Pia Løvschal Nielsen: Cultural Aspects of
Child Development and Socialisation
Using ethnographic material from a
Hutterite colony in Western Canada, the
article shows how adult interpretations of
child development and socialisation influence
the organisation of children’s daily
routines and thus their access to social and
cultural knowledge. In this colony, adults are
thought to occupy a central position in
children’s social and cultural learning
processes. At the same time, adults and
children are seen as two exclusive categories
with separate spheres of action. Daily
routines, grounded in this cultural construction,
actively exclude children from
adult practices, minimising their daily
participation in adult spheres of action and
allowing few opportunities for direct observation
of adult models. The author discusses
how children’s cultural and social
learning takes place through exclusion from,
rather than participation in, adult practices.
Hutterite children’s intense involvement in
an annual community event indicates that
children actively create and participate in
their own social field gaining social and
cultural knowledge through this process
rather than through engagement with adults.
The author argues that children’s cultural
learning processes are far more active and
situational than proposed by theories of
development and intemalisation which
identify adults as focal to children’s
development and intemalization of cultural
codes for agency.
KULTURELLE HORISONTER PÅ BØRNS UDVIKLING OG SOCIALISERING
