Western and East Asian sociocultural learning models: Evidence from cross‐cultural and immigrant research

Abstract

We review Li's research and theory of cultural learning models in light of Chirkov's (2019) theory of sociocultural models that draw on previous theories and research across social sciences. We recast Li's models as sociocultural learning models (SCLMs) by incorporating Chirkov's three emphases: (a) the inseparability between the social and the cultural, (b) the public versus individuals’ internalization ofSCLMs and their mutual enforcement, and (c) collective intentionality and intersubjectivity as embedded in the enactment ofSCLMs. As an initial attempt to document how publicSCLMs become internalized, we further examine the role of joint intentionality and intersubjectivity at the person‐to‐person level. We use discourse analysis to look at two mother–child conversations about learning from our current European American and Chinese immigrant research data. We show evidence that both joint intentionality and intersubjectivity are prevalently and deeply present in the process of parental socialization (transmittingSCLMs to their young). We conclude that intentionality and intersubjectivity are indispensable to enableSCLMs to exist and to continue by enabling the public to become internalized. The internalization is then enacted and repeated by members across the culture, who in turn function to uphold and renewSCLMs.