The Children's Research Initiative: Integrative Approaches - CRI: Center for Research on Culture, Development and Education

摘要：文化、发展与教育研究中心joshua Aronson， Diane Hughes, Catherine Tamis-LeMonda， Niobe Way & Hiro yoshikawa尽管有数以万计的研究，数以百计的补救方案，以及几十年来被认为是美国社会的危机，但众多少数民族群体的长期学业成绩不佳仍然困扰着教育家、社会科学家和政策制定者。三个趋势加重了危机。首先，在未来50年内，目前被认定为“少数族裔”的人将占美国人口的一半。其次，特别是在纽约这样的大城市中心，新一波移民正在到来，确保学校和其他环境的结构和动态发生根本性但未知的变化。第三，美国继续向“知识驱动型”经济发展，这使得扎实的教育对越来越多的劳动力至关重要。与以往任何时候相比，我们国家相当大比例的儿童面临着学业失败和经济困难的风险。来自纽约大学多个科学学科的教师将使用美国国家科学基金会的资金来支持为期6至9个月的计划活动，这些活动将在拟议的文化、发展和教育研究中心下进行。该中心的中心目标将是研究家庭、学校、同伴、工作和媒体如何共同促进来自不同文化背景的儿童的参与、学习和学校表现。完成这项任务需要三个步骤。首先，我们建议在每个教育相关的背景下描述少数民族儿童的经历。许多社会科学家专注于确定儿童学业成绩的预测因素，而没有深入了解儿童的日常经历。在以少数民族为重点的研究中，这种描述性工作明显缺失。我们需要系统地了解家庭、同伴、学校、父母的工作和媒体等环境对不同文化、种族或社会阶层的儿童有何不同或有何不同的体验。其次，我们试图了解这些经历如何影响儿童在学校的参与、学习和表现，以及这些联系是否以及如何因文化、种族和社会阶层而异。第三，我们的最终目标是促进对家庭、同伴、学校、工作和媒体如何共同作用来解释孩子的学业成就的理解。该中心的第二个使命是教育：通过培训和传播，将其研究成果传递给三个群体：(1)从事文化研究及其在儿童学习、参与和表现中的作用的新一代学者；(2)更广泛的研究界；(3)教育政策制定者和实践者。这将通过密集和严格的培训方案以及各种传播研究成果和经验教训的战略来实现，以供政策和教育实践。拟议的中心位于教育学院内，在纽约市充满活力，无与伦比的多样化背景下，使其成为研究文化和学校的无与伦比的场所，也是建立能够吸引更多学者和最高质量学生的智库的理想场所。通过中心的工作，我们的目标是使人们更深入地了解文化、发展和教育的相互作用，从而提高国家对少数民族儿童学习成绩不佳的反应。

AbstractNew York University: Center for Research on Culture, Development and EducationJoshua Aronson, Diane Hughes, Catherine Tamis-LeMonda, Niobe Way & Hiro YoshikawaDespite thousands of research studies, hundreds of remedial programs, and decades of being considered a crisis for American society, the chronic academic underachievement of numerous ethnic minority groups continues to perplex educators, social scientists, and policy makers. Three trends add weight to the crisis. First, within the next 50 years, people identified currently as "minority" will comprise half of the U.S. population. Second, particularly in large urban centers like New York, new waves of immigrants are arriving, ensuring fundamental, but unknown changes to the structure and dynamics of schools and other contexts. Third, the U.S. continues to evolve into a "knowledge-driven" economy, making a solid education vital for an increasingly large sector of the workforce. More than ever, a sizable proportion of our nation's children are at risk of academic failure and economic hardship. Faculty from multiple scientific disciplines at New York University will use NSF funding to support planning activities over a 6- to 9-month period pertaining to research that will be pursued under the proposed Center for Research on Culture, Development and Education. The central aim of the Center will be to examine how homes, schools, peers, work, and the media jointly contribute to the engagement, learning, and school performance of children from diverse cultures. Three steps are needed to accomplish this mission. First, we propose to describe the experiences of minority children within each of the educationally relevant contexts. Many social scientists focus on determining the predictors of children's academic outcomes without a deep understanding of children's everyday experiences. Such descriptive work is notably absent in research focused on ethnic minorities. We need systematic knowledge regarding how contexts such as home, peers, school, parents' work, and the media differ or are experienced differently by children from different cultures, ethnicities or social classes. Second, we seek to understand how these experiences shape children's engagement, learning and performance in school, and whether and how such connections may vary by culture, ethnicity, and social class. Third, our ultimate goal is to advance an understanding of how home, peer, school, work, and the media work together in explaining children's academic achievement. The second mission of the Center is educational: to transmit its research findings, through training and dissemination, to three communities: (1) a new generation of scholars of diverse backgrounds who are engaged in research on culture and its role in child learning, engagement, and performance; (2) the broader research community; and (3) policy makers and practitioners in education. This will occur through an intensive and rigorous training program and a variety of dissemination strategies of both research findings and lessons for policy and educational practice.The proposed Center is situated within a School of Education, in the vibrant, incomparably diverse context of New York City, making it an unparalleled locale for studying culture and schools, and an ideal place to establish a think tank capable of attracting additional scholars and students of the highest quality. Through the work of the Center, we aim to bring about a deeper understanding of the interplay of culture, development and education, and thereby enhance the nation's response to the academic underachievement of ethnic minority children.