Current Developments Introduction Major Programmatic Themes Project Summaries for 1999 Publications and Presentations Network Trainees

Major Programmatic Themes Studying Successful Pathways Dynamic Interacting Contexts New Methodologies Beyond Social Categories Schooling Participants as Full Partners Policy and Practice   Studying Successful Pathways Pathways through middle childhood are characterized not only in terms of major developmental transitions but also in terms of the everyday activities and experiences of children. We seek to understand the numerous pathways that characterize children's development beginning with the transition into school through early adolescence, with attention to the diversity of experiences and contexts that help to shape children's lives. We begin with the perceptions, thoughts, behaviors and feelings of children themselves, with the meanings they attach to their interactions and relationships with their families, peers, teachers and others, and with their own sense of who they are as active agents in their own development. The process of forming a coherent identity begins in middle childhood, spurred on by increasing cognitive sophistication. The "5-7 shift", as it is often called, leads to greater social comparison, greater demands for performance in school and at home, and an increasingly differentiated view of oneself and ones abilities, hopes and fears. Beyond changes in cognitive functioning, however, there has been little new theoretical work regarding the developmental tasks of middle childhood. We believe that identity-related processes and 'meaning-making' are two important goals for this age period. The work done in the Network should contribute to our understanding of these important developmental processes that have lasting implications across the life span. Families, in all their varied forms, continue to be one of the most influential contexts for children's development. In addition to the quality of relationships within the family and between the family and others, children's pathways are strongly influenced by the 'management' function played by all families; that is, the role played by parents, grandparents, older siblings and others in managing the everyday activities of children, promoting children's talents, interests and skills, and protecting children from dangers. Drawing on work done by the Successful Adolescents Network, we hope to extend the concept of family management by examining the role played by children themselves as they begin to take on more of the management function as they mature and are given more responsibility for making choices, coordinating activities and evaluating progress or outcomes. Dynamic Interacting Contexts Successful pathways are shaped by numerous forces within and outside individual children, including the personal characteristics of parents and other family members, relationships within the family and other family processes, the school climate and context, the resources available within the neighborhood, the political and economic characteristics of communities, and by historical changes in local areas, such as immigration and migration patterns. These forces not only act on the child but are acted upon BY the child. Further, all of these contexts and processes interact with each other in a dynamic way. The application of such a systems perspective to the study of developmental trajectories requires the resources of a multidisciplinary team of scholars and new theoretical and methodological advances. New Methodologies The development and application of new, innovative research methods, often a by-product of research, is at the forefront of much of the work being done within the Network. The multidisciplinary composition of the group affords the opportunity to generate new ways of examining the lives of children and families and to then apply simultaneously to these data different, complimentary analytic strategies. We believe that the use of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies will yield a much richer picture of children's pathways than any single method standing alone. In many cases, we have been unable to locate existing measures or techniques and have devoted considerable energy and resources to the development of new survey and interview measures, new ethnographic procedures and new data analytic tools to meet the needs of the research. We hope that these 'products' will be useful to other researchers attempting to integrate qualitative and quantitative methods. A second methodological implication of the Network's focus on development over time has been a focus on 'trajectories' through middle childhood. By trajectories we mean the varied paths taken by individual children, with attention to all of the contexts and processes mentioned earlier. This type of 'person-centered' approach to the study of development is certainly not new, but holds great promise for capturing the multilevel processes that operate in the lives of children while avoiding the pitfalls of 'comparative' studies. Beyond Social Categories Race, ethnicity, gender and social class are viewed as critical social constructions that impact on the lives of children and families. Children's pathways are affected in many ways by the way others respond to them as boys or girls, African-American or white, and rich or poor. Our work seeks to move beyond deficit-oriented comparative models and to explore the range of experiences and behaviors within rather than between these broad groups. Schooling The middle childhood period is marked most prominently by the transition into school. For some children, this amounts to their first extended experience with adults and institutions outside the family. For others, it represents a shift from less structured, play-based activities to more formal learning with greater expectations for behavior and performance. All of the Network's studies include attention to the children's experiences in school, to their teachers and to the classroom environment and curriculum, to the connections between home and school, and to their peer relationships in school and elsewhere. Out-of-school activities and the institutional settings and arrangements where these activities take place are also being intensively examined. We hope to learn more about what motivates different children to learn, what factors, both academic and non-academic, promote engagement with school and other institutions, and what school policies and practices encourage all children to feel safe and able to learn. Participants as Full Partners We believe that research aimed at exploring the diversity of families' and children's experiences, including the ways these experiences differ for boys and girls, for ethnic minority children, and for children living in conditions of economic disadvantage, benefits from the involvement of the participants at all phases of the research and dissemination process. We have used focus groups of families and children, parent advisory boards, and the feedback from parents, teachers and others to help us design and implement self-report measures and interviews and to refine our ethnographic observations. Their insights and 'local knowledge' have been invaluable and we will continue to work with them as we analyze and disseminate findings. Policy and Practice The view of development in middle childhood as a complex, multilevel, dynamic process holds great promise for developmental researchers. For practitioners and policy-makers, the complexity can be overwhelming given the need to focus scarce resources on targeted problems or issues. We do, however, believe that knowledge emerging from developmental research can be used effectively to address policy-relevant issues directly related to promoting optimal development and enhancing the well-being of children and families. We are committed to the dissemination of findings from Network-sponsored research to readers beyond academic scholars and we have already begun to devote resources to packaging what we know in coherent and useful forms that will be useful to a broad audience. For example, Network members are developing case material from ethnographic observations that can be used by elementary school teachers and administrators to explore issues such as how to meet children's nonacademic and family support needs, how to discuss racial issues with one another, and the role of grandparents and other family members in children's learning. Next: Project Summaries for 1999 Publications and Presentations Network Trainees Introduction HomePage

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