Together wherever we go: the ethnographic child and the developmentalist.

Abstract

Krackow and Gordon aim to refute the slot-filler (SF) model of taxonomic knowledge development. On this model, preschoolers derive "slot-filler" categories from event schemas. SF categories are items that fill the slots created by the actions or functions within an event. They combine into coordinate categories, based on general functions, in the school-aged years. This model, which has received considerable empirical support across methodologies, ages, and sociocultural contexts, relies on the "ethnographic child"--one who has knowledge of and participates in a sociocultural world. The SF account is not disproved by Krackow and Gordon, which offers no new or alternative category development account. Their method and theorizing are a poor fit to children, ethnographic or otherwise, undermining the study's capacity to say something reliable and representative about cognition in preschoolers. Moreover, if the data are to be relied on, they are supportive of the SF model.