How to engage children, whether pre-school or adolescents, with what is culturally valued is a universal challenge for educators and for parents. Adults expend considerable energy trying to align what matters to them and what matters to children so that cultural patterns endure and children learn to participate as productive members of society within them.

All too often these attempts at alignment are seen as a problem of how to motivate children, and the impact of such efforts is frequently short-term. However, this book is not simply about motivation. It is far more ambitious: It unravels how children’s longer-term development is interconnected with why and how they take part in everyday practices.