Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social Learning Without Formal Education

博士论文研究：没有正规教育的社会学习

• 批准号: 2314653
• 负责人: Barry Hewlett
• 金额: $ 3.15万
• 依托单位: Washington State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-07-01 至 2025-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2314653&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Social; Learning

Humans are remarkably adept in adapting to diverse natural and social environments. This is made possible in large part by their capacity to learn from others. Furthermore, human adaptation arises in contexts without formal education. In many societies where education arsies informally, children acquire critical skills and relevant knowledge rapidly and beginning at an early age. This project examines from whom and how children and adolescents learn complex skills and knowledge in contexts lacking formal education. The study considers how a child’s age, gender, cultural ideas about what children can and cannot do at particular ages, and cultural values impact from whom and how children learn. The research project disseminates its findings to academics, policymakers, and the general public to expand the understanding of the diverse ways by which children learn and how these insights might be incorporated into formal education systems. The project also provides research and training opportunities to graduate students in scientific cultural anthropology. Specifically, this doctoral dissertation project weighs theoretical debates about learning without formal education in culturally distinct neighboring communities within contexts in which intercultural marriages are commonplace versus rare. It addresses whether these contexts affect whether knowledge is transmitted from parent to child, from peer to peer, or from unrelated teachers. It further tests whether learning is biased according to content, commonness, or to prestige of the teacher. The investigators use a variety of semi-structured parental and child interviews as well as behavioral observational techniques to provide systematically acquired qualitative and quantitative data to address theoretical debates that are frequently abstract. In doing so, the research project contributes to a key area of scientific anthropological inquiry that currently lacks sufficient empirical evidence to weigh among alternative models of social learning.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

人类非常善于适应不同的自然和社会环境。这在很大程度上是因为他们向他人学习的能力。此外，人的适应是在没有正规教育的情况下产生的。在许多非正规教育的社会中，儿童在很小的时候就迅速获得关键技能和相关知识。该项目研究儿童和青少年在缺乏正规教育的情况下从谁那里以及如何学习复杂的技能和知识。这项研究考虑了儿童的年龄、性别、关于儿童在特定年龄可以做什么和不可以做什么的文化观念，以及文化价值观如何影响儿童从谁那里学习以及如何学习。该研究项目向学者、政策制定者和普通公众传播其研究结果，以扩大对儿童学习的不同方式的理解，以及如何将这些见解纳入正规教育系统。该项目还为研究生提供了科学文化人类学的研究和培训机会。具体地说，这个博士论文项目权衡了关于跨文化婚姻司空见惯和罕见的背景下，在文化截然不同的邻近社区中，没有正规教育的学习的理论辩论。它解决了这些背景是否会影响知识是从父母传给孩子，从同伴传到同伴，还是从无关的教师那里传播。它进一步测试了学习是根据内容、共同性还是老师的声望而有偏见。研究人员使用各种半结构化的父母和孩子访谈以及行为观察技术来提供系统地获得的定性和定量数据，以解决经常抽象的理论辩论。通过这样做，该研究项目为科学人类学研究的一个关键领域做出了贡献，该领域目前缺乏足够的实证证据来权衡社会学习的替代模式。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。