resources or funds of knowledge within the family. These funds of knowledge are historically and culturally constructed skills and understandings that are essential to the families’ and household’s wellbeing and functioning. Once the teacher has identified each family’s resources, they are used to inform the curriculum.
Culture as Boundary: The concept of culture as a boundary considers how culture is created by cultural contact (Matusov & Marjanvic-Shane 2017). That is, a culture does not exist on its own, but only alongside or on the boundary with another culture.
Acculturation Development Model: In this model, culture is central to the development of migrant, refugee, and immigrant children who are socialized within two cultural contexts (that of their family and ethnic community as well as that of the dominant culture in the receiving country).
