Children’s Resilience and Constructions of Childhood: Cross-Cultural Considerations

Abstract

Drawing on ethnographic data from multi-sited research in schools in a Majority World (Tibetan in India) and a Minority World context (Germany), this chapter explores children’s resilience cross-culturally. Both the Tibetan and the German schools were guided by Modernist values related to children’s education and childhood. The manner in which these notions played out varied cross-culturally, giving rise to unique constructions of childhood at each site. These cross-cultural differences in how children were viewed and treated by adults are likely to have accounted for a higher level of resilience found in the Tibetan children. There is evidence, however, that certain groups in the Minority World grow up with constructions of childhood similar to that of the Tibetan children, possibly developing higher levels of resilience as a consequence. Generalizing binaries, such as Majority versus Minority World, in other words, might not do justice to the social reality of children’s lives.