Breakout 1: Human Evolution, Physiological Processes, & Participation in Cultural Practices - Carol Lee

• In Event: Creating Expansive and Equitable Learning Environments: Elaborating the RISE Learning Principles

Abstract

Human learning and development unfold in complex systems and ecologies. Human learning and development are outgrowths of the intertwining of dispositions and competencies we inherit from our evolution as a species and the ways that such dispositions and competencies are taken up through relationships between physiological processes and people’s participation in cultural practices. These cultural practices are ecological in that they are manifested in relationships and the social organization of settings from the micro (e.g., family, social networks in communities, institutions such as schools, churches, community organizations) to the macro (broader societal policies and institutionalized belief systems at the societal level or more broadly across societies). Social relationships, perceptions of self and others, and tasks and settings influence goals, motivation and persistence. The nature of these contributors to human learning and development is cultural in nature, channeled by differentiation in contexts and our position in the life course and within cultural-historical time. Among the challenges with which we wrestle across the life course are our navigations with issues of power and privilege as they shape what is available to us as sources of risk and resilience.
Guiding questions:
1) How are development and learning fundamentally and inextricably cultural?
2) How does human learning and development unfold in complex systems and ecologies?

Authors

• Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, University of Southern California

• Janene Cielto, Northwestern University

• Michael Cole, University of California - San Diego

• Andrew Dayton, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Keshia L. Harris, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Patricia Kuhl, University of Washington

• Carol D. Lee, Northwestern University

• Andrew N Meltzoff, University of Washington

• Carly Offidani-Bertrand, University of Chicago

• Martin J. Packer, Duquesne University

• Barbara Rogoff, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Francisco J. Rosado-May, Intercultural Maya University of Quintana Roo, Mexico

• Leoandra Onnie Rogers, New York University

• R. Josiah Rosario, Northwestern University

• Margaret Beale Spencer, University of Chicago

• Luis Urrieta, The University of Texas at Austin

• Gabriel Velez, University of Chicago