The Butterfly Effect Collective
Embedded Files
Cognitive Development & Social Justice?
Humans of all ages seek meaning - it’s a natural tendency. As children are immersed in their local cultures, they extract meanings from what they see, hear, and experience. Practices rooted in narrative -- conversations, stories, and media -- facilitate this meaning-making process: Narrative is a pathway for internalization, taking what’s outside, transforming it, and representing it inside our heads. Children are not born racist, sexist, ableist, ageist, nor homophobic, but as they seek meaning in their lives, “meanings” that reflect such discriminatory perspectives can take root if that's what they experience around them. However with a little knowledge about tipping points and the power of specific linguistic cues, meanings that reflect appreciation for all the beautiful diversity of humankind can easily take root instead. Ripples made in moments will eventually make waves. That's the intent of this site: To share tips and tools from an uncommon source: Cognitive Developmental Psychology.
Via original children's books, discussion guides, infographics, school lesson plans, and additional explanatory information, we offer sound suggestions for how to engage in the kind of recursive, naturalistic adult-child engagements that will instill in children respectful, humanistic beliefs. Who would have thought that reading children books and having conversations could be an act of social justice?
NOTE -- Social problems have many causes, both systemic and personal. Parents and teachers who follow our recommendations will not eradicate discrimination as our practices cannot - on their own - create systemic changes in our culture’s politics and economics. However our recommendations WILL make ripples in users’ world views that could, after recursive experiential cycles, compound into something more. That is, our Butterfly Effect Collective reflects the fact that when conversations, stories, and lessons in school combine and compound over time, meaningful personal and social change can follow.
Should you have questions about the work presented here, please contact me at eko at pacificu dot edu. Interested in seeing more projects like this one? You can access a complete catalogue of my students' Authentic Learning work here.
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