Collaborative work or individual chores: The role of family social organization in children's learning to collaborate and develop initiative

Abstract

In many communities, children learn about family and community endeavors as they collaborate and become involved in community activities. This chapter analyzes how parents promote collaboration and learning to collaborate at home in an Indigenous and in a non-Indigenous Mexican community. We examine variation among parents with different extent of experience with schooling and concepts regarding child development and relate these to patterns of child collaboration at home among Mexican Indigenous and urban families. Drawing on interviews with 34 mothers in the P'urhépecha community of Cherán, Michoacán, and 18 interviews in the cosmopolitan city of Guadalajara, Mexico, we argue that the social nature of participation may be a key feature of learning to collaborate and pitch in in families and communities where school has not been a central institution of childhood over generations. © 2015 Elsevier Inc..