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10 - Children’s Questions in Social and Cultural Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2020

By
Mary Gauvain  and
Robert L. Munroe
Edited by
Lucas Payne Butler ,
Samuel Ronfard  and
Kathleen H. Corriveau
Lucas Payne Butler
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
Samuel Ronfard
Affiliation:
University of Toronto Mississauga
Kathleen H. Corriveau
Affiliation:
Boston University
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Summary

When children ask questions, learning may occur, a connection that has led some researchers to posit that children’s questions are a mechanism of cognitive development. There is an implicit assumption of universality in this view. Yet much of the research on this topic has been conducted in cultural settings where children’s questions are encouraged and supported. In this chapter, we discuss children’s questions as a form of social and cultural behavior. We draw on theories of language socialization to emphasize how, over development, children learn to use language in ways that are appropriate in the sociocultural setting in which they live. We describe evidence from a sample of 96 three- and five-year–old children living in four traditional communities, Garifuna (Belize), Logoli (Kenya), Newars (Nepal), and Samoans (American Samoa), that suggests there may be substantial differences across developmental contexts in children’s question-asking behavior, especially questions that seek explanation. We do not take issue with the idea that children have great curiosity about the world, a characteristic that leads them to seek out opportunities for learning. Rather, we are concerned with the form this curiosity takes and its relation to the social and cultural context of development.

Keywords

cognitive developmentchildren’s questionsexplanation–seeking questionscultural contextcultural differencessociolinguisticschild socializationchild learninglanguage developmentnaturalistic observations
Type
Chapter
Information
The Questioning Child
Insights from Psychology and Education
 , pp. 183 - 211
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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