Culture at work: European American and Taiwanese parental socialization of children’s learning

Abstract

In this article, we highlight three assumptions about culture that guide our research: (1) culture is lived but often implicitly; (2) philosophical origins illuminate cultural core values in the here and now; and (3) cultures differ. We focus on learning both in European-heritage and in Confucian-heritage cultures. To address the central question “how does the cultural become the personal?” we take three steps. First, we explain the importance of each assumption and the relations between them. Next, we trace the philosophical origins of which establish the foundations of core cultural values for two sets of cultures, European-heritage and Confucian-heritage cultures. We then present empirical research that illustrate sociocultural learning models (SCLMs) in the two sets of cultures. Finally, we discuss the notions of joint intentionality and intersubjectivity as the process by which parents draw on a given SCLM to socialize their young, which is how the cultural becomes the personal. We use discourse analysis of two segments of mother-child conversations, (one European American and one Taiwanese), to demonstrate culture at work. Our detailed analysis reveals the cultural embeddedness of daily living that otherwise remains implicit. We conclude with applied implications of our theory and research for childrearing and human learning.