Evolutionary, Biological, and Cultural Relationships That Drive Human Learning and Development

• In Event: Dismantling Racial Injustice: Contributions of the Science of Learning and Development

Abstract

In part because of the history of pseudo-scientific claims rooted in eugenics, there has been hesitancy to consider biological processes in human development. However, there are powerful convergences across the fields of developmental science and the neurosciences (cognitive, affective, social) that empirically demonstrate how genes

act in concert with experience and how thinking, feeling, and perceptions operate in tandem in dynamic and adaptive ways to shape human activity. This understanding of human learning and development provides us with tools for understanding the variety of pathways of development, in particular with regard to understanding resilience in the face of challenge. Such resilience can include issues of conceptual change and wrestling with implicit biases. These empirical investigative tools provide resources for both understanding resilience in the face of racism as connected with the multiple pathways of participation in routine cultural practices that serve as resources in tackling systemic racism. This conception of human learning and development also offer resources for longstanding- assumptions about race that reinforce systems of racism and othering. The scholars in this session will share empirical studies that demonstrate both these complex relationships and their impacts on development, with particular attention to minoritized and racialized populations.

Authors

• Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, University of Southern California

• Pamela Cantor, Turnaround for Children

• Na'ilah Suad Nasir, Spencer Foundation